Taino language returns to its people
Jorge Baracutay Estevez
Special to ICT
Language revitalization is not an easy task. In many Indigenous communities, there may be only a handful of fluent speakers left.
In South America, some tribal members are forced to find spouses outside their communities, often amongst unrelated tribes. In these cases, one or both spouses must adopt the language of their partner. Usually, this leads to new languages or dialects.
It's no wonder there are thousands of Native languages across the Western Hemisphere. Sadly, many communities no longer have Native speakers.
Such was the case with the Taino people of the Caribbean. For nearly four decades, the descendants of the people who discovered Columbus fought academia to prove that our people and culture, although heavily fragmented, were still here. But our language, for the most part, had indeed disappeared.
Higuayagua Kasike (Chief) Jorge Baracutay Estevez is working with his tribe to rebuild the Taino language once spoken by his people. They have created a new dictionary and are working with tribal members to spread the language. (Photo courtesy of Stephen Lang)
So in 2009, I formed a research group, Higuayagua, dedicated to learning about Indigenous Caribbean culture, language and spiritual traditions. Higuayagua also connected related Indigenous families from the pan-Caribbean region, resulting in a clan 2,400 strong that continues to grow.
The resulting “Hiwatahia: Hekexi Taino Language Dictionary” is the culmination of many hours and years of work by me, as chief or kasike, and the Higuayagua Taino tribe.
A new language
Classic Taino language is rooted in Ta-Maipurean Arawak, the main branch of Arawak. While it is true that Caribbean Spanish is inundated with more than 3,200 Taino words, it is equally valid that most of these surviving words are heavily Hispanicized and almost entirely all nouns.
After conferring with trained linguists who specialize in Arawak languages, I came to the startling realization that Classic Taino was long dead. Revitalizing the language was realistically impossible.
But there were other options. We are related to a vast Arawak language family with hundreds of dialects. By adding the words we do have, with borrowed words from our relatives, we could bring forth a new language for an ancient people.
Higuayagua Kasike (Chief) Jorge Baracutay Estevez is working with his tribe to rebuild the Taino language once spoken by his people. Their new dictionary, “Hiwatahia: Hekexi Taino Dictionary,” is a compilation of a revised accounting of the language. (Photo courtesy of Jorge Baracutay Estevez)
For years, I'd been recording every Taino word I could find. I looked in Taino books, which often had extensive lists of poorly translated words, or in books that described local rural Caribbean terms.
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I realized a new orthography needed to be created. Having done so, I re-spelled every word I had listed. For example, Caguana, the name of a Taino ballpark in Puerto Rico, became Kawana, and Maguana, the name of a ballpark in the Dominican Republic, became Mawana. Others before me had suggested the same, and they were right.
The next challenge was deciding which Arawak languages/dialects to borrow without appropriating their language and culture.
I chose the closest languages to Classic Taino. Curiously, Caribbean Native languages such as Kalinago, Garifuna, and Taino are closely related. Yet, they don't share as many cognates as Lokono Arawak from Guyana and Suriname, part of the main language trunk. This language became the root of our new Tainan dialect.
We also incorporated verbs and nouns from Wayu, Wapishana, Tariana, Añu Paraujana, Baniwa, and Garifuna. In total, we absorbed 16,000 words and added them to the attested yet reconfigured 3,200 surviving nouns. All borrowed words were also re-spelled using our formulae.
The only words or terms we stayed away from were those describing our spiritual beings/deities. I believe these need to be studied by trained linguists – an effort that is now underway.
Language rebirth
The result of this ahianiw'ahiako (language soup) is Hiwatahia Hekexi Taino.
This language effort is not a continuation of the classical Taino language; we do not pretend that it is. It is a new language for re-emerging people. Some will not recognize the old words due to our new orthography, but that's okay. For too long, we have looked at our language and culture through a Euro-Spanish prism.
My original goal was to create a simple language for my Higuayagua Taino people. I never imagined it growing as much as it has, and the growth continues. It is now being practiced by members of other Taino tribes and communities as well.
Presently, 197 members of the Higuayagua tribe are actively learning the new dialect. We also created a language translator for both smartphones and desktops. Our community is now creating songs, prayers, children's songs, dance songs, land acknowledgments, etc., in our language.
It is a new dawn for the Taino people.
More info
The “Hiwatahia: Hekexi Taino Language Dictionary,” a compilation of a revised accounting of the Taino language, is available through private order via PayPal for $60 by emailing Kasike Jorge Baracutay Estevez at higuayagua2016@gmail.com.
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