Life and the future of this blog

This blog has been in a state of limbo since 2008 pretty much, and for that I apologize to my readers (if I have any left). I did write an update in February 2011 and following up from that, I did not end up graduating in June 2011 and going to grad school as planned.  So, I ended up postponing graduation until December 2011. I'm glad I did - I took a couple more linguistics classes as well as taking an intensive course on Icelandic!

Since then, I have been working at Google, but that is about to end by the end of this week. I was accepted to a graduate program out east. Yes, it's in linguistics.

I am not sure yet what I will do with this blog.  I am thinking of reviving it in grad school since I can talk about what I am researching and studying, and we shall see.  If you have any questions to ask me, feel free! :-D

Until next time...

--Chris

*taps mic* hello?

I have not written in this blog for three years!

I am sorry, but real life got in the way. I got busy at work and other things. Then in 2009, I decided to quit my job and return to school to get my bachelor's degree in linguistics.

Here I am, just three months left until I graduate. I have applied to graduate school, and hopefully I will get accepted.

So, yeah, these past two years have been really eventful for me. But I am still doing stuff about Philippine languages. My honors thesis, will be about Tagalog historical morphology. It's been fascinating researching this stuff and going over it with my advisor.

One of these days, I shall write about the whole Jejemon controversy. In fact, I am taking a discourse analysis course right now and it has given me a new perspective on it with regards to the great negative media coverage it has been receiving since last year.

I wish I could resurrect this blog. Maybe one day I will. And I think one day I may move it to another blogging service. I'll keep y'all posted.

--Chris Sundita

ABS-CBN NOW finally adds three more

ABS-CBN's on-demand service has finally added more regional programming from Bicol, Zamboanga, and Cagayan Valley!

http://now.abs-cbn.com/index-tvpreg.aspx

As someone of Bicolano heritage, I've been wanting to see programming in Bikol for a very long time. Not only is TV Patrol Bicol available but also Bikol Espesyal and Marhay na Aga, Kapamilya.

For Chavacano, there is also Zambowow which seems to talk about cultural happenings around Zamboanga.

I am very disappointed about Cagayan Valley's TV patrol. It's in Tagalog. I know media in Ibanag is a long shot, but at the very least it should've been in Ilokano. But I suppose they have their reasons.

TV Patrol in Waray-Waray now available online!

Yay!

ABSCBNNOW now has TV Patrol Tacloban! Finally, news in Waray-Waray! All the Visayas are now covered.

http://now.abs-cbn.com/index-tvpreg.aspx

It also looks like they added TV Patrol from General Santos, which is in Tagalog.

I am hoping that the versions from Bicol, Zamboanga, and Pampanga will be added soon.

Bikol Wikipedia is now open

Mga Kahimanwa kong Bikolano ~

The Bikol Wikipedia is now finally open.

http://bcl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangenot_na_Pahina

This is for, more or less, the Naga-Legazpi Standard variety (aka Northern Bikol or Bikol Central). A proposal has been submitted to start a Rinconada Bikol Wikipedia, but it looks like a long shot for now. The Rinconada incubator is at http://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wp/bto .

There are now Wikipedias in EIGHT different Philippine languages. In addition to Bikol, they are Cebuano, Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Tagalog, Waray-Waray, and Zamboangueño (Chavacano).

I'm quite surprised that the Hiligaynon and the Kinaray-a Wikipedias are still on the back burner. They are "conditionally approved" - meaning, there are some criteria that still need to be met.

Anyway, spread the word.

TV Patrol Pampanga

Oyni metung a clip na ning TV Patrol Pampanga king amanung Kapampangan.
Here's a clip of TV Patrol Pampanga in Kampangan.



BTW, TV Patrol Central Luzon was added to ABS-CBNnow's line up. TVP Central Luzon is based in Dagupan City in Pangasinan. Unfortunately, it's not in the Pangasinan language but in Tagalog. This should be changed.

And I've added TV Patrol Zamboanga here for your perusal.

ABS-CBN Regional Programming

Three years ago, I wrote a blog entry about non-Tagalog TV and how I was all excited about it.

Since then, I've encountered clips on YouTube of news programs (TV Patrol) in other Philippine languages. I was going to post a link to the Kapampangan one posted by Sisigman, but ABS-CBNi forced YouTube to remove it. I've also been able to view TV Patrol Zamboanga in Chavacano.

In any case, ABS-CBN has released regional programming on its online service, ABS-CBNnow! And for a limited time, it's free.

