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The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
. Carib languages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River
Amazon River

The Amazon River of South America is the list of rivers by length in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top eight largest rivers combined....
 to the Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
n Andes
Andes

The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
 and from Maracaibo
Maracaibo

Maracaibo is the second-largest city in Venezuela after the national capital Caracas and is the capital of Zulia state. Based on the 2001 census information, the estimated population of Maracaibo in 2007 is 3,200,000 inhabitants....
 (Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
) to Central Brazil. Cariban languages are relatively close to each other; in some cases, it is difficult to decide whether different groups speak different languages or dialects of the same language. Because of this, the exact number of Cariban languages is not known with certainty (current estimates range from 25 to 40, with 20 to 30 still spoken).






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The Cariban languages are an indigenous language family
Language family

A language family is a group of languages related Genetic from a common ancestor, called the proto-language of that family.As with Alpha taxonomy, the evidence of relationship is observable shared characteristics....
 of South America
South America

South America is the southern continent of the Americas, situated entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere....
. Carib languages are widespread across northern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River
Amazon River

The Amazon River of South America is the list of rivers by length in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top eight largest rivers combined....
 to the Colombia
Colombia

Colombia , officially the Republic of Colombia , is a country in north-western South America. Colombia is bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the north west by Panama; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean....
n Andes
Andes

The Andes form the world's longest exposed mountain range. They lie as a continuous chain of highland along the western coast of South America. The range is over 7,000 km long, 200-700 km wide , and of an average height of about 4,000 m ....
 and from Maracaibo
Maracaibo

Maracaibo is the second-largest city in Venezuela after the national capital Caracas and is the capital of Zulia state. Based on the 2001 census information, the estimated population of Maracaibo in 2007 is 3,200,000 inhabitants....
 (Venezuela
Venezuela

Venezuela , officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a country on the northern coast of South America.The country comprises a continental mainland and numerous islands located off the Venezuelan coastline in the Caribbean Sea....
) to Central Brazil. Cariban languages are relatively close to each other; in some cases, it is difficult to decide whether different groups speak different languages or dialects of the same language. Because of this, the exact number of Cariban languages is not known with certainty (current estimates range from 25 to 40, with 20 to 30 still spoken). The Cariban family is well known in the linguistic world due to Hixkaryana, a language with Object-Verb-Subject sentences, previously thought not to exist in human language.

Some years prior to the arrival of the first Spanish
Spanish people

Spanish people or Spaniards are a nation or ethnic group native to Spain, in the Iberian Peninsula of southwestern Europe. They are often considered an amalgam of different ethnic groups, rather than an ethnic group by itself....
 explorers, Carib-speaking peoples had invaded and occupied the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
, killing, displacing or forcibly assimilating the Arawakan
Arawakan languages

The Arawakan languages are an indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean.Originally the name Arawak was used exclusively for a powerful tribe in Netherlands Antilles, Guyana and Suriname....
 peoples who inhabited the islands. They never reached the Greater Antilles
Greater Antilles

File:LocationGreaterAntilles.pngThe Greater Antilles is one of three island groups in the Caribbean. Comprising Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico--the four largest islands of the Antilles--the Greater Antilles constitutes almost 90% of the land mass of the entire West Indies....
 or the Bahamas. Curiously, the Carib language quickly died out while the Arawakan language was maintained over the generations. This was the result of the invading Carib men usually killing the local men of the islands they conquered and taking Arawak wives who then passed on their own language to the children. For a time, Arawak was spoken primarily or exclusively by women and children, while adult men spoke Carib. Eventually, as the first generation of Carib-Arawak children reached adulthood, the more familiar Arawak became the only language used in the small island societies. This language was called Island Carib, even though it is not part of the Carib linguistic family. It is now extinct, but was spoken on the Lesser Antilles
Lesser Antilles

The Lesser Antilles, also known as the Caribbees, are part of the Antilles, which together with the Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and Greater Antilles form the West Indies....
 until the 1920's (primarily in Dominica
Dominica

The Commonwealth of Dominica, commonly known as Dominica, is an island nation in the Caribbean Sea. To the north/northwest lies Guadeloupe, to the southeast Martinique....
, Saint Vincent
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles island arc of the Caribbean Sea. Its territory consists of the main island of Saint Vincent and the northern two-thirds of the Grenadines....
, and Trinidad
Trinidad and Tobago

The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is an island country in the southern Caribbean, lying northeast of the South American country of Venezuela and south of Grenada in the Lesser Antilles....
).

The largest Carib languages today are Carib proper, or Galibi, with 10,000 speakers, and Macushi language
Macushi language

Macushi is spoken by 15,000 Brazilians and 24,600 around the world. 100% of the 9,000 ethnic Macushi Guyanese are fluent, there are 600 speakers in Venezuela....
, with perhaps 24,000 speakers. The Hixkaryana language
Hixkaryana language

Hixkaryana is one of the Carib languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamund? river, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of a few known natural languages that normally use Object Verb Subject word order, and may have been the first such language to be described ....
 is famous in linguistic typology
Linguistic typology

Linguistic typology is a subfield of linguistics that studies and classifies languages according to their structural features. Its aim is to describe and explain the structural diversity of the world's languages....
 for its unusual word order
Word order

In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the different ways in which languages arrange the constituents of their sentences relative to each other, and the systematic correspondences of between these arrangements....
s.

