Warao language

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Language of the Warao people

title: "Warao language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["languages-of-venezuela", "languages-of-suriname", "languages-of-guyana", "language-isolates-of-south-america", "macro-paesan-languages", "agglutinative-languages", "object–subject–verb-languages", "endangered-language-isolates", "endangered-indigenous-languages-of-the-americas"] description: "Language of the Warao people" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warao_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Language of the Warao people ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]

Field	Value
name	Warao
states	Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname
ethnicity	Warao
speakers	32,800
date	2005–2011
ref	e19
familycolor	American
family	Language isolate or Waroid
iso3	wba
glotto	wara1303
glottorefname	Warao
map	Warao language.png
nation	Venezuela
altname	Guarauno
::

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. Terrence Kaufman (1994) included it in his hypothetical Macro-Paezan family, but the necessary supporting work was never done. However, he has also derived Timucua morphemes from Muskogean, Chibchan, Paezan, Arawakan, and other Amazonian languages, suggesting multi-language creolization as a possible explanation for these similarities.

Waroid hypothesis

Main article: Waroid languages

Granberry noted "Waroid" vocabulary items in Taíno, such as nuçay or nozay [nosái] in the Ciboney dialect (cf. Warao naséi símo ) and duho in Classic Taíno (cf. Warao duhu ).

He also finds such similarities with Guajiro; from toponymic evidence it seems that the Warao or a related people once occupied Goajiro country. Granberry & Vescelius (2004) note that toponymic evidence suggests that the pre-Taino Macorix language of Hispaniola and the Guanahatabey language of Cuba may have been Waroid languages as well.

Language contact

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, [[Jukude language| Jukude]], and Sape language families due to 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 live chiefly 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.

Varieties

Historical sources mention ethnic groups in the Orinoco Delta such as Siawani (Chaguanes), Veriotaus (Farautes), and Tiuitiuas (Tibitíbis) that spoke Warao or languages closely related to modern Warao. Other extinct groups include:

Aricari and Pirao from Cayenne
Guaiqueri from Margarita Island

Loukotka (1968) lists the following varieties:

Guanoco – spoken on the Laguna de Asfalto, state of Monagas (unattested)
Chaguan – spoken in the Orinoco Delta on the Manamo branch (unattested)
Mariusa – spoken in the same region on the Cocuina and Macareo branches

Mason (1950) lists:

Waikeri (Guaiqueri)
Chaguan
Mariusa

Phonology

The Warao consonant inventory is small, but not quite as small as many other South American inventories. ::data[format=table]

Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal	plain	labialized	Plosive	Fricative	Nasal	Tap	Approximant





::

The labial plosive is usually realized as voiced . has an allophone word-initially and when between and .

There are five oral vowels and five nasal vowels . After , in word-initial position, becomes .

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.

Vocabulary

Loukotka (1968) lists the following basic vocabulary items for Uarao and Mariusa, both of which he considers dialects of the Uarao (Warao) parent language.

:{| class="wikitable sortable" ! gloss !! Uarao !! Mariusa |- ! one | isaka || xisaka |- ! two | manámo || manamo |- ! three | dianamu || dixamo |- ! head | akua || naxoto |- ! eye | kamu || mu |- ! tooth | kai || i |- ! man | nibora || |- ! water | ho || xo |- ! fire | hekono || xeunu |- ! sun | yá || xokoxi |- ! manioc | aru || aru |- ! jaguar | tobe || tobe |- ! house | xanóko || ubanoko |}

References

Other sources

Barral, Basilio de. 1979. Diccionario Warao-Castellano, Castellano-Warao. Caracas: UCAB
Figeroa, Andrés Romero. 1997. A Reference Grammar of Warao. München, Newcastle: Lincom
Ponce, Peter. 2004. Diccionario Español - Warao. Fundación Turismo de Pedernales.
Vaquero, Antonio. 1965. Idioma Warao. Morfología, sintaxis, literatura. Estudios Venezolanos Indígenas. Caracas.
Wilbert, Johannes. 1964. Warao Oral Litrerature. Instituto Caribe de Antropología y Sociología. Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales. Monograph no 9 Caracas: Editorial Sucre.
Wilbert, Johannes. 1969. Textos Folklóricos de los Indios Warao. Los Angeles: Latin American Center. University of California. Latin American Studies Vol. 12.

References

"Warao". www.jorojokowarao.de.
(10 September 2015). "Venezuela's First Film Shot in the Warao Language Is Chosen as Entry for the Oscars". [[Remezcla]].
Campbell, Lyle. (2012). "The Indigenous Languages of South America". De Gruyter Mouton.
[[Julian Granberry]] connected many of the grammatical forms, including nominal and verbal [[suffixes]], of Warao to the [[Timucua language]] of North Florida, also a language isolate.Julian Granberry, ''A Grammar and Dictionary of the Timucua Language'', pp. 15-32
(1997). "American Indian Languages - The Historical Linguistics of Native America". Oxford University Press.
Jolkesky, Marcelo Pinho de Valhery. (2016). "Estudo arqueo-ecolinguístico das terras tropicais sul-americanas". University of Brasília.
[http://www.ethnologue.com/14/show_language.asp?code=WBA "WARAO: a language of Venezuela"], ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'', 14th Edition, 2000
"UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in danger".
(2023). "Amazonian Languages: Language Isolates. Volume II: Kanoé to Yurakaré". Walter de Gruyter.
Loukotka, Čestmír. (1968). "Classification of South American Indian languages". UCLA Latin American Center.
Mason, John Alden. (1950). "Handbook of South American Indians". [[Smithsonian Institution]], [[Bureau of American Ethnology]] Bulletin 143.
Osborn, Henry A. Jr.. (1966). "Warao I: Phonology and Morphophonemics". International Journal of American Linguistics.
(1985). "OSV as the basic order in Warao". Lingua.

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