Taino words in Dominican Spanish

[Mirador]

Bejuco indio

I thought this was the fermented drink made from the bohuco plant or palo indio. Also used in Puerto Rico to despict this beverage.

I get mine from the highlands north of Bani. It's a hard woody vine. To prepare, you first cut away the outer bark of the vine, down to the white fibrous inside. then it's chopped in chunks and boiled in spring water for about 30-60 minutes. Then you add the sugar, plenty of it. After the mixture has cooled, you add the 'mabi yeast', which you get from previously brewed mab?. Then it's bottled and fermented for several days. There's a lot that can affect the beverage, like the type of water, containers, particular strain of mab? yeast, timing, etc. It's an art, it's fun... The bejuco indio is also used for bathing, it lathers up like soap...

 

[pkaide1]

bohio
choza
paila

 

[Quisqueya]

Funny no one mentioned HAITI which is a taino word meaning high mountains..

 

[aegap]

Batey

is also a Tainoan[(?) he he] word

 

[NALs]

Funny no one mentioned HAITI which is a taino word meaning high mountains..

To my understanding, Haiti is an Arawak word, not Taino.

Bohio/Quisqueya was the names the Taino had for the island.

Interesting how nobody knows what the Caribs called this land, they already were encroaching in the modern Punta Cana area.

 

[NALs]

Batey

is also a Tainoan[(?) he he] word

Yes, Batey was the ballcourt that the Tainos played a sport similar to soccer.

Today, of course, Batey means a Haitian sugarcane settlement.

However, its important to note that in Sosua, the Batey section is not a Haitian settlement, but rather the wealthier part of that town. That is also where the hotels and tourist shops, etc tend to predominate.

 

[Tordok]

As well stated already many of these words are Antillean or even PanAmerican, however many are Taino. Here are some others commonly used:

Macana (club or stick)

Cajuil (fruit)

Cuyaya (bird)

Locrio (rice-based meal)

Huacal or Guacal (container)

Comej?n (termite insect)

Totuma (swelling )

Chichigua (kite)

Tordok (Guru)............

 

[asopao]

And the most common is I think what you wrote above,

The term guagua is used in Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Equatorial Guinea and Puerto Rico to refer to a city bus.
At the turn of the 20th century, the term referred to a horse-drawn wagon, and viajar de guagua meant `to ride for free.'
The same term is found in the Canary Islands, with identical meaning, and is used even in the most remote regions, on all seven islands.
Most analyses of Canary Spanish attribute this term to Cuban influence, brought back by returning islanders who had lived in Cuba.
The use of guagua in Equatorial Guinea (formerly Fernando Poo) has also been attributed to the Cuban exile and slave population which was sent to the island in the mid 1800's (Gonz?lez Echegaray 1959: 64).

The form, however, bears the characterstic shape of Guanche words, and the existence of this word among the Isle?os of Louisiana, whose ancestors left the Canary Islands in the late 1700's, suggests the opposite route of transfer. The general absence of the word in the Spanish of Venezuela, where the Canary Island presence was also strong, adds to the confusion concerning the origins of guagua.

Very informative post Carina !

Maybe the word didn't get to survive in Venezuela, because unlike Cuba, Quisqueya and PR, it isn't an island. Quisqueya was isolated, and almost abandoned by the crown for centuries, not much external influences, perhaps that's why it has survived in DR and then transfered to mean a bus.

Don't know about Equatorial Guinea. It was a Spanish colony until 1965, perhaps many Canarios were running the show there, and also is a very small territory,and the only Spanish colony in Subsahara Africa. Actually, very few people know Spanish,and the dictator wants to turn it into a Francophone state like its neighbors.

 

[Chirimoya]

what about these?

boche - a reprimand, as in, 'llegue tarde y la jefa me dio un boche'.

not to be confused with:

bonche - party, fun.

and

bochinche - gossip, banter. Also chercha.

- are these Dominicanisms of Taino origin as well?

 

[Mirador]

boche - a reprimand, as in, 'llegue tarde y la jefa me dio un boche'.

not to be confused with:

bonche - party, fun.

and

bochinche - gossip, banter. Also chercha.

- are these Dominicanisms of Taino origin as well?

a 'boche' is more than just a reprimand, it's a verbal punishment, and as such "cometh from the mouth", so 'boche' could come from the French 'bouche' (mouth).

On the other hand, 'bonche' could originally be a phrase, such as 'bon' (good) something or other...

The use of 'bochinche' goes back at least two centuries...

These words are not particularly Dominican, they are also used in other countries, maybe their origin is not from modern French, but Provencal or related dialects...

 

[mkohn]

Bonche reminded me of 'ponche' which could be a beverage at a party ...
And to me bochinche a lio or sticky situation. We also use 'ring around the rosey' and bochinche.
mkohn

 

[Celt202]

Guagua

The truth about the word "guagua" is that nobody truly knows where it came from.

In any case, I include it on this list because its often cited as a Taino word.

In a conversation with a Puerto Rican friend in Boston I mentioned 'guagua' as a word of Taino origin. Her opinion is that it originated from dogs chasing buses and barking at them, "gua, gua, gua...".

 

[NALs]

In a conversation with a Puerto Rican friend in Boston I mentioned 'guagua' as a word of Taino origin. Her opinion is that it originated from dogs chasing buses and barking at them, "gua, gua, gua...".

He he he :cheeky:

Gua gua is a term also used by Boricuas and Cubans, perhaps they know something beyond the Taino connection.

-NALs

 

[juancarlos]

Guagua is also used in the Canary Islands. God knows its true origins!

 

[Mirador]

Guagua is also used in the Canary Islands. God knows its true origins!

We can credit the Canary Islanders for our use of 'guagua' for bus. The expression is derived from the extinct Guanche language, which some experts relate to Jebala, a dialect of North African Berber language.

-

 

[john.george8]

La forma plural de la palabra "aj?"

Segun el diccionario, la palabra aj? tiene como forma plural ajies.
Me dicen que en puerto rico se dice algo diferente. ? Cual es la forma mas com?n para el plural de aj? ?

 

[Chirimoya]

I've heard both ajies and ajises in the DR.

 

[Mirador]

I've heard both ajies and ajises in the DR.

Aj? is a Taino word. De las Casas wrote it with an X...

"All? hab?a muy mucho algod?n y muy fino y luengo, y hay muchas alm?cigas, y parec?ale que los arcos eran de tejo, y que hay oro y cobre: tambi?n hay mucho ax?, ques su pimienta, della que vale m?s que pimienta, y toda la gente no come sin ella, que la halla muy sana..."

the plural ajies seems more gramatically correct, ajises seems archaic, however its use is very prevalent in rural DR.

 

[Chirimoya]

They say aj? in Ecuador as well. How did that come about? Did the Spanish adopt the Ta?no word in other parts of the New World?

 

[Mirador]

They say aj? in Ecuador as well. How did that come about? Did the Spanish adopt the Ta?no word in other parts of the New World?

More like other parts of the New World adopted the Taino expressions before the arrival of the Spanish. And the other way around, for example, the Taino 'batata' was probably influenced by the Quechua 'papa'. Also, you find Taino using words from Nahuatl, like 'tomatl'...