| Caquetío | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Venezuela Aruba Bonaire Curaçao |
| Region | Falcón, ABC Islands |
| Ethnicity | Caquetío |
| Extinct | 1862, with the death of Nicolaas Pyclas (Aruba)[1] |
Arawakan
| |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | arub1238 Caquetio |
 Map of the Caquetío nation | |
Caquetío, also called Caquetío Arawak, is an extinct Arawakan language. The language was spoken along the shores of Lake Maracaibo, in the coastal areas of the Venezuelan state of Falcón, and on the Dutch islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. It is referred to as a "ghost language"[2] because no tangible evidence of it remains.[dubious – discuss] Only the name, along with some short wordlists, still exist, as mentioned in references from 17th-century texts.
Name
editAn important discovery was the term kakïtho[3][4] used by the Lokono to refer to "people" or "living beings", which encompasses a broader meaning than the term loko. The Lokono term "kakïtho" is related to the Caquetío word kaketío, and both are also related to Pre-Andes Maipuran terms for "person". The Piro (Yine language) and Irupina[clarification needed] respectively use the terms kaxiti and kakiti to designate "people". Given the widespread use of this term, it is believed to have originated from Proto-Maipuran.[3][5] Some suggest that the name "Caquetío" may have originated from the Caqueta River.[6][7] The misspelling of "Caquetío" as "Caiquetio" stems from an early Spanish document.[8][7]
History
editAround 500 BCE, the Caquetío language group separated from the Middle to Upper Orinoco areas,[9] migrated alongside the Apure River, and headed northwest to Venezuela. Eventually, they reached the islands of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao. Simultaneously, other groups like the Carib, Lokono, and Taíno evolved due to migrations from the Orinoco to the Caribbean region.
Vocabulary
editThis article should specify the language of its non-English content using {{lang}} or {{langx}}, {{transliteration}} for transliterated languages, and {{IPA}} for phonetic transcriptions, with an appropriate ISO 639 code. Wikipedia's multilingual support templates may also be used. (December 2024) |
With the arrival of Europeans, the dominant Caquetío language emerged. Many place names (toponymy) and personal names (anthroponymy) persist along the Falcón coast,[10] and some have survived on Aruba, Curaçao, and Bonaire.[11][12] Caquetío was spoken not only on the islands but also along the Venezuelan coast, particularly in the Yaracuy, Portuguesa, and Apure river regions, today the states of Falcón and Lara. The language declined as the indigenous Amerindian population decreased during Spanish occupation.[13] Although Caquetío's influence on Papiamento is limited, some originally Caquetío words are present in Papiamento.[14]
Indigenous names are prevalent in specific regions of Aruba, such as Sasiriwichi at the northwestern tip,[15] near the California lighthouse. Additionally, the hilly areas in eastern Aruba, from Cashiunti, Huliba, Kiwarcu to Coashiati or Jamanota, and the north coast between Andicuri and Oranjestad, abound in Caquetío toponyms.[16] Notably, many Caquetío words in Papiamento pertain to local flora and fauna, unfamiliar to European settlers and the African slaves who arrived in the area in early 16th century.[14]
Sample words
editIn the first table a few words and expressions of the Caquetio language, which could still be recalled by a few elders (with some difficulty as the language had already been dead at the time) and which were recorded by Dutch pastor A.J. van Koolwijk in Aruba in 1880.[17]
| Caquetío[17] | Dutch[17] | Papiamento | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hida? Hida meeuw? | Hoe gaat het? | Con ta?, Con ta bayendo? | How's it going? |
| Auw (as an answer to "Hida (meeuw)?") | Goed | Bon | Good |
| Hafe dobo danwajete! | Ga zitten!, Ga zitten op de stoel! | Bai sinta (riba e stoel)! | Sit down (on the chair)! |
| Cautje baulete! | Geef mij te eten! | Duna mi di come! | Give me food! |
| Dat je! | Ga weg! | Usha!, Bay for di djaki! | Go away! |
| Mimanta | Ik ben geschrokken | Mi a spanta | I got spooked |
| Carebe | Een eetlepel | Cuchara | Spoon |
| Totoemba, Waidanga | Een kalebas om uit te drinken | Totomo,[18] Bangaña[18] | Drinking bowl or bottle made from a calabash |
| Dauchikki, Dousebou | Een zak | Saco | Bag, Pocket |
| Bouseranja | Huismeubelen | Meubel di Cas | Furniture |
| Caula | Een ding | Cos | Thing |
| Adamoedoe | Regen | Awasero | Rain |
| Baroe hantoe wou | (Gebed na het eten) | (Oracion pa ora caba di come) | (Prayer at the end of a meal) |
| Kajappa | Arbeiders om te planten | Trahado pa por planta, Plantado | Workers for planting |
| Marakka | Castagnet | Castañeta | Castanet |
| Aboussoe | Een maïskoek | Buscuchi di mainshi | Maze cookie |
| Sako den comanari maria di watapoena fafa na douée sodji na ditiéri | (Bezwering na het vangen van een leguaan) | (Oracion pa ora caba di gara yuwana) | (Prayer after having caught an iguana) |
| Pekinini | Een kind | Mucha, Chikitin, (Pikinini = "Small") | Child |
| Dori | Roodbilkikker | Dori | Colombian four-eyed frog |
| Waltakka | Gestreepte Anolis | Waltaca, Toteki | Curaçao striped anole |
Sources
edit- Arcaya, P.M. (1951). Historia del Estado Falcón, Republica de Venezuela I (in Spanish). Caracas: Tipografia La Nación. Archived from the original on 2023-10-17. Retrieved 2023-07-08.
