Language of the Voiceless: Traces of Taino Language, Food, and Culture in the Americas From 1492 to the Present
by Leonardo Nin
by Leonardo Nin
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P a g e | 58<br />
‘not’ + guayacan > ‘hard centered tree’ = mayohuac’n 91 > ‘it is not a guayacan<br />
tree’.<br />
Pic. 17 Oviedo: atambor 92<br />
The same structure can be identified <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> word maco > ‘frog’, composed <strong>of</strong> ma<br />
> ‘not’ + ku > ‘friend(ly), sacred, enlighten’ = ‘unfriendly, unholy’. Lastly, <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> word<br />
Maguana (cacique k<strong>in</strong>gdom <strong>of</strong> Hispaniola) > ma > ‘not’ + guana > ‘flexible’. This<br />
word could also mean <strong>the</strong> ‘guanaha’ people. Therefore, it could be transliterated as<br />
‘not flexible’ or ‘we are not guanaha’. Moreover, <strong>the</strong> same structure, but with an<br />
opposite adverbial function is found <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> word iguana > ‘looks like guano’ or ‘it’s<br />
flexible’.<br />
Particularly, it is crucial <strong>to</strong> mention that <strong>in</strong> some <strong>in</strong>stances, depend<strong>in</strong>g on its<br />
colocation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> surround<strong>in</strong>g words, <strong>the</strong> morpheme ma could also mean ‘big’, ‘great’<br />
or ‘vast’ e.g. Managua > ‘great lo<strong>in</strong>cloth’, caguama > ‘great sea turtle’, mamey ><br />
‘very sweet fruit’, manatí > ‘big mammal’+ í > ‘<strong>in</strong>tense’. This very marked difference<br />
between ma as a negative <strong>and</strong> ma as an adjective could represent <strong>the</strong> possibility <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
existence <strong>of</strong> two completely <strong>in</strong>dependent <strong>Ta<strong>in</strong>o</strong> phonemes victims <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Spanish<br />
lexicalization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> writ<strong>in</strong>gs, thus turn<strong>in</strong>g <strong>the</strong>m <strong>in</strong><strong>to</strong> an analogous grapheme or<br />
allograph known as ma. Speculatively, one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m might well have had a nonpulmonic<br />
91<br />
(Pane, 1498)<br />
92<br />
(Fernanadez de Oviedo, 1535 - 1557)