Continuity and Change in Trinidadian Toponyms
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A First Comparison of Pronominal and Demonstrative Systems in the Cariban Language Family*
A FIRST COMPARISON OF PRONOMINAL AND DEMONSTRATIVE SYSTEMS IN THE CARIBAN LANGUAGE FAMILY* Sérgio Meira Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands 1. Introduction The Cariban language family is composed of approximately 25 languages (numbers ranging from 20 to 50, depending on different researchers’ opinions about which varieties are dialects and which are independent languages), spoken by approximately 100,000 people in lowland South America, from south-eastern Colombia (where Karihona is spoken) to the Oiapoque river in Brazil (Karinya), from the coast of the Guianas (Karinya) down to the southern Xingu area in central Brazil (Bakairí). The field of comparative Cariban studies was initiated more than two hundred years ago, when the relationship between a number of Cariban languages was first noticed by Filippo Salvadore Gilij (1782). Unfortunately, the historical-comparative method has been only very rarely applied to Cariban languages, for two main reasons: (1) most of the languages are, to this day, poorly known, which means that there is very little reliable material to compare; (2) most people who compared Cariban languages were not trained comparativists. Girard (1971) remains the only methodical attempt at reconstructing Proto-Cariban lexical items and proposing a classification (unfortunately based on a still very poor data base). In the area of morphosyntax, Gildea (1998) presents the first reconstruction of the person-marking http://www.etnolinguistica.org/illa and tense-aspect-mood (TAM) systems of Proto-Cariban and their syntactic properties. This file is freely available for download at The present work attempts to contribute to the development of historical studies in the Cariban family by presenting a first preliminary reconstruction of the pronominal system of Proto-Cariban (including non-third-person and third-person, i.e. -
History of Whaling in Trinidad and Tobago
J. CETACEAN RES. MANAGE. 3(1):45–54, 2001 45 History of whaling in Trinidad and Tobago Randall R. Reeves*, Jalaludin A. Khan#, Randi R. Olsen*, Steven L. Swartz+ and Tim D. Smith¥ Contact e-mail: [email protected] ABSTRACT Shore whaling for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in Trinidad represents a largely overlooked aspect of North Atlantic whaling history. Literature and archival sources were searched for information on the chronology, nature and extent of this whaling. The first shore station began operations in about 1826 on one of the islands in the Dragon’s Mouth, the strait connecting the southern Caribbean Sea with the Gulf of Paria. At least four stations were active in this area at one time or another and the maximum documented one-year catch was about 35 humpbacks. Whaling effort had begun to decline by the 1850s and was largely ended by the 1880s. Oil for domestic consumption as well as export was the main product. Removals by the shore whalers were in addition to those by American pelagic whalers who occasionally called at Port-of-Spain and whaled in the vicinity of Trinidad and along the Spanish Main. No evidence was found of organised shore whaling in Tobago. KEYWORDS: DIRECT CAPTURE; EFFORT; WHALING - HISTORICAL; ATLANTIC OCEAN; SOUTH AMERICA; BREEDING GROUNDS INTRODUCTION of the Caribbean has been largely overlooked until recently. This paper represents a first attempt to identify the origins When Henry Nelson Coleridge (1826) entered the northern and describe the development of whaling in this region. Gulf of Paria in 1825, he observed MATERIALS AND METHODS ‘enormous whales ever and anon lifting their monstrous bodies quite out of the water in strange gambols, and falling down created a In addition to an extensive literature search, discussions tempest around them, and shot up columns of silver foam.’ were held with individuals in Trinidad and Tobago who had special knowledge of marine affairs and local history. -
Trinidad & Tobago
CANADA CARIBBEAN DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT FUND Snapshot Document Trinidad & Tobago About The CCDRMF The Canada Caribbean Disaster Risk with similar interests (such as youth Management Fund (CCDRMF) is one and women) or livelihoods (such as component of Global Affairs Canada’s farmers or fishers)’. larger regional Caribbean Disaster Risk Management Program. The CCDRMF is a competitive fund designed to Between 2008 and 2015, there have support community-driven projects been nine (9) Calls for Proposals that enhance the resilience of and in total, the Fund received 212 communities and reduce risks from project applications. Only natural hazards (e.g. floods, droughts, forty-three (43) projects, 20%, from tropical storms, hurricanes) and climate thirteen (13) countries, met the change. criteria and were eligible for consideration. Established in 2008 as a small grant Following a rigorous development facility, the CCDRMF finances projects process, the Fund has supported ranging from CAD $25,000 to CAD thirty-four (34) sub-projects in 11 $75,000, and up to CAD $100,000 in countries valued at just over exceptional cases. The target audience CAD$2.2M. The projects have is community-based organisations, strengthened disaster risk non-governmental organisations, management through improved civil-society organisations, and emergency communication systems, government agencies wishing to shelter retrofits and safer building undertake community projects in the practices, flood mitigation and land following beneficiary countries1 : stabilisation, water storage, food Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, security and climate-smart Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, agriculture, and mangrove Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts restoration. and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. -
