Now a few words anent the chief authorities on Philippine
linguistics--treatises, namely, bearing on the various dialects
employed in that archipelago, twenty-seven in number, as observed
ahead, all, however, akin in their common stock--Malay, of which these
idioms, or patois, are daughters, yet with countless, sharply-marked
differences between one another.
A working knowledge of the many fashions of speech so much needed
as obvious, nay, indispensable to traveler or missionary, will be
gained most quickly and thoroughly, it should be premised, from books
of two-fold character,--(1) namely, from grammars and dictionaries
of the several idioms, based on scientific rules of philology; then
(2) from devotional works--books of Christian piety, very numerous
in the Philippines, as are religious manuals, prayer-, sermon-,
and confession-books, whereof titles abound in Retana, all pretty
much from the busy pen of missionaries themselves, to whose zeal
and ability in the instruction of their brown and black many-tongued
wards is due largely, nay, wholly, whatever of humanizing, Christian
character is found in Malaysia, as in fact is true also in other
countries now civilized and enlightened, albeit once barbarian.
In his latest bibliography, [11] where the number of published
works in each of the twenty-seven dialects of the Philippines is
set down by Retana, you will observe from a study of his lists, that
though in many dialects there are no grammars so entitled, or other
scientific aids to learning a given idiom, yet there are many works
of religious cast printed therein,--hand-books of practical religion,
which you will find useful beyond measure to linguists. Since from
these prayer-books, wherein are set down plainly the simplest and
commonest rules of Christian ethical conduct, you can easily gather
a working knowledge of the language itself, as the missionary who
composed them was careful to put matters of every-day interest in the
plain, every-day speech of the islanders. Before closing this brief
digression on manuals of piety, I must observe what will prove very
useful, I judge, to the scholar, that with works of the first class,
as grammars and dictionaries, is to be associated on shelf and desk
a goodly number of works of another class--books and treatises that
bear the name Arte = Aids to Learning, whereof you will encounter
very many in Retana.
The Arte of a given dialect, as will be found true also in a measure
for grammars and other school-manuals, will be recognized as a
compendium of not only literary rules, but of many practical maxims of
daily life, whereby the pupils are urged not only to correct speech,
but to upright conduct as well through sobriety, piety to the Supreme
Being, obedience to rulers, respect for parents and fellows, according
to the noblest ideals of refined Christian manhood and womanhood. Thus,
with grammar were taught ethics; with politics, religion.
Referring here to class-books in the Philippines, where from
the earliest years of the conquest every pueblo had its school of
primary instruction, it will not be irrelevant to point out the fact
very stoutly that though education (as admitted by well-nigh every
chronicler) was primitive in character,--and in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries where was it not? yet the course of instruction
given in the common schools of bamboo-thatch was (as results amply
testify) deep and solid enough for the intellectual calibre of the
people. Since, so far as known, Malaysia, however saintly, heroic,
innocent, the same as our own aborigines, albeit now civilized
for three centuries and upwards, has, despite the heartiest aid
in teachers and funds, fairly lavished on them by Church and state,
turned out no man of shining mark, no scholar, no artist, no genius in
statecraft or commerce. The first college-institution with pretensions
to higher courses of intellectual training was opened (formally at
least) by the Jesuits in 1601, less than half a century, that is,
after the arrival of Europeans in Luzon.
In regard to common Indian schools, so zealously guarded by the
Leyes de las Indias, I have picked up here and there from old-time
chroniclers scraps of many ordinances passed by the crown relative to
their foundation and conduct. Among them the following bits of quaint
old-fashioned oversight of the dominies in charge. Thus, in 1754, I
have read that each maestro of a mission-school was to get, in lieu
of support, "a peso and one caban--a measure--of rice a month." (A
caban was equal to 75 litres, about the same number of quarts,
English.) Again, every mission-priest was called upon to supply (free
to his pupils) "paper and ink." Moreover, as early as the beginning of
the century just closing, in 1817, it was ordained that boys' schools
were to be kept on the ground-floor of the mission-house; while the
girls were to be taught at their mistress' home. (Malaysia--thus it
was ordained--was not to experiment with the "co-educational theory.")
Now for the promised works of chief authority on Philippine
linguistics,--monuments of the various dialects of that archipelago,
that, along with their purely technical value to the student of idioms,
will be acknowledged as useful to scholars in even far different
lines of intellectual play.
