Table Of ContentWayuu-English-Spanish
Dictionary
English-Wayuu Index
©2019 SIL International®
www.wayuu.webonary.org
Diccionario Wayuu
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David Captain
Linda Captain
®
© 2019 SIL International
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®
SIL International
Webonary.org
This web edition may be cited as:
Captain, David and Captain, Linda (eds.) 2019. "Wayuu - English - Spanish
Dictionary." Webonary.org. SIL International. Retrieved <Date of access>, from <full
URL>.
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Diccionario Wayuu
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The Wayuu speak the Wayuu language (wayuunaiki) and have a population of over 150,000 in
Colombia, with a total of over 416,000 in all countries. They are located in the department of La
Guajira in Colombia and the state of Zulia in Venezuela, primarily on the Guajira Peninsula and
adjacent areas.
The ISO code is [guc]. Alternate names include: Goajiro, Guajira, Guajiro, Uáira, Wahiro, Waiu,
Wayu, and Wayúu. The classification of the language is Maipurean, Northern, Maritime, Ta-
Maipurean.
Wayuu has been considered as one of the most vigorously spoken indigenous languages in
South America (Crevels 2007). Wayuu speakers highly value their language. The younger
generation, however, uses Spanish as well.
Materials produced in Wayuu include a grammar, texts, and the New Testament. The Latin
script is used for all of these materials.
The Publishers
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Diccionario Wayuu
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Programs and materials for promoting the use of the Wayuu language have been in
development over many years. The time and effort has proven useful for speakers of the
language in reading and writing in Wayuu. Audio materials will also be helpful for those who
need them.
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Diccionario Wayuu
Credits & acknowledgements
This dictionary could not have been produced without the help of countless people. First and
foremost we wish to thank the communities of Wayuu who welcomed us during our intermittent
periods of residence among them over some twenty years beginning in 1977 and into the
1990s, primarily the villages of Kewiiralema'ana and Meera (Ji'isentira) in the municipality of
Uribia, la Guajira, Colombia. In the early years, it was their patient interaction with us as we
visited informally in one another's households that enabled us to begin to learn something of
their culture and language. In later years we were privileged to be helped formally working with
several Wayuus (too numerous to name individually), as we improved our comprehension and
speaking abilities, while also advancing our linguistic analysis of their intriguing language and
participating in Bible translation into the Wayuu language. Both of these groups, informal and
formal, provided the principal contacts through which we recorded the words and phrases that
have formed the lexical database from which this dictionary has been edited. Later, in
preparation for publishing our Diccionario Básico Ilustrado Wayuunaiki-Español Español-
Wayuunaiki (Bogotá, 2005), a selected subset of the words included here, we were given
invaluable assistance in checking those entries by Ricaurte Henríquez Uriana II and Reinaldo
Ipuana González, Wayuu leaders with whom we have shared friendship for many years.
We would also like to recognize our SIL colleagues Richard Mansen and his late wife Karis,
who had begun their fieldwork among the Wayuu (Guajiros) some twelve years prior to us. Of
particular help to us in our initial language learning was their English draft of a Wayuu
pedagogical grammar, later published in Spanish as Aprendamos Guajiro (Bogotá, 1984).
We have admired the work of others that have done research and published dictionaries of the
Wayuu language previously. Two of these are Martha Hildebrandt's Diccionario guajiro-español
(Caracas, 1963) and the Diccionario sistemático de la lengua guajira of Miguel Ángel Jusayú
and Jesús Olza Zubiri (Caracas/Maracaibo, 1988). While we frequently compared our data with
theirs, we have restricted our publication strictly to data that we have independently recorded,
evaluated and compiled.
David and Linda Captain
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Diccionario Wayuu
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There are 20 letters:
a ch e i j k ꞌ l m n o p r s sh t u ü w y
The Wayuu (to English and Spanish) part of the dictionary is arranged alphabetically according
to the above order. The (ꞌ) is a glottal stop consonant ("saltillo"), only occurring within a word.
The (ü) is a high, central vowel, pronounced similar to the "u" but with unrounded lips and
slightly more forward in the mouth.
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Diccionario Wayuu
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Note: For the abbreviations, italics are used for "parts of speech", for classes of "lexical
relations", and for classes of "inflectional variants". Standard type is used for types of other
"variants", for types of "notes", and for types of "complex forms".
abs. absolutive
adj adjective
adj rel relative adjective
adv adverb
adv rel relative adverb
aff affix
ant antonym
cf compare
comp. compound
conj conjunction
conj rel relative conjunction
ctprt counterpart
der. derivative
dial.var. dialectal variant
enc. encyclopedic information
fr.var. free variant
gen generic
grad gradation
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gram. grammar note
id. idiom
interj interjection
masc. masculine
n noun
non-masc. non-masculine
nposs possessed noun
phr.vb. idiomatic verb phrase
pl. plural
poss. possessed form
post postposition
pron pronoun
pt part
recip reciprocal kin
seq sequence
sg. singular
sp.var. spelling variant
spec specific
syn synonyms
time time
unspec.comp.form unspecified complex form
vi intransitive verb
voc. vocative
vs stative verb
vt transitive verb
wh whole
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Diccionario Wayuu
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Wayuu dictionary entries consist of three main parts: a headword in bold followed by the
abbreviation for the grammatical part of speech. Then the definition is given in English (blue
type) and Spanish (red type). This may be followed by an italicized example sentence or phrase
in Wayuu with a free translation of it in English (and occasionally in Spanish).
