Taíno language


Taíno is an Arawakan language that was spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. At the time of Spanish contact, it was the principal language throughout the Caribbean. Classic Taíno was the native language of the northern Leeward Islands, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and most of Hispaniola, and it was expanding into Cuba. The Ciboney dialect is essentially unattested, but colonial sources suggest it was very similar to Classic Taíno and was spoken in the westernmost areas of Hispaniola, the Bahamas, Jamaica, and most of Cuba.
By the late 15th century, Taíno had displaced earlier languages except in western Cuba and pockets in Hispaniola. As the Taíno culture declined during Spanish colonization, the language was replaced by Spanish and other European languages. It is believed to have been extinct within 100 years of contact but possibly continued to be spoken in isolated pockets in the Caribbean until the late 19th century. As the first indigenous language encountered by Europeans in the New World, it was a major source of new words borrowed into European languages.

Dialects

Granberry & Vescelius distinguish two dialects, one on Hispaniola and further east, and the other on Hispaniola and further west.
Columbus says that from Bahama to Cuba, Boriquen to Jamaica, the same language was spoken in various slight dialects, but understood by all.

Phonology

The Taíno language was not written. The Taínos used petroglyphs, but there has been little research in the area. The following phonemes are reconstructed from Spanish records:
There was also a flap, which appears to have been an allophone of.
FrontCentralBack
Close
Mid
Open

A distinction between and is suggested by Spanish transcriptions of e vs ei/ey, as in ceiba "ceiba". The is written ei or final é in modern reconstructions. There was also a high back vowel, which was often interchangeable with and may have been an allophone.
There was a parallel set of nasal vowels. The only consonant at the end of a syllable or of a word was.

Grammar

Taíno is not well attested.
However, from what can be gathered, nouns appear to have had noun-class suffixes, as in other Arawakan languages. Attested Taíno possessive prefixes are da- 'my', wa- 'our', li- 'his', and to-, tu- 'her'.
Verb-designating affixes are a-, ka-, -a, -ka, -nV in which "V" is an unknown or changeable vowel. This suggests that, like many other Arawakan languages, verbal conjugation for a subject resembled the possessive prefixes on nouns.
The negation prefix is ma- meanwhile the attributive prefix is ka- as in makabuka "it is not important or not important". This has been compared to Kalinago's -bouca suffix which designates the past tense. Hence, the sentence can be interpreted as meaning "without a past." However, makabuka could also be compared to Kalinago's aboúcacha 'to scare'. This verb is shared in various Caribbean Arawakan languages such as Lokono and Parauhano.
Some conjugated verbs include Daka, Waiba, Warike
Attested object suffix includes -wo as in ahiyawoka.

Vocabulary

English words derived from Taíno include: canoe, cassava, cay, hammock, hurricane, iguana, macana, maize, and potato, as well as possibly mangrove, tobacco, and savanna.
Taíno loanwords in Spanish include: agutí, ají, cacique, maguey, nigua, tiburón, and tuna, as well as the previous English words in their Spanish form: canoa, casabe , cayo, hamaca, huracán, iguana, macana, maíz, patata, manglar, tabaco and sabana.

Place names

Place names of Taíno origin include: