Macushi language
language
Macushi is an Indigenous language of the Cariban family spoken in Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela. It is also referred to as Makushi, Makusi, Macuxi, Macusi, Macussi, Teweya or Teueia. It is the most populous of the Cariban languages. According to Instituto Socioambiental, the Macushi population is at an estimated 43,192, with 33,603 in Brazil, 9,500 in Guyana, and 89 in Venezuela. In Brazil, the Macushi populations are located around northeastern Roraima, Rio Branco, Contingo, Quino, Pium and Mau rivers. Macuxi speakers in Brazil, however, are only estimated at 15,000.
Crevels (2012:182) lists Macushi as "potentially endangered", while it is listed on the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger as "vulnerable". Its language status is at 6b (Threatened). The Macushi communities live in areas of language contact: Portuguese in Brazil, English in Guyana and Wapixana (another Indigenous language). Abbott (1991) describes Macushi as having OVS word order, with SOV word order being used to highlight the subject.
The public source identifies “Macushi language” as language. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Macushi and language.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q56633. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2012 and 1991.
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This entry incorporates text from “Macushi language” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.