Expedition into the savannah and jungle to look for a lost language
(Spanish version, translated by Jonathan Mastai Husum, can be found here)
Our islands bear twisting names in fading tongues
Whose meanings now escaped our young
Basil Rodrigues, Spanish Arawak from Guyana, in his poem Santa Rosa
Around a year ago, I published this article on Lingoblog on whether linguists can prevent a war. I had written it after the Venezuelan supreme leader and his government had claimed two thirds of their neighboring country Guyana. The dictator’s parliament also supported the land claim, and now that area is listed as “contested” in several places. Sad, because the Spanish and the Venezuelans never really had shown any presence in that part of the world.
The land claim, and the … ↪
