A cay ( / ˈ k iː , ˈ k eɪ / KEE , KAY ), also spelled caye or key , is a small, low- elevation , sandy island on the surface of a coral reef . Cays occur in tropical environments throughout the Pacific , Atlantic , and Indian oceans, including in the Caribbean and on the Great Barrier Reef and Belize Barrier Reef .
31-795: The Taíno word for "island", cairi , became cayo in Spanish and "cay" / ˈ k iː / in English (spelled "key" in American English). A cay forms when ocean currents transport loose sediment across the surface of a reef to where the current slows or converges with another current, releasing its sediment load. Gradually, layers of deposited sediment build up on the reef surface – a depositional node . Such nodes occur in windward or leeward areas of reefs, where flat surfaces sometimes rise around an emergent outcrop of old reef or beach rock. The island resulting from sediment accumulation
62-503: A rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading , as a form of rock art . Outside North America , scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions of the technique to refer to such images. Petroglyphs, estimated to be 20,000 years old are classified as protected monuments and have been added to the tentative list of UNESCO 's World Heritage Sites . Petroglyphs are found worldwide, and are often associated with prehistoric peoples. The word comes from
93-431: A different vowel), and to-, tu- 'her'. Recorded conjugated verbs include daka ("I am"), waibá ("we go" or "let us go"), warikẽ ("we see"), kãma ("hear", imperative), ahiyakawo ("speak to us") and makabuka ("it is not important"). Verb-designating affixes were a-, ka-, -a, -ka, -nV in which "V" was an unknown or changeable vowel. This suggests that, like many other Arawakan languages, verbal conjugation for
124-692: A landform or the surrounding terrain, such as rivers and other geographic features. Some petroglyph maps, depicting trails, as well as containing symbols communicating the time and distances travelled along those trails, exist; other petroglyph maps act as astronomical markers. As well as holding geographic and astronomical importance, other petroglyphs may also have been a by-product of various rituals: sites in India, for example, have seen some petroglyphs identified as musical instruments or " rock gongs ". Some petroglyphs likely formed types of symbolic communication, such as types of proto-writing . Later glyphs from
155-550: A subject resembled the possessive prefixes on nouns. The negating prefix was ma- and the attributive prefix was ka- . Hence makabuka meant "it is not important". The buka element has been compared to the Kalinago suffix -bouca which designates the past tense. Hence, makabuka can be interpreted as meaning "it has no past". However, the word can also be compared to the Kalinago verb aboúcacha meaning "to scare". This verb
186-851: A temporary rock shelter were noticed adjacent to a Murugan temple which is in ruins on top of the Kothaiyurumbu hill. During recent years a large number of rock carvings has been identified in different parts of Iran. The vast majority depict the ibex . Rock drawings were found in December 2016 near Golpayegan , Iran , which may be the oldest drawings discovered, with one cluster possibly 40,000 years old. Accurate estimations were unavailable due to US sanctions. The oldest pictographs in Iran are seen in Yafteh cave in Lorestan that date back 40,000 and
217-518: Is believed to have been extinct within 100 years of contact, but possibly continued to be spoken in isolated pockets in the Caribbean until the 19th century. As the first Indigenous language encountered by Europeans in the Americas, it was a major source of new words borrowed into European languages. Granberry & Vescelius (2004) distinguish two dialects, one on Hispaniola and further east, and
248-771: Is harder to explain the common styles. This could be mere coincidence, an indication that certain groups of people migrated widely from some initial common area, or indication of a common origin. In 1853, George Tate presented a paper to the Berwick Naturalists' Club, at which a John Collingwood Bruce agreed that the carvings had "... a common origin, and indicate a symbolic meaning, representing some popular thought." In his cataloguing of Scottish rock art, Ronald Morris summarized 104 different theories on their interpretation. Other theories suggest that petroglyphs were carved by spiritual leaders, such as shamans , in an altered state of consciousness , perhaps induced by
279-503: Is made up almost entirely of the skeletal remains of plants and animals – biogenic sediment – from the surrounding reef ecosystems. If the accumulated sediments are predominantly sand , then the island is called a cay ; if they are predominantly gravel , the island is called a motu . Cay sediments are largely composed of calcium carbonate (CaCO 3 ), primarily of aragonite , calcite , and high-magnesium calcite. They are produced by myriad plants (e.g., coralline algae , species of
310-468: Is much debate and concern over the future stability of cays in the face of growing human populations and pressures on reef ecosystems, and predicted climate changes and sea level rise . There is also debate around whether these islands are relict features that effectively stopped expanding two thousand years ago during the late Holocene or, as recent research suggests, they are still growing, with significant new accumulation of reef sediments. Understanding