Right now, the programming is limited to Cebuano (TV Patrol Cebu, Davao & Cagayan de Oro), Ilokano (TV Patrol Laoag), and Hiligaynon (TV Patrol Iloilo & Negros Oriental) programming - the next three most-spoken languages after Tagalog.

As for non-news programming, there's a handful of variety shows catering to Cebuano and Hiligaynon audiences.

You may access these regional programs at http://now.abs-cbn.com//index-tvpreg.aspx

Below is a graphic from the page. The people are saying things in Hiligaynon, Cebuano, and Bikol. So far, there's no Bikol, Waray-Waray, and Kapampangan programming on that page yet. I'm hoping they add them soon. And then maybe I'll consider paying a monthly fee for this service once the free trial runs out.

Playing around with making movies...

Back in 2004 I wrote an entry about a Spanish news report about Chavacano.

Anyway, I have been playing with Windows Movie Maker and decided to make a video with subtitles. So I chose that report.

At the end, though, I couldn't resist putting commentary in English and Spanish about the newscast. I basically corrected some inaccuracies in the video. I wish I had a camera to do so, so I had to stick with text.

Enjoy the video.

Buhay pa 'ko!

Yes, folks, I'm still alive. I've been in hiding ever since I lost the Philippine Blog Awards. I was soo devasted that I've taken residence in a cave up in Mt. Rainier crying myself to sleep, while listening to EMO music.

Kidding, of course.

In all seriousiness, my busy life just kept me away from blogging; it has even curtailed my Wikipedia activities.

I recently moved within the same town and now I'm finally on a 9-day vacation. I intend to rest and get caught up on a lot of things - blogging included.

But yes, I didn't win at the Philippine Blog Awards. I don't think my blog fit the category it was in. But that was all right. Special thanks to Jomar at Alas Filipinas for representing me.

It was interesting though! Fellow Wikipedian editor Seav aka Eugene Alvin Villar took a pic of my blog as it was projected onto the big screen:



Scary seeing my blog being projected like that and looked at by so many people! The reality that people actually read (and you are still out there, aren't ya?) sunk in. hah.

Until next time...

Philippine Blog Awards Update

Well, folks it's almost 10:30PM Friday here in the Seattle-Tacoma area while it's 10:30PM Saturday in the Philippines. I'm ready to call it a day and hit the sack since I've had a long week.

In four hours, the Philippine Blog Awards ceremony will begin.

Since I am unable to make the trip to my dad's hometown of Makati where the awards will be held, I have designated my online friend Jomar Alas to represent me at the ceremony. He and I first met in Hispano-Filipino and we've had our - and still have - our heated debates in that forum. But it's all good, I swear. ;-)

In any case, Jomar blogs at Skirmisher.Org and also at Alas Filipinas. The latter is the only known Philippine-related blog written entirely in Spanish. Jomar is actively learning Spanish and desires to resurrect a forgotten part of Philippine heritage. Check him out!

So, wish me luck. And good night to you all.

Tagalog verbs

I've been wanting to do a post about Tagalog verbs for a while now. I've brought my notes together to give you all this entry. Currently, modern Tagalog verb conjugation is as outlined in the following chart.

	Infinitive	Contemplative (future actions)	Progressive (past and present actions)	Completed (past actions)
Actor Focus 1	-um- (gumawa)	CV- (gagawa)	CumV- (gumagawa)	-um- (gumawa)
Actor Focus 2	mag- (magbigay)	magCV- (magbibigay)	nagCV- (nagbibigay)	nag- (nagbigay)
Object Focus 1	-in (kainin)	CV-...-in (kakainin)	CinV- (kinakain)	-in- (kinain)
Object Focus 2	i- (isulat)	iCV- (isusulat)	iCinV- (isinusulat)	i- -in- (isinulat)
Object Focus 3	-an (tawagan)	CV-...-an (tatawagan)	CinV- ... -an (tinatawagan)	-in- ... -an (tinawagan)

I hope you all will find this chart easy to understand, but I think it's simple enough. The dashes represent the position of the affix in relation to the rootword. CV stands for consonant and vowel and represents the first consonant and the first vowel of the rootword, hence reduplication. For those who are learning Tagalog, the root words used are gawa (do), bigay (give), kain (eat), sulat (write), and tawag (call). So if you look at the proper column, you can tell that if you add the infix -um- to the rootword gawa you'll get gumawa (did). And if you attach the infix -in- with the suffix -an to tawag, you'll get tinawagan (called [someone]). Got it? Please also keep in mind that these are the basic affixes, so none of the potentive, causative, reason, etc. affixes are included. However, Tagalog verbal conjugation was not quite as it was as early as a century ago. I have consulted two Tagalog grammar books from the Spanish era; Francisco Blancas de San José's 1610 Arte y Reglas de la lengua tagala and Fr. Sebastián de Totanes's 1745 Arte de la lengua tagala. During those times, Tagalog's verbal affixes looked more like the following.