Native American Languages, Indigenous Languages of the Native Peoples of North, Middle, and South America
Native American Languages, indigenous languages of the native peoples of North, Middle, and South America. The precise number of languages originally spoken cannot be known, since many disappeared before they were documented. In North America, around 300 distinct, mutually unintelligible languages were spoken when Europeans arrived. Of those, 187 survive today, but few will continue far into the 21st century, since children are no longer learning the vast majority of these. In Middle America (Mexico and Central America) about 300 languages have been identified, of which about 140 are still spoken. South American languages have been the least studied. Around 1500 languages are known to have been spoken, but only about 350 are still in use. These, too are disappearing rapidly. Classification A major task facing scholars of Native American languages is their classification into language families. (A language family consists of all languages that have evolved from a single ancestral language, as English, German, French, Russian, Greek, Armenian, Hindi, and others have all evolved from Proto-Indo-European.) Because of the vast number of languages spoken in the Americas, and the gaps in our information about many of them, the task of classifying these languages is a challenging one. In 1891, Major John Wesley Powell proposed that the languages of North America constituted 58 independent families, mainly on the basis of superficial vocabulary resemblances. At the same time Daniel Brinton posited 80 families for South America. These two schemes form the basis of subsequent classifications. In 1929 Edward Sapir tentatively proposed grouping these families into superstocks, 6 in North America and 15 in Middle America. -
MW Bocasjudge'stalk Link
1 Bocas Judge’s talk To be given May 4 2019 Marina Warner April 27 2019 The Bocas de Dragon the Mouths of the Dragon, which give this marvellous festival its name evoke for me the primary material of stories, songs, poems in the imagination of things which isn’t available to our physical senses – the beings and creatures – like mermaids, like dragons – which every culture has created and questioned and enjoyed – thrilled to and wondered at. But the word Bocas also calls to our minds the organ through which all the things made by human voices rise from the inner landscapes of our being - by which we survive, breathe, eat, and kiss. Boca in Latin would be os, which also means bone- as Derek Walcott remembers and plays on as he anatomises the word O-mer-os in his poem of that name. Perhaps the double meaning crystallises how, in so many myths and tales, musical instruments - flutes and pipes and lyres - originate from a bone, pierced or strung to play. Nola Hopkinson in the story she read for the Daughters of Africa launch imagined casting a spell with a pipe made from the bone of a black cat. When a bone-mouth begins to give voice – it often tells a story of where it came from and whose body it once belonged to: in a Scottish ballad, to a sister murdered by a sister, her rival for a boy. Bone-mouths speak of knowledge and experience, suffering and love, as do all the writers taking part in this festival and on this splendid short list. -
Caribbean Sea Volume Ii
PUB. 148 SAILING DIRECTIONS (ENROUTE) ★ CARIBBEAN SEA VOLUME II ★ Prepared and published by the NATIONAL GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY Bethesda, Maryland © COPYRIGHT 2004 BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT NO COPYRIGHT CLAIMED UNDER TITLE 17 U.S.C. 2004 EIGHTH EDITION For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: http://bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2250 Mail Stop: SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001 Preface 0.0 Pub. 148, Sailing Directions, (Enroute) Caribbean Sea, for every influence tending to cause deviation from such track, Volume II, Eighth Edition, 2004, is issued for use in and navigate so that the designated course is continuously conjunction with Pub. 140, Sailing Directions (Planning being made good. Guide) North Atlantic Ocean, North Sea, Baltic Sea, and the 0.0 Currents.—Current directions are the true directions toward Mediterranean Sea. Companion volumes are Pubs. 141, 142, which currents set. 143, 145, and 147. 0.0 Dangers.—As a rule outer dangers are fully described, but 0.0 This publication has been corrected to 27 November 2004, inner dangers which are well-charted are, for the most part, including Notice to Mariners No. 48 of 2004. omitted. Numerous offshore dangers, grouped together, are mentioned only in general terms. Dangers adjacent to a coastal Explanatory Remarks passage or fairway are described. 0.0 Distances.—Distances are expressed in nautical miles of 1 0.0 Sailing Directions are published by the National Geospatial- minute of latitude. Distances of less than 1 mile are expressed Intelligence Agency (NGA), under the authority of Department in meters, or tenths of miles. -
