{{short description|Arawakan language}} {{multiple| {{cleanup lang|date=October 2024|iso=tnq}} {{Page numbers needed|date=October 2024}} }} {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2024}} {{Infobox language | name = Taíno | states = Bahamas, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Turks and Caicos, Virgin Islands, Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla | ethnicity = Taíno, Ciboney, Lucayan, Yamaye | extinct = 17th century | revived = Reconstruction projects since the 2010s. | ref = <ref name="Aikhenvald1">{{cite book |last=Aikhenvald |first=Alexandra Y. |author-link=Alexandra Aikhenvald |title=The Languages of the Amazon |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=31|location=Oxford |date=2012}}</ref> | familycolor = arawakan | fam1 = Arawakan | fam2 = Northern | fam3 = Ta-Arawakan | iso3 = tnq | glotto = tain1254 | glottorefname = Taíno | dia1 = Classic Taíno | dia2 = Ciboney | map = Languages_of_the_Caribbean.png | mapcaption = Taíno dialects according to Granberry and Vescelius, among other Pre-Columbian languages of the Antilles {{col-begin}}{{col-break}} {{legend |#B5E61D |Ciboney Taíno }} {{col-break}} {{legend |#22B14C |Classic Taíno }} {{col-end}} }}
'''Taíno''' is an extinct Arawakan language spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. At the time of Spanish contact it was the most common language spoken throughout the Caribbean. Classic Taíno, or Taíno proper, was the Indigenous language of the peoples living in most of the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico (known as ''Boriquen''), most of Hispaniola (known as ''Ayiti''), and easternmost Cuba. The Ciboney dialect is essentially unattested, but colonial sources suggest that it was very similar to the Lucayan dialects of the Bahamas and to Classic Taíno, and was spoken in central Cuba, parts of western Hispaniola, and possibly Jamaica.
By the late 15th century, Taíno had displaced earlier languages of the Greater Antilles, except in westernmost Cuba and in pockets in Hispaniola. (See {{slink|Indigenous languages of the Caribbean|Unclassified languages}}.) As the Taíno culture declined during Spanish colonization, the language was replaced by Spanish, English and French. Although the language declined drastically due to colonization,<ref name="Aikhenvald">{{cite book |last=Aikhenvald |first=Alexandra Y. |author-link=Alexandra Aikhenvald |title=The Languages of the Amazon |publisher=Oxford University Press |pages=6, 31|location=Oxford |date=2012}}</ref> some Taíno words were absorbed into those languages.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Reyes |first=David |title=The Origin and Survival of the Taíno Language |url=https://indigenouscaribbean.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/davidcampos.pdf |url-status=live |journal=Issues in Caribbean Amerindian Studies |volume=5 |issue=2 |year=2004 |access-date=19 February 2017 |quote=An un-official census in 1780 in the town of San German, Puerto Rico revealed a large indigenous population, which was proven by an official census in 1799 that recorded about 2,000 Natives in the region. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209113010/https://indigenouscaribbean.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/davidcampos.pdf |archive-date=9 December 2022}}</ref> As the first Indigenous language encountered by Europeans in the Americas, it was a major source of new words borrowed into European languages.
There are several ongoing projects to construct a modern Neo-Taíno language.
