Arawakan languages in the context of "Garifuna language"

The Taíno were the Indigenous peoples of the Greater Antilles and surrounding islands. At the time of European contact in the late 15th century, they were the principal inhabitants of most of what is now The Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The Lucayan branch of the Taíno were the first New World people encountered by Christopher Columbus, in the Bahama Archipelago on October 12, 1492. The Taíno historically spoke an Arawakan language. Granberry and Vescelius (2004) recognized two varieties of the Taino language: "Classical Taino", spoken in Puerto Rico and most of Hispaniola, and "Ciboney Taino", spoken in the Bahamas, most of Cuba, western Hispaniola, and Jamaica. They lived in agricultural societies ruled by caciques with fixed settlements and a matrilineal system of kinship and inheritance. Taíno religion centered on the worship of zemis. The Taíno are sometimes also referred to as Island Arawaks or Antillean Arawaks. Indigenous people in the Greater Antilles did not refer to themselves originally as Taíno; the term was first explicitly used in this sense by Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1836.

Historically, anthropologists and historians believed that the Taíno were no longer extant centuries ago, or that they gradually merged into a common identity with African and Hispanic cultures. Scholarly attitudes to Taíno survival and resurgence began to change around the year 2000. Many people today identify as Taíno and many more have Taíno descent, most notably in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Dominica. A substantial number of Puerto Ricans, Cubans, and Dominicans have Indigenous mitochondrial DNA, which may suggest Taíno descent through the direct female line, especially in Puerto Rico. While some communities describe an unbroken cultural heritage passed down through the generations, often in secret, others are revivalist communities who seek to incorporate Taíno culture into their lives.

Around 99.2% of Colombians speak the Spanish language. Sixty-five Amerindian languages, two Creole languages, the Portuguese language and the Romanian language are also spoken in the country. English has official status in the San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands.Since the 1930s 23 April had been declared as an Observance Language Day, to commemorate all Languages spoken in the country.

The majority of Colombians speak Spanish (see also Colombian Spanish), but in total 90 languages are listed for Colombia in the Ethnologue database. The specific number of spoken languages varies slightly since some authors consider as different languages what others consider to be varieties or dialects of the same language. Best estimates recorded 71 languages that are spoken in-country today—most of which belong to the Chibchan, Tucanoan, Bora–Witoto, Guajiboan, Arawakan, Cariban, Barbacoan, and Saliban language families. There are currently about 850,000 speakers of native languages, however it is estimated to be higher.

The Arawak are a group of Indigenous peoples of northern South America and of the Caribbean. The term "Arawak" has been applied at various times to different Indigenous groups, from the Lokono of South America to the Taíno (Island Arawaks), who lived in the Greater Antilles and northern Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean. All these groups spoke related Arawakan languages.

The Lokono or Arawak are an Indigenous peoples from the northern coastal regions of South America. Today, approximately 10,000 Lokono live primarily along the coasts and rivers of Guyana, with smaller numbers in Venezuela, Trinidad, Suriname, French Guiana.

They speak the Arawak language, the eponymous language of the Arawakan language family, as well as various Creole languages, and English.

The Piaroa–Saliban, also known as Saliban (in spanish : Sálivan), are a small proposed language family of the middle Orinoco Basin, which forms an independent island within an area of Venezuela and Colombia (northern llanos) dominated by peoples of Carib and Arawakan affiliation.

Betoi may be related.

Asháninka (also known as Campa, although this name is derogatory) is an Arawakan language spoken by the Asháninka people of Peru and Brazil. It is largely spoken in the Satipo Province located in the amazon forest. While there are low literacy rates in Asháninka, language use is vibrant among the Asháninka.

Macro-Arawakan is a proposed language family of South America and the Caribbean centered on the Arawakan languages. Sometimes, the proposal is called Arawakan, and the central family is called Maipurean.