Of the best works for the study of Visaya, or Bisaya, first dialect
in the islands acquired by missionary and conquistador, wherein he
gives 352 titles (p. xxix), Retana has the following: "Up to a few
years ago the dictionary held in highest repute by linguists was the
work of the Augustinian scholar Alonso de Mentrida," a vocabulary of
the Hiligueina, or Hiligayno, and Haraya tongues--two of the three
chief dialects spoken in Panay, not very different from the Visaya
of Cebu, used, however, by the less cultured tribes of hillsmen in
that island. This vocabulary, first printed in 1637, and in 1841
republished at Manila, with diagrams of Indian alphabets, enlarged in
another edition in 1842, by a brother missionary, Julian Martin, has
now been supplanted by the Visaya-Spanish dictionary (in two volumes),
of another Augustinian scholar, Juan Felix de la Encarnacion, printed
at Manila, first, in 1851-1852, then in 1866 and again in 1885.
Another work deserving of praise is the Arte of the Visaya idiom
in use in the islands of Samar and Leite (Binondo, 1872), composed
by the Franciscan traveler, Antonio Figuerroa, in which latter
language--Leite, that with slight changes is similar to Cebuano,
the first grammar was published by the Jesuit missionary, Domingo
Ezquerra, in 1662.
Helpful, too, as much as the former Arte in philology is the Christian
Doctrine translated into Visaya-Cebuano by the Recoleto scholar and
orator, Tomas de San Jeronimo, known to his contemporaries as "the
Cicero of Cebu." His school-book re-issued at Binondo in 1876 is a
reprint of his edition of 1731.
Of the Tagal dialect,--a form of speech so hard to acquire with nicety
that, according to a Spanish saying, one needs therefor "un ano de
arte y dos de bahaque," [12] that is to say, unless I am wrong in
my interpretation of the last word--"bahaque" which likely is Aeta,
the scholar needs "a year of study and two of practice."
The earliest Tagal Arte, so styled in chronicles, for what with the
universal destructive touch of time, and in Luzon especially, the
voracity of that pest of librarians, the anay,--an ant that in a few
hours, it is said, will devour a library,--cases as well as books,
not a sole copy, apparently, has survived, was composed in 1580
by the Augustinian voyager and missionary, Agustin de Albuquerque,
fourth superior of his brotherhood in the Philippines, and printed
at Manila in 1637.
In Tagal the works most highly praised are the following: The Critical
Treatise on Tagalisms (Mexico, 1742), by the Franciscan linguist,
Melchior Oyanguren, the only work known wherein that tongue is
contrasted on scientific lines with the classic Latin, Greek, and
Hebrew, and Mandarin Chinese. The author was moved to prepare his
manual for the instruction of his brother missionaries prior to their
entrance into their field of work in Luzon.
The Tagal dictionary, by the Jesuit missionary, Juan de Noceda, and
others of his society (Manila, 1754), a lexicographical treasure,
was reprinted at Valladolid in 1836, and (in its most highly-prized
form) again, in 1860, at Manila, with valuable additions by some
Augustinian experts.
For the scholar unacquainted with Latin, the most serviceable work
for learning Tagal is the Essay on Tagal Grammar (Manila, 1878),
composed by the Recoleto missionary and linguist, Toribio Minguella de
la Merced, whose Grammar (in the same language) for the use of children
(Manila, 1886) was adopted for schools by the Spanish government.
While another helpful work for the study of that same dialect is the
Tagal catechism, by the Augustinian, Luis de Amezquita, a popular
booklet, first printed in 1666, and (in its thirteenth edition)
in 1880, at Manila.
A rare and precious treatise, praised for its critical spirit, is
the study on Tagal poetry--a compendium of that dialect reprinted
at Sampaloc in 1787, from the first edition of 1703; and again at
Manila, in 1879, by another member of the same brotherhood, Gaspar de
San Agustin, author, besides, of one of the most valued Conquistas,
or histories of the islands.
For the study of Tagal refrains--for this people is ballad-lover to
the core--and similar turns of speech, an excellent work, one unique
of its kind, is the Coleccion (Guadalupe, 1890), by two well-known
Franciscan linguists, Gregorio Martin and Mariano Martinez Cuadrado.
The Tagal Arte (Sampaloc, 1745), along with a manual (also in Tagal)
for the administration of the Sacraments, composed by the Franciscan
missionary, Sebastian de Totanes, "is" (according to our bibliographer)
"the best edition of the best grammar" written by missionaries of
that order.
