William Keegan writes: "Modern political considerations aside, the islands form a single archipelago with common geological, ecological, and cultural roots."[1] Though part of the West Indies region, the Lucayan Archipelago is not geographically located within the Caribbean Sea.
The Mouchoir Bank, the Silver Bank, and the Navidad Bank are a submerged continuation of the archipelago, to the southeast of the Turks and Caicos Islands.[2] Mouchoir Bank is disputed between the Turks and Caicos Islands and Dominican Republic; Silver Bank and Navidad Bank are part of the Dominican Republic.
Etymologies of island names
The Lucayan Archipelago was named for the original native Lucayan people. Julian Granberry and Gary Vescelius suggest the following Lucayan (Taíno) etymologies for various Lucayan islands.[3]
^Granberry, Julian, & Gary Vescelius (2004). Languages of the Pre-Columbian Antilles. Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press. ISBN0-8173-5123-X.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Citations
Granberry, Julian (October 1991). "Lucayan Toponyms". Journal of the Bahamas Historical Society. 13. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
Further reading
Keegan, William F. (1992) The People Who Discovered Columbus: The Prehistory of the Bahamas. University Press of Florida ISBN0-8130-1137-X
†Physiographically, these continental islands are not part of the volcanic Windward Islands arc, although sometimes grouped with them culturally and politically.
#Bermuda is an isolated North Atlanticoceanic island, physiographically not part of the Lucayan Archipelago, Antilles, Caribbean Sea nor North American continental nor South American continental islands. It is grouped with the Northern American region, but occasionally also with the Caribbean region culturally.
