Taíno Language

Taino

Information

Family: Amerind, Arawakan, Northern Arawakan, Ta-Arawakan, Old Taíno

Region: Caribbean Regions to Puerto Rico

Ethnicity: others

Speakers: 0 (first to tertiary speakers); few (via loanwords)

Writing System: Latin Alphabet

Language Status: Extinct, possibly Extinct (UNESCO)

Taino is an extinct language according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Revived Taino is now critically endangered according to the classification system of the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger.

Taino also called Classical Taino, is an extinct Arawakan language that was spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean. At the time of Spanish contact, it was the most common language throughout the Caribbean. Classic Taíno (Taíno proper) was the native language of the Taíno tribes living in the northern Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and most of Hispaniola, and expanding into Cuba, it was introduced in Worldcraft: My Last Blessings.


As the first indigenous language encountered by Europeans in the New World, it was a major source of new words borrowed into European languages.


Pronunciations

Vowel


Consonants

Words