The Story of *Ô in the Cariban Family1, °
Language Documentation & Conservation Special Publication No. 2 (May 2010): Fieldwork and Linguistic Analysis in Indigenous Languages of the Americas, ed. by Andrea L. Berez, Jean Mulder, and Daisy Rosenblum, pp. 91-123 http://nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/ 5 http://hdl.handle.net/10125/4452 The Story of *ô in the Cariban Family1, ° Spike Gildeaa, B. J. Hoffb, and Sérgio Meirac aUniversity of Oregon bLeiden University cKoninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen/Leiden University This paper argues for the reconstruction of an unrounded mid central/back vowel *ô to Proto-Cariban. Recent comparative studies of the Cariban family encounter a consistent correspondence of ə : o : ɨ : e, tentatively reconstructed as *o2 (considering only pronouns; Meira 2002) and *ô (considering only seven languages; Meira & Franchetto 2005). The first empirical contribution of this paper is to expand the comparative database to twenty- one modern and two extinct Cariban languages, where the robustness of the correspond- ence is confirmed. In ten languages, *ô merges with another vowel, either *o or *ɨ. The second empirical contribution of this paper is to more closely analyze one apparent case of attested change from *ô > o, as seen in cognate forms from Island Carib and dialectal variation in Kari’nja (Carib of Surinam). Kari’nja words borrowed into Island Carib/Garí- funa show a split between rounded and unrounded back vowels: rounded back vowels are reflexes of *o and *u, unrounded back vowels reflexes of *ô and *ɨ. Our analysis of Island Carib phonology was originally developed by Douglas Taylor in the 1960s, supplemented with unpublished Garifuna data collected by Taylor in the 1950s. -
Microtityus Rickyi (Dwarf Scorpion)
UWI The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago Diversity Microtityus rickyi (Dwarf Scorpion) Order: Scorpiones (Scorpions) Class: Arachnida (Spiders, Scorpions and Mites) Phylum: Arthropoda (Arthropods) Fig. 1. Dwarf scorpion, Microtityus rickyi. [www.ntnu.no/ub/scorpion-files/m_rickyi2.jpg, downloaded 23 October 2016] TRAITS. Microtityus rickyi are the smallest scorpions of the Western Hemisphere with an average size of 19mm. A light yellow pigmentation with black to light brown spots is found throughout the carapace (anterior plate that covers the head and thorax) and opisthosoma (segmented mid-body and tail). Its stinger is dark brown. The almost triangular carapace with a distinctly notched margin is characteristic of Microtiyus rickyi (Fig. 1). Sexual dimorphism is exhibited in regards to their size; the largest females are 18.6mm and males 16.6mm (Kjellesvig- Waering, 1966) DISTRIBUTION. Microtityus rickyi are endemic to Trinidad and Tobago, found nowhere else, and rather rare, comprising less than 1% of the scorpion population sampled (Kjellesvig- UWI The Online Guide to the Animals of Trinidad and Tobago Diversity Waering, 1966). Microtityus rickyi can be found at Lady Chancellor Hill, Mt. St. Benedict, Chacachacare Island, Gaspar Grande Island (Fig. 2), and Speyside Tobago (Prendini, 2001). HABITAT AND ACTIVITY. Microtityus rickyi are predominantly found hanging motionless on the underside of rocks within forests, on exposed soil banks or leaf litter though some have been found near the coast and on hills at heights of 200m. They can also be considered as semi- arboreal as some have been found a few metres up tree trunks (Prendini, 2001). FOOD AND FEEDING. -
The Journey That Is Chacachacare - Part 1/3 a Personal Account by Hans E.A.Boos
Quarterly Bulletin of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club January - March 2010 Issue No: 1/2010 The journey that is Chacachacare - part 1/3 A personal account by Hans E.A.Boos Several years ago I was asked, by Yasmin Comeau of the National Herbarium, U.W.I St. Augustine to write a short history titled “Human occupation and impact on the island of Chacachacare‖ ( which constitutes the main body of the account below), which was to be a part of a larger work on the vegetation of the island of Chacachacare. But, in that I do not know if it was ever published in any part or its entirety, I thought I would share it, and some more recent additions and observations, with the members of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists‘ Club, a club of which I have been proud to be a member since the middle of 1960. Chacachacare holds a special place in my interest, which interest will A part of the Leper colony be elaborated on below, and which was again sparked during a recent Photo Hans E. A. Boos excursion of the Club to this island on Sunday March 28th 2010. (Continued on page 3) Page 2 THE FIELD NATURALIST Issue No. 1/2010 Inside This Issue Quarterly Bulletin of the Trinidad and Tobago Field Naturalists’ Club 1 Cover January - March 2010 The Journey that is Chacachacare - A personal account by Hans E. A. Boos Editor Shane T. Ballah 7 Club Monthly Field Trip Report Editorial Committee La Table 31- 01 - 2010 Palaash Narase, Reginald Potter - Reginald Potter Contributing writers Christopher K. -