341-1111: Is shared in various Caribbean Arawakan languages such as Lokono ( bokaüya 'to scare, frighten') and Parauhano ( apüüta 'to scare'). In this case makabuka would mean "it does not frighten [me]". Masculine gender was indicated by the noun suffix -(e)l . There is no known corresponding feminine suffix. Taíno borrowed words from Spanish, adapting them to its phonology. These include isúbara ("sword", from espada ), isíbuse ("mirror", from espejo ) and Dios ( God in Christianity , from Dios ). English words derived from Taíno include: barbecue , caiman , canoe , cassava , cay , guava , hammock , hurricane , hutia , iguana , macana , maize , manatee , mangrove , maroon , potato , savanna , and tobacco . Taíno loanwords in Spanish include: agutí , ají , auyama , batata , cacique , caoba , guanabana , guaraguao , jaiba , loro , maní , maguey (also rendered magüey ), múcaro , nigua , querequequé , tiburón , and tuna , as well as
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#1732771731808372-645: The Greek prefix petro- , from πέτρα petra meaning " stone ", and γλύφω glýphō meaning "carve", and was originally coined in French as pétroglyphe . In scholarly texts, a petroglyph is a rock engraving, whereas a petrograph (or pictograph ) is a rock painting. In common usage, the words are sometimes used interchangeably. Both types of image belong to the wider and more general category of rock art or parietal art . Petroforms , or patterns and shapes made by many large rocks and boulders over
403-645: The Nordic Bronze Age in Scandinavia seem to refer to some form of territorial boundary between tribes , in addition to holding possible religious meanings. Petroglyph styles have been recognised as having local or regional "dialects" from similar or neighboring peoples. Siberian inscriptions loosely resemble an early form of runes , although no direct relationship has been established. Petroglyphs from different continents show similarities. While people would be inspired by their direct surroundings, it
434-477: The diaspora . In 2023, activist Jorge Baracutay Estevez and the Higuayagua Taino cultural organization he chairs (as " kasike ") with help of linguist Alexandra Aikhenvald released Hiwatahia: Hekexi Taino Language Reconstruction , a formatted 20,000 word dictionary basing on languages of the wider Ta-Maipurean branch. Petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of
465-676: The Witwatersrand studies present-day links between religion and rock art among the San people of the Kalahari Desert . Though the San people's artworks are predominantly paintings, the beliefs behind them can perhaps be used as a basis for understanding other types of rock art, including petroglyphs. To quote from the RARI website: Using knowledge of San beliefs, researchers have shown that
496-686: The art played a fundamental part in the religious lives of its painters. The art captured things from the San's world behind the rock-face: the other world inhabited by spirit creatures, to which dancers could travel in animal form, and where people of ecstasy could draw power and bring it back for healing, rain-making and capturing the game. Tunisia Eight sites in Hong Kong : Kethaiyurumpu, Tamil Nadu. Situated 28 km north west of Dindigal, Tamil Nadu nearby Idaiyakottai and six km south west of Oddanchartam has revealed several petroglyphs mostly represent abstract symbols on two rocks, which looks like
527-494: The beginning of a word and the /ɾ/ realization occurred between vowels. Some Spanish writers used the letter ⟨x⟩ in their transcriptions, which could represent /h/ , /s/ or /ʃ/ in the Spanish orthography of their day. A distinction between /ɛ/ and /e/ is suggested by Spanish transcriptions of e vs ei/ey , as in ceiba "ceiba". The /e/ is written ei or final é in modern reconstructions. There
558-683: The green algae Halimeda ) and animals (e.g., coral , molluscs , foraminifera ). Small amounts of silicate sediment are also contributed by sponges and other creatures. Over time, soil and vegetation may develop on a cay surface, assisted by the deposition of sea bird guano . A range of physical, biological and chemical influences determines the ongoing development or erosion of cay environments. These influences include: Significant changes in cays and their surrounding ecosystems can result from natural phenomena such as severe El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycles. Also, tropical cyclones can either help build up or tear down these islands. There
589-587: The ground, are also quite different. Inuksuit are not petroglyphs, but human-made rock forms found in Arctic regions. Petroglyphs have been found in all parts of the globe except Antarctica , with highest concentrations in parts of Africa, Scandinavia and Siberia, many examples of petroglyphs found globally are dated to approximately the Neolithic and late Upper Paleolithic boundary (roughly 10,000 to 12,000 years ago). Around 7,000 to 9,000 years ago, following
