The word hurricane has been cropping up lately, for obvious reasons.
Hurricane originates from the Taíno word hurákan. The word appears in many European languages, in Spanish - huracán, Italian - uragano, Portuguese - furacão, French - ouragan, and in German - orkan.
The Taíno people were swamped by Carib and European arrivals, their culture disappearing in the 16th century. But we still have the hurricanes!
Intersting dxb.
Hubby and I went to Punta Cana last winter and found a lot of things that had Taino-type drawings on them - a naive type of art that is all about motion created with simple lines. It is quite attractive.
aren't the taino people (lingisticly) part of the carib language group?
i think barbaque is another word that can be traced to carib language group. (and there is an other...dammed if i can remember it!) most of the caribs died, in outright genocide, and through indirect forces that lead to genocide. (like exposure of the population to european diseased that they had little or no immunity to, enforced slavery, and intermarriage (forced) with slaves, and other non caribs )
still words of the language live on.
Taino: Is that 'tah-EE-no' or 'TAH-ee-no'? (Or something altogether different?)
The Taino spoke an Arawakan language. They still exist as an ethnic group, but speak now mainly Spanish. Lots of English words (via Spanish) are of Taino origin: potato, barbecue, hammock, yuca, casava, et al.
All the artisans we spoke to said it as ta-ee-no - pronounced at the front of the mouth. It didn't have the "H" that would make you pronounce "TAH" at the back of the mouth.
Phewf...glad you understood that.
Re: The Taino spoke an Arawakan language. They still exist as an ethnic group, but speak now mainly Spanish. Lots of English words (via Spanish) are of Taino origin: potato, barbecue, hammock, yuca, casava, et al.
i didn't think (almost sure!) the potoato was not know out of south america before the arraival of the europeans.
corn made it (from mexico) to what is current day NE, but potatoes didn't... i suspect there might be an arawack word for the sweet potato (which was known in east, up and down the coast) and perhaps it was even the word potato, (which also was applied to white potatoes?) but it seem unlikely, since we have potatoes, sweet potatoes, (and yams). and its unlikely the generic word potato would have been first used to describe a yellow fleshed tuber, and then the same word used for totally different white fleshed tuber.. (with the plain word going to the 'new comer' and the modifed (sweet) term for the original.
and certainly the spanish were very effecient at spreading native american foods through out the world.. Peanuts are considered 'domestic' foods by both the main land asian (who don't know better) and by many african people.
i didn't think (almost sure!) the potoato was not know out of south america before the arraival of the europeans.
It was originally applied to the sweet potato, and then to the white potato later. Here's the etymology at AH:
Spanish patata, alteration (probably influenced by Quechua papa 'white potato') of Taino batata 'sweet potato'.