Arawak language

 ( Arawakan Languages ) 

Arawak (Arowak, Aruák), also known as Lokono ( Lokono Dian, literally "people's talk" by its speakers), is an Arawakan language spoken by the Lokono (Arawak) Indigenous peoples of South America in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and French Guiana. It is the eponymous language of the Indigenous Arawakan language family.

Lokono is an active–stative language.Aikhenvald, "Arawak", in Dixon & Aikhenvald, eds., The Amazonian Languages, 1999.

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History Lokono is a critically endangered language. The Lokono language is most commonly spoken in South America. Some specific countries where this language is spoken include Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and Venezuela.

Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (2025). 9780199283088 ISBN 9780199283088

The percentage of living fluent speakers with active knowledge of the language is estimated to be 5% of the ethnic population. There are small communities of semi-speakers who have varying degrees of comprehension and fluency in Lokono that keep the language alive. It is estimated that there are around 2,500 remaining speakers (including fluent and semi-fluent speakers).

Alexandra Aikhenvald (2025). 9780199772810, Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199772810

The decline in the use of Lokono as a language of communication is due to its lack of transmission from older speakers to the next generation. The language is not being passed to young children, as they are taught to speak the official languages of their countries.

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Classification

The Lokono language is part of the larger Arawakan language family spoken by indigenous people in South and Central America along with the Caribbean. The family spans four countries of Central America — Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua — and eight of South America — Bolivia, Guyana, French Guiana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil (and also formerly Argentina and Paraguay). With about 40 extant languages, it is the largest language family in Latin America.

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Etymology

Arawak is a tribal name in reference to the main crop food, the cassava root, commonly known as manioc. The cassava root is a popular staple for millions of people in South America, Asia and Africa. It is a woody shrub grown in tropical or subtropical regions. Speakers of Arawak also identify themselves as Lokono, which translates as "the people". They call their language Lokono Dian, "the people's speech".

Alternative names of the same language include Arawák, Arahuaco, Aruak, Arowak, Arawac, Araguaco, Aruaqui, Arwuak, Arrowukas, Arahuacos, Locono, and Luccumi.

Johnathon Hill (2010). 9780252091506, University of Illinois Press. . ISBN 9780252091506

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Geographic distribution Lokono is an Arawakan language most commonly found to be spoken in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana. There are approximately 2,500 native speakers today. The following are regions where Arawak has been found spoken by native speakers.

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Phonology

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Consonants

+ Consonants ! colspan="2"	!Bilabial !Alveolar !Retroflex !Palatal !Velar consonant !Glottal

William Pet observes an additional in loanwords.

b			Like b in boy.
č	ch, tj		Like ch in chair.
d			Like d in day. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the j in jeep.
f			This sound does not exist in English. It is pronounced by narrowing your lips and blowing through them, as if you were playing a flute.
h	x		Like h in hay.
j	y		Like y in yes.
k	c, qu		Like the soft k sound in English ski.
kh	k, c, qu		Like the hard k sound in English key.
l			Like l in light.
lh	ř		No exact equivalent in American English. This is a retroflex r, pronounced with the tongue touching the back of the palate. It is found in Indian-English. Some English speakers also pronounce this sound in the middle of the word "better" or "party".
m			Like m in moon.
n			Like n in night.
p			Like the soft p in spin.
r			Like the r in Spanish pero, somewhat like the tt in American English " better".
s	z, c		Like the s in sun.
t			Like the soft t in star. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the ch in cheek.
th	t		Like the hard t in tar. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the ch in cheek.
hu	w		w as in way.
'			A glottal stop, like the pause in the word uh-oh.

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Vowels

Pet notes that phonetic realization of varies between and .

a			Like the a in father.
aa	a·		Like a only held longer.
e			Like the e sound in Spanish, similar to the a in gate.
ee	e·, e:		Like e only held longer.
i			Like the i in police.
ii	i·, i:		Like i only held longer.
o			Like o in note or u in flute.
oo	o·, o:		Like o only held longer.
y	u, i		Like the e in roses.
yy	y:, uu, ii		Like the above y, only held longer.