	Infinitive	Contemplative (future actions)	Progressive (past and present actions)	Completed (past actions)	Imperative
Actor Focus 1	-um- (gumawa)	CV- (gagawa)	CungmV- (gungmagawa)	-ungm- (gungmawa)
Actor Focus 2	mag- (magbigay)	magCV- (magbibigay)	nagCV- (nagbibigay)	nag- (nagbigay)	pag- (pagbigay)
Object Focus 1	-in (kainin)	CV-...-in (kakainin)	CinV- (kinakain)	-in- (kinain)	0 (kain)
Object Focus 2	i- (isulat)	iCV- (isusulat)	iCinV- (isinusulat)	i- -in- (isinulat)	-an (sulatan)
Object Focus 3	-an (tawagan)	CV-...-an (tatawagan)	CinV- ... -an (tinatawagan)	-in- ... -an (tinawagan)	-i (tawagi)

Imperative affixes

One major difference is that the Tagalog spoken over two centuries ago had an additional verb category, the imperative which is used for commands and requests (i.e., Matulog ka na - Go to sleep). Even then, the imperative and the infinitive were used side by side in expressing commands, but apparently the infinitive became used exclusively in standard Tagalog. Now, I emphasize standard because in certain dialects of Tagalog, it still exists. In certain dialects of Batangas Tagalog, it has been said that one says buksi mo instead of buksan mo for "open it." And in the Eastern Marinduque dialect, the imperative affixes are very much alive. Since Tagalog is a Central Philippine language, does this mean that other Central Philippine languages have imperative affixes too? The answer is yes and they are widely used in the languages spoken in Bicol and in the Visayas. Though, in the "Actor Focus 1" category, all these languages have the suffix "-a" for the imperative. The languages of the Northern Philippines like Pangasinan, Kapampangan, and Ilokano do not have imperative affixes. In light of this fact, my guess is that Tagalog lost the affixes due to speakers of Northern Philippine languages who migrated to Manila and imposed their respective native languages' grammatical rules onto Tagalog. This caught on when their children, assimilated Tagalog speakers, began to use the language. So this could explain why the dialects that tend to be further from Ilokano and Kapampangan speaking regions tend to preserve the affixes. Though because of the influence and prestige of Manila Tagalog, they are also disappearing.

The infix -um- and its derivatives

Another noticeable difference is the infix -um- which has also undergone a process of simplification since the Spanish era. The infix -ungm- which has disappeared from virtually all contemporary Tagalog dialects. In modern Tagalog, -um- serves as the infinitive, imperative, and completed (past) forms. So what distinguishes the phrase kumain ka (either "eat" or "you ate") is context and tone). This infix is cognate with similar infixes in other Philippine languages. They, too, also make a distinction between the infinitive the past forms:

Language	Infinitive affix	Completed/Past affix
Old Tagalog	-um-	-ungm-
Modern Tagalog	-um-
Ilokano	-um-	-inn
Kapampangan	-um-	-in-
Pangasinan	on-	-inm-
Waray-Waray	-um-	-inm-, -in-, -um-
Tausug	-um-	-im-
Old Bikol	-um-	-umin-

Apparently the infinitive form comes from Proto-Philippine *-um- and the past one from Proto-Philippine *-umin-. Furthermore, there were variants of -um- that had to do with phonetic environment. For example, if the first vowel of a rootword was /i/, then -um- would optionally change to -im-. This is called vowel harmony. For comparison's sake, I'll use the rootword tingin as an example:

English	Modern Tagalog	Old Tagalog
to look	tumingin	timingin
I looked	tumingin ako	tingmingin ako
I am/was looking	tumitingin ako	tingmitingin ako
I will look	titingin ako

Now when did this conjugation cease to exist? I am guessing sometime in the middle of the last century. I was able to find a mention of the -ungm- infix in the Pedro Serrano Laktaw's 1929 Estudios gramaticales sobre la lengua Tagálog. He remarks on page 83:

