THE INFIXES La, Li, Lo and Al in PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES
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PUBLICATIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE Bulletin No. 3 October, 1939 THE INFIXES la, li, lo AND al IN PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES FELIZBERTO B. VIRAY MANILA BUREAU OF PRINTING 1939 -hs w ip w ie & W B '^ •. .V < / MW IPOB ' >/" i >: •*'•'■ ’ - ' •. •. ?'sgsgt/ SS3K PUBLICATIONS OF THE INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE Bulletin No. 3 October, 1939 THE INFIXES la, li, lo AND al IN PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES FELIZBERTO B. VIRAY MANILA BUREAU OF PRINTING 1939 37902 INSTITUTE OF NATIONAL LANGUAGE J aime C. de Veyra, D irector Cecilio L opez, Secretary and Executive Officer F elix S. Salas Rodriguez, M em b er Santiago A. F onacier, M em b er Casimiro F. P erfecto, M em b er I sidro Abad, M em b er Zoilo H ilario, M em b er L ope K. Santos, M em b er J ose I. Zulueta, M em b er 2 THE INFIXES la, li, lo AND al IN PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES1 BY FELIZBERTO B. VIRAY INTRODUCTION Words in Philippine languages are formed by the com bination of roots and affixes. The affixes which are pre fixes, infixes, and suffixes enliven the words of the lang uages and complete the ideas to be expressed by their being added to the roots of words. The prefixes are numerous in all the Philippine languages but the infixes and suffixes are few. The infixes that are so far known are urn, in, and la, li, lo. The infixes la, li, lo take other forms such as ra, ri, ro, ga, gi, go and ya, yi, yo following the operation of the RLD 2 and RGH3 laws in Philippine languages. Spanish grammarians writing on the languages of the Visayan Islands and Justice Norberto Romualdez in his Bisayan Grammar, have recognized the occurrence of the infixes la, li, lo and their equivalent forms; but those who wrote on the languages of Luzon and Mindanao have made 1 Lecture delivered in the Villamor Hall, October 12, 1939. 2 The RLD law is the correspondence of r, I and d in the name of a thing, e. g., Pangasinan ngaran ‘name’, Magindanaw nalan, Bagobo nadgan; Ibanag langit ‘sky’, Inibaloi dangit, Zambali-Boli- naw rangit. 3 The RGH law is the correspondence of the letters r, g, h and sometimes y in the different languages, either initial, medial or terminal, e. g., Tagalog gamot ‘root’, Iloko ramut, Pangasinan la- mot, Ivatan yamut; Tagalog ugat ‘vein’, Iloko urat, Pangasinan ulat, Ivatan uyat; Tagalog ikog ‘tail’, Tiruray igor, Pangasinan ikol. 3 4 no mention of the existence of such infixes in these lan guages. So far, we know only of Mr. Louis B. Wolfenson of Johns Hopkins University, and Mr. Julian C. Balma- seda, now special assistant in the Institute of National Language, Manila, who have made studies on these affixes la, li, lo in Tagalog. Professor Frank R. Blake in a foot note in his A Grammar of the Tagalog Language . re ferred to Mr. Wolfenson’s paper The Infixes la, li, lo in Tagalog. Of the other languages in Luzon and Mindanao we have not come across any study on these affixes. One of the works of the Institute of National Language is “to make a comparative critical study of all Philippine prefixes, infixes and suffixes” . This present paper is a comparative study of the infixes la, li, lo and their equivalents and al in the Philippine languages which are being studied and represented in the Institute of National Language, namely: Tagalog, Sebu, Hiligaynon, Samar-Leyte, Bikol, Pangasinan, Pampangan and Ibanag. DISCUSSION In our study, we grouped together (1) those languages which have clear infixes la, li, lo or their equivalents per forming specific functions and the derivatives formed having meanings semantic with those of the roots, and (2) those languages which have the infix al which has been treated as the equivalent of the infixes la, li, lo by the au thors we have named in the introduction. I. LANGUAGES WHICH HAVE CLEAR. INFIXES la, li, lo- We use the forms la, li, lo because in roots beginning with a vowel, if al, il, ol are used, the al, il, ol become prefixes instead of infixes, e. g., Sebu alagian ‘passage’ (<agi ‘pass’), Hiligaynon ilimnon ‘drinking water or liquor’ (<inum ‘drink’). When a fixed form of these infixes is used, it begins with a consonant instead of a vowel, e. g., Hiligaynon matalotam’is ‘pretty sweet’ (<tam’is ‘sweet’), 5 with infix lo; Samar-Leyte sarosakayan ‘small ship’ (<sa- kayan ‘ship’), iroisda ‘object like fish’ (<isda ‘fish’), Bikol karokawatan ‘small toy’ (<kawatan ‘toy’), karokanding ‘small goat’ (<kanding ‘goat’), with infix ro. Another reason is that syllabications in Philippine languages are formed beginning with consonants, e. g., ba, ka, da, etc. The foregoing observations lead us to believe that the correct forms of these infixes are la, li, lo and generally they are infixed between the first syllable and the root, e. g., Samar-Leyte sarosakayan ‘small ship’ (<sakayan ‘ship’), Bikol karowatan ‘small toy’ (<kawatan ‘toy’). This method of infixing the