Warao language

Warao
Guarauno
Native toVenezuela, Guyana, Suriname
EthnicityWarao
Native speakers
32,800 (2005–2011)
Official status
Official language in
Venezuela
Language codes
ISO 639-3wba
Glottologwara1303
ELPWarao
Linguasphere81-PAA-a

Warao (also known as Guarauno, Guarao, Warrau) is the Native language of the Warao people. A language isolate, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. It is notable for its unusual object–subject–verb word order. The 2015 Venezuelan film Gone with the River was spoken in Warao.

Classification

Warao appears to be a language isolate, unrelated to any recorded language in the region or elsewhere. A few obscure cultures such as the Waikerí of Nueva Esparta are reported to have spoken languages that were either Warao itself or related languages, but nothing is preserved of them.

Terrence Kaufman (1994) included it in his hypothetical Macro-Paezan family, but the necessary supporting work was never done.

Waroid hypothesis

Historical sources mention ethnic groups in the Orinoco Delta region such as Siawani (Chaguanes), Veriotaus (Farautes), and Tiuitiuas (Tibitíbis) that possibly either spoke Warao or languages closely related to it. There are also groups further afield from the delta that may have spoken Warao-related languages such as the Parawagoto, Arote, Aricari, Pirao, Mariusa and Waikeri.: 1243 

There is also contested evidence for Warao and its hypothetical family, Waroid, formerly having a larger distribution. Boomert (2000) identified Warao toponyms, historical contacts, imports and oral traditions of Trinidad. A hypothesis arguing for Waroid presence further into the Caribbean is argued for by Granberry and Vescelius, and is considered plausible but lacking any substantial evidence.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, Máku, and Sape language families due to mutual contact within an earlier Guiana Highlands interaction sphere.

Geographical distribution

The language had an estimated 28,100 speakers in Venezuela as of 2007. The Warao people mostly live in the Orinoco Delta region of northeastern Venezuela, with smaller communities in southwestern Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago), western Guyana and Suriname. The language is considered endangered by UNESCO.

Phonology

The Warao consonant inventory is small, but not quite as small as many other South American inventories.

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
plain labialized
Plosive p t k kʷ
Fricative s h
Nasal m n
Tap ɺ
Approximant j w

The labial plosive /p/ is usually realized as voiced [b]. /ɺ/ has an allophone [d] word-initially and [ɾ] when between /i, a/ and /a/.

There are five oral vowels /a, ɛ, i, ɔ, u/ and five nasal vowels /ã, ẽ, ĩ, õ, ũ/. After /k/, in word-initial position, /u/ becomes [ɨ].

Grammar

The language's basic word order has been analyzed as object–subject–verb, a very rare word order among nominative–accusative languages such as Warao.

