| Yao | |
| Also Known As: | Jaoi |
| Nativename: | Yebarana |
| States: | Trinidad, French Guiana |
| Era: | 17th century |
| Familycolor: | American |
| Fam1: | Cariban |
| Fam2: | Venezuelan Carib |
| Fam3: | Yao–Tiverikoto ? |
| Iso3: | none |
| Glotto: | yaoa1239 |
| Glottorefname: | Yaio |
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.[1] 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.[2] A few of the attested words are:
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).