In Ilocano, another of the unnumbered dialects of Luzon, there is a
good dictionary (Manila, 1849), by the Augustinian scholar, Andres
Carro (aided by others of his brotherhood)--the first work of its
kind, reprinted only a few years ago, in 1888. Serviceable, too, for
the study of the same dialect--Ilocano--as doubtless easy to obtain,
is the Catecismo, by another member of that same order, Francisco Lopez
(Manila, 1877), whereof editions fairly without number have issued.
In Batanes, or Vatanes, a dialect used in the islets north of Luzon,
mission-field of the Dominicans, hard to reach, nor easy at best to
live in, is composed the Catechism of the Christian Doctrine (Manila,
1834), by a missionary of that order--the only work, perhaps, printed
in that language, wherein Retana states he is about to edit a grammar
and dictionary. In his Biblioteca (p. 51) he gives the Ave Maria in
Batanes, Ibanag and Ilocano, in order to show (he says) the diversities
between these idioms.
The Pampanga Arte (Manila, 1729), by the Augustinian, Diego Bergano, an
estimable aid to the would-be learner of that language, was reissued at
Sampaloc in 1736. By the same author is a dictionary of Pampanga--the
only work of its class, printed at Manila, first in 1732, and again
in 1860.
In the Ibanag tongue, otherwise Ibanay or Cagayan, the dictionary by
the Dominican linguist, Jose Bugarin, and companions (Manila, 1854),
we have what Retana styles a masterpiece of philological craft,
"the first and (in fact) only vocabulary of that dialect" whereof
of all Philippine tongues "the orthography is the most difficult to
manage." In another place, however (p. 102), he has named another
Ibanag dictionary (Manila, 1867), constructed from Dominican MSS.,
to which similarly (by error I suppose) he has awarded seniority of
press. Prior to the above date--1854--in that vast region of Cagayan,
where, by the way, is grown the choicest tobacco in the Philippines,
the missionaries, for generation and generation of island-pupils had
relied wholly on MS. copies of Padre Bugarin's dictionary.
In Pangasinan, or Caboalan, dialect used in the province of the
same name in Luzon, we have another linguistic treasure--the Arte
of Mariano Pellicer, of the same brotherhood, reprinted at Manila,
in 1862, from the edition of 1690, whereof in the course of time,
as writers tell us, it came to pass that up to about the middle of
the present century only one copy survived. Then re-cast by Pellicer,
in 1840, it was re-published by him some twenty years later.
Of the Cuyona dialect I note two works of merit,--one (p. 113) an
explanation of the Christian Doctrine (Manila, 1871), by the Recoleto
missionary, Pedro Gibert de Santa Eulalia, edited by the Dominican
Mariano Cuartero, first bishop of St. Isabel, or Elizabeth, of Jaro,
in the island of Panay, one of the four suffragans of Manila, an
industrious scholar, editor of many works in Indian dialects, whom the
reader, however, is not to confound with another prelate of the same
name, Recoleto bishop of Nueva Segovia, in Luzon, nephew of the former,
who, in this one respect, was like his uncle--author of no book:
while the other Cuyona treasure, whereof there are very few in that
language, ("poquisimos libros," says Retana, p. 230), seven titles
in all comprising the bibliography of that tongue, is the Plan of
Religion (Manila, 1886), by the same industrious and scholarly Gibert.
In the Gaddan idiom, wherein only two books have been printed,
both very devotional in character, is a Catechism (Manila, 1833),
and the Pathway to Heaven (ib., 1873), by Dominican missionaries in
the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Isabela, in Luzon.
In the Aeta language of the Negritos, or little black men, perhaps the
primitive race of the Philippines--whose name I have encountered in
many forms of spelling, as Ata, Ataa, Aeta, Agta, Aita, Ita, Itaa,
[13] there are similarly, only two works known to Retana, whose
bibliographical notices have been of so much value,--one a Report
on the Philippine Islands (Paris, 1885), addressed to the French
Minister of Public Instruction by J. Montano, a book of over two
hundred and nine pages, illumined with numerous phototypes, and,
what renders it of exceptional value, enriched with vocabularies,
"the first," Retana declares, in Aeta, Bilaan, Manobo (of the natives
of Mindanao), Samal and Tagacaolo dialects.
