Caquetío language
| Caquetío | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Venezuela Aruba Bonaire Curaçao |
| Region | Falcón, ABC Islands |
| Ethnicity | Caquetío |
| Extinct | 1862, with the death of Nicolaas Pyclas (Aruba) |
Arawakan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | arub1238 Caquetio |
Map of the Caquetío nation | |
Caquetío, also called Caquetío Arawak, is an extinct Arawakan language. The language was spoken along the shores of Lake Maracaibo, in the coastal areas of the Venezuelan state of Falcón, and on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It is referred to as a "ghost language" because no tangible evidence of it remains. Only the name still exists, as mentioned in references from 17th-century texts.
The Caquetíos and the Jirajara spoke an Arawak language, and their cultures showed great similarities.