If a headword has more than one related meaning, called senses, they will be numbered. If all
the senses function as the same part of speech, that is indicated before the first sense number.
However, if any of the senses functions differently, then every sense is marked with its own part
of speech following its sense number. Each sense then has its respective definition, as well as
any examples and other lexical information.
In a few cases, two or more Wayuu words are spelled the same but with unrelated meanings.
These are called homonyms and occur as separate entries with subscript numbers
differentiating each headword.
In many cases, a Wayuu word may have alternate pronunciations, as used by different
speakers or in different areas. These variant forms with their type are given, within parentheses,
immediately following the headword. We have not attempted to identify the region or dialect to
which the variants belong. For the reader who may search for a word that is a variant form,
these may also be found as minor entries in their respective alphabetized location, each
referring the reader to its main entry where the lexical information is found.
Another type of variation is when there are unusual or unpredictable inflected forms for Wayuu
nouns or adjectives. A few nouns (and adjectives) are marked for gender-number. In this case,
the masculine form is presented as the entry's headword, with the non-masculine and plural
variants included within square brackets following thereafter. Another feature in play is the
manner in which Wayuu nouns may be possessed. There is a sub-class of nouns that are
obligatorily possessed (nposs). While in actual use these require a person prefix which
references the possessor, we have chosen to cite these without such prefix in order to simplify
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their presentation. In the unusual case where such a possessed noun may be used without
reference to a possessor, the noun is suffixed to produce its absolutive form. On the other hand,
most other nouns, when possessed, take one of a set of three possessive suffixes in addition to
the possessor prefix. When we have observed an unpredictable form in either of these cases, it
is included as a variant in the entry, following the abbreviations abs. or poss. respectively.
However, since we have not done a systematic inventory of the selection of these suffixes, the
inclusion of these variants are by no means comprehensive. Like other variants, these may also
be found as alphabetized minor entries unless their proximity to the main entry would render
such separate entry unnecessary.
In some cases, two or more Wayuu words may share a lexical relation, based on meaning or
function. When these relationships have been noted, the related words are cross-referenced to
one another. An abbreviation of the label, in italics, for the type of relationship they share is
presented and the related word or words then follow, separated by a colon. Often these lexical
relations apply to a given sense of a word, in which case this information follows the definition
and any examples. But when the relation is considered to apply to the headword itself, the
related word or words (and type of relation) precedes the part of speech and definition. Some
common types of these relationships are: synonyms, antonyms, and generic-specific such as
types of trees or birds. Others may involve relations where several words comprise a limited set.
For example, a gradation relation might designate a set of words expressing varying degrees of
size or distance. A sequence might describe stages or states in a process, such as growth or
maturity. And, time might relate distinctive points in the passage of time, such as times of day.
General cross references, where no specific relationship has been noted, are marked by the
abbreviation cf. In case the lexical relation applies to a specific sense of the cross-referenced
word, the corresponding sense number is appended to the end of that word.
The Wayuu language also has a substantial number of complex forms, such as: words that are
derived from other words, compound words, and idiomatic phrases formed from two or more
other words. Here these are usually presented as main entries containing their full lexical
information. The type of complex form followed by the word or words from which each is formed
is included in parentheses, following the headword. A complex form may also be included as a
sub-entry, with limited lexical information, under the entry for the principal word from which it is
formed. This serves to demonstrate the relationship between the two. The sub-entry is
formatted like that main entry except that it is bulleted from the left margin. Occasionally a
complex form may relate to a specific sense of an entry, in which case it is presented at the end
of that sense, bulleted and in bold type with similarly limited lexical data.
This dictionary also includes quite a number of affixes as entries. These can be recognized by
the hyphen that precedes or follows the "headword". These are not independent words but
rather are joined before (as a prefix) or after (as a suffix) to a suitable independent word and
modify that word's meaning in the way indicated by the explanatory definition.
Browse English and Browse Spanish
These sections are not intended to be separate dictionaries. Rather, they are reverse indices
generated from the database of the Wayuu-English-Spanish dictionary and present only limited
information. Their purpose is to enable the user to search an alphabetized index of either the
English or Spanish glosses that reference one or more corresponding Wayuu entries, which can
then be accessed to find the full dictionary information there.
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