Warao

Warao is the language isolate of the Warao, the boat people of the Orinoco Delta, whose stilted villages stand over the channels and marshes. It is an agglutinative tongue with a rare object–subject–verb word order and no demonstrated relative.

The Warao are regarded as the earliest inhabitants of the Guianas, preceding the Arawak and Carib peoples, and by 1500 they combined fishing and canoe-borne trade with palm-orchard horticulture. Their first European encounter followed Columbus's arrival at the Orinoco mouth, when Alonso de Ojeda saw their thatched houses raised on piles above the water; the sight, echoing an earlier comparison near Sinamaica, helped fasten the name Venezuela, or little Venice, on the coast.

In the centuries that followed, tidal channels kept the stilt villages largely beyond the reach of settlers and missions, and Warao remained the everyday speech of their canoe-going communities.