==Name== {{Seealso|Taíno#Terminology}}
"Taíno" was not originally an ethnic or linguistic appellation, and there is debate over its appropriateness and what its scope should be. The terms "Arawak language" or "Island Arawak language" were sometimes used historically, but the term Taíno has been widely adopted since the 1980s to avoid confusion with the Lokono language of South America.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Keegan |editor-first1=William F. |editor-last2=Hofman |editor-first2=Corrine L. |editor-last3=Rodríguez Ramos |editor-first3=Reniel |date=2013 |title=The Oxford Handbook of Caribbean Archaeology |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford, England |isbn=978-0-19-539230-2 |page=70 |url=https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=RqqXKvpZUAcC&oi=fnd&pg=PA70&dq=%22creation+of+Taino%22&ots=yGPkwcgcei&sig=r8JzRgmrpvpLaAc9raELOt2fpd8#v=onepage&q=%22creation%20of%20Taino%22&f=false}}</ref>
==Dialects== The 19th-century anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque wrote that "...from Bahama to Cuba, Boriquen to Jamaica, the same language was spoken in various slight dialects, but understood by all." According to Rafinesque, "Columbus himself says so."<ref name="raf">{{cite book |last=Rafinesque |first=Constantine Samuel |url=https://archive.org/details/nationsamerica01rafirich |title=The American Nations |year=1836 |volume=1 |pages=215–253 |chapter=The Haytian or Taino Language |location=Philadelphia |publisher=C. S. Rafinesque |author-link=Constantine Samuel Rafinesque}}</ref> In Columbus's letter on the first voyage, he wrote that a common language was spoken in the "islas de India" and that people from different islands visited each other by canoe and could understand each other.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/relacionesycarta00coluuoft/page/62/mode/2up?q=%22islas+de+India%22 |title=Relaciones y cartas de Cristóbal Colón |date=1892 |publisher=Librería de la Viuda de Hernando y C.ª |location=Madrid |page=62 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref>
Bartolomé de las Casas noted ethnic differences between the Cuban Ciboney and the Cuban and Hispaniolan Taíno, but stated that the language was the same. In ''Historia de las Indias'', de las Casas wrote that "The majority of the people who inhabit the island of Cuba come from and were natives of Hispaniola, for the earlier population of Cuba was like that of the Lucayan Islands...and they called themselves in their language Ciboney."<ref name="granberry"/>
Julian Granberry and Gary Vescelius (2004) distinguish two dialects of Taíno, one in the east and the other in the north and west:<ref name="granberry"/>
* Classic (Eastern) Taíno, or Taíno proper, spoken in the Classic Taíno and Eastern Taíno cultural areas. These were the Lesser Antilles north of Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, central Hispaniola, and the southernmost Turks & Caicos (from an expansion in {{circa|1200}}). Classic Taíno was expanding into eastern and even central Cuba at the time of the Spanish Conquest, perhaps from people fleeing the Spanish in Hispaniola. * {{vanchor|Ciboney}}{{anchor|Lucayan}} (Western) Taíno, spoken in Ciboney and Lucayan cultural areas. These were central-western Cuba, the Lucayan Archipelago (Bahamas and Turks & Caicos), and probably rural areas of western Hispaniola, and presumably Jamaica.
Classic Taíno was the lingua franca of the Indies. The five principal chiefdoms on Hispaniola seem to have spoken slightly different dialects of Classic Taíno in addition to the two non-Arawakan languages. The prestige dialect was that of Xaraguá, which had expanded to westernmost Cuba shortly before European contact.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://tiboko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Language-of-the-Pre-Columbian-Antilles-by-Julian-Granberry-Gary-S.-Veschelius.pdf |title=Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles |publisher=Tiboko |accessdate=2026-05-09 |page=9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Figueredo |first=Alfredo E. |date=1971 |title=The Indians of Cuba: A Study of Cultural Adaptation and Ethnic Survival |url=https://tiboko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/The_Indians_of_Cuba_A_Study_of_Cultural1.pdf |journal=Círculo: Revista de Humanidades |volume=3 |issue=3 |pages=121-145}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/relacionesycarta00coluuoft/page/148/mode/2up?q=%22dos+o+tres+lenguas%22 |title=Relaciones y cartas de Cristóbal Colón |date=1892 |publisher=Librería de la Viuda de Hernando y C.ª |location=Madrid |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> According to Daniel Garrison Brinton, the lingua franca spoken in Hispaniola had been the subject of "strange and wild theorizing among would-be philologists" and that it was the 19th-century anthropologist Constantine Samuel Rafinesque who "christened it the "Taino" language".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/arawacklanguageo00brinrich/page/10/mode/2up?q=Rafinesque+christened |title=The Arawack language of Guiana in its linguistic and ethnological relations |publisher=Internet Archive |accessdate=2026-05-09}}</ref>
