The languages of Venezuela refers to the official languages and various dialects spoken in established communities within the country. In Venezuela, Castellan is the official language and is the mother tongue of the majority of Venezuelans. Although there is an established official language, there are countless languages of indigenous villages spoken throughout Venezuela, and various regions also have languages of their own.
Chinese (400,000), Portuguese (185,000)[1] and Italian (200,000),[2] are the most spoken languages in Venezuela after the official language of Spanish. Wayuu is the most spoken indigenous language with 294,000 speakers.[1]
Article 9. The official language of the country is Castillan. Indigenous languages also hold an official status within their villages and must be respected throughout the Republic, in order to constitute cultural equity of the country and of humanity.
Although Venezuelan Sign Language is not considered an official language, article 81 of The Constitution establishes the right of all deaf people to communicate through VSL, and further establishes in article 101 the right of these people to forms of public and private television in their language.
Indigenous languages
Many of the indigenous languages of Venezuela are threatened and or endangered. The two linguistic families with the highest number of languages are the Arahuacan and the Caribbean.
According to data available from the last indigenous census (1992) and the 2001 general census of population and housing, in Venezuela there are at least 70 indigenous languages that are spoken, of which 40 are grouped into eight linguistic families and the other 30 do not present a recognizable relationship with other languages, and by so they are considered language isolates. Dixon and Aikhenvald considered that the number of distinguishable languages varies around 38 and the number of speakers of indigenous language is closer to 100 thousand although the number of indigenous people is greater than that figure, because many are not competent speakers of the ancestral language of their ethnic group. On the other hand, Ethnologue, whose classification does not always distinguish between dialects of the same language and different languages, distinguishes 43 linguistic varieties in Venezuela.
The majority of the indigenous Venezuelans speak Castillan as a second language.
Following are the number of speakers given by Ethnologue (as of 15 Feburary 2024), which distinguishes a greater number of varieties (in parentheses the approximate number of its users) is given.
All languages spoken by the indigenous people of Venezuela are also recognized as official languages and part of the cultural patrimony.[3]
Arawak family
Paraujano (¿?): this language is spoken most prominently in the Sinamaica area. Until recently it was considered extinct, but has gone through a process of revitalization that has been supported by UNICEF.
Wayuu (294,000): this is the indigenous language with the most speakers in Venezuela. It is spoken in the northern state of Zulia and in the Colombian Guajira. There are also Wayúu communities in other parts of Venezuela.
Caribbean family
Caribe languages, from 2000.
The majority of these languages are spoken in the southeastern part of Venezuela. In the past, similar languages to these were spoken in a great part of the East Venezuelan coast and the Cuenta del Orinoco.
Akauayo (180 - from the 2001 census): A spoken language in the state of Monagas and Bolivar in an area bordering on Pemón speakers.
Eñepá or Panare (4,180): Spoken in the state of Bolívar and the Amazon.
Japrería (170 - 2002 census): Spoken only in a town in the state of Zulia, in the western part of the country.
Kariña (4,450 - 2002 census): Spoken in a few municipalities in eastern Venezuela.
Pemón (23,100): The speakers are primarily in the southeastern zone of the state of Bolívar in the Gran Sabana and its surroundings.
Wanai or Mapoyo (2?): A language in the midst of disappearing, spoken in the Amazon and very similar to the Yavarana. On November 25, 2014 it was included in the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in the list with urgent safeguards and it is the first Venezuelan indigenous language declared by UNESCO.[4]
Yavarana (150): It is a language threatened and disappearing in its spoken form, from the northeast of the Amazon.
Ye'kuana or Maquiritari (6,200): Its speakers are located in the Northeast state of the Amazon and in the Southeast of Bolívar.
Yukpa (3,020): This language is spoken in the state of Zulia.
Among the Caribbean languages that are now extinct, since the conquest, are the tamanaco, the cumanagoto and the chaima.
Chibcha family
Bari language: It is spoken by approximately 1,520 people of ethnic Barí in Venezuela in 2007.
Guajibo family
Guajibo languages
Jivi (12,000) This language is spoken mostly in the state of Apure and the state of Amazon.