- Buurt, Gerard Van; Joubert, Sidney M. (1997). Stemmen uit het verleden: Indiaanse woorden in het Papiamentu [Voices from the past: Indian words in Papiamentu]. Van Buurt. ISBN 9789990401455.
- Gatschet, Albert S. (October 1885). . 22 (120). American Philosophical Society: 299–305. JSTOR 982990.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help) - Haviser, J.B. (1987). "Amerindian Cultural Geography on Curaçao". Natuurwetenschappelijke Studiekring voor Suriname en de Nederlandse Antillen. 120.
- Haviser, J.B. (1991). The first Bonaireans. Archaeological-Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands Antilles.
- Kinney, L. (1970). "Origin and Development of Papiamento". Eric. Archived from the original on 2023-05-16. Retrieved 2024-05-26.
Paper prepared for the Area linguistics Seminar, Ohio State University, Columbus, july 1970
- Noble, K.G. (1965). "Proto-Arawakan and Its Descendants". International Journal of American Linguistics. 31 (3).
- Oliver, J.R. (1989). The Archaeological, Linguistic and Ethnohistorical Evidence for the Expansion of Arawakan into Northwestern Venezuela and Northeastern Colombia (Thesis). University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign (UIUC). Archived from the original on 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-04-27 – via UCL Discovery.
- Oliver, J.R. (1990). "Reflexiones sobre el Posible Origen del Wayú (Guajiro)". La Guajira: De la Memoria al Porvenir. Una Vision Antropológica (in Spanish) (G. Ardila Calderón ed.). Bogotá, Colombia: Centro Editorial Fondo FEN Colombia, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. pp. 81–135. ISBN 9789581700714.
- Rouse, I. (1986). Migrations in Prehistory. Inferring Population Movement from Cultural Remains. New Haven: Yale University. ISBN 9780300036121.
- Rouse, I. (1992). The Taínos, Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus. New Haven: Yale University Press. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- Taylor, D.R. (1977). Languages of the West Indies. Baltimore-London: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 9780801817298.
- Versteeg, A.; Ruiz, A.C. (1995). Reconstructing Brasil Wood Island: the archaeology and landscape of Indian Aruba. Aruba: Publications of the Archaeological Museum, no. 6.
Notes
editReferences
edit- ^ "The First Inhabitants of Aruba" (PDF). The National Archaeological Museum Aruba. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-13. Retrieved 2014-12-26.
- ^ Taylor 1977.
- ^ a b Oliver 1989, p. 166.
- ^ Taylor 1977, p. 82.
- ^ Oliver 1990, p. 85.
- ^ Arcaya 1951, p. 27.
- ^ a b Haviser 1987, p. 55.
- ^ Arcaya 1951, p. 14.
- ^ Oliver 1989, pp. 177–178.
- ^ Oliver 1989.
- ^ Buurt & Joubert 1997.
- ^ Versteeg & Ruiz 1995.
- ^ Kinney 1970.
- ^ a b Buurt & Joubert 1997, p. 5.
- ^ "NL-HaNA_4.VEL_649". www.nationaalarchief.nl (in Dutch). Archived from the original on 2023-06-29. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
Groote land baaij van de N:W:Hoek bij de indianen Sesereweetje genaamt.
- ^ Versteeg & Ruiz 1995, p. 69.
- ^ a b c Hartog, Johan (1980). Aruba : zoals het was, zoals het werd : van de tijd der Indianen tot op heden. Aruba : Van Dorp.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link) - ^ a b "Coleccion di Palabranan Poco Uza na Papiamento". www.archive.org. August 2018. pp. 8, 117. Retrieved 2025-03-23.
