Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles (Paperback)

~ (Author), Gary Vescelius (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This exhaustive study... does a splendid job in pulling together the disparate data of the Taino and other pre-Contact languages of the Caribbean and organizing them into a coherent whole." - Charles Ewen, East Carolina University. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

This work formulates a testable hypothesis of the origins and migration patterns of the aboriginal peoples of the Greater Antilles (Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, and Puerto Rico), the Lucayan Islands (the Commonwealth of the Bahamas and the Crown Colony of the Turks and Caicos), the Virgin Islands, and the northernmost of the Leeward Islands, prior to European contact. Using archaeological data as corroboration, the authors synthesize evidence that has been available in scattered locales for more than 500 years but which has never before been correlated and critically examined. Within any well-defined geographical area (such as these islands), the linguistic expectation and norm is that people speaking the same or closely related language will intermarry, and, by participating in a common gene pool, will show similar socioeconomic and cultural traits, as well as common artifact preferences. From an archaeological perspective, the converse is deducible: artifact inventories of a well-defined sociogeographical area are likely to have been created by speakers of the same or closely related language or languages. Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles presents information based on these assumptions. The data is scant - scattered words and phrases in Spanish explorers' journals, local place names written on maps or in missionary records - but the collaboration of the authors, one a linguist and the other an archaeologist, has tied the linguistics to the ground wherever possible and allowed the construction of a framework with which to understand the relationships, movements, and settlement patterns of Caribbean peoples before Columbus arrived.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: University Alabama Press; 1 edition (August 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 081735123X
• ISBN-13: 978-0817351236
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #970,564 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ireally don't think we'll find anything closer than this, March 8, 2007

By	L. Rivera "Kaoba" (Hawaii) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's a great book in an effort to preserve a almost dead language that is slowly fading into history. We must do our part in preserving what little we do have. This book is a start.

4.0 out of 5 stars Magisterial and readable, September 27, 2009

By	C. Anderson "Carl(os)" (Colombia, South America) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

It's easy to say something is "one of the best" when there are (lamentably) so few comparable works with which to compare it -- but I think this book would still be one of the best even were the field much larger. For Granberry is a master of this topic, and any minor questionable issues (e.g. for comparative purposes, treating English as a creole, which indeed some have argued it is, but it is probably fair to say the consensus view is less certain that Granberry treats it) are far more than made up for the the vast experience which Granberry brings to the topics treated. The book is essentially a series of revised articles or essays written by Granberry and/or his co-author, the late Gary Vescelius, treating different aspect of Caribbean prehistory with a focus on the speakers of Taíno, the region's dominant Maipurean language at the time of the European conquest/colonization. Granberry builds of a picture of the ethnolinguistic situation in the region and puts forward a model of migration and cultural change over a long period of Caribbean prehistory -- a model which, one imagines, might well be questioned in certain aspects, but Granberry's stated purpose is more to put forward testable hypotheses based on our current (and lamentably incomplete) state of linguistic and archaeological knowledge, rather than to set a particular vision in stone. And the models and explanations Granberry puts forward are sufficiently detailed and technical to appeal to the specialist in linguistics and/or archaeology, yet still accessible enough (IMO!) to appeal to the seriously interested amateur. Some small background in historical linguistics or archaeology, such as might be had from any undergraduate course or even textbook of independent study would be helpful, but no special knowledge of the region or its cultures is necessary. This book itself serves as an ample -- and fascinating -- introduction to a rich and undeservedly neglected area of study.