Languages of the Middle Andes in Areal-Typological Perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran Adelaar, W.F.H.; Campbell L., Grondona V.M
Languages of the Middle Andes in areal-typological perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran Adelaar, W.F.H.; Campbell L., Grondona V.M. Citation Adelaar, W. F. H. (2012). Languages of the Middle Andes in areal-typological perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran. In G. V. M. Campbell L. (Ed.), The Indigenous Languages of South America. A Comprehensive Guide. (pp. 575-624). Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9783110258035 Version: Not Applicable (or Unknown) License: Leiden University Non-exclusive license Downloaded from: https://hdl.handle.net/1887/70116 Note: To cite this publication please use the final published version (if applicable). Languages of the Middle Andes in areal-typological perspective: Emphasis on Quechuan and Aymaran Willem F.H. Adelaar 1. Introduction1 Among the indigenous languages of the Andean region of Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, northern Chile and northern Argentina, Quechuan and Aymaran have traditionally occupied a dominant position. Both Quechuan and Aymaran are language families of several million speakers each. Quechuan consists of a conglomerate of geographically defined varieties, traditionally referred to as Quechua “dialects”, notwithstanding the fact that mutual intelligibility is often lacking. Present-day Aymaran consists of two distinct languages that are not normally referred to as “dialects”. The absence of a demonstrable genetic relationship between the Quechuan and Aymaran language families, accompanied by a lack of recognizable external genetic connections, suggests a long period of independent development, which may hark back to a period of incipient subsistence agriculture roughly dated between 8000 and 5000 BP (Torero 2002: 123–124), long before the Andean civilization attained its highest stages of complexity. -
Adjectives, Adverbs, And/Or Nouns?
Property Concepts in the Cariban family: Adjectives, Adverbs, and/or Nouns? Sérgio Meira and Spike Gildea KNAW/Leiden University University of Oregon 1 Introduction1 It has been a staple of typology since Dixon (1977, 1982) that the adjective class is not universal, with “property concepts” (semantic adjectives) sometimes found in a lexical class of adjectives, but sometimes in other word classes, especially verbs and nouns. Much of the descriptive typological discussion since has focused on the question of whether a “missing” adjective class is a subcategory of nouns or a subcategory of verbs. The theoretical discussion, too, has focused on the ways in which adjectives are midway between nouns and verbs, e.g. 1 Data sources for this work: Hixkaryana: Derbyshire (1965, 1979, 1985); Makushi: Abbott (1991), Amodio and Pira (1996), Raposo (1997); Tiriyó: Meira (1999), field notes, Carlin (2003); Akawaio: Gildea (2005), Fox (2003). Abbreviations used in this work: 1 = first person; 1+2 = first person dual inclusive; 1+3 = first person plural exclusive; 2 = second person; 3 = third person; 3ANA = third person anaphoric; 3R = third-person reflexive possessive (coreferential with subject); A = subject of transitive verb; ADJ = adjective; ADV = adverb; AGT = agent; AN = animate; ATTR = attributivizer (essive marker); AZR = adverbializer; C.NZR = circumstance nominalizer; COL = collective (number); COP = copula; DETR = detransitivizer; DIR = directional; EMPH = emphatic; ERG = ergative; FRUST = frustrative; HAVE = ‘having’ (predicative possession) -
Division of Trinidad Act
LAWS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS www.legalaffairs.gov.tt DIVISION OF TRINIDAD ACT CHAPTER 26:01 Act 5 of 1926 Amended by 1 of 1927 Current Authorised Pages Pages Authorised (inclusive) by L.R.O. 1–22 .. UNOFFICIAL VERSION L.R.O. UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016 LAWS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS www.legalaffairs.gov.tt 2 Chap. 26:01 Division of Trinidad Note on Subsidiary Legislation This Chapter contains no subsidiary legislation. UNOFFICIAL VERSION UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016 LAWS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS www.legalaffairs.gov.tt Division of Trinidad Chap. 26:01 3 CHAPTER 26:01 DIVISION OF TRINIDAD ACT ARRANGEMENT OF SECTIONS SECTION 1. Short title. 2. Division into Counties. 3. Division of Counties into Wards. 4. County of St. George. 5. County of St. David. 6. County of Caroni. 7. County of St. Andrew. 8. County of Victoria. 9. County of Nariva. 10. County of St. Patrick. 11. County of Mayaro. 12. Division of Wards into Quarters. 13. Islands not specifically mentioned. 14. Rivers, etc., as boundaries. 15. Change of names, boundaries, etc., of Wards and Quarters. 16. References to Counties, etc., in Acts, etc. UNOFFICIAL VERSION L.R.O. UPDATED TO 31ST DECEMBER 2016 LAWS OF TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO MINISTRY OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL AND LEGAL AFFAIRS www.legalaffairs.gov.tt 4 Chap. 26:01 Division of Trinidad CHAPTER 26:01 DIVISION OF TRINIDAD ACT 1950 Ed. An Act relating to the division of the Island of Trinidad.