Cariban is a family of indigenous languages of northern South America, spoken across parts of Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana and northern Brazil. Its languages, spoken today mostly by small communities, gave English the word cannibal, derived from the Carib people's name.
Facts
RegionNortheastern South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, with pockets in central Brazil 1 Proto-Language StatusA Proto-Cariban phonology has been reconstructed; comparative work places the Proto-Cariban homeland north of the Amazon River, with no evidence for the once-proposed northward migration from the south. 1 In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Cariban Languages
Wikimedia FoundationLead section, first paragraph
They are widespread across northernmost South America, from the mouth of the Amazon River to the Colombian Andes, and they are also spoken in small pockets of central Brazil.
Family division section, Meira et al. 2015 subsection
Meira, Birchall & Chousou-Polydouri (2015) conclude that the Proto-Cariban homeland was located north of the Amazon River, and that there is no evidence for a northward migration from the south, as previously proposed by Rodrigues (1985).
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