==Phonology== The Taíno language was not written; what we know of it is recorded in Spanish transcription. The following phonemes are reconstructed from Spanish records:<ref name="granberry">{{cite book |title=Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles |last1=Granberry |first1=Julian |last2=Vescelius |first2=Gary |publisher=The University of Alabama Press |year=2004|url=https://tiboko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Language-of-the-Pre-Columbian-Antilles-by-Julian-Granberry-Gary-S.-Veschelius.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250407011914/https://tiboko.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Language-of-the-Pre-Columbian-Antilles-by-Julian-Granberry-Gary-S.-Veschelius.pdf|archive-date=2025-04-07|url-status=live}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center |+Reconstructed Taíno consonants ! colspan=2| ! Bilabial ! Alveolar ! Palatal ! Velar ! Glottal |- ! rowspan=2| Plosive ! {{small|voiceless}} | {{IPA link|p}} | {{IPA link|t}} | | {{IPA link|k}} {{angbr|c/qu}} | |- ! {{small|voiced}} | {{IPA link|b}} | {{IPA link|d}} ~ {{IPAblink|ɾ}} {{angbr|d/r}} | | | |- ! colspan=2| Fricative | | {{IPA link|s}} {{angbr|s/z}} | ʃ {{Angle bracket|x}} ? | | {{IPA link|h}} {{angbr|h/j/g/x}} |- ! colspan=2| Nasal | {{IPA link|m}} | {{IPA link|n}} | | | |- ! colspan=2| Approximant | {{IPA link|w}} {{angbr|gu/gü/hu}} | {{IPA link|l}} | {{IPA link|j}} {{angbr|i/y}} | | |}
The flap {{IPAblink|ɾ}} appears to have been an allophone of {{IPA|/d/}}. The {{IPA|/d/}} realization occurred at the beginning of a word and the {{IPA|/ɾ/}} realization occurred between vowels.{{cn|date=October 2024}}
Some Spanish writers used the letter {{grapheme|x}} in their transcriptions, which could represent {{IPA|/h/}}, {{IPA|/s/}} or {{IPA|/ʃ/}} in the Spanish orthography of their day.<ref name="granberry"/> Certain potential cognates suggest a value of {{IPA|/ʃ/}}, however. For example, the Kalinago word transcribed by French missionaries as ''chaouái'' has been connected to the Taíno word ''xagüeye'' "cave".<ref>Silvia Kouwenberg, Taino's linguistic affiliation with mainland Arawak (2010)</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style=text-align:center |+Reconstructed Taíno vowels ! ! Front ! Central ! Back |- ! Close | {{IPA link|i}} | | {{IPAblink|u}} |- ! Mid | {{IPA link|e}} {{angbr|ei}}<br/>{{IPA link|ɛ}} {{angbr|e}} | | {{IPA link|o}} |- ! Open | | {{IPA link|ä|a}} | |}
A distinction between {{IPA|/ɛ/}} and {{IPA|/e/}} is suggested by Spanish transcriptions of ''e'' vs ''ei/ey'', as in ''ceiba'' "ceiba". The {{IPA|/e/}} is written ''ei'' or final ''é'' in modern reconstructions. There was also a high back vowel {{IPA|[u]}}, which was often interchangeable with {{IPA|/o/}} and may have been an allophone.
There was a parallel set of nasal vowels. The nasal vowels {{IPA|/ĩ/}} and {{IPA|/ũ/}} were rare.
Consonant clusters were not permitted in the onset of syllables. The only consonant permitted at the end of a syllable or word in most cases was {{IPA|/s/}}. One exception was the suffix ''-(e)l'', which indicated the masculine gender, as in ''warokoel'' "our grandfather". Some words are recorded as ending in ''x'', which may have represented a word-final {{IPA|/h/}} sound.
In general, stress was predictable and fell on the penultimate syllable of a word, unless the word ended in {{IPA|/e/}}, {{IPA|/i/}} or a nasal vowel, in which case it fell on the final syllable.
==Grammar== Classic Taíno is not well attested.<ref name=Aikhenvald/> However, from what can be gathered, nouns appear to have had noun-class suffixes, as in other Arawakan languages. Attested Taíno possessive prefixes are ''da-'' 'my', ''wa-'' 'our', ''li-'' 'his' (sometimes with a different vowel), and ''to-, tu-'' 'her'.<ref name=granberry/>
Recorded conjugated verbs include ''daka'' ("I am"), ''waibá'' ("we go" or "let us go"), ''warikẽ'' ("we see"), ''kãma'' ("hear", imperative), ''ahiyakawo'' ("speak to us") and ''makabuka'' ("it is not important").
Verb-designating affixes were ''a-, ka-, -a, -ka, -nV'' in which "V" was an unknown or changeable vowel. This suggests that, like many other Arawakan languages, verbal conjugation for a subject resembled the possessive prefixes on nouns. The negating prefix was ''ma-'' and the attributive prefix was ''ka-''. Hence ''makabuka'' meant "it is not important". The ''buka'' element has been compared to the Kalinago suffix ''-bouca'' which designates the past tense. Hence, ''makabuka'' can be interpreted as meaning "it has no past". However, the word can also be compared to the Kalinago verb ''aboúcacha'' meaning "to scare". This verb is shared in various Caribbean Arawakan languages such as Lokono (''bokaüya'' 'to scare, frighten') and Parauhano (''apüüta'' 'to scare'). In this case ''makabuka'' would mean "it does not frighten [me]".{{fact|date=August 2025}}
Modern-day Neo-Taíno constructs follow slightly different grammar and word order from each other.
