Wayuu language

This article is about the language spoken in South America; for the language of Nepal, see Wayu language.
Wayuu
Wayuunaiki
Pronunciation [wajunaiki]
Spoken in Colombia, Venezuela
Region Northern South America
Ethnicity Wayuu people
Native speakers 305,000  (date missing)
Language family
Arawakan
Writing system Latin script
Official status
Regulated by Centro Etnoeducativo Kamusuchiwo’u
Language codes
ISO 639-3 guc
Extent of both the Wayuu people and language.
This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The Wayuu language, or Goajiro (Wayuu: wayuunaiki), is spoken by 305,000 indigenous Wayuu people in northeastern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela on the Guajira Peninsula.

Wayuu is part of the Maipurean language family predominant in different parts of the Caribbean. They have some minimal differences in dialect depending on the region of La Guajira in which they live; northern, central or southern zones of this region. Most of the new generations speak Spanish fluently but they understand the importance of preserving their traditional native tongue.

To promote cultural integration and bilingual education among Wayuu and other Colombians, the Kamusuchiwo’u Ethno-educative Center or Centro Etnoeducativo Kamusuchiwo’u came up with the initiative of creating the first illustrated Wayuunaiki-Spanish, Spanish-Wayuunaiki dictionary.[1]

Less than 1% of Wayuu speakers are literate in Wayuu while 5 to 15% are literate in Spanish. There are 105,000 speakers in Colombia and 170,000 in Venezuela. Alternate names include: Guajiro, Guajira, Goajiro.

Contents

Recent developments

On December 2011, the Wayuu Tayá Foundation and Microsoft presented the first ever dictionary of technology terms in the wayuu language[2], after having developed for three years with a team of tech professionals and linguists.

Sounds

Vowels

Front Central Back
Close i [i] ü [ɨ] u [u]
Mid e [ɛ] o [ɔ]
Open a [a]

Note: "e" and "o" are more open than in English. "a" is slight front of central, and "ü" is slightly back of central.

Consonants

Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m [m] n [n] ñ [ɲ]
Plosive p [p] t [t̪] ch [t͡ʃ] k [k] ' [ʔ]
Fricative s [s] sh [ʃ] j [h]
Flap l [ɺ]
Trill r [r]
Approximant w [w] y [j]

"l" is a lateral flap pronounced with the tongue just behind the position for the Spanish "r," and with a more lateral airflow.

Notes

  1. ^ (Spanish) El Wayuunaiki impreso
  2. ^ Fundación Wayuu Tayá y Microsoft Venezuela presentan Diccionario de Computación en Wayuunaiki (Spanish)

External links