28 Warao

De Gruyter eBooks, pp. 1243–1282

Abstract

References 1 Ethnohistorical and sociolinguistic backgroundWarao is a language isolate of northeastern Venezuela and adjacent parts of Guyana (Forte 1990; Heinen 1988a; wara1303).Today, the Warao territory covers the Venezuelan state of Delta Amacuro, a network of caños, or channels, forming the delta of the Orinoco, and adjoining parts of the states of Monagas, Sucre, and Bolívar, as well as the Barima-Waini region of Guyana.Until recently, the language was spoken as far east as the Maratakka River in Suriname (Staffeleu 1975), and in former times, on the island of Trinidad, visited by the Warao for trading and ritual purposes.Although an isolate today, Warao may have once belonged to a larger linguistic grouping.Deltaic groups known from historical sources as Siawani (Chaguanes), Veriotaus (Farautes), and Tiuitiuas (Tibitíbis) spoke Warao or related languages.The extinct Aricari and Pirao from Cayenne and Guaiqueri from the island of Margarita may have spoken related languages as well (Boomert 2000: 90).Granberry and Vescelius (2004: 75) also claim that Macorís toponyms of the Greater Antilles are of Waraoan origin, though the evidence is inconclusive (cf.Carlin & Hofman 2010).The evidence of a larger linguistic grouping, dependence on marine resources, and Warao oral traditions that remember the time when Trinidad was connected to the mainland by a land bridge suggest that the Warao may descend from archaic people who occupied the coastal areas from Margarita to Cayenne, displaced by the Arawakan and Cariban expansion (Wilbert 1979).In the resultant sphere of interaction, surrounding the Warao, lived speakers of several Arawakan and Cariban languages, of which all but the Lokono and Kari'na are now extinct.When the Europeans arrived in the area, they portrayed the Warao as barterers of canoes -trade items some Warao contingents were celebrated for -which were exchanged for goods absent in the delta (e.g., tobacco and quartz, Boomert 2000: 424).The Warao

Authors 2

1. Andrés Romero-Figueroa Aachen

   Leiden University · Universidad Católica Andrés Bello

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Leiden University, Netherlands

   Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela Konrad Rybka,

2. Konrad Rybka

   Universidad Católica Andrés Bello

   Affiliation as printed

   Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Caracas, Venezuela Konrad Rybka,