Languages of Venezuela

The languages of Venezuela refers to the official languages and various dialects spoken in established communities within the country. In Venezuela, Castillian (Spanish) is the official language and is the mother tongue of the majority of Venezuelans. Although there is an established official language, there are countless languages of indigenous villages spoken throughout Venezuela, and various regions also have languages of their own.

There are at least forty languages spoken or used in Venezuela, but Spanish is the language spoken by the majority of Venezuelans. The 1999 Constitution of Venezuela declared Spanish and languages spoken by indigenous people from Venezuela as official languages. Deaf people use Venezuelan Sign Language (lengua de señas venezolana, LSV).

Portuguese (185,000) and Italian (200,000), are the most spoken languages in Venezuela after the official language of Spanish. Wayuu is the most spoken indigenous language with 294,000 speakers.

According to the Constitution of Venezuela, Castilian (Spanish) is the official language of Venezuela.

The Venezuelan Constitution of 1999 states that:

Article 9. The official language of the country is Castillan. Indigenous languages also hold an official status within their villages and must be respected throughout the Republic, in order to constitute cultural equity of the country and of humanity.

Although Venezuelan Sign Language is not considered an official language, article 81 of The Constitution establishes the right of all deaf people to communicate through VSL, and further establishes in article 101 the right of these people to forms of public and private television in their language.

Many of the indigenous languages of Venezuela are threatened and or endangered. The two linguistic families with the highest number of languages are the Arahuacan and the Caribbean.