The Macro-Makú family is made up by the Makú languages, which is widely accepted by Americanists, and by the languages of two relatively isolated hunter-gatherer ethnic groups in Venezuela:
The experts differ about the classification of these languages, and there are doubts whether these languages should be considered provisionally isolated or provisionally accepted as forming a valid phylogenetic unit with the makúes languages.
Other small families
Timote-Cuica languages at the start of the Conquest
The Jirajarana family or Jirajirana is a group of extinct languages spoken in the western regions of Venezuela, Falcon and Lara. It is believed that the languages went extinct at the start of the 20th century. The Jirajara languages are considered to be semi-isolates. Adelaar and Muysken point out certain lexical similarities with Timote-Cuica languages, and typological similarities with Chibcha languages. But the limited data does not allow validity to any similarities between the Jirajarana and Betol languages, particularly for the similarities of the ethnonyms.
The Arutani-Sapé family hypothetically would have been formed by the Sapé and the Uruak, which some authors considered it unclassified - isolated languages.
Isolated, unclassified, and doubtfully classified languages
Isolated languages from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia and Venezuela.Isolated Languages already extinct from the center and southeast parts of Venezuela. Only yaruro (pumé) is still spoken. The last speakers of Otomaco and Guamo lived in the early 20th century.
Some languages have yet to be classified because they fall under a larger family, these are called “unclassified languages”. For some of these said languages, there exists some oral evidence, but oral history is not convincing enough. For other languages, that are studied and not classified, they fall under the “language isolates” category, meaning that they are considered to be the only member of that family. Here is the list of unclassified languages that fall under larger families:
Warao (18.696): This language is mainly spoken in the Delta of Orinoco area and some Cercanas regions. It is one of the indigenous languages in Venezuela with the most speakers, after Wayúu and Pemón.
Guamontey: Extinct language from central Venezuela.
Otomaco: Extinct language from the central and southern regions of Venezuela.
Below is a non-exhaustive list of the indigenous languages.
From the colonial period until the end of the 19th century
The first studies of indigenous languages were carried out by catholic missionaries from Europe. Religious Jesuits, Capuchins and others developed the first forms of grammar and dictionaries of languages such as the Caribbean, Cumanagoto, Chaima and many more.
The friar Matias Ruiz Blanco created in the second half of the 17th century a grammar and a dictionary of the Cumanagoto, as well as a catechism in that Caribbean language.
The Jesuit Gilli conducted extensive studies of the Orinoco language in the mid-eighteenth century. Gilli studied the relation of the different languages and presented the existence of a series of matrix languages or families of languages, that would become one of the foundations of a classification of the South American languages.
The monk Jerónimo José de Lucena, elaborated at the end of that century a vocabulary and translations of catechism of the Otomaco, Taparita and Yaruro languages. Another religious figure, most likely Miguel Angel de Gerona, elaborated on a compendium of the Pariagota language, spoken in Guayana during that century.
Alexander Von Humboldt collected grammar and list of words on his trip to Venezuela in 1799-1800 and with that helped share information about these languages to European Linguists. His brother Wilhelm Von Humboldt used this material in his scientific works about the nature of languages.
In the 20th century, father Basilio María of Barral produced a Warao-Spanish dictionary. The capuchin Cesáreo of Armellada wrote grammar and a dictionary of the Pemón language and compiled tales of the Pemona culture.
In the 1960s, the American Henry A. Osborn conducted some studies on the morphosyntax and phonetics of the Warao language.
Jorge Carlos Mosonyi was one of the most featured scientists at the end of the 20th century in the study of several original languages such as Karina.
Marie-Claude Mattéi-Müller has done extensive work on the Yanomamö, Panare, Mapoyo, Hodï and Yawarana languages. These and other linguists have contributed to the production of the first literacy books for the first Venezuelan nations.
