Warao language
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.[2] The 2015 Venezuelan film Gone with the River was spoken in Warao.[3]
Demographics[edit]
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.[8] The language is considered endangered by UNESCO.[9]
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:[10]: 1243
Loukotka (1968) lists the following varieties:[11]
Mason (1950) lists:[12]
Grammar[edit]
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.[13]