Wayuu language
Encyclopedia
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
.
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.
Note: "e" and "o" are more open than in English. "a" is slight front of central, and "ü" is slightly back of central.
Consonants
"l" is a lateral flap pronounced with the tongue just behind the position for the Spanish "r," and with a more lateral airflow.
Wayuu
Wayuu is an Amerindian ethnic group of the La Guajira Peninsula in northern Colombia and northwest Venezuela. They are part of the Maipurean language family.- Geography :...
in northeastern Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and northwestern Venezuela
Venezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
on the Guajira Peninsula
Guajira Peninsula
Guajira Peninsula , is a peninsula in northern Colombia and northwestern Venezuela in the Caribbean Sea...
.
Wayuu is part of the Maipurean
Maipurean
Arawakan , also known as Maipurean , is a language family that spans from the Caribbean and Central America to every country in South America except Ecuador, Uruguay and Chile...
language family predominant in different parts of the Caribbean
Caribbean
The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...
. They have some minimal differences in dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
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
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
fluently but they understand the importance of preserving their traditional native tongue.
To promote cultural integration and bilingual education
Bilingual education
Bilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
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
Dictionary
A dictionary is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon...
.
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.
Sounds
Vowels| Front Front vowel A front vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far in front as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Front vowels are sometimes also... |
Central Central vowel A central vowel is a type of vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a central vowel is that the tongue is positioned halfway between a front vowel and a back vowel... |
Back Back vowel A back vowel is a type of vowel sound used in spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant. Back vowels are sometimes also called dark... |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Close vowel A close vowel is a type of vowel sound used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as possible to the roof of the mouth without creating a constriction that would be classified as a consonant.This term is prescribed by the... |
i [i] | ü [ɨ] | u [u] |
| Mid Mid vowel A mid vowel is a vowel sound used in some spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an open vowel and a close vowel... |
e [ɛ] | o [ɔ] | |
| Open Open vowel An open vowel is defined as a vowel sound in which the tongue is positioned as far as possible from the roof of the mouth. Open vowels are sometimes also called low vowels in reference to the low position of the tongue... |
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 Labial consonant Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m [m] | n [n] | ñ [ɲ] | ||
| Plosive | p [p] | t [t̪] | ch [t͡ʃ] | k [k] | ' [ʔ] |
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
s [s] | sh [ʃ] | j [h] | ||
| Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
l [ɺ] | ||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r [r] | ||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
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.
External links
- Entry for Wayuu at Rosetta Project
- Brief explanation of the wayunaiiki language
- Spanish-Wayuunaiki dictionary
- Venezuelanalysis.comVenezuelanalysis.comVenezuelanalysis.com: Venezuela News, Views and Analysis is a news website, which describes its aim as being "to provide on-going news about developments in Venezuela, as well as to contextualize this news with in-depth analysis and background information...
, 4 August 2010, Venezuelan history first - Wayuunaiki newspaper wins Venezuelan journalism award