Arawakan languages Arawakan languages were spoken throughout the Caribbean, on nearly all inhabited islands, at the time of European contact. They included
Taíno (with dialects Ciboney and Lucayan) in the
Greater Antilles and the
Bahamas;
Kalinago Igneri in the
Lesser Antilles;
Lokono,
Nepuyo and
Shebayo on
Trinidad; and the poorly attested
Caquetío on the
ABC islands in the western
Leeward Antilles.
Cariban languages Arriving after the Arawakan languages, a few Cariban languages were spoken in the Caribbean, and indeed gave the region its name. These were
Kariʼnja in the
Lesser Antilles, and
Yao and
Carinepagoto on Trinidad. ("It is worth noting here that a large section of this coast, at least 25 or 30
leagues, and a good 15 or maybe 20 wide, up to the hills which together with the Great Plain make up this part of the coast, was populated by peoples known as Mazorij, and others [known as] Ciguayos, and they had different languages than the one common to the entire island. I do not remember if they differed [from each other] in language, as it has been many years, and there is not a single person today to ask, as I have spoken often enough with both generations, and more than 50 years have passed.") However, elsewhere he notes that the neighboring languages were not intelligible with each other. ("Three languages on this island [of Hispaniola] were distinct, in that they could not understand one another; the first was that of the people [of the region] we called the Lower Macorix, and the other that of their neighbors of the Upper Macorix [the Ciguayos], which we described above as the 4th and 6th provinces; the other language was the universal one of all the land".) In addition, the
Waikerí inhabited the
Nueva Esparta islands in the eastern
Leeward Antilles. Their language is unattested, though they reported that it was related to
Warao. ==Proposed relationships of the unclassified languages ==