"... que el um del imperativo tenga ng intercalada entre sus dos letras componentes, de modo que resulte ungm para el pretérito y presente, a fin de distinguir el pretérito perfecto del imperativo, como se nota en las antiguas gramáticas, y tal como aún pronuncian la mayor parte de los tagalogs puros, si bien se ve igualmente en muchos libros impresos, como también se oye en Manila a los tagálogs pronunciar el pretérito y el presente con solo el um." (... that the um of the imperative has a "ng" inserted between its two component letters, in a way that it results in ungm for the preterite and the present, in order to distinguish the preterite perfect from the imperative, as is noted in the older grammars. And it is pronoounced such by the majority of pure Tagalogs, it's also seen in many printed books. The Tagalogs in Manila also pronounce the preterite and the present with just um.)

It makes me wonder if there are still older Tagalog speakers - people in their 90s and 100s - who speak this way. Another phonological change was that verbs beginning with certain sounds took on different affixes. This would usually happen to verbs beginning with /b/ and /p/. The infix -um- would assimilate with those consonants. There were some exceptions to the /p/ and /b/ rule as in the verbs kuha (get), uwi (return home), inom (drink), ihi (urinate), and others. According to the grammars, verbs fitting in this category may also be conjugated the regular way (i.e., unassimilated). Below is a comparison outlining the modern Tagalog forms and the two ways of conjugating the verb in old Tagalog. I use the rootword pasok (enter) as an example.

English	Modern Tagalog	Old Tagalog (unassimilated conjugation)	Old Tagalog (assimilated conjugation)
to enter	pumasok		masok
I entered	pumasok ako	pungmasok ako	nasok ako
I am/was entering	pumapasok ako	pungmapasok ako	nanasok ako
I will enter	papasok ako

It's also worth nothing that a similar process of assimilation happens in Tausug and Kapampangan languages.

Verbal affixes in other Tagalog dialects

One thing I heard growing up was that Tagalog speakers from southern Luzon (Batangas, Quezon, etc.) would say "nakain ka ba ng pating?" To a Manileño, this means "were you eaten by a shark?" But in those regions, it means "are you eating shark?" - nakain is the equivalent of kumakain. The Tagalog dialects of Marinduque are the most divergent, especially the Eastern Marinduque dialect - perhaps due to the relative isolation from the Tagalogs of Luzon and also perhaps due to the influence of the Visayan and Bikol migrants. Linguist Rosa Soberano's 1980 The Dialects of Marinduque Tagalog goes into great depth concerning the dialects spoken there. The following is a verb chart which outlines the conjugation of the Eastern Marindique dialect of Tagalog:

	Infinitive	Contemplative (future actions)	Progressive (past and present actions)	Completed (past actions)	Imperative
Actor Focus 1	-um- (gumawa)	má- (mágawâ)	ná- (nágawâ)	-um- (gumawa)	0 (gawa)
Actor Focus 2	mag- (magbigay)	(ma)ga- ([ma]gabigay)	naga- (nagabigay)	nag- (nagbigay)	pag- (pagbigay)
Object Focus 1	-in (kainin)	a- (akainin)	ina- (inakain)	-in- (kinain)	-a (kaina)
Object Focus 2	i- (isulat)	a- (asulat)	ina- (inasulat)	i- -in- (isinulat)	-an (sulatan)
Object Focus 3	-an (tawagan)	a-...-an (atawagan)	ina- ... -an (inatawagan)	-in- ... -an (tinawagan)	-i (tawagi)

What I find interesting is that some of these affixes, particularly "a-" and "ina-," are affixes used in Asi (Bantoanon), a Visaya language spoken in Romblon, just south of Marinduque.

Some final thoughts

I hope you found this informative. It's fun sometimes for me to use the Old Tagalog or Eastern Marinduque Tagalog verbal affixes in my conversations with other Filipinos. Some have not noticed them at all (particularly when I use -ungm-) while others will think I'm weird and attempt to correct me. In some ways, I think it would have been wonderful for Tagalog to have preserved them - to have preserved the richness. But I guess these things happen for a reason.

Language maps

One way to improve articles on Wikipedia is to include images. How does this work for language-related articles? For starters, you could include a map of the area where the language is spoken.

For Philippine languages, this can be quite tricky. The Philippine situation is unlike the situation in, say, Japan where almost everyone speaks Japanese. So all you'd need to do is put a map of Japan and color it green and say "everyone there speaks Japanese!"