==Vocabulary== Taíno borrowed words from Spanish, adapting them to its phonology. These include {{Lang|tnq|isúbara}} ("sword", from {{Lang|es|espada}}), {{Lang|tnq|isíbuse}} ("mirror", from {{Lang|es|espejo}}) and {{Lang|tnq|Dios}} (God in Christianity, from {{Lang|es|Dios}}).
English words derived from Taíno include: barbecue, caiman, canoe, cassava, cay, guava, hammock, hurricane, hutia, iguana, macana, maize, manatee, mangrove, maroon, potato, savanna, and tobacco.<ref name="raf" />{{rp|229}}
Taíno loanwords in Spanish include: {{lang|es|agutí}}, {{lang|es|ají}}, {{lang|es|auyama}}, {{lang|es|batata}}, {{lang|es|cacique}}, {{lang|es|caoba}}, {{lang|es|guanabana}}, {{lang|es|guaraguao}}, {{lang|es|jaiba}}, {{lang|es|loro}}, {{lang|es|maní}}, {{lang|es|maguey}} (also rendered {{lang|es|magüey}}), {{lang|es|múcaro}}, {{lang|es|nigua}}, {{lang|es|querequequé}}, {{lang|es|tiburón}} and {{lang|es|tuna}},<ref name="OZY">{{cite web |url=http://www.ozy.com/good-sht/the-freaky-mexican-fruit-that-can-give-you-splinters/80692 |title=The Freaky Mexican Fruit That Can Give You Splinters |last=Ballew |first=Dora |date=2017-10-05 |website=OZY |language=en-US |access-date=2020-01-26 |archive-date=2020-01-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200126192656/https://www.ozy.com/good-sht/the-freaky-mexican-fruit-that-can-give-you-splinters/80692/ |url-status=dead}}</ref> as well as the previous English words in their Spanish form: barbacoa, caimán, canoa, casabe,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=casabe |encyclopedia=Diccionario de la lengua española |url=https://dle.rae.es/casabe |access-date=2019-11-18 |language=es |archive-date=2022-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221130082630/https://dle.rae.es/casabe |url-status=live}}</ref> cayo, guayaba, hamaca, huracán, iguana, jutía, macana,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=macana |encyclopedia=Diccionario de la lengua española |url=https://dle.rae.es/macana |access-date=2019-11-18 |language=es |archive-date=2023-06-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230602082117/https://dle.rae.es/macana |url-status=live}}</ref> maíz, manatí, manglar, cimarrón, patata, sabana, and tabaco.
===Place names=== According to Granberry and Vescelius, research has identified 39 Aboriginal island names in the Lucayan archipelago, including:<ref name="granberry" />{{Reference page|pages=80-83}} *Grand Bahama: {{lang|tnq|ba-ha-ma}} 'large-upper-middle' *Bimini: {{lang|tnq|bimini}} 'twins' *Inagua: {{lang|tnq|i-na-wa}} 'small eastern land' *North Caicos: {{lang|tnq|ka-i-ko}} 'near-northern-outlier' *Borinquen (confederated kingdom of Puerto Rico): {{lang|tnq|boriquen}}, {{lang|tnq|bori}} (native) {{lang|tnq|-ke}} (land) 'native land'
==Sample sentences== Six sentences of spoken Taíno were preserved. They are presented first in the original orthography in which they were recorded, then in a regularized orthography based on the reconstructed language, and lastly in their English translation:<ref name="granberry"/>
{| class="wikitable" style="white-space: nowrap;" ! Original orthography ! Reconstructed Taíno ! English |- |{{lang|tnq|O cama, guaxeri, guariquen caona yari.}} |{{lang|tnq|O kãma, waxeri, warikẽ kawõna yari.}} |O, hear, sir, we see gold jewels. |- |{{lang|tnq|Mayani macaná, Juan desquivel daca.}} |{{lang|tnq|Mayani makana, Juan desquivel daka.}} |Do not kill [me], I am Juan de Esquivel. |- |{{lang|tnq|Dios naboría daca.}} |{{lang|tnq|Dios naboriya daka.}} |I am God's worker. |- |{{lang|tnq|Ahiacauo, guarocoel.}} |{{lang|tnq|Ahiyakawo, warokoel.}} |Speak [to] us, our grandfather. |- |{{lang|tnq|Guaibbá, Cynato machabuca guamechina.}} |{{lang|tnq|Waibá, sinato makabuka wamekina.}} |Let's go, it is not important [that] our master is upset. |- |{{lang|tnq|Técheta cynato guamechina.}} |{{lang|tnq|Teketa sinato wamekina.}} |Our master is greatly irritated. |}