particles la, li, lo is different from that of infixing um and in which is done by inserting these latter infixes between the letters of the first syllable of the root, e. g., Tagalog s-um-ulat ‘to write’ (<sulat ‘write’), s-in-ulat ‘wrote, written’ (<sulat ‘write’). Each one of these infixes la, li, lo used alone with a root or with a prefix or suffix or both, forms derivative sub stantives, adjectives and verbs. In partially reduplicated roots with these particles in fixed between the first syllable and the root, an inten sifying meaning, either augmentative or diminutive, of the derivatives is clearly evident. SUBSTANTIVES Sebu: solosingbahan ‘chapel, like a church’ (<singbahan ‘church’), bolobabaye ‘like a woman’ (<babaye ‘woman’), kolokabayo ‘like a horse’ (<kabayd ‘horse’). The diminu tive meaning of the derivatives is understood by the fact that an object similar to the one indicated by the root is smaller than that indicated by the root. In the examples given, the vowel of the first syllable of the derivative is the same as that of the infix. This is a variation of the general rule that the vowel of the infix is the same as that of the first syllable of the root. When the vowel of the infix is o and the first syllable of 37902------2 6 the derivative has the same vowel o, a diminutive meaning of a derivative substantive is indicated in Sebu, Hiligaynon and Bikol. Hiligaynon: polopanday ‘a carpenter of little experience (<panday ‘carpenter’), solosakayan ‘small ship’ (<sakayan, ‘ship’), molomaestro ‘little teacher’ (< maestro ‘teacher’). Some writers and speakers in Hiligaynon write and pro nounce the foregoing examples palopanday, salosakayan, malomaestro. When the first syllable of the derivative takes the same vowel as that of the fixed form of the infix, the derivative denotes either a diminutive or similar meaning with that expressed by the root, e. g., gologan- tang ‘small ganta or an object like a ganta’ (<gantang ‘a unit of measure of capacity of three liters’), solosilhig ‘small broom or an object like a broom,’ silhig ‘broom’). Samar-Leyte: sarosakayan ‘small ship’ (<sakayan ‘ship’), darodampog ‘object like cloud’ (<dampog ‘cloud’), karokabayo ‘small horse’ (<kabayo ‘horse’). It seems that ro is the generally used infix in this language. Bikol: gar amigo ‘small friends’ (<gamigo ‘friend’), piri- pinto ‘small door’ (< pinto ‘door’), orooripon ‘little servant or somewhat a servant’ (<oripon ‘servant’). These ex amples have infixes ra, ri, ro respectively, each infix having the same vowel as that of the first syllable of the root. But ro is generally used in this language, e. g., karokawatan ‘tiny toy’ (<kawatan ‘toy’), karokanding ‘small goat’ (<kanding ‘goat’). As in Sebu and Hiligaynon, when the first syllable of the derivative has an o vowel with an infix ro, the derivative has a diminutive or similar mean ing with that indicated by the root, e. g., sorosakayan ‘tiny boat’ (<sakayan ‘boat’), torotindahan ‘small store’ (<tindahan ‘store’), torotampipi ‘small native suitcase’ ( <tampipi ‘native suitcase’) . ADJECTIVES The intensifying meaning of derivatives having the in fixes la, li, lo may be either augmentative or diminutive. 7 Sebu: With augmentative meaning, e. g., talahoron ‘re spectable’ (<tahod ‘respect’), talahaon ‘venerable’ (<taha ‘revere’), bilihon ‘precious’ (<bili ‘price’). With diminu tive meaning, e. g., molomatam’is ‘a little sweet’ (<tam’is ‘sweet’), polopait ‘a little bitter’ (<pait ‘bitter1), tolotab’ang ‘a little tasteless’ (<tab’ang ‘tasteless’), bolobatan’on ‘still young’ (<bata ‘young, child’). Hiligaynon: With augmentative meaning, e. g., masa- lakiton ‘very sickly’ (<sakit ‘sick’), maloloy’on ‘merciful’ (<looy ‘mercy’), hiligugmaon ‘kind, lovable’ (<higugma ‘love’), with infixes la, li, lo, each infix having the same vowel as that of the first syllable of the root. With diminu tive meaning, e. g., aloaslum ‘a little sour’ (<aslum ‘sour’), palopait ‘a little bitter’ (<pait ‘bitter’), matalotam’is ‘a little sweet’ (<tam’is ‘sweet’) with the fixed form of in fix lo. Samar-Leyte: With augmentative meaning, e. g., dara- yegon ‘venerable’ (<dayeg ‘revere’), hirigugmaon ‘amiable, lovable’ (higugma ‘love’), boroyboyon ‘fond of accusing’ ( <boyboy ‘accuse’) with infixes ra, ri, ro. Intensifying meaning, e. g., maoroopay ‘pretty good; better’ (ma + <opay ‘good’), harohataas ‘pretty high; higher’ (<hitaas ‘high’) with infix ro. Bikol: With augmentative meaning, e. g., saradangon ‘very small’ (<sadang ‘small’), pirioton ‘very tight’ <piot ‘tight’), durodusta’on ‘very dirty’ (<dusta ‘dirty’) with in fixes ra, ri, ro. With diminutive meaning, e. g., maroma- raot ‘a little bad’ (ma-\-<raot ‘ bad’), barobagsik ‘a little bit fast’ (<bagsik ‘fast’), haroharayo ‘a little bit far, quite far’ (<harayd ‘far’). The foregoing examples which we have given for deriv ative adjectives in Sebu, Hiligaynon, Samar-Leyte and Bikol show that where an augmentative meaning is ex pressed the infix has the same vowel as that of the first syllable of the root; but where a diminutive is expressed the infix takes the vowel o.