taino alphabet
As we Tainos continue our efforts at recovering our ancient Arawakan language I would like to offer an element of language which we in the CANEY INDIGENOUS SPIRITUAL CIRCLE arrived at in the 1980's. The ancient Tainos did not have a written language system. There was an intricate complex of petroglyph symbols that expressed certain sacred concepts but it did not constitute a complete writing system. We in the Caney circle arrived at the conclusion that in this highly literate social environment in which we live now a complete writing system similar to the one employed by the ancient Mayas is necessary so we can communicate our language in text form. We can continue to use the Euro-centric alphabet that was imposed on us by the conquerors or we have the option of devising our own writing. in the decade of the 1980's we arrived at a relatively simple syllabary using images derived from Taino simbology, such as a picture of a male cemi to represent the consonant "B" used in the word "baba" (father), and a picture of a nagua to represent the consonant "N" which is at the beginning of the word "nagua". This syllabary is expressed as a collection of the 15 consonants used in the pronunciation of the Taino language and vowel attachment symbols representing the five vowels we now recognize in our current pronunciation. The system works by combining the various consonant glyphs with vowel symbols to generate consonant-vowel combinations such as the "B" consonant accompanied by the "O" symbol to generate the sound "Bo". The vowel sound is not represented by a separate letter but instead it is represented by the place on the consonant that the vowel symbol (or knob) is attached to. If it is "Ba" the "B" glyph is accompanied by a vowel "knob" attached on top. If it is "Bi" (pronounced "bee") the vowel knob is attached to the bottom of the "B" consonant glyph. If it is "Bo" the vowel knob is attached to the left of the "B" consonant glyph and so on. This is a system that is very similar to the writing system of the ancient Maya and may have been the one our own Taino ancestors would have chosen if they had been given the opportunity to continue evolving as a culture. Here is a sampling of the syllabary. We are currently working with the Visual Basic programming language in an attempt to create a program via which this syllabary can be used to actually type the Taino language without using European symbols.
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Comment by Miguel Sague Jr on June 16, 2015 at 8:24am
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We have recently designed a new true type font to express this writing system of the Taino language This font can be installed on any Windows system computer and used on practically any word processing program such as Microsoft Word. Please follow this LINK to find and download the appropriate font file onto your computer. Then install the font. Once the font is installed in your computer you will be able to type words using this system straight from your computer keyboard.
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Greetings Ana-Maurine Each one of the glyphs in this syllabary writing system is inspired by some image taken directly from Taino culture.
As you accurately mentioned the consonant glyph for "B" is inspired by the image of typical Taino male cemi sculptures. The "N" is inspired by the image of a typical Taino woman's nagua skirt with three clam shell decorations sown on it. The "D" consonant symbol represents a decorated wooden duho stool with four legs. The "G" represents a guaba spider. The "H" represents a haba (net sack or bag). The "K" represents a cayman (Caribbean crocodile whose name is derived from the ancient Taino word "kaiman"). The "L" is simply a hand pointing at "you" to represent the Arawakan term "loikia" which means "YOU". The "M" represents a manaya hatchet. The "P" represents a highly symbolic stylized drop of rain falling out of a highly stylized cloud to reflect the Arawakan term "para" (rain). The "R" represents a star. There is a story told by a Boricua story-teller in which one of the original stars to be created was called "Rakuno". The "S" represents three ribs attached to three vertebrae. This is because there is an old folk term used in Cuban Spanish "sobaco" that refers to the armpit region of the human body. We believe that this term is derived from an old Taino word "sobaoko" that means "rib" pertaining to the anatomical structures that lie under the flesh in that region of the human body. The"T" is simply a lit cigar with the smoke curling up from its end. It reflects the fact that the old Taino "tabako" starts with a "T". The consonant symbol for the sound "ch" and "sh" is an image of the sun risisng from behind the leaves of forest foliage because the sun rises in the east we have identified the sacred name for the direction of the East to be "Achiano". This word contains the sound "ch" in it.
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Comment by Ana-Maurine Lara on June 11, 2015 at 11:03pm
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Miguel, What are the roots of the images? Baba is for B, Nagua for N...what are the roots for the other symbols? Bo matum
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