Cubanascnan

[Renee Lopez]

Thank You David......

-----Original Message-----
From: David L. Frye <dfrye at umich.edu>
To: nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu <nahuat-l at server2.umt.edu>
Date: Wednesday, July 05, 2000 6:44 AM
Subject: Re: Cubanascnan


>1. No, there is no relation between the (extinct) Taino language of Cuba
>and Nahuatl. Most linguistic reconstructions have Taino languages coming
>from South America into the Caribbean, not from Middle America. Even if
>there were relationships between any Mesoamerican language and Taino, it
>would much more likely be with Maya (since Maya speakers were the
>sea-faring ones -- Nahuatl was based in the central highlands, far from
>the sea). There is the one example of "hurakan," the word for hurricane in
>both Yucatec Maya and Taino.

OK Taino it is. I appreciate that you took the time to write this.


>2. Isn't it Cubanacan, not Cubanascnan? I have never heard the latter. You
>see the form Cubanacan all over Cuba.

I'm not sure. I found the other version on the Internet (mis-information
highway?). One of them did say it was from Microsoft Encarta 97,
"Cuba/History/". The other one cited no sources whatsoever. So credibility is
questionable. I am not so sure if I am perpetuating a typo or if there really is
a "Cubanscnan".

Less than erudite scholarship, perhaps borderline plagiariasm "cut and pasted"
from  Internet sources as the computer age has enabled people to do, can get
irritating. Can't it?

>3. A good place to start would be a book about the Taino, such as Irving
>Rouse's.


Sounds like a good place to start. Thank You again for the reference.
>
>David Frye, University of Michigan


Renee Hudgins-Lopez, Somewhere in Sacramento