Carib

[Guy Marco]

Do you really think that Caribs were war-like and Arawaks - peaceful?

[Arenahi]

Well interestingly enough in the dictionary the word was spelled oüelle, a little bit like the Makushi word. The L's and R's were often pronounced the same. It's a different kind of sound though, it's a mixture between L and R. The Wayuu language has that sound. What is the word for boy in Macushi, in ours the Cariban word is wëkëri.

In Arawak I was told the word is hiaro. In Taino it is inaru.

I am working on a word comparison list with the Cariban words. When I am done I will make sure to send it to you.

[Guy Marco]

Sorry I took long to respond to your question - boy.
There is no direct word for boy and girl. They generally fall under words for male/man and female/woman but is used with an adjective babay/child for differenciation. There are also other words that refer to boy/male:

Molay - baby/child
wile - gril/woman/female
wala-yzo - boy/man/male
Molay wile - baby girl
Molay wala-yzo - baby boy


MEAN-NAY is used by mothers, fathers, big sisters, grandparents, big brothers, big cousins ( male /female) to refer to son, small/younger brother, grandson, small/younger brother, small/younger (male) cousin.
(This term is used for male from baby through adult hood. Hence it can mean boy during his boyhood period).

Older folks would use this term : WILE MOLAYPI - general reference for female from baby to teen.
Similarly : WALA-YZO MOLAYPI - for male (as above).

Younger generation would say the word with out PI but it means same.

EM-PAN-SING - refer to a teenage person.
Hence Empansing wile - teenage girl.
Empansing wala-yzo - teenage boy.

MANONG - daughter,granddaughter, small/younger sister, small/younger cousin.
* It also means Beauty but there is an emphasis on nong when using it as an adj.
MEAN-NAY also means handsome.

En-na manong - yes my sister.

[Juan Almonte]

Tainos used the macana. I dought poeple with that type of weapon would not deffend themselves. I read the spaniords were more afraid of the macana than the taino afraid of the sword. Many taino cracked some heads even with helmets. Even in central and south american were spaniords went. The naitve all used similar macanas. Spaniord wrote that they feard this weopan.