Cubanascnan

[David L. Frye]

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.

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

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

David Frye, University of Michigan