Yaio language

{{Short description|Extinct Cariban language of South America}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Yao

| altname = Jaoi

| nativename = Yebarana

| states = Trinidad, French Guiana

| ethnicity = Yao

| era = 17th century

| familycolor = cariban

| fam1 = Cariban

| fam2 = Venezuelan Carib

| fam3 = Yao–Tiverikoto ?

| iso3 = none

| glotto = yaoa1239

| glottorefname = Yaio

| map = Languages_of_the_Caribbean.png

| mapcaption = {{legend|fff200|Yao}}

}}

Yao (Jaoi, Yaoi, Yaio, Anacaioury) is an extinct Cariban language of Trinidad and French Guiana, attested in a single 1640 word list recorded by Joannes de Laet. It is thought that the Yao people migrated from the Orinoco to the islands perhaps a century earlier, after the Kaliña.Tassinari (2003) No Bom da Festa, p 122–125 The name 'Anacaioury' is that of a number of chiefs encountered over a century or so.

Yao is too poorly attested to classify within Cariban with any confidence, though Terrence Kaufman links it to the extinct Tiverikoto.{{cite book | title=Atlas of the World's Languages | publisher=Routledge | last=Kaufman |first=Terrence |editor1-first=Christopher |editor1-last=Moseley |editor2-first=R.E. |editor2-last=Asher | year=1994 | location=New York | pages=73–74 | isbn=0-415-01925-7 }} A few of the attested words are:

{{lang|mis|nonna}}' or noene 'moon', weyo 'sun', capou 'céu', chirika 'star', pepeïte 'wind', kenape 'rain', soye 'earth', parona 'sea', ouapoto 'fire', aroua 'jaguar', pero 'dog' (from Spanish).{{Cn|date = October 2014}}