Venezuelan languages
The term «Venezuelan languages» refers to the languages spoken in a stable manner by the human communities in that country.
Castilian Castilian, a Romance language derived from spoken Latin, belonging to the Indo-European family of languages, is the predominant mother tongue in all the states of Venezuela and is official along with the other indigenous languages of the country according to the current constitution.
The official language is Spanish. Indigenous languages are also of official use to indigenous peoples and must be respected throughout the territory of the Republic as a cultural heritage of the Nation and of humanity.Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. [Const]. Art. 9. 1999 (Venezuela).
Except for colonier German, a language of Germanic origin, all the vernacular languages currently spoken in Venezuela belong to various groups of indigenous language families. Foreign linguistic minorities linked to modern migratory flows, made up of Arabic, Chinese, Italian and Portuguese-speaking communities, also make up the linguistic landscape.
Unofficial languages
Although Venezuelan sign language is not considered official, the Constitution establishes in Article 81 the right of deaf people to communicate through Venezuelan sign language, while Article 101 establishes that this group of People have the right to be informed, in their language, through public and private television.
Venezuelan Spanish
The variety used in Venezuela is Spanish or Venezuelan Castilian, which in turn is divided into several dialects: Llanero Spanish, Caroreño Spanish, Marabino Spanish, Caraqueño Spanish, Guaro Spanish, Oriental Spanish, Andean Spanish, etc. Which means that it changes as we explore the country. The inclusion of colloquial words is also an important factor, since Venezuelan tends to modify the Spanish dialect in a certain way.
Indigenous languages
Many of Venezuela's indigenous languages are threatened or endangered. The two language families with the largest number of languages are Arawakan and Caribbean.
According to data available from the last indigenous census (1992) and the General Population and Housing Census of 2001, at least 70 indigenous languages are spoken in Venezuela, of which 40 are grouped into eight linguistic families, while the other 30 They have no recognizable relationship with other languages, and are therefore considered language isolates. Dixon and Aikhenvald consider that the number of distinguishable languages varies between 38 and the number of indigenous language speakers around one hundred thousand, although the number of indigenous people is greater than that figure, because many are no longer competent speakers of the language. ancestry of their ethnic group. For its part, Ethnologue, whose classification does not always distinguish between dialects of the same language and different languages, distinguishes 46 linguistic varieties in Venezuela.
Most indigenous Venezuelans know Spanish as a second language.
In what follows, the data on the number of speakers indicated by Ethnologue is given, which distinguishes a greater number of varieties (the approximate number of its users is shown in brackets).
Arawak family
- Añú (?): This language is spoken primarily in the Sinamaica area. Until recently it was considered extinct, but it has gone through a revitalization process that has been supported by the Unicef.
- Kurripako (2.019)
- Lokono (140)
- Warekena (199)
- Wayúu (119,000): this is the indigenous language with the most speakers in Venezuela. It is spoken in the northern zone of Zulia state and in the Colombian Guajira.
There are also Wayúu communities in other parts of Venezuela.
Caribbean Family
Most of these languages are spoken in the Southeast of Venezuela. Formerly languages similar to these were spoken in a large part of the Venezuelan eastern coast and the Orinoco Basin.
- Akauaio (644-cense of 1992): is a language spoken in the Monagas and Bolivar states in an area bordering the Pemona-speaking zone. It is marginally intelligible with the pemon language.
- Eñepá or panare (2.551): spoken in the state Bolivar and Amazonas.
- Japrería (95): spoken only in a town in Zulia state, in the west of the country.
- Kariña (4450): is spoken in some municipalities in the east of Venezuela.
- Pemon (~30000): his speakers are first and foremost in the south-eastern part of the Bolivar state in the Gran Sabana and around it.
Wanai or Mapoyo (2?): is a language about to disappear spoken, in the Amazon and is very similar to the Yavaran. On 25 November 2014, it was included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in the list of urgent safeguards and is the first Venezuelan indigenous language declared by UNESCO.- Yavarana (119): is a language threatened with disappearing spoken in the northeast of the Amazon state.
- Ye'kuana (5500): his speakers are in the northeast of the Amazon state and in the southwest of Bolivar.
- Yukpa (3.285): This language is spoken in Zulia state.
Among the Carib languages extinct since the Conquest are Tamanaco, Cumanagoto and Chaima.
Chibcha family
- Language barí: was spoken by some 1520 people from the Bari ethnic group in Venezuela in 2007.
Guajibo Family
- Jivi (8.428) This language is spoken mainly in the Apure state and in the Amazon state.
- Kuiva (310).
Sáliva-piaroa family
- Sáliva (17)
- Piaroa (12000).
Tupi family
- Yeral (482)
Yanomami Family
These languages are spoken by groups in southern Venezuela and northern Brazil:
- Sanemá (1,669)
- Yanomami (6.119)
- Yanam
Macro-maku family
The macro-maku family would be made up of the maku languages themselves, which is widely accepted by Americanists, and the languages of two relatively isolated hunter-gatherer ethnic groups in Venezuela:
- Puinave (568)
- Joti (526)
Experts differ about the classification of these languages, there being doubts as to whether these languages should be considered provisionally isolated or provisionally accepted as forming a valid phylogenetic unit with the Maku languages proper.
Other small families
The jirajarana family or jirajirana is a group of extinct languages spoken in western Venezuela, in the regions of Falcón and Lara. All languages are believed to have become extinct by the early 20th century. The Jirajara languages are considered a group of languages near- isolated. Adelaar and Muysken point out that there are certain lexical similarities with the Timote-Cuica languages and typological similarities with the Chibcha languages, but the paucity of data is too limited to validate any relationship. Jahn, among others, has suggested a relationship between the Jirajarna languages and the Betoi languages, mainly because of the similarity of ethnonyms.
