9/12/2017 Guanahatabey language - Wikipedia

Guanahatabey language
Guanahatabey (Guanajatabey ) was the language of the
Guanahatabey people, an archaic hunter-gatherer society liv ing
Guanahatabey
Native to Cuba
in western Cuba until the 16th century . Very little is known of it,
as the Guanahatabey died off early in the period of Spanish Region Pinar del Ro Province
colonization before substantial information about them was and Isla de la Juventud
recorded. Ev idence suggests it was distinct from the Tano Ethnicity Guanahatabey
language spoken in the rest of the island. [1][2] Extinct 16th century
Language unclassified
family (one of the pre-
Arawakan languages
Contents of the Greater Antilles)
Language codes
1 Description
ISO 639-3 None (mis)
2 See also
Glottolog None
3 Notes
4 References

Description
The Guanahatabey were archaic hunter-gathers and appear to
hav e predated the agricultural Ciboney , a Tano group who
inhabited most of Cuba. By the contact period, they liv ed
primarily in far western Pinar del Ro Prov ince, which was nev er
settled by the Ciboney or Classic Tano of the eastern island, and Precolombian languages of the
was colonized by the Spanish relativ ely late. Spanish accounts Antilles.
indicate that Guanahatabey was distinct from and mutually Guanahatabey
unintelligible with the Tano language spoken in the rest of Cuba Ciboney Tano, Classic Tano, and
and throughout the Caribbean. [1][3] Not a single word of the Ieri were Arawakan, Karina and
Yao were Cariban. Macorix,
Guanahatabey language surv iv es. Howev er, Julian Granberry
Ciguayo and Guanahatabey are
and Gary Vescelius hav e identified fiv e placenames that they
unclassified.
consider non-Tano, and which may thus deriv e from
Guanahatabey . Granberry and Vescelius argue that the names hav e parallels in the Warao language, and
further suggest a possible connection with the Macoris language of Hispaniola. [4]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guanahatabey_language 1/2
9/12/2017 Guanahatabey language - Wikipedia

Possible Guanahatabey toponyms[5]

Name Warao parallel Warao meaning

Camujiro k a-muhi-ru 'palm-tree trunks'

Guara wara 'white heron'

Guaniguanco (Mountain range in western Cuba) wani-wani-k u 'hidden moon, moon-set'

Hanbona (a savannah) hana-bana 'sugarcane plumes'

Jcaro (three locations) hu-k aro 'double pointed, tree crotch'

See also
Pre-Arawakan languages of the Greater Antilles

Notes
1. Rouse, pp. 2021.
2. Granberry and Vescelius, pp. 1820.
3. Granberry and Vescelius, pp. 15, 1819.
4. Granberry and Vescelius, pp. 7577.
5. Granberry and Vescelius, p. 76, Table 6

References
Granberry, Julian; Vescelius, Gary (1992). Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles (https://books.google.c
om/books?id=dAD_O9tQJqkC&dq=granberry+and+vescelius&source=gbs_navlinks_s). University of
Alabama Press. ISBN 081735123X.
Rouse, Irving (1992). The Tainos (https://books.google.com/books?id=sgjsDvFiNuUC&pg=PA40). Yale
University Press. ISBN 0300051816.

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