Words from the languages of the Americas

Los indigenismos del español

1492–. When Spaniards met plants, animals and things they had no names for, they borrowed the local words.

What happened

When Spaniards met plants, animals and things they had no names for, they borrowed the local words. The first came from Taíno, the Arawak language of the Caribbean islands, because it was the first language the Spaniards heard: canoa, maíz, tabaco, bohío, hamaca, cacique. Huracán is Taíno too, first written down in Latin by Peter Martyr in 1511. From Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, Spanish took chocolate, chile, tamal, chicle, guajolote and (in Mexico) hundreds more; tomate and aguacate are Nahuatl as well. From Quechua, the language of the Incas, came papa, llama, carpa, cóndor, pampa, and in the south cancha, choclo and palta. Counting every origin, Spanish has more words from the Americas than from Arabic, though many are used only in one country.

Events along the way

• 1555–1571: Friars write the first grammars of American languages

Read about it

• Las palabras del náhuatl — Words from Nahuatl
• Los taínos y las palabras del Caribe — The Taíno and the Words of the Caribbean
• El quechua hoy — Quechua today

Connected

• Columbus reaches America (12 October 1492)
• Columbus reaches America (12 October 1492)
• The fall of Tenochtitlan (13 August 1521)
• Cajamarca: Pizarro captures Atahualpa (16 November 1532)

Sources

1. Palabras de origen indígena en el español de Argentina y Chile (Instituto Cervantes Río de Janeiro, 2006) — Centro Virtual Cervantes
2. El español en el mundo a través del tiempo — Nueva Escuela Mexicana Digital, Secretaría de Educación Pública (Mexico)
3. Huracán (consultas frecuentes) — Academia Mexicana de la Lengua