Arawakan

American  

[ar-uh-wah-kuhn, -wak-uhn] / ˌær əˈwɑ kən, -ˈwæk ən /

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.

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adjective

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

Arawakan British  

/ ˌærəˈwækən /

noun

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

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adjective

1. of or relating to the peoples speaking these languages

Etymology

Origin of Arawakan

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.

From New York Times • Mar. 9, 2023

“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.

From New York Times • Mar. 7, 2023

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

From BBC • Dec. 16, 2012

The Arawaks have given their name to a linguistic stock of South America, the Arawakan, which includes many once powerful tribes.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 2, Slice 4 "Aram, Eugene" to "Arcueil" by Various

These observers comprise the countless Brazilian aborigines in four main linguistic divisions, which in conformity with Powell's terminology may here be named the Cariban, Arawakan, Gesan and Tupi-Guaranian families.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court