446 Aramaic and Syriac is the religious poetry of Saint Ephrem, which East Aramaic dialects have been employed. Modern was much admired and imitated even beyond the literary Syriac (Swadaya) may be said to have begun Syriac language area. From the 10th century, Arabic with the printing of books in the local dialect by the replaced Syriac among Christians as the chief lan- American Presbyterian Mission at Urmia in North- guage of theology, philosophy, and medicine, but west Iran. Although the number of people currently the 13th century saw a veritable West Syriac renais- using some form of Aramaic is small, their determi- sance, embodied especially in the great polymath nation to keep it alive is a testimony to their pride in a Bar Hebraeus, who wrote with equal facility in language whose demonstrable lifespan extends to Syriac and Arabic. In contrast to the wide use of 3000 years. Syriac, Syro-Palestinian Christian Aramaic (alterna- tively designated Syro-Palestinian Syriac because it was written in the West Syriac script) was employed See also: Ancient Near-Eastern Religions; Arabic; Bible; only in Palestine and Syria, and the extant texts Bible Translations: Ancient Versions; Christianity in Cen- (mostly biblical, liturgical, or hagiographical) are all tral Asia and the Near East; Hebrew, Biblical and Medie- val; Iran: Language Situation; Iraq: Language Situation; translations from Greek. Israel: Language Situation; Judaism; Lebanon: Language Spoken Aramaic dialects have been in continuous Situation; Semitic Languages; Syria: Language Situation; use in a number of places right into modern times. Syriac; Translation: History; Turkey: Language Situation. Modern Western dialects of Aramaic are spoken, by Christians and Muslims, in three villages north of Damascus, namely Ma‘lula, Bah‘a, and Jubb ‘Addin. Bibliography Eastern dialects have been more extensively used by Christians in various localities. In the mountain- Brock S P (1989). ‘Three thousand years of Aramaic litera- ous area of Southeast Turkey known as Tur ‘Abdin, ture.’ Aram 1(1), 11–23. Brock S P (1996). Syriac studies: a classified bibliography, Turoyo (‘the mountain language’) is spoken by mem- 1960–1990. Kaslik, Lebanon: Universite´ Saint-Esprit de bers of the Syrian Orthodox Church. Other Eastern Kaslik. Aramaic dialects have been spoken in modern times Fitzmyer J A (1979). ‘The phases of the Aramaic language.’ by the Jews of Kurdistan and Azerbaijan, most of In Fitzmyer J A (ed.) A wandering Aramean: collected whom have now emigrated to Israel, and a modern Aramaic essays. Missoula, MT: Scholars Press. 57–84. Mandaic dialect has survived in Iran. The greatest Fitzmyer J A & Kaufman S A (1992). An Aramaic bibliog- use of Aramaic in modern times, however, has been raphy. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University by East Syrian Christians, among whom a number of Press. Aranda See: Arrernte. Araucanian See: Mapudungan. Arawak Languages A Y Aikhenvald, Institute for Advanced Study, La America – Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia – and eight of South America – Bolivia, Guyana, ß 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. French Guiana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru, Brazil (and also formerly Argentina and Paraguay). The Arawak language family contains the largest There are about 40 living Arawak languages. The number of languages in Latin America. Geo- first Native American peoples encountered by graphically, it spans four countries of Central Columbus – in the Bahamas, Hispaniola, and Puerto Arawak Languages 447 Rico – were the Arawak-speaking Taino. Their lan- Campa languages (total estimate 40 000 to 50 000 guage became extinct within a hundred years of the speakers), one of the largest indigenous groups in Peru. invasion. Spanish and many other European lan- Most of the materials on Arawak languages collect- guages inherited a number of loans from Arawak ed during the second half of the 20th century are by languages. These include widely used words such as missionary linguists. Their quality and quantity var- hammock, tobacco, potato, guava, and many other ies. Only three or four languages have full descriptions names for flora and fauna. available. The creation of a mixed language of Arawak/Carib The genetic unity of Arawak languages was first origin in the Lesser Antilles is one of the most inter- recognized by Father Gilij as early as 1783. The rec- esting pieces of evidence on language history in pre- ognition of the family was based on a comparison of conquest times. Speakers of In˜ eri, a dialect of the pronominal cross-referencing prefixes in Maipure, an Arawak language now (misleadingly) called Island extinct language from the Orinoco Valley, and in Carib, were conquered by Carib speakers. They de- Moxo from Bolivia. Gilij named the family Maipure. veloped a mixed Carib/Arawak pidgin that survived Later, it was renamed Arawak by Daniel Brinton after until the 17th century (Hoff, 1994). Speech of men one