Cuba before Columbus Volume 1
About this book
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 ...practically the same language. This is qualified by the statement, however, that a few tribes more primitive than the rest, such as the Guanahatabiyes of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, the Ciguayos of Haiti, and the Eyeri of Porto Rico, were different in language. Moreover, he observes a point that the present writer has noticed, that the few Guanahatabibe (or Guanahatabiye) names that survive are different in formation from those of the rest of the island. He has little to remark on the Ciguayo language, but does say that the Eyeri words which have been preserved from Porto Rico suggest the connection of this latter people with the Carib family. All through the work, however, it is noticeable that the use of the word "Taino" as a general term for the predominant class of natives' of the Greater Antilles, whose language Zayas is presenting, is studiously avoided, as is any statement that these people may be affiliated with the Arawak linguistic family. Before taking up his vocabulary, Zayas finally presents a' study of the formation of the language as nearly as it can be elucidated at the present time, which account will be utilized in our second volume. Brinton's "Arawack Language."--We cannot leave the subject of authors dealing with the principal aboriginal (Taino) language of Cuba without referring to the work of Brinton,32 who identified it as Arawak, beyond the shadow of a doubt, by comparing many words with the Arawak language as spoken up to 1800 by the tribesmen of British Guiana and Dutch Guiana. He begins his paper with an outline of the grammar, then considers its affiliations with other stocks, notably the Carib and Tupi, presents a vocabulary of the ancient language of the Greater Antilles as compared with modern Arawak, and finally ...