As companion volume to the above, though far smaller in bulk, is a
little treatise (Dresden, 1893), of double authorship, the German
A. B. Meyer giving therein a very interesting Aeta vocabulary, and
his Dutch co-laborer, H. Kern, a comparative study of the same tongue,
which he traces to Malay ancestry.
For the study of Chamorro, idiom of the Marianas Islands, one
will find serviceable the little book of devotions (Manila, 1887),
with counsels for the worthy reception of the Sacraments of God,
(p. 248)--the only work, in fact, we have in this dialect, by the
Recoleto linguist and traveler, Aniceto Ibanez del Carmen.
Finally, with three other samples of the Philippine press as proofs
of the variety of its polyglot fonts, and I shall have done with this
digression on the many languages used in this part of Polynesia,--one
a grammar in the dialect of Yap or Guap (p. 248), in the western
Caroline archipelago (Manila, 1888), composed apparently by the
Capuchin missionary, Ambrosio de Valencia; the second (p. 332)
a Hispano-Kanaka dictionary (Tambobong, 1892), by another Capuchin
wanderer, according to Retana, Agustin Maria de Arinez. While the
last, a work, as will readily be acknowledged, of interest as well
as importance to ethnologists, linguists, Americanists especially,
is the list of Nahuatlisms of Costa Rica (San Jose de Costa Rica,
1892), by Juan Fernandez Ferraz, a goodly-sized volume of over two
hundred pages, wherein, on purely linguistic grounds, the author
has maintained the kinship of our own Central Americans and the
Philippinians, from the fact especially that in the respective
countries of these two antipodal peoples, abound very many terms of
every-day use, with identical spelling and meaning. In his Biblioteca
(p. 340), Retana has gathered a few of these homonyms and synonyms.
Such, then, are the chief authorities on language among our Philippina
that, while entertaining, nay instructing the philologist, will
delight also the general student, the writers whereof, as the reader
will not be slow to observe, were in far larger number all churchmen
and missionaries.
In fact, of the 1142 authors, whose works he has enumerated
(Biblioteca, xxxv-xxxvi), Retana states that four hundred and sixty-six
are ecclesiastics, that is, ninety-eight secular clergymen and three
hundred and sixty-eight members of religious brotherhoods, whereof
the Augustinians--the writer's own order--numbering one hundred and
forty-one authors, inclusive of thirty-seven Recoletos--the bare-footed
branch of that fraternity--figure highest. Next in rank, we have one
hundred Dominicans, then fifty-seven Jesuits, fifty-six Franciscans,
and fourteen authors of orders not specified.
Of these brotherhoods, who thus in Malaysia, as in other quarters
of the globe, brought forth so brilliant an array of scholars and
philanthropists, the first-named, the Augustinians, with Legazpi,
crossing two oceans and one continent therefore, found a home in the
Philippines at the conquest of that archipelago in 1565; in 1577 the
first Franciscans reached the isles; in 1581, the Dominicans, with
the first bishop of Manila (by actual possession), Domingo Salazar,
member of the same brotherhood, accompanied too by some Jesuits,
while the Recoletos first crossed the Pacific in 1611.
These churchmen, with very few exceptions Spanish, with later on a
sprinkling of Portuguese, Dutchmen, Germans, Italians and Irishmen,
scholars, as a rule, of fair repute, some even of European eminence,
from their advent into Polynesia, besides their care in implanting
Christian altruism, wherewith only (as history attests) thrive
science and art, have toiled ever since to imbue these islanders,
whom they found heathen--without letters, laws, or settled abode--with
learning, the arts of husbandry, building, carving, painting, weaving,
and the like graces of intellectual grandeur--in brief, with whatever
of civilization now marks Malaysian genius.
From Manila, as centre of intellectual enlightenment for all
eastern Asiatic and Polynesian lands in the sixteenth century, were
transplanted the germs of philanthropy--of wisdom and charity--to
Borneo, the Carolines, Moluccas, as well as the mainland of Asia,
to China and Japan, while in India the Portuguese, with headquarters
at Goa, fulfilled the same destiny as their Iberian brothers.
Speaking of the heroism of these self-exiled churchmen and worshipers
of the Christian Minerva in Asiatic tropics, I quote the words of
the famed French savant, Elisee Reclus, a witness, by the way, in no
measure partial to cloister life. In his Universal Geography [14]
he declares that "Los Filipinos son de los pueblos mas civilizados
del Extremo Oriente. Los han civilizado los frailes"--that is,
"The Philippines are one of the most civilized people of the Far
East. The friars have civilized them."