Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles
Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles

Author: Julian Granberry

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2004-08-19

Total Pages: 170

ISBN-13: 081735123X

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A linguistic analysis supporting a new model of the colonization of the Antilles before 1492 This work formulates a testable hypothesis of the origins and migration patterns of the aboriginal peoples of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), the Lucayan Islands (the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the Crown Colony of the Turks and Caicos), the Virgin Islands, and the northernmost of the Leeward Islands, prior to European contact. Using archaeological data as corroboration, the authors synthesize evidence that has been available in scattered locales for more than 500 years but which has never before been correlated and critically examined. Within any well-defined geographical area (such as these islands), the linguistic expectation and norm is that people speaking the same or closely related language will intermarry, and, by participating in a common gene pool, will show similar socioeconomic and cultural traits, as well as common artifact preferences. From an archaeological perspective, the converse is deducible: artifact inventories of a well-defined sociogeographical area are likely to have been created by speakers of the same or closely related language or languages. Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles presents information based on these assumptions. The data is scant—scattered words and phrases in Spanish explorers' journals, local place names written on maps or in missionary records—but the collaboration of the authors, one a linguist and the other an archaeologist, has tied the linguistics to the ground wherever possible and allowed the construction of a framework with which to understand the relationships, movements, and settlement patterns of Caribbean peoples before Columbus arrived.

Remnant Words of the Boricua Indian
Remnant Words of the Boricua Indian

Author: Richard Porrata

Publisher:

Published: 2020-01-19

Total Pages: 36

ISBN-13: 9781656331151

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This book contains a list of Taino words, many of which are not found in any other text book about the Taino language. This rare collection of indigenous words were gathered from the mountainous areas of Maricao, Puerto Rico, which eludes to the name Boricua; the true name of the Native Americans from Puerto Rico. The author of these words is unknown but were obtained by Dr. Richard Morrow Porrata in their original form some 30 years ago. Since then he has studied them and has identified most of them as rare and unique to Puerto Rico. They are assembled in this book in their original form and are a great asset for those who share Dr. Morrow's love towards revitalizing the Taino language. They are immensely valuable and helpful towards filling in the blanks in Taino syntax. This book is a must for any student of the Taino language and it is Dr. Morrow's pleasure to share these remnant words of the Boricua Indian with the world.

Keeping the Taino Language Alive
Keeping the Taino Language Alive

Author: Richard Morrow Porrata, PH D

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2020-07-03

Total Pages: 106

ISBN-13: 9781659785517

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This is the most advanced book written on the subject of the Taino language. It is authored by Professor Richard Porrata Doria, Ph.D., and is the adopted contemporary language of the Descendants of Puerto Rico's First Nation. It teaches the reader the fundamentals of the Taino language, its syntax, and sets the proper standard on how to formulate the language in logical and systematical order. Professor Porrata gives instructions throughout the book through teaching sessions and domains that he developed, which instructs the student how to correctly use Taino prefixes, suffixes, connotations, etc.. His easy to learn teaching methods show the student how to properly construct Taino sentences such as questions and answers and other expressions in Taino; a language that was once thought to be extinct but that Professor Porrata has proven it to have been only sleeping. The book is cram backed with illustrations and Taino sentences. He also teaches the reader of independent study the process of verbing and word blending to bring Taino words back into existence. A retired associate professor from the University of Puerto Rico's Multilingual and Cultural Institute, a US Army language instructor, including 120 credit hours of Native American linguistics from the University of Oregon, and his numerous books written on the Taino language reflects that Dr. Porrata is in the tradition of keeping the Taino language alive. This book is a must for anyone interested in learning how to speak, read, and write in the Taino language.

Sweet Diamond Dust
Sweet Diamond Dust

Author: Rosario Ferre

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 1996-10-01

Total Pages: 209

ISBN-13: 0452277485

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Rosario Ferre uses family history as a metaphor for the class struggles and political evolution of Latin America and Puerto Rico in this highly provacative, profound, and delightfully readable collection of stories. Originally published in Spanish under the title Maldito Amor ("Cursed Love"), Sweet Diamond Dust introduced American readers to a voice that is by turns lyrical and wickedly satiric. In this tale the De La Valle family's secrets, ambitions, and passions, interwoven with the fate of the local sugar mill, are recounted by various relatives, friends, and servants. As the characters struggle under the burden of privilege, the story, permeated with haunting echoes of Puerto Rico's own turbulent history, becomes a splendid allegory for a nation's past. The three accompanying stories each follow the lives of the descendants of the De La Valle family, making the book a drama in four parts, raising troubling issues of race, religion, freedom, and sex, with Ferre's trademark irony and startling imagery.

Caciques and Cemi Idols
Caciques and Cemi Idols

Author: José R. Oliver

Publisher: University of Alabama Press

Published: 2009-05-10

Total Pages: 328

ISBN-13: 0817355154

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Takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola Cemís are both portable artifacts and embodiments of persons or spirit, which the Taínos and other natives of the Greater Antilles (ca. AD 1000-1550) regarded as numinous beings with supernatural or magic powers. This volume takes a close look at the relationship between humans and other (non-human) beings that are imbued with cemí power, specifically within the Taíno inter-island cultural sphere encompassing Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. The relationships address the important questions of identity and personhood of the cemí icons and their human “owners” and the implications of cemí gift-giving and gift-taking that sustains a complex web of relationships between caciques (chiefs) of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. Oliver provides a careful analysis of the four major forms of cemís—three-pointed stones, large stone heads, stone collars, and elbow stones—as well as face masks, which provide an interesting contrast to the stone heads. He finds evidence for his interpretation of human and cemí interactions from a critical review of 16th-century Spanish ethnohistoric documents, especially the Relación Acerca de las Antigüedades de los Indios written by Friar Ramón Pané in 1497–1498 under orders from Christopher Columbus. Buttressed by examples of native resistance and syncretism, the volume discusses the iconoclastic conflicts and the relationship between the icons and the human beings. Focusing on this and on the various contexts in which the relationships were enacted, Oliver reveals how the cemís were central to the exercise of native political power. Such cemís were considered a direct threat to the hegemony of the Spanish conquerors, as these potent objects were seen as allies in the native resistance to the onslaught of Christendom with its icons of saints and virgins.

Diet and Health
Diet and Health

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1989-01-01

Total Pages: 765

ISBN-13: 0309039940

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Diet and Health examines the many complex issues concerning diet and its role in increasing or decreasing the risk of chronic disease. It proposes dietary recommendations for reducing the risk of the major diseases and causes of death today: atherosclerotic cardiovascular diseases (including heart attack and stroke), cancer, high blood pressure, obesity, osteoporosis, diabetes mellitus, liver disease, and dental caries.

The Future of Spanish in the United States
The Future of Spanish in the United States

Author: José Antonio Alonso

Publisher: Fundación Telefónica

Published: 2014-12-04

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13:

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U.S. leadership will be a strong factor in the persistence of Spanish in its midst as a living language will be a powerful factor in the strengthening of the language on the international stage. In this volume, a number of specialists, all professors of Latino origins currently working in U.S. universities, analyze a variety of factors, from different perspectives, that play a role in the present and future vitality of Spanish as a second language in the U.S. The result is a rich and complex work surrounding a crucial issue that will influence the future of Spanish as an international language.