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More than 20 languages are spoken in the Northwest Amazon, belonging to three major language families: Eastern Tukano, Arawak and Maku. The languages of the Eastern Tukano family. – so designated to differentiate them from the Western Tukanoans who inhabit the borderlands between Colombia, Ecuador and Peru –predominate on the Uaupés and Apapóris, while speakers of Arawak languages are more common on the Içana. Several languages, such as Tukano and Baniwa, are spoken by several thousands of people, and others, such as Dow, by only a few dozen.

There are at least 16 different languages classified as Eastern Tukano. In Brazil, speakers of Eastern Tukano inhabit the entire Uaupés River basin and, in a large part of these populations, there is a convergence between exogamic rules and linguistic groups, such that affinal groups (with whom one can marry) are speakers of other languages. This dynamic produces a multilingualism that is characteristic of the region, in which often in the same community more than one indigenous language is spoken, besides Portuguese and Spanish. Several ethnic groups, or parts of them, have ceased to speak their original languages, and have adopted other indigenous languages. This is the case of the Tariana of the Uaupés, who originally spoke an Arawak language, but who today speak Tukano; or the case of the Tukano who migrated to the Middle Rio Negro and adopted Nheengatu.

The principal language of the Eastern Tukano family is Tukano itself. It is spoken not only by the Tukano, but also by the other groups of the Brazilian Uaupés and its tributaries the Tiquié and Papuri. To the degree that there are various distinct languages, Tukano came to be used as a língua fanca [trade language], allowing communication among peoples whose paternal languages were quite different and which , in many cases, are mutually incomprehensible. In several contexts, Tukano has come to be spoken more than the local languages themselves.

The other languages of this family are spoken by smaller populations, predominating in more specific regions. This is the case of Kotiria and Kubeo on the upper Uaupés, above Iauareté; Pira-tapuya of the middle Papuri; Tuyuka and Bará of the upper Tiquié; and Desana from communities located on the Tiquié, Papuri and their tributaries.

The Arawakans are represented principally by the Baniwa, Kuripako, Baré, Warekena and Tariana. As mentioned, the Tariana speak principally Tukano, as a result of centuries of living together with the Tukano peoples of the middle Uaupés. The Baré also do not speak their original language any longer. As a result of contact with missionaries and colonizers, they have adopted the Língua Geral (or Nheengatu). Nheengatu is a simplified form of the ancient Tupi language, which was adapted and widely diffused by the first Jesuit missionaries. Currently, this language represents a mark of Baré cultural identity.

The designation Maku refers to six distinct languages of peoples who occupy the most extensive territory of the upper Rio Negro, four of which are located in Brazil. The Maku language family has no similarities whatsoever with the Tukano and Arawak language families, except for a few evidently borrowed elements. Practically all Maku speak their languages. Due to the nearness of the Tukano, the Maku of the Uaupés area also dominate Tukanoan languages, consistent with the multilingualism of the region.