Arawakan, also known as Maipurean (also Maipuran), is a language family spoken amongst various Indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles and Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Most present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, with the exceptions of Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile.
Name The name Maipure was given to the family by Filippo S. Gilii in 1782, after the Maipure language of Venezuela, which he used as a basis of his comparisons. It was renamed after the culturally more important Arawak language a century later. The term Arawak took over (e.g. "Arawak languages"), until its use was extended by North American scholars to the broader Macro-Arawakan proposal. At that time, the name Maipurean was resurrected for the core family.
In 1783, the Italian priest Filippo Salvatore Gilii recognized the unity of the Maipure language of the Orinoco and Moxos of Bolivia; he named their family Maipure. It was renamed Arawak by Von den Steinen (1886) and Brinton (1891) after Arawak in the Guianas, one of the major languages of the family. The modern equivalents are Maipurean or Maipuran and Arawak or Arawakan.
The term Arawakan is now used in two senses. South American scholars use Aruák for the family demonstrated by Gilij and subsequent linguists. In North America, however, scholars have used the term to include a hypothesis adding the Guajiboan and Arawan families. In North America, scholars use the name Maipurean to distinguish the core family, which is sometimes called core Arawak(an) or Arawak(an) proper instead.
Kaufman (1990: 40) relates the following: [The Arawakan] name is the one normally applied to what is here called Maipurean. Maipurean used to be thought to be a major subgroup of Arawakan, but all the living Arawakan languages, at least, seem to need to be subgrouped with languages already found within Maipurean as commonly defined. The sorting out of the labels Maipurean and Arawakan will have to await a more sophisticated classification of the languages in question than is possible at the present state of comparative studies.
Dispersal The Arawakan linguistic matrix hypothesis (ALMH) suggests that the modern diversity of the Arawakan language family stems from the diversification of a trade language or lingua franca that was spoken throughout much of tropical lowland South America. Proponents of this hypothesis include Santos-Granero (2002)Santos-Granero, F. 2002. The Arawakan matrix: ethos, language, and history in native South America. In Comparative Arawakan Histories: Rethinking Language Family and Culture Area in Amazonia, ed. J Hill, F Santos-Granero, pp. 25–50. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. and Eriksen (2014).Eriksen L, Danielsen S. 2014. The Arawakan matrix. In The Native Language of South America: Origins, Development, Typology, ed. L O'Connor, P Muysken, pp. 152–76. New York: Cambridge University Press. Eriksen (2014) proposes that the Arawakan family had only broken up after 600 AD, but Michael (2020) considers this to be unlikely, noting that Arawakan internal diversity is greater than that of the Romance languages. On the other hand, Blench (2015) suggests a demographic expansion that had taken place over a few thousand years, similar to the dispersals of the Austronesian and Austroasiatic language families in Southeast Asia.Blench, Roger. 2015. A expansão Arawak: tecendo linguística, arqueologia e antropologia . Talk given on April 29, 2015 at the Museu Paraense Emilio Goeldi, Belem.
Language contact As one of the most geographically widespread language families in all of the Americas, Arawakan linguistic influence can be found in many language families of South America. Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Arawa, Bora-Muinane, Guahibo, Harakmbet-Katukina, Harakmbet, Katukina-Katawixi, Irantxe, Jaqi, Karib, Kawapana, Kayuvava, Kechua, Kwaza, Leko, Macro-Jê, Macro-Mataguayo-Guaykuru, Mapudungun, Mochika, Mura-Matanawi, Nambikwara, Omurano, Pano, Takana, Puinave-Nadahup, Taruma, Tupi, Urarina, Witoto-Okaina, Yaruro, Zaparo, Saliba-Hodi, and Tikuna-Yuri language families due to contact. However, these similarities could be due to inheritance, contact, or chance.
Languages Classification of Maipurean is difficult because of the large number of Arawakan languages that are extinct and poorly documented. However, apart from transparent relationships that might constitute single languages, several groups of Maipurean languages are generally accepted by scholars. Many classifications agree in dividing Maipurean into northern and southern branches, but perhaps not all languages fit into one or the other. The three classifications below are accepted by all: Ta-Maipurean = Caribbean Arawak / Ta-Arawak = Caribbean Maipuran, Upper Amazon Maipurean = North Amazonian Arawak = Inland Maipuran, Central Maipurean = Pareci–Xingu = Paresí–Waurá = Central Maipuran, Piro = Purus, Campa = Pre-Andean Maipurean = Pre-Andine Maipuran.
An early contrast between Ta-Arawak and Nu-Arawak, depending on the prefix for "I", is spurious; nu- is the ancestral form for the entire family, and ta- is an innovation of one branch of the family.
Loukotka (1968) Below is a full list of Arawakan language varieties listed by Loukotka (1968), including names of unattested varieties, but excluding the Guajiboan languages.
Island languages Taino / Nitaino - once spoken in the Conquest days on the Greater Antilles Islands of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Jamaica. Dialects are: Taino of Haiti and Quisqueya - extinct language of the island were Dominican Republic and the Republic of Haiti. Taino of Cuba - once spoken on the island of Cuba; in the nineteenth century only in the villages of Jiguaní, Bayamo, and Quivicán; now the last descendants speak only Spanish. Borinquen - once spoken on the island of Puerto Rico. (unattested) Yamaye - once spoken on the island of Jamaica. Lucaya - once spoken on the Bahamas Islands. Eyeri / Allouage - once spoken in the Lesser Antilles. - spoken on the eastern part of the island of Trinidad. Naparina - once spoken on the island of Trinidad. (Unattested.) Caliponau - language spoken by the women of the Carib tribes in the Lesser Antilles.
Guiana language Arawak / Aruaqui / Luccumi / Locono - spoken in the Guianas. Dialects are: Western - spoken in Guyana. Eastern - spoken in French Guiana on the Curipi River and Oyapoque River.