== Revival projects == Since the 2010s, there have been several projects to build a modern Neo-Taíno lexicon by way of comparative linguistics with better-attested Arawakan languages. Puerto Rican linguist Javier Hernandez published his ''Primario Basíco del Taíno-Borikenaíki'' in 2018 after a 16-year spanning research project with positive reception among the diaspora.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Future of Language Learning Part 3: Preserving the Past |url=https://languagemuseum.org/the-future-of-language-learning-part-3-preserving-the-past/ |publisher=National Museum of Language |date=7 May 2018 |access-date=10 July 2024}}</ref> In 2023, Jorge Baracutay Estevez, the Higuayagua Taino cultural organization and linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald published ''Hiwatahia: Hekexi Taino Language Reconstruction'', a formatted 20,000 word dictionary based on Ta-Arawakan languages.<ref name=":1">{{cite magazine |last=Estevez |first=Jorge Baracutay |title=Waking a Language from Its Slumber |url=https://www.americanindianmagazine.org/waking-the-taino-language |magazine=American Indian |volume=24 |issue=2 |date=Summer 2023}}</ref> Higuayagua Taino provides classes for the community.<ref>{{cite web |last=Estevez |first=Jorge Baracutay |date=2023-12-14 |title=Taino language returns to its people |url=https://ictnews.org/opinion/taino-language-returns-to-its-people |access-date=2024-12-30 |website=ICT News}}</ref>
Due to limited historical documentation, Taino language revival projects may differ from Indigenous languages historically spoken in the Greater Antilles. According to Lucia Faria of the University of Toronto, while some Taino language revivalists "draw their conception of the language to the ways their ancestors spoke, others do not necessarily hold that same objective" and are not exclusively interested in "sounding or speaking in the same way as their ancestors", thus these "language reclamation efforts are more concerned with progress and connections than they are with accuracy."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Faria |first1=Lucia |date=2022 |title=Power & Limits of Language: Linguistic Reclamation as a Driver of Taíno Identity in Borikén |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359465041_Power_Limits_of_Language_Linguistic_Reclamation_as_a_Driver_of_Taino_Identity_in_Boriken |journal=Caribbean Quilt |volume=6 |issue=2 |publisher=ResearchGate |pages=13 |doi= |access-date=2026-05-09}}</ref>
According to linguists Konrad Rybka and Andrés Sabogal, projects seeking to revive a Taino language have "led to a mixing of data across the ages, the privileging of Taíno etymologies for words of unknown origin, and even the invention of Taíno words" and that some allegedly Taino words "are in fact Cariban".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rybka |first1=Konrad |last2=Sabogal |first2=Andrés |date=2025 |title=The future of the Caribbean past: towards a research agenda for contact linguistics |url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Konrad-Rybka/publication/391768287_The_future_of_the_Caribbean_past_towards_a_research_agenda_for_contact_linguistics/links/6825fefa8a76251f22e1fee8/The-future-of-the-Caribbean-past-towards-a-research-agenda-for-contact-linguistics.pdf |journal=ResearchGate |volume= |issue= |publisher=ResearchGate |pages=13-14 |doi= |access-date=2026-05-09}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Bibliography== * {{cite encyclopedia |last=Payne |first=D. L. |title=A classification of Maipuran (Arawakan) languages based on shared lexical retentions |editor-last=Derbyshire |editor-first=D. C. |editor-last2=Pullum |editor-first2=G. K. |encyclopedia=Handbook of Amazonian Languages |volume=3 |location=Berlin |year=1991}} * {{cite encyclopedia |last=Derbyshire |first=D. C. |title=Arawakan languages |editor-last=Bright |editor-first=William |encyclopedia=International Encyclopedia of Linguistics |volume=1 |location=New York |year=1992}}
{{Arawakan languages}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taino Language}} Category:Arawakan languages Category:Extinct languages of North America Category:Indigenous languages of the Caribbean Category:Indigenous languages of the United States Category:Languages extinct in the 16th century Category:Languages of Anguilla Category:Languages of Antigua and Barbuda Category:Languages of Cuba Category:Languages of Haiti Category:Languages of Jamaica Category:Languages of Montserrat Category:Languages of Puerto Rico Category:Languages of Saint Kitts and Nevis Category:Languages of Saint Martin (island) Category:Languages of the Bahamas Category:Languages of the British Virgin Islands Category:Languages of the Dominican Republic Category:Languages of the Turks and Caicos Islands Category:Languages of the United States Virgin Islands *