 Jolkesky (2016) notes that there are lexical similarities with the Cariban, Arutani, Maku, and Sape language families due to contact within an earlier Guiana Highlands interaction sphere.The language had an estimated 28,100 speakers in Venezuela as of 2007.The Warao people live chiefly in the Orinoco Delta region of northeastern Venezuela, with smaller communities in southwestern Trinidad (Trinidad and Tobago), western Guyana and Suriname.