Ok, ok, the pedant in me says screams that Japan is not that simple either. I mean, for a more detailed map you'd need to show where dialects such as Kansai-ben and Kagoshima-ben, not to mention coloring areas where the dying Ryukyuan and Ainu languages are spoken. But you get the idea.

One of the problems is the famous question concerning dialects, where does a language begin and end? Even native speakers themselves have a hard time drawing a line in the sand. Yes, there is Ethnologue, which says there are over 160 Philippine languages but both you and I know that number can change at a moment's notice, depending on whom you speak to. This is because that there is little research done on speech varieties spoken in a different areas - from my understandings, SIL linguists have to go on Swadesh lists and the like. But as time goes on, more definitive research comes in and thus a clearer picture of the Philippine language situation becomes reality.

A related problem is the issue of names. In a previous blog entry, I mentioned that millions of Cebuano speakers simply disappeared in the 2000 Census's Mother Tongue category between the years 1995 and 2000. What was the problem? The appearance of a new "Bisaya/Binisaya" category was to blame. Many people in the Visayan islands simply call their respective languages "Bisaya" or "Binisaya" whether they are living in Allen, Northern Samar or Davao City! Many native speakers simply do not use the linguistic names that linguists have assigned to their languages, be it Dispoholnon or Porohanon - it's just plain Bisaya. Others have no specific names, like Bantayan Visayan. This is reflected in the Bikol, Ifugao, and Manobo languages as well.

Then you have problems like Davaoeño - which could refer to a dialect of Cebuano, Tagalog, or Chavacano or even the language related to Mansakan. Ay ay ay!

The four main sources that I consulted were Ethnologue, the 2000 Census, Dr. Curtis McFarland 1983 work A Linguistic Atlas of the Philippines, and Dr. R. David Zorc's 1977 The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines.

I really want to get a copy of the CD from the National Statistics Office. It has statistics down to the barangay! That would really help in making the maps more detailed. The CDs are available here but no one has answered my e-mail. :-(

In any case, the maps are below. Click to enlarge.

Cebuano

Cebuano is spoken in various provinces in the Visayas and Mindanao and goes by different names. In Bohol, it's called Boholano and in Leyte it can be called Leyteño, Leytehanon, or Kana. Cebu is basically the de-facto capital of the region and its influence is reflected in the written language, so I guess its dialect gets dibs on being the most famous one. Though I'm all for an inclusive name, but not too inclusive like Visayan.

I had a difficult time with the provinces of Surigao Norte, Surigao Sur, and the newly-created Dinagat Islands. There are four main dialects of Surigaonon spoken there, and they have a lot of Cebuano influence. People have claimed that Cebuano is spoken there, but I can't ascertain it. I don't doubt that Cebuano is spoken there, so for now I have put it in light blue coloring. I am not comfortable with this designation, so I need to research this more.



Kapampangan

Doing Kapampangan was more simple. The majority of Kapampangans are concentrated in Pampanga. However, linguistic borders do not always represent political ones. Southern Tarlac is Kapampangan-dominated, and there are communities of Kapampangan-speakers in southwestern Nueva Ecija, northeastern Bataan, and western Bulacan.



Tagalog

Tagalog was easier as well. Looking at the map, it makes you wonder how a language that's relegated to a smaller area could be the national language of the country for decades. With that aside, I have some doubts about Mindoro. I have conflicting information about where exactly Tagalog is spoken. It appears the interior is dominated by Mangyan languages, but are they mingling with Tagalog speakers? Or do they themselves speak Tagalog? Also, the southern ends of Mindoro are home to Visayan-speakers.

People may argue that this map should cover ALL of the Philippines since over 96% of the population speaks it. But I felt the map would be more useful and more accurate if it showed the areas where Tagalog is native.



Visayan languages

I am quite proud of this map. I've been wanting to do this map for the longest time. It challenges the popular notion of what a Visayan is and what they speak. As you can see, Visayan languages are native to the southern end of Luzon (however, the people there consider themselves Bicolanos) all the way to Jolo (the people there do not consider themselves Visayans either).

One problem that I had with this map was related to Cebuano. For now it's been classified in its own subbranch of Visayan languages. But I feel that it's a South Visayan language just like Tausug, Surigaonon, and Butuanon are. But I can't impose my hypotheses on Wikipedia, so I have to go with current research.



On a side note, I suggested to another Wikipedian that we should do a Venn diagram on what a Visayan is. Since there are geographic, linguistic, ethnic, and political perspectives.

