Get to Know the Taino language and Caribbean history

 

Prior to the Spanish Conquest of the Americas, the Taino language was the most widely spoken language in the Caribbean. It’s a language from the Arawakan family, and is thought to have had two main dialects - Classic (Eastern) Taino and Ciboney (Western) Taino.

The modern variant of the Taino language is known as Taíno-Borikenaíki, or Taínoaíki, and was reconstructed by Puerto Rican linguist Javier A. Hernández.

 

Why learn the Taino language?

Although the disease and murder brought by European invaders did indeed push the Taino language to the brink of extinction, the notion of a complete disappearance of the language inherent in the descubrimiento (discovery) line of colonial historiography is a myth.

The Taino people, and thus the Taino language, were decimated by European invasion, but both survived. 

The language is quite fragmented, but Taíno people in the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Americas are doing the important communal service of piecing it back together.

Green hills and mountains in the Caribbean
A beach at sunset in the Caribbean

Speakers :

Unknown

Where :

Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Cuba, Jamaica, Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, Anguilla, United States Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, United States

Dialects :

Taíno-Borikenaíki (Taínonaíki), Classic (Eastern) Taíno, Ciboney (Western) Taíno

Map of the Caribbean showing where the indigenous languages of the Caribbean were spoken, including the Taino language
 

Cover Image

Dominican Republic

Photo by Antonella Vilardo on Unsplash

Map

By Kwamikagami at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53677967

Resources for learning the Taino language

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