References

  1. ↑ Warao at Ethnologue (19th ed., 2016) Closed access icon
  2. ↑ "Warao". www.jorojokowarao.de. Retrieved 2013-09-22.
  3. ↑ Vargas, Andrew S. (10 September 2015). "Venezuela's First Film Shot in the Warao Language Is Chosen as Entry for the Oscars". Remezcla. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  4. ↑ Campbell, Lyle (2012). "Classification of the indigenous languages of South America". In Grondona, Verónica; Campbell, Lyle (eds.). The Indigenous Languages of South America. The World of Linguistics. Vol. 2. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. pp. 59–166. ISBN 9783110255133.
  5. ↑ Humboldt, Alexander: Reise in die Äquinoctial-gegenden des Neuen Kontinents (1991). Insel Verlag. Primer Tomo. Pág. 229. ISBN 3-458-16947-4.
  6. ↑ von Humboldt, Alexander (1859). Reise in die Äquinoctial-Gegenden des Neuen Kontinents (in German). Vol. Band 1. Translated by Hauff, Hermann. Stuttgart: J. G. Cotta'scher Verlag. pp. 200–203, 207, 217–218. Die Vorstädte von Cumana sind fast so stark bemölkert wie die alte Stadt. Es sind ihrer drei: Die der Serritos auf dem Wege nach der Plaga chica, wo einige schöne Tamarindenbäume stehen, die südöstlich gelegene, San Francisco genannt, und die große Vorstadt der Guayqueries. Der Name dieses Indianerstammes war vor der Eroberung ganz unbekannt. Die Eingeborenen, die denselben jetzt führen, gehörten früher zu der Nation der Guaraunos, die nur noch auf dem Sumpfboden zwischen den Armen des Orinoco lebt. Alte Männer versicherten mich, die Sprache ihrer Vorfahren sey eine Mundart des Guaraunosprache gewesen, aber seit hundert Jahren gebe es in Cumana und auf Margarita keinen Eingeborenen vom Stamme mehr, der etwas anderes spreche als castilianisch.
  7. 1 2 Boomert 2000, pp. 88, 90, "The possibility that the Guaiqueri and the various Warao groups of the Orinoco Delta form remnants of an Archaic population originally distributed along the entire coast of the South Caribbean is strengthened by the remark of Keymis (1904:490-491) that the Aricari (Arwaos) and Pirao (Pararwea, Pinou) Indians of the coastal zone of French Guiana and Brazilian Amapa, both typically groups dependent on fishing and gathering, ‘speake the Tivitivas [Warao] language’.".
  8. ↑ Campbell, Lyle (1997). American Indian Languages - The Historical Linguistics of Native America. Oxford University Press. p. 150. ISBN 0-19-509427-1. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  9. ↑ Epps, Patience; Michael, Lev, eds. (2023). Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-043273-2.
  10. ↑ Romero-Figueroa 2021, p. 233-256, "Grupos deltaicos reportados en fuentes históricas como por ejemplo, los chaguán (siawani), los tibitibi (tiuitiuas), los arote, y los faraute hablaban warao, o lenguas relacionadas. Los extintos aricari y pirao de los alrededores de Cayena en Guayana Francesa, y los guaiquerí de Margarita puidieron también haber hablado lenguas de este grupo (Boomert 2000: 90).".
  11. ↑ Boomert 2000, Boomert, pages 21, 27-28, 44, 424, "Formerly Warao Indians from the Orinoco Delta frequently crossed the Columbus Channel to South Trinidad....According to the Warao, the Cano Macareo formed the mythical route which their culture hero Haburi, the inventor of the dugout canoe and the paddle, took when he fled from the Delta to Naparima Hill in Southwest Trinidad...The name of Naparima Hill, nowadays part of San Fernando, may be of Waraoan derivation....The Warao consider Naparima Hill to represent a petrified world tree which assumed the shape of an isolated mountain serving as the abode of Warowaro, i.e. the Butterfly Grandfather, their northern earth-‘god’. Besides, it has formed the residence of their culture hero Haburi and his two sister-mothers ever since their flight from the Delta in mythical times...Interestingly, the oral traditions of the Warao Indians of the Orinoco Delta still speak of the times when the Serpent's Mouth was dry land and a landbridge existed between Trinidad and the continent....The Warao came to Trinidad in order to obtain quartz crystals for shaman’s rattles which they collected at Naparima Hill...Simultaneously, they traded monkeys, beeswax, baskets, parrots, hunting dogs, and hammocks for tobacco, anatto, mirrors and household goods at the market of San Fernando...Tobacco, which cannot be grown in the Delta, is essential to the Warao as their entire shamanic system is based on it.".
  12. ↑ Granberry & Vescelius 2004, pp. 33–54, 75–79, 126–127, 131–132.
  13. ↑ Carlin & van de Kerke 2010, p. 115, "While [the Waroid hypothesis] is in itself not such a far-fetched idea, the actual evidence is scarce and what we could interpret as Waroid linguistic evidence could equally be from another language group.".
  14. ↑ Rybka & Sabogal 2025, p. 6, "Granberry and Vescelius (2004) also posit that the Macorix of Hispaniola and the Guanahatabey of Cuba spoke Waraoan languages. The evidence is insufficient, however...".
  15. ↑ Adelaar, Willem F. H. (2009). "Review of Languages of the Pre‐Columbian Antilles". International Journal of American Linguistics. 75 (2): 277. doi:10.1086/598773. ISSN 0020-7071. By contrast to Ciguayo, the other non-Taíno languages (Guanahatabey, Macorís) are attributed to a language family that includes the present-day Warao language of the Orinoco delta. There is much to say for a Warao presence in the Antilles, but the evidence given in the book is again insufficient.
  16. ↑ Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery (2016). Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas (Ph.D. dissertation) (2 ed.). Brasília: University of Brasília.
  17. ↑ "WARAO: a language of Venezuela", Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 14th Edition, 2000
  18. ↑ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger". www.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-03-20.
  19. ↑ Osborn, Henry A. Jr. (1966). "Warao I: Phonology and Morphophonemics". International Journal of American Linguistics. 32 (2): 108–123. doi:10.1086/464890.
  20. ↑ Romero-Figueroa, Andrés (1985). "OSV as the basic order in Warao". Lingua. 66 (2–3): 115–134. doi:10.1016/S0024-3841(85)90281-5.

Other sources