The Arawak Language of Guiana

A description of the Arawak language of Guyana and Suriname, covering vocabulary, grammar and phonetics.

C. H. de Goeje (Author)

9781108007689, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 November 2009

316 pages
24.4 x 17 x 1.7 cm, 0.51 kg

This description of the Arawak language, once spoken widely across the Caribbean area but now restricted to some of the native peoples of Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname, was first published in 1928. C. H. de Goeje was a Dutch submariner whose work had taken him to the then Dutch colony of Suriname; on his resignation from the Dutch navy he continued to investigate its peoples and their languages, and was the recipient of a special Chair in languages and cultural anthropology at the University of Leiden. The book provides long vocabulary lists and a systematic exploration of grammar and phonetics; it also discusses the origin of the language and its differentiation from the other Carib languages of the region. An appendix gives anthropological data, including transcriptions and translations of Arawak myths.

Preface
1. Finite verb
2. Character of the Arawak words
3. Infinite verb
4. Auxiliary verb a
5. Intensives, conjunctions etc.
6. K
B
7. F
P
B
8. M
9. N
10. D
11. T
12. Formation of verbs, etc.
13. L
R
14. H
15. S
16. Vowels, diphthongs, colours
17. Classes of utterances, numerals
18. Man
19. Foreign words
20. Origins of the Arawak language
Appendix.

Subject Areas: Anthropology [JHM]