620-459: The introduction of a number of precursors of writing systems , the existence and creation of petroglyphs began to suffer and tail off, with different forms of art, such as pictographs and ideograms , taking their place. However, petroglyphs continued to be created and remained somewhat common, with various cultures continuing to use them for differing lengths of time, including cultures who continued to create them until contact with Western culture
651-577: The masculine gender, as in warokoel "our grandfather". Some words are recorded as ending in x , which may have represented a word-final /h/ sound. In general, stress was predictable and fell on the penultimate syllable of a word, unless the word ended in /e/ , /i/ or a nasal vowel, in which case it fell on the final syllable. Taíno is not well attested. However, from what can be gathered, nouns appear to have had noun-class suffixes, as in other Arawakan languages. Attested Taíno possessive prefixes are da- 'my', wa- 'our', li- 'his' (sometimes with
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#1732771731808682-467: The oldest petroglyph discovered belongs to Timareh dating back to 40,800 years ago. Iran provides demonstrations of script formation from pictogram, ideogram, linear (2300 BC) or proto Elamite, geometric old Elamite script, Pahlevi script, Arabic script (906 years ago), Kufi script, and Farsi script back to at least 250 years ago. More than 50000 petroglyphs have been discovered, extended over all Iran's states. The oldest reliably dated rock art in
713-498: The other on Hispaniola and further west. Columbus wrote that "...from Bahama to Cuba, Boriquen to Jamaica, the same language was spoken in various slight dialects, but understood by all." The Taíno language was not written. The Taínos used petroglyphs , but there has been little research in the area. The following phonemes are reconstructed from Spanish records: There was also a flap [ ɾ ] , which appears to have been an allophone of /d/ . The /d/ realization occurred at
744-430: The potential for change in the sediment sources and supply of cay beaches with environmental change is an important key to predicting their stability. Despite, or perhaps because of, all the debate around the future of cays there is consensus that these island environments are very complex and fairly fragile. Examples of cays include: Ta%C3%ADno language Taíno is an extinct Arawakan language that
775-426: The previous English words in their Spanish form: barbacoa , caimán , canoa, casabe , cayo, guayaba, hamaca, huracán, iguana, jutía, macana , maíz, manatí, manglar, cimarrón, patata, sabana, and tabaco . Place names of Taíno origin include: Six sentences of spoken Taíno were preserved. They are presented first in the original orthography in which they were recorded, then in a regularized orthography based on
806-422: The reconstructed language and lastly in their English translation: Since the 2010s, there have been several publications that attempt at reconstructing modern Taíno lexicons by way of comparative linguistics with other related Arawak languages. Puertorican linguist Javier Hernandez published his Primario Basíco del Taíno-Borikenaíki in 2018 after a 16-year spanning research project with positive reception among
837-461: The use of natural hallucinogens . Many of the geometric patterns (known as form constants ) which recur in petroglyphs and cave paintings have been shown by David Lewis-Williams to be hardwired into the human brain. They frequently occur in visual disturbances and hallucinations brought on by drugs, migraine , and other stimuli. The Rock Art Research Institute (RARI) of the University of
868-408: Was also a high back vowel [u] , which was often interchangeable with /o/ and may have been an allophone. There was a parallel set of nasal vowels . The nasal vowels /ĩ/ and /ũ/ were rare. Consonant clusters were not permitted in the onset of syllables. The only consonant permitted at the end of a syllable or word in most cases was /s/ . One exception was the suffix -(e)l , which indicated
899-485: Was made in the 19th and 20th centuries. Many hypotheses exist as to the purpose of petroglyphs, depending on their location, age, and subject matter. Some petroglyph images most likely held a deep cultural and religious significance for the societies that created them. Many petroglyphs are thought to represent a type of symbolic or ritualistic language or communication style that remains not fully understood. Others, such as geocontourglyphs , more clearly depict or represent
930-783: Was spoken by the Taíno people of the Caribbean . At the time of Spanish contact , it was the most common language throughout the Caribbean. Classic Taíno (Taíno proper) was the native language of the Taíno tribes living in the Leeward Islands of the Lesser Antilles , Puerto Rico , the Turks and Caicos Islands , most of Hispaniola , and eastern Cuba . The Ciboney dialect is essentially unattested, but colonial sources suggest it
961-522: Was very similar to Classic Taíno, and was spoken in the westernmost areas of Hispaniola, the Bahamas , Jamaica , and most of Cuba . By the late 15th century, Taíno had displaced earlier languages, except in western Cuba and pockets in Hispaniola. As the Taíno culture declined during Spanish colonization, the language was replaced by Spanish and other European languages, such as English and French. It