Another word that appears to be a possible link between Taino and Kalinago languages can be seen in the case of Naboúyou. Defined briefly in Breton's dictionary of the Kalinago language as "mon serviteur" and in Rochefort's vocabulaire as "mon serviteur à gage," the word seems to express a personal ownership of a servant or laborer (but not a slave). From Breton, one can see that the Kalinago language had a few words for slave based on gender, but one example is támon. To express the idea of "my slave" one changed the word to nitámoni. The ni and na in the words nabouyou and nitámoni appear to express possession in the first-person. Did the -na in naboría also expression possession in the Taino language? It seems to be the case for Garifuna, itself derived from Kalinago, which uses nani to express my and mine.
A quick perusal of Breton's dictionary for other words or information related to servant, worker or laborer provides a few more clues. In order to express "il sert encore" in Kalinago, Breton translated it as áboúyoukeili. Clearly, one can see commonalities with nabouyou. However, Kalinago also possessed a few other words for servant, including liboüitoulicou or libouitoúlicou. These terms may be related to boüittonum, bouitonum, boüitonú, Bouiiíttoucou, all related to service, subjection or serving others in one capacity or another. Is it possibly related to a Cariban-derived root word that entered the Arawakan speech of the Lesser Antilles? Its possible connection to Taino makes that seem unlikely. In fact, if Taino naboría (or naborí or naburia as it was sometimes recorded in Spanish sources) means something akin to "my servant" then one can assume aboria or boria is somehow connected with the idea for serve, service, or subjection. Indeed, the Diccionario de voces indígenas de Puerto Rico makes this exact claim with boria as the Taino equivalent to labor.
One can see this in a modern Arawakan language rooted in the Caribbean, Garifuna. In that tongue, one of the words for worker or trabajador is ubuein. One sees here in the first syllable something that sounds like it is probably derived from the Kalinago words for servant recorded in the 17th century. Lokono may also hint at a deeper Arawakan origin for labor or work. In this case, the Lokono dictionary using the word emekhebohu for work. To work is translated as emekhebo. The dictionary's word for servant, however, is sanano, which sounds nothing like the words in Taino and Kalinago. However, note the ebo in emekhebohu and emekhebo. My workman in Lokono would be expressed as da'khabo, according to Twenty-eight lessons in Loko (Arawak): a teaching guide by John Peter Bennett. The Lokono words for work and to work may be distantly related to the Taino and Kalinago words, which seem to be based on -aboria/aburia and -abou and ubu.
Looking at another Arawakan language, Wayuu, is also important. Consulting a Spanish-Wayuu dictionary revealed a few terms for servant, worker, work, and slave. Work and to work is translated as a'yatawaa. A worker is called a'yataai or a'yataalü. Slave and servant, however, are translated as achepchia or piuuna. None of these fit directly with our model, although a'yatawaa has the -awaa at the end of the word. Piuuna could potentially be a case of the b and p sounds changing, yet biuuna does not closely match the Taino or Kalinago. Palikur's kannivwiye or kannivwiyo (to work) is also an outlier despite its Arawakan classification.
Surprisingly, in Warao, a language isolate, one finds the word nebu for worker. This sounds somewhat close to naboría or naborí, and it would be interesting since the word duho may also be of Warao derivation. But yaota appears to be the Warao word for work and often associated with workers, workmanship or salaries. So, from where did nebu come, which seems to be closer to Arawakan words pertinent to labor and servants? In the case of Warao, nebu appears to be linked to young men, or minor dependents of elders and chiefs in their communities. This implies that it was primarily related to generation or age, with expectations of service or labor for one's superiors in the community.
Ultimately, we are left with the theory that the Taino term naboría is indeed derived from the word for work, or labor. Boria (or perhaps aboria) signifies labor or work and similar words in Kalinago, Garifuna and Lokono illustrate it. In the Taino case, it is not entirely clear who the naboría were in precolonial times. One suspects it may have had a similar sense to the words for servant in Kalinago, encompassing young men and men who owed service to their elders or male heads of households.
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