Warao language


Warao 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 included it in his hypothetical Macro-Paezan family, but the necessary supporting work was never done. 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. 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. This notion has met with skepticism and been described by Lyle Campbell as "in no way convincing".

Waroid hypothesis

Granberry also finds "Waroid" vocabulary items in Guajiro and in Taino. Granberry & Vescelius 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 notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, Maku, and Sape language families due to contact within an earlier Guiana Highlands interaction sphere.

Demographics

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, western Guyana and Suriname. The language is considered endangered by UNESCO.

Varieties

Loukotka lists these varieties:
Mason lists:
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.

Phonology

The Warao consonant inventory is smaller, but not compared to many other South American phonologies, which are notably small. It does not contain any notable exotica.
and are allophones of // and /ɾ/. There are five oral vowels and five nasal vowels. /u/ after /k/ within the beginning of words has a sound as .

Vocabulary

lists the following basic vocabulary items for Uarao and Mariusa.