Wayuu language

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Wayuu
Guajiro
Wayuunaiki
Pronunciation	[waˈjuːnaiki]
Native to	Venezuela, Colombia
Ethnicity	790,000 Wayuu people (2011 & 2019 censuses)[1]
Native speakers	420,000 (2008–2012)[1]
Language family	Arawakan Northern Ta-Arawakan Wayuu
Writing system	Latin script
Official status
Regulated by	Centro Etnoeducativo Kamusuchiwoꞌu
Language codes
ISO 639-3	guc
Glottolog	wayu1243
ELP	Guajiro
Extent of the Wayuu people and language
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Wayuu (Wayuu: Wayuunaiki [waˈjuːnaiki]), or Guajiro, is a major Arawakan language spoken by 400,000 indigenous Wayuu people in northwestern Venezuela and northeastern Colombia on the Guajira Peninsula and surrounding Lake Maracaibo.

There were an estimated 300,000 speakers of Wayuunaiki in Venezuela in 2012 and another 120,000 in Colombia in 2008, approximately half the ethnic population of 400,000 in Venezuela (2011 census) and 400,000 in Colombia (2018 census).^[1] Smith (1995) reports that a mixed Wayuu—Spanish language is replacing Wayuunaiki in both countries.^{[full citation needed]} However, Campbell (1997) could find no information on this.^{[full citation needed]}