For example:

• A Cebuano is a Visayan under all those criteria.
• A native of Cagayan de Oro is a Visayan but not geographically and politically.
• A Tausug and a Sorsoganon is only Visayan in terms of language. As a matter of fact, in Tausug, "Bisaya" means "Christian."
• An Abaknon from Capul Island is only politically, geographically, and perhaps ethnically Visayan but not linguistic; their language is Sama-Bajaw (related to the languages near Jolo).
• And since 2005, Palawanons are now politically Visayan!

Mentioned in YES!

A Wikipedian living in Manila informed me that I was quoted in the March 2007 issue of YES! Magazine concerning the use of the word Pinoy. Luckily, my grandma buys an issue for herself at the local Filipino store every month, so I went to her house after she told me that she did have a copy.

In any case, I made a scan of the article in question. Click to enlarge. Mr. Lacaba apparently used this post where I mentioned my debate between Guillermo R. Gómez and his son Guillermo O. Gómez concerning the origin of Pinoy.



So yeah, it's kind of exciting and weird at the same time that my blog has been getting this attention lately! And I thought that people in general believe that Philippine languages weren't interesting. ;-)

Salita Blog is a finalist for Philippine Blog Awards

Well, I submitted my blog a while back for the Philippine Blog Awards. Y'know, just for fun. Didn't think (and still don't think) that I'd win. Well I'm a finalist now. Wow. There are four other finalists in the Socio-Political category.

I had trouble finding a "cultural" category which is what I think where this blog fits. But since the issue of regional languages of often a political one in the Philippines, this was the second-best category.

So, good luck to me, I guess? I won't be able to attend the awards ceremony, though. I don't have the funds or the passport to do so. Alas..

But yeah, I am feeling bad now - I haven't had time to post in this blog. There are so many topics that have I've been mulling over.

Where art thou, Panaghoy?

So the Visayan film Panaghoy sa Suba was released in 2004. It garnered a lot of awards and worldwide recognition in various film festivals like Cannes. But yet, almost three years later there is no DVD? How am I supposed to watch this film? Should I get a pirated copy of this DVD? Yes, it would be illegal but if and when a legit DVD is released, I'll be sure to buy a copy to express my gratitude in making non-Tagalog films.

Speaking of non-Tagalog films, I discovered a Chavacano film on YouTube called El Amor di Pilar (Pilar's Love). The film is produced by brothers Patrick & Paco Almaden of Monad Studios. The plot surrounds a widower from Manila who goes to Zamboanga and falls in love with the sister of his deceased wife. The film does have Tagalog in it but there is a lot of Chavacano in it.

The next non-Tagalog film was brought to my attention last night by Jason Laxamana of his film studio Kalalangan Kamaru; he is a 20 year-old Angeles City (Pampanga) native as well as a broadcast communications student at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He is creating what looks like a horror film in Kapampangan called Anak ning Kapri (Child of Kapre). It's Laxamana's goal to make this film completely in Kapampangan, right down to the credits! Kudos to him!

I can't wait to see both of them. :-D In any case, the clips are below. Enjoy!

The Eskaya

I first encountered Hector Santos's Philippine Leaf website about 10 or 11 years ago (man does time fly!). I don't remember seeing his page about the Eskaya script, though. Just recently, a fellow Wikipedia editor brought to my attention an article she has been working on about the Eskayas of Bohol and their language.

She also sent me a URL of a blog here on Blogspot with pictures of a person's trip to visit the Eskaya in Bohol. The photos by Perez Sez really caught my interest. They show the Eskayan script being used in everyday Eskaya life. The skeptical side of me wonders if these are real or doctored photographs, but I am leaning towards believing they're real barring any future research on them. The photographs are amazing, though.

According to Santos, the Eskaya claim their language is not related to any other. A look at the script reveals that there are a lot of consonant clusters (ble chda bro cro) which are not characteristic of most other Philippine languages. As a matter of fact, it reminds me of Tboli and Blaan with their unusual clusters in words like sdo (fish), kdaw (day), mkik (cry), and tnilos (to cut meat).

I tried deciphering the script so I can see if there are any relations to other languages, but it was rather confusing. Fortunately, one of the photos have some Romanized Eskaya which reads:

Samnet yo Bantilar
Samnat yo aantilac, Datong con bathala ya abeya chda cloper meboy siewes, menti chdi loning ya moy beresagui samnat eela-bolto, gona yonoy dolerkido.
bentod ya hondo yel moy sebar, chda adniam yel kenampay.
Cho
Ediac este mesesabla lo-o ya bac robas cheti ri esto ebitangki chda laraker ???? ya droser ya ?? do-o moy sam tener-go y ?? chda carno ya lacya ya bohol.

