29222: Benson (reply) RE: 29217: Frantz (reply) RE: 29211: Benson (reply) Re: Dure: (ask) Hispagnola (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Legrace Benson <legrace@twcny.rr.com>

Reply to 29217.  From LeGrace Benson.  There is discussion ongoing
concerning the name "Haiti" or "Ayiti" and other variants, as well as what
that name actually signified for the Taino. Kiskeya is another name some
propose was used by Taino.  Some scholars say the latter was the "ideal"
name while Haiti was the everyday name, much as "Columbia" is the ideal name
for the US (scarcely ever used now, but appearing in patriotic school songs
as late as 1960), while "America" is the common, everyday name and United
States of America is the legal name. Taino are said similarly to have had at
least three names for their locality.  Some scholars note that "Haiti"
spelled various ways, was actually in use before Dessalines denoted it the
official name of the new country.  In any case, Columbus "gave" the name
Hispaniola in an act of consummate imperialism that he probably never
recognized as such. Why Dessalines appropriated the indigenous name rather
than inventing a new name will probably never be known, although there is
speculation that his mother may have been a Taino. None of oldest maps I
have been able to see uses any variation of the native name.