Although Garífuna
Garifuna

The Garinagu are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry who live primarily in Central America. They live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras including the mainland, and on the island of Roat?n....
, spoken in Honduras
Honduras

Honduras is a democratic republic in Central America. It was formerly known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras ....
, Guatemala
Guatemala

Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize and the Caribbean to the northeast, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast....
, and Belize
Belize

Belize , formerly British Honduras, is a country in Central America. Once part of the Maya civilization, and very briefly the Spanish Empire, it was most recently affiliated with the British Empire, prior to gaining its independence in 1981....
, is known as "Black Carib", it is actually an Arawakan language
Arawakan languages

The Arawakan languages are an indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean.Originally the name Arawak was used exclusively for a powerful tribe in Netherlands Antilles, Guyana and Suriname....
 with Carib influence: At one time men used Carib lexical vocabulary, and women Arawak vocabulary, though both on an Arawak grammatical base, but this distinction has dwindled to only a handful of words.

Family division

The Cariban languages are closely related, and in many cases where a language is more distinct, this is due to influence from neighboring languages rather that an indication that it is not closely related. Several classifications are seen; the one shown here divides Cariban into seven branches. A traditional geographic classification into northern and southern branches is cross referenced with (N) or (S) after each language.

  • Galibi [Kaliña
    Kalina

    Kalina may refer to:* Santa Cruz #Kalina, a geographical location in Mumbai.* Kalina , the first orca to be born and raised successfully in captivity....
    ] (N)
  • Guiana Carib: Tiriyó
    Tiriyó language

    The Tiriy? language is spoken by the Tiriy? , approximately 2,000 people living in several villages on both sides of the Brazil-Surinam border in Northern Amazonia....
     [Trio] (N), Carijona (S), Kaxuiâna [Warikyana] (S), Waiwai (N), Hixkaryána
    Hixkaryana language

    Hixkaryana is one of the Carib languages, spoken by just over 500 people on the Nhamund? river, a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. It is one of a few known natural languages that normally use Object Verb Subject word order, and may have been the first such language to be described ....
     (S), Akuriyó (N), Sikiana-Salumá (N), Hianákoto
  • North Amazonian Carib: Atruahí [Atrowari, Waimiri] (N), Macushi
    Macushi language

    Macushi is spoken by 15,000 Brazilians and 24,600 around the world. 100% of the 9,000 ethnic Macushi Guyanese are fluent, there are 600 speakers in Venezuela....
     (N), Pemon
    Pemon language

    The Pemon are an Amerindian tribe living in areas of Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana, and the term also refers to their language. Pemon is a Caribean languages language spoken mainly in Venezuela, specifically in the La Gran Sabana region of Bolivar State....
     [Arekuna] (N), Akawaio
    Akawaio language

    Akawaio is a Cariban language spoken mainly in Guyana, most commonly in the region of the Upper Mazaruni. Though many speakers don't live in villages, there are a number of population centers, notably Kamarang, Jawalla, Waramadong, and Kako....
     [Kapong] (N), Patamona [Ingariko] (N), Pawishiana
  • Central Carib: Wayana (N), Apalaí
    Apalaí language

    Apala? is a Cariban language spoken in Brazil. Approximately 450 people speak Apala?.External links...
     (N), Maquiritari [Dekwana] (S), Mapoyo
    Mapoyo language

    Mapoyo is a Carib languages language that was spoken by three individuals in 2000 along Suapure and Parguaza Rivers, Venezuela. The ethnic population is about 186. In 2007 there were only two speakers....
    -Yabarana (N)
  • South Amazonian Carib: Bakairí (S), Kuikúro [Kalapálo] (S), Txikão (N), Matipuhy [Nahukwa] (S), Arára [Pará] (N)
  • Yukpa: Japrería (N), Yupka (N), ? Coyaima (N)
  • Panare
    Panare

    Panare is a Cariban language, spoken by approximately 3,000-4,000 people in Bolivar State in southern Venezuela. Their main area is South of the town of Caicara del Orinoco, south of the Orinoco River....
     (N)


Genetic relations

The Cariban languages share irregular morphology with the Ge
Ge languages

The J? languages are spoken by the G? peoples, a group of indigenous peoples in Brazil....
 and Tupi families, and Ribeiro connects them all in a Je-Tupi-Carib
Je-Tupi-Carib

Je-Tupi-Carib is a proposed language family composed of the Macro-Ge languages , Tupian languages and Cariban languages of South America.Linguist Joseph Greenberg proposed a Comparative linguistics between the Macro-Je, Macro-Panoan, and Cariban families....
 family.

See also

  • List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin
    List of Spanish words of Indigenous American Indian origin

    This is a list of Spanish language words that come from Indigenous languages of the Americas. It is further divided into words that come from Arawakan languages, Aymara language, Carib languages, Mayan languages, Nahuatl language, Quechua language, Tarahumara, Tupi languages, and uncertain ....
  • Arawak
    Arawak

    The term Arawak , was used to designate some of the peoples encountered by the Spain in the West Indies in 1492 and thereafter. These include the Ta?no, who occupied the Greater Antilles and the Bahamas and Bimini Florida, the Nepoya and Suppoyo of Trinidad and the Igneri, who were supposed to have preceded the Caribs in the Lesser Anti...
  • Arawakan languages
    Arawakan languages

    The Arawakan languages are an indigenous language family of South America and the Caribbean.Originally the name Arawak was used exclusively for a powerful tribe in Netherlands Antilles, Guyana and Suriname....
  • Carib
    Carib

    Carib, Island Carib or Kalinago people, after whom the Caribbean Sea was named, live in the Lesser Antilles islands. They are an Amerindian people whose origins lie in the southern West Indies and the northern coast of South America....
  • Taino
    Taíno

    The Ta?nos were Indigenous peoples of the Americas of the Bahamas, Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. It is believed that the seafaring Ta?nos were relatives of the Arawakan people of South America....
  • Garifuna
    Garifuna

    The Garinagu are an ethnic group of mixed ancestry who live primarily in Central America. They live along the Caribbean Coast in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras including the mainland, and on the island of Roat?n....


External links