Foreign languages
Languages spoken by immigrants and their descendants are found in Venezuela. The most important are Chinese (400,000), Portuguese (254,000), Italian (200,000),[2]Arabic (110,000), German (20,000) and English (20,000).[1]
Some people who live next to the border of Brazil speak Portuguese. In the areas located near to Guyana English language is used by some inhabitants, especially on San Martin of Turumban. Colonia Tovar dialect, a dialect of German language, is spoken in the Colonia Tovar.
Languages taught in schools
English
English is a foreign language with a great demand in Venezuela. It is spoken by many academics and professionals and by some members of the middle and high social classes. There is an English language newspaper in Caracas: The Daily Journal, founded in 1946. The use of English arose in part due to the presence of oil companies from English speaking countries (especially from the United States) since the beginning of the 20th century.
English is taught as a compulsory subject in the secondary education and in the bachillerato for five years. Bachillerato is a segment of secondary education similar to the baccalaureat, secondary school or American high school and is divided into two branches: sciences and humanities. According to the syllabus approved by the Venezuelan Ministry of Education in 1986 English language is considered as a tool to communicate with people from other countries and to obtain information in the areas of humanities, technology and science.[5] For that reason it is taught using a Notional Functional Approach.[5] In the bachillerato a Structuralistic Approach is used. Despite the lines provided by the syllabus, few people learn to speak the language with only the knowledge acquired at school.
In some universities degree programs to train teachers or translators of English language are offered. In the rest of universities English is studied as a compulsory subject to understand texts written in this language.
English is also used in shops and products together with Spanish.
Italian
In the second half of the twentieth century, more than 200,000 Italians mostly from Veneto moved to this oil rich country.
According to the Italian Embassy in Caracas the "....Italian language is available in a few private Italian schools and institutions. Other similar courses are organized and sponsored by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Associations.
Portuguese
The Portuguese speaking community in Venezuela is very large at 260,000 (especially in Santa Elena de Uairen). As such, serious consideration is being given to include the study of Portuguese as a foreign language in the school curriculums of Venezuela. There are also many Brazilians living in Venezuela. Portuguese has become a very important language of the world economy. Geographically widespread, Portuguese is officially spoken on 5 continents by 270 million speakers, and is the 6th most natively spoken language in the world, and the most spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere.
French
French language is taught as a compulsory subject in the branch of humanities of the bachillerato or high school for two years. Students learn French grammar in their first year of study, then construct and translate French texts in the second year. In some universities degree programs to train teachers or translators of French language are offered.
Latin and Greek
In Venezuela Latin is taught as a compulsory subject in the branch of humanities of the high school for two years. Students learn Latin grammar in their first year, then construct and translate Latin texts in the second year.[6]
At university level, the University of the Andes offers a degree program for Letras Mención Lengua y Literaturas Clásicas (Classical Languages and Literatures). In this program (the only one of its type in Venezuela), the students learn Latin, Ancient Greek and the literature of both languages for five years.[7] In other Venezuelan universities, Latin is a compulsory subject of the program for Letras (Hispanic Literature) and Educación, mención: Castellano y Literatura (Education of Spanish language and Hispanic Literature).
1 2 Bernasconi, Giulia (2012). "L'ITALIANO IN VENEZUELA". Italiano LinguaDue (in Italian). Università degli Studi di Milano. 3 (2): 20. doi:10.13130/2037-3597/1921. Retrieved 22 January 2017. L'italiano come lingua acquisita o riacquisita è largamente diffuso in Venezuela: recenti studi stimano circa 200.000 studenti di italiano nel Paese
1 2 "Art. 9"(PDF). Constitution of Venezuela (in Spanish). 1999.
The Indigenous languages of the Americas are the languages that were used by the Indigenous peoples of the Americas before the arrival of non-Indigenous peoples. Over a thousand of these languages are still used today, while many more are now extinct. The Indigenous languages of the Americas are not all related to each other, instead they are classified into a hundred or so language families, as well as a number of extinct languages that are unclassified due to the lack of information on them.
A Spanish creole, or Spanish-based creole language, is a creole language for which Spanish serves as its substantial lexifier.