The arutani-sapé family would hypothetically be made up of sapé and uruak, which some authors consider to be isolated languages or unclassified languages.
Language isolates, unclassified and of doubtful classification
Some languages have not managed to be classified within larger families, in general, these languages are called unclassified languages. For some there is evidence to suggest a relationship, but such evidence is not conclusive (doubtful), and some extensively studied languages not classified into families are called language isolates, that is, they have been "classified" as the only member of his family. The list of languages not classified in major families is:
- Maku (mako) (266)
- Pumé (4.061)
- Sapé (25)
- Uruak (39) (arutani-sapé tongues,?)
- Warao (18.696): This language is spoken primarily in the Orinoco Delta and some nearby regions. It is one of the indigenous languages with more speakers in Venezuela, after the wayúu and next to the pemon.
- Guamontey (†): extinct language of the center of Venezuela.
- Ottoman (†): extinct language of the center-south of Venezuela.
Indigenous languages in Venezuela by number of speakers
| language | family | Speakers in Venezuela | Latest ISO Code |
| plain languages | Arawak | 1033 | pia |
| Kurripako | Arawak | 3460 | kpc |
| Warehouse | Arawak | 140 | arw |
| Wayúu | Arawak | 170 000 | guc |
| Warao | (laughs) | 18000 | My |
| Ball | Caribbean | 30,000 | aoc |
| Panare | Caribbean | 1200 | pbh |
| yekina careguaa | Caribbean | 5000 | mch |
| Yukpa | Caribbean | 3285 | yup |
| Kariña | Caribbean | 4450 | kar |
| Akawaio | Caribbean | 644 | ake |
| Japrería | Caribbean | 91 | jru |
 Mapoyo
| Caribbean | 2 | mcg |
| Yawarana | Caribbean | 30 | yar |
| Jot | Macro-makú | 750 | yau |
| Puinave | Macro-makú | 568 | pui |
| Jivi | Guahibana | 8428 | Guh |
| Bari | Chibcha | 2000 | mot |
| Uruak | Arutani-sapé | 30 | Atx |
| Sapé | Arutani-sapé | 30 | spc |
| Pumé | (laughs) | 5420 | already |
| Piaroa | Sáliba-Piaroa | 12200 | pid |
| Yanomamö | Yanomam | 15700 | guu |
| Sanemá | Yanomam | 5500 | xsu |
| Yanam | Yanomam | 100 | shb |
| Yeral | Tupí-guaraní | 435 | Yrl |
Venezuelan Indigenous Language Studies
From the colony to the end of the 19th century
The first studies of indigenous languages were carried out by Catholic missionaries from Europe. Religious Jesuits, Capuchins and others produced the first grammars and dictionaries of languages such as the Caribbean, Cumanagoto, Chaima and many others.
In the second half of the XVII century the friar Matías Ruíz Blanco produced a grammar and a dictionary of cumanagoto, as well as a catechism in that Caribbean language.
The Jesuit Gilli made extensive studies of the Orinoco languages in the mid-18th century. Gilli studied the relationship of the various languages and postulated the existence of a series of mother languages or language families, which would become one of the foundations of a classification of South American languages.
The monk Jerónimo José de Lucena, elaborated at the end of that century vocabularies and translations of catechisms of the Otomacan, Taparita and Yaruro languages. Another religious, probably Miguel Ángel de Gerona, elaborated a compendium of the pariagota language, spoken in Guyana even in that century.
Alexander von Humboldt collected grammars and word lists on his journey through Venezuela in 1799-1800, thereby helping to disseminate information about these languages among European linguists. His brother Wilhelm von Humboldt used this material in his scientific works on the nature of languages.
Hzyd In the 20th century, Father Basilio María de Barral produced a Warao-Spanish dictionary. The Capuchin Cesáreo de Armellada wrote grammars and a dictionary of the Pemón language and compiled stories from the Pemón culture.
In the sixties of the XX century, the American missionary Henry A. Osborn carried out some studies of morphosyntax and of the phonetics of the Warao language.
Jorge Carlos Mosonyi was one of the most prominent scientists at the end of the XX century in the study of various original languages such as the karina.
Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller has done particularly extensive work on the Yanomamö, Panare, Mapoyo, Hodï, and Yawarana languages. These and other linguists have contributed to the production of the first literacy books for the Venezuelan First Nations.
Alochthonous languages
Immigrants from other countries, in addition to Spanish, use their own languages. Among the most widely spoken are Arabic, Chinese, English, German, Italian (200,000 speakers) and Portuguese.
English is also used as their mother tongue by Venezuelans residing in San Martín de Turumbán (Bolívar state), a town that is on the border with Guyana —if only the territories effectively administered by the Venezuelan State are taken into account. However, in Guayana Esequiba —which Guyana administers, but Venezuela claims as its own— different languages are spoken, such as English (mainly), as well as various indigenous languages and languages from India (see Guyana languages). Likewise, executives and providers of tourist services also tend to use the English language as a second language (in addition to their mother tongue).
On the other hand, Portuguese is used as their mother tongue by Venezuelans residing in Santa Elena de Uairén, a town on the border with Brazil. Likewise, colonier German is a dialect of Alemannic (more specifically Low Alemannic) used in Colonia Tovar, Aragua state.
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