Arawak language

Arawak
Lokono
Native to	French Guiana, Guyana, Suriname, Venezuela
Region	Guianas
Ethnicity	Lokono (Arawak)
Native speakers	unknown (2,500 cited 1980–2000)
Language family	Arawakan Northern Ta-Arawakan Arawak
Language codes
ISO 639-2	arw
ISO 639-3	arw
Glottolog	araw1276

Lokono (Lokono Dian, literally 'people’s talk' by its speakers), also referred to as Arawak (Arowak/Aruák), is an Arawak language spoken by the Lokono people of South America in eastern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana. While the term "Arawak" has been used in reference to this people, Lokono more accurately reflects the speakers' own language, as the name has been historically extended to cover the eponymous Arawak language family.

Lokono has an active–stative syntax.

Phonology

Consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Aspirated stops		tʰ			kʰ
Unvoiced stops		t			k
Voiced stops	b	d
Fricatives	ɸ	s				h
Nasal	m	n
Approximant	w	l		j
Trills		r	ɽ

William Pet observes that an additional /p/ does occur in loans.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ
Mid	e		o
Open		a

Pet notes that phonetic realization of /o/ varies between [o] and [u].

Grammar

The personal pronouns are shown below. The forms on the left are free forms, which can stand alone. The forms on the right are bound forms (prefixes), which must be attached to the front of a verb, a noun, or a postposition.

	singular	plural
1st person	de, da-	we, wa-
2nd person	bi, by-	hi, hy-
3rd person	li, ly- (he) tho, thy- (she)	ne, na-