Interesting. I cannot make out any words. It does not appear to be related to any of the languages I know. However, it does remind me of Tboli, as I said.

Back to the script. It seems rather random to me. The origins of the script are unknown. Frankly, I believe the script to have been created by someone who happened to look at writing from either Americans or Spaniards and simply stole the letters from there while assigning them totally different phonetic values. I see letters like A, R, d, f, O (which is pronounced the same in Eskaya!), and u. I also see the letters 2, 4, and 8. There are also groups of letters like iss, Das, go, gn, leA, led, Ath, and Aas. Then there are syllabic characters which resemble Greek letters (φ, γ), Cyrillic letters (э), and something that even resembles the Japanese hiragana syllabic character お!


(Click to enlarge. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

Do you know what this reminds me of? The Cherokee syllabary invented by Sequoyah. He just took random letters from the Roman alphabet and gave them different sounds:


(Click to enlarge. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia)

So was there an Eskayan version of Sequoyah? Hopefully more research can shed more light on this mystery.

Kapampangan music video

A "Millenium Version" of the popular Kapampangan folk song, Atin Ku Pung Singsing (I once had a ring) has been made into a music video by the Center for Kapampangan Studies at Holy Angel University in Angeles City, Pampanga.

It apparently is a part of a CD titled "Paskung Kapampangan" (Kapampangan Christmas). It was mentioned on Christmas Eve by Tonette Orejas in the Philippine Inquirer article Kapampangan carols now on CDs. Even though Christmas is basically over, I still would like a copy of this CD. In any case, the music video is below. Enjoy! I think it's the first time I've seen a music video in a non-Tagalog Philippine language (Scratch that - it's the second; I've watched the Kapampangan tourism video!).

Right under the video are the lyrics and a translation which Ernie Turla (author of the Classic Capampangan dictionary) helped me with back in 2003.



Atin ku pung singsing (I once had a ring)
Metung yang timpukan (It was a family heirloom)
Amana ke iti (I inherited this)
King indung ibatan (From my own mother)
Sangkan keng sininup (I pretended to hide it)
King metung a kaban (Inside a chest)
Mewala ya iti, (It just disappeared)
E ku kamalayan. (Without my knowing)

Ing sukal ning lub ku (The pain inside me)
Susukdul king banwa (Reaches up to the sky)
Pikurus kung gamat (My crossed arms)
Babo ning lamesa (Are on top of the table)
Ninu mang manakit (Whoever finds)
King singsing kung mana (My heirloom ring)
Kalulung pusu ku (My poor heart)
Manginu ya keya. (Will worship him).

Jesus Film in Philippine languages

Since Christmas Eve is upon us, I'd like to show you a link where you can watch the Jesus Film dubbed in various languages - a lot of which are in many Philippine languages.

The link is http://www.jesusfilm.org/languages/index.html

They are (as far as I can tell; there may be more that I may've missed):

• Aklanon
• Bicolano
• Koronadal Blaan
• Cebuano
• Chavacano
• Hiligaynon
• Ibaloi
• Ibanag
• Ifugao
• Ilocano
• Itawis
• Kankanaey
• Kapampangan
• Kinaray-a
• Magindanaon
• Masbateño
• Pangasinan
• Romblomanon
• Southern Sama
• Western Subanon
• Tagalog
• Tausug
• Tboli
• Waray-Waray
• Yakan

*phew*

As an added bonus, go check out Gospel Recordings.Com they have MP3 recordings of oodles and oodles of Philippine languages. There are simply too many to list. This is a great way to introduce yourselves to the languages of the Philippines.

Over and out!

Chavacano pronouns

Before summer started, there was a proposal to start a Wikipedia for Chavacano. My vote was in conditional support; the condition was that the type of Chavacano had to be specified (in this case, Zamboangueño). It passed sometime thereafter. One of the reasons why I had conditional support was that the three varieties of Chavacano are different from each other. And to illustrate this, I showed the pronouns in each of the three main living Chabacano varieties, Zamboangueño, Caviteño, and Ternateño. A chart of which is below (and now in the Chavacano article on Wikipedia):

	Zamboangueño	Caviteño	Ternateño
1st person singular	iyo yo	yo
2nd person singular	evo(s) (common) vo(s) (common) tu (familiar) uste(d) (formal)	tu vo uste	vo uste
3rd person singular	el ele	eli
1st person plural	kami (exclusive) kita (inclusive) nosotros (formal)	nisos	mijotro motro
2nd person plural	kamo (common) vosotros (familiar) ustedes (formal)	vusos	ustedi tedi
3rd person plural	sila (common & familiar) ellos (formal)	ilos	lojotro lotro

Zamboangueño evidentally has the most complex pronoun system out of the three. Not only does it retain the inclusive and exclusive distinction in "we" which is characteristic of many Philippine languages but there are also various levels of formality.

