Arawakan

[ar-uh-wah-kuhn, -wak-uhn]

noun

1. a family of numerous languages that developed in ancient South America and spread north to Central America and to islands in the Caribbean and Atlantic.

2. a member of the Arawak or related Indigenous people who speak, or once spoke, these languages.

adjective

1. of or belonging to this language family or its speakers or to the Arawak.

Arawakan

/ ˌærəˈwækən /

noun

1. a family of American Indian languages found throughout NE South America

adjective

1. of or relating to the peoples speaking these languages

Word History and Origins

Origin of Arawakan¹

First recorded in 1905–10; Arawak + -an

Example Sentences

“Barbecue” comes from barbacoa, a word in the Arawakan language of the Caribbean for a wooden frame used for sleeping and for drying food, Tschann writes.

Read more on New York Times

“Barbecue” comes from barbacoa, a word in the Arawakan language of the Caribbean for a wooden frame used for sleeping on and for drying food, Tschann writes.

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When Schroeder’s team compared her genome to those of other Native American groups, they found she was most closely related to speakers of Arawakan languages in northern South America.

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And the Arawakan Garifuna language in the Bronx and Circassian languages in pockets of New Jersey.

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Garifuna is an Arawakan language from Honduras and Belize, but also spoken by a diaspora in the United States.

Read more on BBC