Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics
Language family in Central and South America with approx. 80 languages, originally spread throughout the Caribbean up to Florida. Greenberg (1956, 1987) considered it a member, together with Tupi, of the Andean-Equatorial language group (Andean). Gilij (1780–4) was one of the first to suspect that several Arawakan languages were related. Largest language: Goajiro in northern Columbia (approx. 60,000 speakers).
Characteristics: typologically very diverse; original word order probably SOV with postpositions, under Caribbean influence also OVS; case markings occur seldom (either ergative or accusative); gender and classifying systems are common.
References
Derbyshire, D.C. 1986. Comparative survey of morphology and syntax in Brazilian Arawakan. In D.C.Derbyshire and G.Pullum (eds), Handbook of Amazonean languages. Berlin. 469–566.
Greenberg, J. 1960. The general classification of Central and South American languages.
In A. Wallace (ed.), Selected Papers of the Fifth International Congress of Anthropological and Ethnological Sciences. 791–4. Philadelphia.
——1987. Languages in the Americas. Stanford, CA.
Matteson, E. 1972. Proto-Arawakan. In E.Matteson (ed.), Comparative studies in Amerindian languages. The Hague. 160–242.
Noble, G.K. 1965. Proto-Arawakan and its descendants. IJAL 31. 3.2.
South American languages
This is the complete article, containing 180 words
(approx. 1 page at 300 words per page).
View More Summaries on Arawakan languages