In more polite speaking, the Spanish pronouns are used; tu, usted, nosotros, vosotros, ustedes, and ellos. Since nosotros is used, the inclusive/exclusive distinction is loss.

In more casual speech, not only Visayan pronouns are used (kami, kita, kamo, and sila) but also Spanish-based innovations (evos & ele).


Caviteño and Ternateño seem to the more Spanish-based innovations than Zamboangueño does. Vo seems to come from Spanish vos, which is an old way of saying "you" that survives in some South American (especially Argentina) and Central American dialects of Spanish.

The Ternateño mijotro (we) and lojotro (they) appear to based on the Spanish mis otros (my others) and los otros (the others). Ustedi and tedi are based on Spanish ustedes (plural "you"; you guys, you all).

As far as Caviteño nisos, busos, and ilos are concerned, I'm somewhat puzzled. I could be wrong, but they appear to be from nosotros, vosotros, and ellos but I'm not sure where the -os ending came from. It's most likely to mark the plural.

To end this entry, below is a photo taken by Guillermo Gomez Rivera on his trip to Ternate a few years ago. In English, it says "We receive all of you with all our hearts."

Language Barrier, a microdocumentary on Cebuano

During these past few years, I've been dreaming of having my own TV show on PBS in the distance future, after having established myself in the field of linguistics. The show I have in mind would be about languages of the world but in a Rick Steves-esque kind of format - just basically bringing awareness of the different kinds of languages. I even have a "The Languages of Bicol" section already planned out in my head - I'd demonstrate how words for a particular object differ whenever I cross a river in Bicolandia. Or I could cover the revival of say, Occitan, in France, the horrid state of the Ryukyuan languages in Japan, the sole living native speakers of various languages, the life of a translator/interpreter, etc. The possibilities are just endless!

Whether or not the show would garner a substantial audience is another matter altogether, but a guy can dream, can't he?

But I digress.

I did, however, find a video that's along the lines of what I want to do. While in the land of viral videos that is YouTube, I discovered a video titled Language Barrier, produced in Cebu City & Lapu-Lapu City by IAFT film student Ian Allen Lim. It is a "microdocumentary" (I think I just invented this word) which gives a sociolinguistic perspective by interviewing three native Cebuanos: writer/poet Michael U. Obenieta, UP student Roxy Jane Kaka, and media law professor Alfredo Buenaventura.

Each of these three have differing attitudes concerning their native language vis-à-vis Tagalog. Mr. Obenieta and Ms. Kaka seem to have diplomatic attitudes toward people speaking Tagalog in Cebu but at the same address the way that Cebuanos and their language have been mistreated. Atty. Buenaventura, on the other hand, passionately argues that Tagalogs should learn Cebuano when they come to Cebu if he has to speak Tagalog while in Manila.

Despite these different opinions, there seems to be a common thread among the three of them. They have their own rich language with its long-standing history and they are damn proud of it. It's also a matter of fairness. Until the late 20th century, there were more native Cebuano speakers than native Tagalog ones. Despite that, it was Tagalog that went on to be national and official language of the country and the only language to be officially taught in schools. Even today the mass media is by and large in Tagalog and English, though Cebuano seems to making ground, albeit slowly.

The point is that it puts a more meaningful background of how Cebuanos feel about the marginalization of their language in the face of Tagalog domination. It's very easy for Tagalogs to discard Cebuanos' feelings and quickly labeling it irrational and divisive regionalism and such.

I do support Atty. Buenaventura's idea of reciprocity to a certain extent, however it's not a Tagalog-speaker's fault they can't learn the language (Cebuano resources are difficult to obtain, and I speak from experience, as a Tagalog speaker). It should be up to the Philippine educational system to implement such a program. More on this can be found in my blog entry titled My Ideal Language Policy.

In any case, you can view the video at the end of this blog entry. You can also access it directly (as well as leaving the author a comment) by clicking here.