The Cariban languages are a family of languages indigenous to north-eastern South America. They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes]], and they are also spoken in small pockets of central Brazil. The languages of the Cariban family are relatively closely related. There are about three dozen, but most are spoken only by a few hundred people. Macushi is the only language among them with numerous speakers, estimated at 30,000. The Cariban family is well known among linguists partly because one language in the family—Hixkaryana—has a default word order of object–verb–subject. Prior to their discovery of this, linguists believed that this order did not exist in any spoken natural language.
Arawakan, also known as Maipurean, is a language family that developed among ancient indigenous peoples in South America. Branches migrated to Central America and the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean and the Atlantic, including what is now the Bahamas. Almost all present-day South American countries are known to have been home to speakers of Arawakan languages, the exceptions being Ecuador, Uruguay, and Chile. Maipurean may be related to other language families in a hypothetical Macro-Arawakan stock.
Máku, also spelled Mako, and in the language itself Jukude, is an unclassified language and likely language isolate once spoken on the Brazil–Venezuela border in Roraima along the upper Uraricoera and lower Auari rivers, west of Boa Vista, by the Jukudeitse. 300 years ago, the Jukude territory was between the Padamo and Cunucunuma rivers to the southwest.
Yuracaré is an endangered language isolate of central Bolivia in Cochabamba and Beni departments spoken by the Yuracaré people.
Santa Elena de Uairén is a small Venezuelan city in the state of Bolívar near the border with Brazil and Guyana. It was founded by Lucas Fernández Peña in 1923. The city's name originates from his first daughter, Elena, and Uairén, the river that crosses the city.
Spanish is the language that is predominantly understood and spoken as a first or second language by nearly all of the population of Argentina. According to the latest estimations, the population is currently greater than 45 million.
Spanish is the de facto official and administrative language of Chile. It is spoken by 99.3% of the population in the form of Chilean Spanish, as well as Andean Spanish. Spanish in Chile is also referred to as "castellano". Although an officially recognized Hispanic language does not exist at the governmental level, the Constitution itself, as well as all official documents, are written in this language.
Wayuu, or Guajiro, is a major Arawakan language spoken by 400,000 indigenous Wayuu people in northwestern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia on the Guajira Peninsula and surrounding Lake Maracaibo.
Around 99.2% of Colombians speak the Spanish language. 65 Amerindian languages, 2 Creole languages, the Portuguese language and the Romani language are also spoken in the country. English has official status in the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands.
Arutani is a nearly extinct language spoken in Roraima, Brazil and in the Karum River area of Bolivar State, Venezuela. There are only around 6 speakers left.
Sapé, also called Kaliana or Caliana, is an extinct language recently spoken along the Paragua River and Karuna River. There were only about a few dozen speakers in the mid-1900s, and by the 2000s, only a few elderly speakers were found. Sapé may be a language isolate.
Costa Rica's official and predominant language is Spanish. The variety spoken there, Costa Rican Spanish, is a form of Central American Spanish.
The Latin language is still taught in many parts of the world. In many countries it is offered as an optional subject in some secondary schools and universities, and may be compulsory for students in certain institutions or following certain courses. For those wishing to learn the language independently, there are printed and online resources.
The languages of South America can be divided into three broad groups:
The Pemon language, is an indigenous language of the Cariban family spoken by some 30,000 Pemon people, in Venezuela's Southeast, particularly in the Canaima National Park, in the Roraima State of Brazil and in Guyana.
Warao is the native language of the Warao people. A language isolate, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname. It is notable for its unusual object–subject–verb word order. The 2015 Venezuelan film Gone with the River was spoken in Warao.
Indigenous people in Venezuela, Amerindians or Native Venezuelans, form about 2% of the population of Venezuela, although many Venezuelans are mixed with Indigenous ancestry. Indigenous people are concentrated in the Southern Amazon rainforest state of Amazonas, where they make up nearly 50% of the population and in the Andes of the western state of Zulia. The most numerous indigenous people, at about 200,000, is the Venezuelan part of the Wayuu people who primarily live in Zulia between Lake Maracaibo and the Colombian border. Another 100,000 or so indigenous people live in the sparsely populated southeastern states of Amazonas, Bolívar and Delta Amacuro.
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