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

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into its etymology. However, it is important to note that this name could have been a
possible corruption of an Arawak word that could have sounded like Xaymaicay,
ixaimaikhan. Unfortunately, due to the intense lexicalization process experienced by
this term in both English and Spanish, and due to the Western Taino variant spoken by
the Taino of Jamaica, it would be very difficult to arrive at a concrete transliteration of
its meaning. Despite these challenges, we are going to use two methods of comparison.
If we compare this word to Classical Taino phonology, this term shares its prefix
hay, häi or xay > ‘mountain’ or ‘steep pick’ with the word Häití > ‘very high steep
land’. This term also shares two other possible morphemes with similar known Classical
Taino words mai > ‘garden’ or ‘land’ and ka—i > ‘upper’, ‘island’, which could be
transliterated as ‘island of high cultivable mountains’. On the other hand, if we analyze
the word from the Western Taino perspective, which shares its phonology with Cuba
and the Lucayan islands, this word could be composed of the prefixes xa > ‘water’, ‘pool’
or ‘pond’ or the prefix xama > ‘bay’, ‘gulf’ or ‘inlet’. As can be observed, both prefixes
xa and xama seem to be associated with water. Moreover, this xa prefix can also be
identified in the Taino word xaragua > ‘lake’, which indicates a possible connection to
a land surrounded by water of the prefix or possibly a land by the water. Lastly, the
suffix of the word is ka > ‘upper’ or ‘island’, thus hinting to a possible transliteration of
‘island of fresh water’.
Nevertheless, it seems that, given its geographical location and since Jamaica has
over 120 rivers, there is a very likely possibility that the Western Taino variant of this
toponym could have been closer to the original meaning than the Classical Taino
interpretation to this polysemy.