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IdeasLanguage
Taíno words you already say
Hammock, hurricane and barbecue came from the island's first people. So did the names of half the towns.
The Taíno didn't leave books. They left words. When the Spanish arrived, they had no names for many of the things they found, so they borrowed the ones they heard, and some of those words went on to travel the world.
If you've ever lain in a hammock during a hurricane and planned a barbecue for when it passed, you've spoken Taíno three times.
Words that went global
| Taíno | Spanish | English |
|---|---|---|
| hamaka | hamaca | hammock |
| hurakán | huracán | hurricane |
| barbakoa | barbacoa | barbecue (first a wooden frame for cooking or sleeping) |
| kanoa | canoa | canoe |
| iwana | iguana | iguana |
| mahís | maíz | maize |
| kasike | cacique | chief |
The Taíno spellings are scholars' reconstructions from Spanish records, so you'll see them written several ways.
Words that stayed home
Others never left the Caribbean. A bohío is a thatched hut. Batey was the Taíno ball court and plaza; today it can mean a yard. Yuca, ají, maní (peanut) and guayaba are all on the table every week. And Borikén, the Taíno name of the island, gives us Borinquen and boricua.
On the map
Drive across the island and you're reading Taíno. Utuado, Jayuya, Mayagüez, Humacao, Guaynabo, Yauco and Coamo all come from Taíno names. Some towns carry the names of caciques: Caguas for Caguax, who ruled the Turabo valley, and Arecibo for Arasibo.
More than words
For a long time, schoolbooks said the Taíno died out within a few decades of the conquest. Genetic research tells a different story. Studies led by Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez found Indigenous mitochondrial DNA, passed down from mother to child, in a majority of the Puerto Ricans tested. The Taíno were devastated by war, disease and forced labor, but many of their daughters lived on inside Spanish, African and mixed families.
Today, Taíno revival groups hold ceremonies and teach language, dance and crafts, and Jayuya's Festival Nacional Indígena brings them together every November. How to understand that revival is still debated, and Mami Bruny will come back to it. But the words, at least, never left.
FuentesSources
- Juan Carlos Martínez-Cruzado et al., mitochondrial DNA studies of Puerto Rico (University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez)
- Real Academia Española, Diccionario de la lengua española (etymologies)