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| Population: |
700 in Suriname (1980 census). French Guiana 150
and in Guyana 1,500(2000 Forte).ethnic population
is 1,500.Population total all countries: 2,450.
Ethnic population: 2,051 in Suriname (1980 census). |
| Region: |
Scattered locations across the north of Suriname.
Also Coastal areas of French Guiana and west coast
along the Corantyne River in Guyana. |
| Alternate
Names: |
Lokono, Arowak |
| Classification: |
Arawakan, Maipuran, Northern Maipuran, Caribbean.
Dialect used by the older adults in Suriname and
Guyana. The young people use Sranan. Literacy rate
in first language: below 1%. Literacy rate in second
language: 25% to 50%. |
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The people referred to as Arawak refer to themselves
as Lokono, from loko meaning 'people' and no which
marks the noun for plural. There are an estimated 15,000
ethnic Lokono living in Guyana of whom, however, only
1,500 are estimated to still speak the language. Lokono,
a member of the Arawakan language family, is a seriously
endangered language with very few children learning
it. Nearly all of its speakers are adults and over the
age of 50. The state of the language is in part the
result of the Arawaks being a coastal people and, therefore,
of the indigenous groups in Guyana, the one with the
longest exposure to outside languages influences. The
language which most closely resembles Lokono is Garifuna.
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