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

P a g e | 59
ejective consonant prior to the phoneme like ʡʼma or laryngeal-glottal stop like gkma all
lost during the post-lexicalization process of the Spanish chronicles.
However, continuing with the sequential analysis of the BDC’s text, the next
term, piraúara, is a Carib word used by the Taino to designate the smaller type of
canoe. This word comes from the Guaraní word pira > ‘fish’ e.g. piranha > ‘tooth fish’
and pira’ya > ‘scissor fish’. Therefore, pira in combination with the suffix huara,
which could be a possible corruption of the Carib found in the Honduran Garifuna
úara 93 > ‘to join’, ‘to accompany by or with’, should consequently be transliterated as ‘to
accompany the fish’ or ‘fish companion’.
Number of Mentions of the words canoa and piragua in The True History of
the Conquest of New Spain including the cross reference of the three
manuscripts:
canoa: 342 & piragua: 31
Other Primary Sources Mentions of the possible origin of the word canoa and piragua:
Indias:
a) —Mentions in Fernandez de Oviedo’s Historia general y natural de las
y al pié de las palmas > cana tienen sus canoas, con que salen á pescar.
Pic. 18 Fernández de Oviedo: canoa 94
93
(Suazo, 2011)
94
(Fernanadez de Oviedo, 1535 - 1557)