Language of the Voiceless: Traces of Taino Language, Food, and Culture in the Americas From 1492 to the Present

P a g e | 56
Y una mañana, que fueron cuatro de marzo, vimos venir diez canoas
muy grandes, que se dicen piraguas, llenas de indios naturales de aquella
poblazón, y venían a remo y vela. Son canoas hechas a manera de artesas, y son
grandes y de maderos gruesos y cavados, de arte que están huecos; y todas son
de un madero, y hay muchas dellas en que caben cuarenta indios.
In the above quote we come across the next Taino words in our analysis of the
text: canoas and piraguas. However, it is very remarkable that Diaz or the possible
writer of the text used the Taino word canoa to describe its Carib cousin piragua. In
the text, the chronicle states that “these types of canoes are called piraguas”. It is
curious, that the writer never used any of the Spanish synonyms of the time such as
almadía, balsa, bote, navío, barco, or bergantin to name the boats. Instead, the word of
choice was canoe as if this word was part of the writer’s intrinsic vocabulary and used
by pure linguistic default. As a matter of fact, it is not until later in the text (page 40 to
be exact) that some of these Spanish synonyms are introduced to name ships and such,
but always associated with the conquistadors. The instances any boats used by Indians
appeared in the text, they were often called by their Taino-Carib names canoa and
piragua.
However, regarding the etymology of these two words, canoa it’s believed to
comes from the Arawak can (and as stated before) at times associated with center, eye
or hollow. Furthermore, in Lokono, Kanóa also means vessel. However, what is truly
remarkable about all these words is the visual-symbolic similarities among them.