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

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the place where this tuber is believed to have originated 135 , we can find voicings like
manioc, mandióg, and mandioc aipim > ‘yucca’. Although, possibly lexicalized by
the Portuguese, in the word mainioc, we could find a possible link with the prefix mai
previously identified as ‘garden’, ‘milpa’ or ‘maize field’, present in the word maihrici >
‘corn’. However, as the term traveled from South America to the Caribbean it seemed to
have evolved into different terms. For example, the term lost its prefix main, in the
phonology of the southern islands of the Caribbean possibly becoming ioc ai, which is
the combination of ioc > ‘yucca’ + ai, aje, ahri or ahí > ‘root’, ‘teeth’, ‘wild’, ‘tuber’.
Puzzlingly, the Wayuu people of the Guiajíra peninsula of Colombia and Venezuela use
the same iucca and ai terms, but as two different words to refer to the yucca root and
to the plant as different syntactical blocks. This differentiation of terms could explain its
transformation in the Caribbean as different migratory groups made their way to the
region during different times. It is important to note that the iók stem can be identify in
use today in words such as tap-ioca > ‘yucca pudding’. Moreover, the phoneme k’ >
‘good’, ‘friendly’, ‘sacred’, hidden within the suffix oKa, due to its back—dorsal to
ejective voiceless velar stop, produces an involuntary open vowel enunciation identified
in the Carib word, khali > ‘cassava’. It is enthralling that this term is part of the name
of two different Caribbean groups that identify themselves as cassava—manioc
eaters: the Kalinago and the Arawak.
As a matter of fact, if we use Cramberry & Vescelius analysis of the etymology of
the first term, Kalinago, from which corruption we get the terms Carib, Garifuna and
cannibal, we are presented with the following morphemic structure: ,khali > ‘cassava’
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(Beadle, 1980)