Central group Wapishana / Matisana / Wapityan / Uapixana - spoken on the Tacutu River, Mahú River, and Surumú River, territory of Rio Branco, Brazil, and in the adjoining region in Guyana. Amariba - once spoken at the sources of the Tacutu River and Rupununi River, Guyana. (Unattested.) Atorai / Attaraye / Daurí - spoken between the Rupununi River and Kuyuwini River, Guyana.
Mapidian group Mapidian / Maotityan - spoken at the sources of the Apiniwau River, Guyana, now perhaps extinct. Mawakwa - once spoken on the Mavaca River, Venezuela.
Goajira group Goajira / Uáira - language spoken on the Goajira Peninsula in Colombia and Venezuela with two dialects, Guimpejegual and Gopujegual. Paraujano / Parancan / Parawogwan / Pará - spoken by a tribe of lake dwellers on Lake Maracaibo, Zulia state, Venezuela. Alile - once spoken on the Guasape River, state of Zulia, Venezuela. (Unattested.) Onota - once spoken between Lake Maracaibo and the Palmar River in the same region, Zulia state, Venezuela. (Unattested.) Guanebucán - extinct language once spoken on the Hacha River, department of Magdalena, Colombia. (Unattested.) Cosina / Coquibacoa - extinct language of a little known tribe of the Serranía Cosina, Goajira Peninsula, Colombia. (Unattested.)
Caquetío group Caquetío - extinct language once spoken on the islands of Curaçao and Aruba near the Venezuelan coast, on the Yaracuy River, Portuguesa River, and Apure River, Venezuela. (only several words) Ajagua - once spoken on the Tocuyo River near Carera, state of Lara, Venezuela. (only two words and patronyms.) Quinó - once spoken in the village of Lagunillas, state of Mérida, Venezuela. (Nothing.) Tororó / Auyama - once spoken in the village of San Cristóbal, state of Táchira. (Febres Cordero 1921, pp. 116–160 passim, only six words.) Aviamo - once spoken on the Uribante River, state of Táchira. (Unattested.) Tecua - once spoken on the Lengupa River and in the village of Teguas, department of Boyacá, Colombia. (Unattested.) Yaguai - once spoken on the Arichuna River, state of Apure, Venezuela. (Unattested.) Cocaima - once spoken between the Setenta River and Matiyure River, state of Apure, Venezuela. (Unattested.) Chacanta - once spoken on the Mucuchachi River, state of Mérida. (Unattested.) Caparo - once spoken on the Caparo River, Santander, Colombia. (Unattested.) Támud - once spoken northeast of the Sagamoso River, Santander, Colombia. (Unattested.) Burgua - once spoken near San Camilo on the Burgua River, Santander, Colombia. (Unattested.) Cuite - once spoken on the Cuite River, Santander, Colombia. (Unattested.) Queniquea - once spoken in the same hill region in Colombia on the Pereno River. (Unattested.) Chucuna - once spoken between the Manacacías River and Vichada River, territories of Meta and Vichada, Colombia. (Unattested.) Guayupe - spoken on the Güejar River and Ariari River, Meta territory. Sae - once spoken by the neighbors of the Guayupe tribe in the same region. (Unattested.) Sutagao - spoken once on the Pasca River and Sumapaz River, Meta territory. (Unattested.) Chocue / Choque - once spoken on the Herorú River and Guayabero River, Meta territory. (Unattested.) Eperigua - once spoken at the sources of the Güejar River and near San Juan de los Llanos, Meta territory. (Unattested.) Aricagua - once spoken in the state of Mérida, Venezuela. (Unattested.) Achagua - spoken on the Apure River and Arauca River in the department of Boyacá and territory of Meta, Colombia. Piapoco / Mitua / Dzáse - spoken on the Guaviare River, territory of Vaupés, Colombia. Cabere / Cabre - once spoken on the Teviare River and Zama River, Vichada territory. Maniba / Camaniba - spoken by a little known tribe that lived on the middle course of the Guaviare River, Vaupés territory, Colombia. (Unattested.) Amarizana - extinct language once spoken on the Vera River and Aguas Blancas River, territory of Meta.
Maypure group Maypure - extinct language once spoken in the village of Maipures, Vichada territory, Colombia. Inhabitants now speak only Spanish. Avani / Abane - once spoken on the Auvana River and Tipapa River, Amazonas territory, Venezuela. (Gilij 1780-1784, vol. 3, p. 383, only six words.)
Baniva group Baníva - language spoken on the Orinoco River, especially in the village of San Fernando de Atabapo, Amazonas territory, Venezuela. Yavitero / Pareni / Yavitano - spoken on the Atabapo River in the village of Yavita.
Guinau group Guinau / Inao / Guniare / Temomeyéme / Quinhau - once spoken at the sources of the Caura River and Merevari River, state of Bolívar, Venezuela, now perhaps extinct.
Baré group Baré / Ihini / Arihini - spoken on the Casiquiare River, territory of Amazonas, Venezuela, and on the upper course of the Negro River, state of Amazonas, Brazil. Uarequena - spoken on the Guainía River, Vaupés territory, Colombia. Adzáneni / Adyána / Izaneni - spoken at the sources of the Caiarí River and on the Apui River, frontier of Colombia and Brazil. Carútana / Corecarú / Yauareté-tapuya - spoken on the frontier between Colombia and Brazil on the Içana River. Katapolítani / Acayaca / Cadaupuritani - spoken on the Içana River in the village of Tunuhy, Brazil. Siusí / Ualíperi-dákeni / Uereperidákeni - spoken on the lower course of the Caiarí River and Içana River and on the middle course of the Aiari River, state of Amazonas, Brazil.