My theme is the process of semantic shift that has affected some traveling terms within the area of creolization that extends from the West African coast to the Caribbean. In this paper I will focus on the route supposedly taken by one lexeme in its journey through the Atlantic Ocean. Tabanka (tabanca) is the word picked up for analysis. I will deal with its vertical journey, from its original context of use in the sixteenth century along the Upper Guinea Coast to its current meaning in Guinea-Bissau, as well as with its horizontal journey, from the coast of Western Africa to the islands of Cape Verde and then to Trinidad, on the Venezuelan coast. Following the route taken by this word I hope to shed some light on the heterogeneous forms of social life brought out by the process of creolization related to the European expansion.
Tabanka; Creolization; Ecume-non; Semantic shift