of the most important languages of the family, and speech of women were distinguished in the fol- Arawak (or Lokono), spoken in the Guianas. This lowing way. Women used morphemes and lexemes of name gained wide acceptance during the following Arawak origin, while men used lexical items of Carib decades. The majority of Native South American origin and grammatical morphemes mostly of Arawak scholars use the name Arawak (Arua´k) to refer to origin. The pidgin coexisted with Carib used by men the group of unquestionably related languages easily and In˜eri used by women and children; it belonged to recognizable by pronominal prefixes such as nu-orta- both parties and served as a bridge between them. This ‘first person singular’,(p)i- ‘second person singular’, diglossia gradually died out with the spread of compe- prefix ka- meaning ‘have’, and negator ma-. A number tence in Island Carib among both men and women. As of scholars, mainly North Americans, prefer to use the a result, Island Carib, an Arawak language, underwent term Arawak(-an) to refer to a much more doubtful strong lexical and, possibly, grammatical influence higher-level grouping, and reserve the term Maipuran from Carib. (or Maipurean) for the group of undoubtedly related The languages in areas settled by the European languages that are claimed to be one branch of invaders soon became extinct. Those on the north Arawakan (see Payne, 1991). Here I follow the coast of South America perished first, before 1700. South American practice and use the name Arawak When the search for gold and rubber extended up the for the family of definitely related languages. Amazon and its tributary the Rio Negro, further lan- The limits of the family were established by the guages succumbed, from the 18th century up until the early 20th century. Problems still exist concerning present day. Sometimes the Indians retaliated, attack- internal genetic relationships within the family and ing settlements and missions; but the invaders always possible genetic relationships with other groups. returned. Indian rebellions often provoked forced Reconstruction, internal classification, and subgroup- migrations which sometimes ended up creating a ing of Arawak languages remain matters of debate; new dialect or even a language. For instance, in 1797 further detailed work is needed on both the descriptive the British authorities removed the rebellious inhabi- and comparative fronts. tants of St. Vincent (an island in the Lesser Antilles) to The putative studies of Arawakan by Ester Belize on the mainland. These were racially a mixture Matteson, G. Kingsley Noble, and others are deeply of black slaves and Indians, who spoke Island Carib. flawed. Unfortunately, these have been adopted as the This resulted in the creation of a new dialect of Island standard reference for the classification of Arawak Carib – known as Central American Island Carib, languages, especially among some anthropologists, Kariff, Black Carib, or Garifuna – which by the 20th archaeologists, and geneticists, influencing ideas on century had developed into a separate language, now a putative proto-home and migration routes for spoken in Central America (Taylor, 1977). proto-Arawakan’–see the criticism in Tovar and De The overwhelming majority of Arawak languages Tovar (1984), Dixon and Aikhenvald (1999: 12–15), are endangered. Even in the few communities with and Aikhenvald (1999a). more than 1000 speakers, a national language (Portu- Little is known about a proto-home for the Arawak guese or Spanish) or a local lingua franca (Lingua Geral family. The linguistic argument in favor of an Arawak Amazoˆnica, Quechua, or Tucano) is gaining ground proto-home located between the Rio Negro and the among younger people. The few healthy Arawak lan- Orinoco rivers – or on the Upper Amazon – is based guages are Guajiro in Venezuela and Colombia (esti- on the fact that there is a higher concentration of mates vary from 60 000 to 300 000 speakers) and the structurally divergent languages found in this region. 448 Arawak Languages This area has also been suggested as one of the places Table 1 Pronominal prefixes and suffixes in proto-Arawak where agriculture developed. This is highly suggestive Person Prefixes Suffixes and corroborated by a few mythical traditions of northern origin by Arawak-speaking peoples south Singular Plural Singular Plural of the Amazon. The origin myths of the Tariana, in 1 nu- or ta- wa- -na, -te -wa northwest Amazonia, suggest that they could have 2 (p)i- (h)i- -pi -hi come from the north coast of South America. 3nf r i-, i- na- -ri,-i -na Arawak languages are complicated in many 3f thu-, ru- na- -thu, -ru, -u -na ways. Words can be differentiated by stress in some ‘impersonal’ pa- —— — languages, such as Baure and Waura´ (south of Amazonas), and Tariana, Achagua, and Warekena (north of Amazonas). At least two have tones – Tereˆna in the South, and Resı´garo spoken in the far ‘I see’ and nu-watsa ‘I jump’, but nu-kapa-ni ‘I see northeast of Peru.