Exploring the Meaning of Xaragua

Another word from the Taino language we would like to explore is Xaragua. According to Granberry and Vescelius's Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles, Xaragua meant something like "Lake Country" but the authors do not present any evidence to support this assertion. However, it remains a plausible translation for the place name of Hispaniola's most powerful cacicazgo. If the gua or wa at the end of the name signifies land, then the first part of the word (xara or jara) should be the Taino word for lake. And various Spanish sources refer to the lake or lakes of Xaragua. The Diccionario de voces indígenas de Puerto Rico lists amá as the Taino word for river or body of water, but it seems the language must have included another word for lake.

Let's look at other Arawakan languages to see if xara or jara probably meant lake. In Garifuna, lake is dúnaha. In Palikur, lake is mahakwa. In another Arawakan language, Lokono, sea is bará and, according to Goeje's The Arawak Language of Guiana, lake is kiraha. In Wayuu, on the other hand, lake is lamuuna and sea is palaa. In the Kalinago tongue, one sees tona for water or river and taonabo for pond or small lake. The 17th century French dictionaries for the language are not particularly useful here. Nonetheless, one can see some degree of resemblance between the Taino Xaragua and the Palikur mahakwa or the Lokono kiraha.

Interestingly, its on the Venezuelan coast, near the mouth of the Yaracuy river, where early European sources recorded a large village or town called Xaragua. According to Nikolaus Federmann's account of his explorations of the interior of Venezuela, this town or village was called Xaragua and located on the coast or near the shore, about 80 leagues east of Coro. This is actually not too far from the modern state of Aragua in Venezuela, which happens to include a large lake (Lake Valencia) in its territory as well as river also called Aragua. It is not entirely clear who the residents of the area were (another group of Caquetios, like the ones who guided Federmann to the area or Ciparicotos, who spoke a different language than the Caquetios?), but the appearance of the word Xaragua for an area near large lakes and rivers in both Hispaniola and Venezuela is not entirely coincidental, is it? The inhabitants of the area around Lake Valencia and today's Aragua may have been Caquetios or another Arawakan-speaking group, according to Los aborígenes del occidente de Venezuela, su historia, etnografía y afinidades lingüísticas by Alfredo Jahn. If so, perhaps the Xaragua name for the more distant coastal village was possibly reflecting a much larger area of connected peoples with rivers and lakes like the Yaracuy and Lake Valencia? It is difficult to say since Xaragua was not especially near Lake Valencia.

In short, Xaragua does indeed seem likely to mean lake or Lake Country. The Lokono and Palikur examples are close enough. The Venezuelan village visited by Federmann may have been populated by a Caquetio-speaking group, though that is pure speculation on our part. In Venezuela, the village or pueblo does not seem to have been exceptionally close to lakes, but Lake Valencia and the modern state of Aragua seem to be possibly linked to Caquetio or Arawakan-speakers in the precolonial area. If so, it may be additional evidence of Xaragua implying some type of connection or relationship with lakes and large bodies of water.