A language isolate, it is spoken by about 33,000 people primarily in northern Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname.

[6] However, he has also derived Timucua morphemes from Muskogean, Chibchan, Paezan, Arawakan, and other Amazonian languages, suggesting multi-language creolization as a possible explanation for these similarities.

[5] Granberry noted "Waroid" vocabulary items in Taíno, such as nuçay or nozay [nosái] 'gold' in the Ciboney dialect (cf.

He also finds such similarities with Guajiro; from toponymic evidence it seems that the Warao or a related people once occupied Goajiro country.

Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, Máku, and Sape language families due to contact within an earlier Guiana Highlands interaction sphere.