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Writing system

The Arawak language system has an alphabetical system similar to the Roman Alphabet with some minor changes and new additions to letters.

b		b	Like b in boy.
č	tj	t͡ʃ	Like ch in chair.
d		d ~ d͡ʒ	Like d in day. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the j in jeep.
f		ɸ	This sound does not exist in English. It is pronounced by narrowing your lips and blowing through them, as if you were playing a flute.
x	h	h	Like h in hay.
j		j	Like y in yes.
k	c, qu	k	Like the soft k sound in English ski.
kh	k, c, qu	kh	Like the hard k sound in English key.
l		l	Like l in light.
ř	rh, lh	ɽ	No exact equivalent in American English. This is a retroflex r, pronounced with the tongue touching the back of the palate. It is found in Indian English. Some American English speakers also pronounce this sound in the middle of the word "hurting."
m		m	Like m in moon.
n		n	Like n in night.
p		p	Like the soft p in spin.
r		ɾ	Like the r in Spanish pero, somewhat like the tt in American English butter.
s	z, c	s	Like the s in sun.
t		t ~ t͡ʃ	Like the soft t in star. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the ch in cheek.
th	t	th ~ t͡ʃʰ	Like the hard t in tar. Before i the Arawak pronunciation sounds like the ch in cheek.
hu	w	w	Like w in way.
'		ʔ	A pause sound (glottal stop), like the one in the middle of the word "uh-oh."

a		a	Like the a in father.
aa	a·	aː	Like a only held longer.
e		e	Like the e sound in Spanish, similar to the a in gate.
ee	e·, e:	eː	Like e only held longer.
i		i	Like the i in police.
ii	i·, i:	iː	Like i only held longer.
o		o ~ u	Like o in note or u in flute.
oo	o·, o:	oː	Like o only held longer.
y		ɨ	Like the u in upon, only pronounced higher in the mouth.
yy	y:	ɨː	Like y only held longer.

The letters in brackets under each alphabetical letter is the IPA symbol for each letter.

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Grammar

The personal pronouns are shown below. The forms on the left are free forms, which can stand alone. The forms on the right are bound forms (prefixes), which must be attached to the front of a verb, a noun, or a postposition.

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Cross-referencing affixes

All verbs are sectioned into transitive, active transitive, and stative intransitive.

+ Prefixes (A/Sa) and Suffixes (O/So) of Cross-Reference Affixes ! rowspan="2" colspan="2"	! colspan="2" prefixes ! colspan="2"	suffixes

A= Sa=cross referencing prefix

O=So= cross referencing suffix

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Vocabulary

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Gender

In the Arawak language, there are two distinct genders of masculine and feminine. They are used in cross-referencing affixes, in demonstratives, in nominalization and in personal pronouns. Typical pronominal genders, for example, are feminine and non-feminine. The markers go back to Arawak third-person singular cross-referencing: feminine -(r)u, masculine -(r)i

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Number

Arawak Languages do distinguish singular and plural, however plural is optional unless the referent is a person. Markers used are *-na/-ni (animate/human plural) and *-pe (inanimate/animate non-human plural).

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Possession

Arawak nouns are fragmented into inalienably and alienably possessed. Inalienably crossed nouns include things such as body parts, terms for kinship and common nouns like food selections. Deverbal nominalization belong to that grouping. Both forms of possession are marked with prefixes (A/Sa). Inalienably possessed nouns have what is known as an "unpossessed" form (also known as "absolute") marked with the suffix *-tfi or *-hV. Alienably possessed nouns take one of the suffixes *-ne/ni, *-te, *-re, *i/e, or *-na. All suffixes used as nominalizers.

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Negation

Arawak languages have a negative prefix ma- and attributive-relative prefix ka-. An example of the use is ka-witi-w ("a woman with good eyes") and ma-witti-w ("a woman with bad eyes", i.e., a blind woman).

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Tenses

Tenses are added at the end of a sentence: past tense is indicated with bura or bora (from ubura "before"), future tense with dikki (from adiki "after"), present continuous tense uses loko or roko.

Marie-France Patte (2025). 9782709917155, Institut de recherche pour le développement. . ISBN 9782709917155

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Examples

One	Ábą	Aba
Two	Bian	Biama
Three	Kabun	Kabyn
Four	Biti	Bithi
Man	Wadili	Wadili
Woman	Hiaro	Hiaro
Dog	Péero	Péero
Sun	Hadali	Hadali
Moon	Kati	Kathi
Water	Uini	Vuniabu

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Bibliography

Categories: Arawakan Languages, Indigenous Languages Of The South American Northeast, Languages Of Guyana, Languages Of Suriname, Languages Of French Guiana, Languages Of Venezuela, Lokono

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