The Subgrouping of Philippine Languages

145 •• JULY, 1966 "All the sciences concerned with hu enterprise. If reflects a sense of conscious man beings that range from the abstrac ness, of awareness, finally, that to seek tions of economics through sociology to and to know the truth is not the final anthropology and psychology are, in part, goal, in society. In science, it is. But in efforts to lower the degree of empiricism society, the final goal is to know what in certain areas; in part they are efforts to do with the truth, once you have it. to organize and systematize empirical pro Thus, the evolution of the social sciences, cedures. "14 arriving on the scene last, can be inter preted as appearing on the scene late not One might therefore view our concern because of its lack of importance but be with experimentation in the social sciences •• as a final step which has evolved in o':!r cause of it. process of intellectualization-a step made The application of the social sciences necessary by our need to know the mys are pervasive throughout the other sciences teries of our own human behavior. that because it attempts to provide us with it has evolved last, that man has turned the nature of the truth about ourselves. his intellectual quests finally to the study. To the extent that scientific truth calls of man and his societies after first dis for choices to be made all along the line, enchanting the non-living world and then the contributions of the social sciences to the living world without man in it sug our self-understanding as human beings gests an optimistic view to the scientific enables us to make better choices and to 14 Conant. 1951, op. cit., p. 129. better live with them. • The Subgrouping of Philippine Languages TEODORO LLAMZON, S.J. Yale University New Haven, Connecticut The Philippine' languages belong to a better this vast group of languages (now well-known family of languages called the estimated to be around 500 or 1/8 of the Malayo-Polynesian. The term '''Malayo world's languages), whose speakers arc Polynesian" was first used by the eminent spread out from Formosa in the north linguist, Wilhelm von Humboldt in 1836 to New Zealand in the south, from Easter when he tried to establish the relation Island in the east to Madagascar in the ship of the Indonesian languages to the west. A recent study by Isidore Dyen has Polynesian.' Later, in 1876, Friedrich also indicated that approximately three Muller called these languages "Austrone fourths of the Austronesian languages be sian">, a term which is now becoming more long to the Malayo-Polynesian subgroup widely accepted as a term which describes and that the rest are broken down into isolated languages or small language groups 1 Wilhelm von Humboldt, Uber die Kawi Sprache auf der Insel Java (3 vols., Abhand chiefly confined to Melanesia." lungen der koniglichen Akademie der Wissen chatten zu Berlin, 1836-39). 3 Isidore Dyen, A Lexioostatisticai Classifica 2 Friedrich Muller, Grundriss der Sprachwis tion of the Austronesian Languages, Supplement senschaft (4 vols.; Vienna: Alfred Holder, 1876 to International Journal of American Linguistics, • 88) . Vol. 31, No.1, 1965. 146 PHILIPPINE SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Several linguistic features unite this "Tagalic'" and which includes at least vast group of Malayo-Polynesian languages, Tagalog, Bisayan (and its dialects: Ce among which are the following: a) the buano, Hiligaynon, Samar-Leyte), and Bi phoneme inventory: 0 la, i, u, e; p, t, T, k, col. This subgrouping is supported by the b, d, g, Rl , R2, Ra, R4, D, Z, s, z, c, r. following exclusively shared innovations: j, m, n, fi, '1, W, y, W-, Xl -, X2-, Xa-, q, h: a) their treatment of ° e, ° d, °D, OJ, °z, aw, ew, iw, ay, ey, uy1\ b) the word or; b) the fact that each language - and structure: CVCV (e.g. 0 lim~ 'five'), . in the case of Bisayan, each dialect CVCVC (e.g. 0 lanit 'sky, heaven'), treats ° d and °z alike and °D and OJ alike CVCCVC (e.g. 0 TukTuk)", c) the use so that their correspondences are different of affixation (or the addition of infix, pre only in four respects: °e, °d-z, °D_j, and fix, suffix to an underlying form or base) or; c) many agreements in vocabulary, ••• as opposed to inflection, d) the numerals: syntax and morphology. o esa, Dewha, telu, x.epat, lima, xaenem, The facts which I have so far given pitu, wahi, siwa, puhiq. to support the subgrouping of the Malayo The Philippine languages, as a sub Polynesian, Philippine, and Tagalic lan group of this Malayo-Polynesian group, guages were all arrived at by the so-called are likewise widely recognized. Some of "comparative method'", which determines the linguistic features which characterize the. inteNelationship between languages the group are: a) the merging of the. fol of the same family.by their .exclusive shar lowing protophonemes enumerated above: ing of innovations. But this is not the only o t and °T > t; Os and oc,> s; On and method used by scholars in their efforts °fi> n; e W-, ° Xl -, °X2-, °Xa-, ° s > q; to determine the interrelationship between , b) the occurrence of a glottal stop before languages of the same family. There is • any sequence which has initial vowel in also, for instance, the so-called "judgment the proto-language: thus; e #V- >qV-; c) , by inspection'" which was used so effect the innovation of ° siya, 'he, she, it' by ively by Joseph Greenberg in his work analogy with °SiDa 'they', and the com on the African languages, by which a mul mon possession of the word 0' siam for tiplicity of shared differences in phonology, 'nine', as against ° siwa of non-Philippine' morphology, syntax, or lexicon, whether languages, d) the use of the infix ° -imin 7 Isidore Dyen, The Proto-Malauo-Polunesian as the past or actual of the transient for Laryngeals (Baltimore: Linguistic Society of mation with 0 urn." America, 1953), pp. 6-7. 8 The comparative method is the study of Within the Philippine group, Dyen has related languages which have developed from a common parent language. This method was deve also identified a subgroup which he calls loped especially by the detailed study of the Indo-European languages by such men as Rasmus • 4 This inventory is from Otto DempwolfPs Rask in 1818 [Uruiersogetse om det gamle Nor Vergleichende Lautlehre des austronesischen Wart diske eller Islandske Sprogs Oprindelse 'Investi schatzes (3 vols.; Beihefte zur Zeitschrift Iilr Ein gation of the Origin of the Old Norse or Icelandic geborenen -Sprachen, nos. 15 [1934], 17 (1937), Language') and Franz Bopp in 1816 (Ober das 19 [1938]; Berlin: Dietrich Reimer). I. Dyen Coniugationsijstem der Sanskrit Sprache) and by has modified this inventory by adding IZ, W-, the neo-grammarians August Leskien, Karl Brug x -, x -, and provisionally also 1Rl' R , R mann, August Schleicher,' Johannes Schimdt in I 2 xa-I, 2 a, R/: see his articles "Proto-Malayo-Polynesian the 19th. century. The principle of subgrouping by "exclusively shared innovations" was first used Z", Language 23.227-38 (1947), "Dempwolff's by Karl .Brugmann. See his "Zur Frage nach R", Language 29.259-66 (1953), "Some New den Verwandschaftsverhaltnissen der indogerma Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Initial Phonemes", JAOS nischen Sprachen", Internationale Zeitschriit [iir ,., 82.214-215 (1962). <allgemeine Sprach uiissenschaft 1.253 (1884). 5, There is a sizeable number of repeated 9 This term was used by I. Dyen in his review monosyllabic bases, e.g. I) seksek, I)DapDap, etc. of Otto Chr. Dahl, Malgache et maim;an: une : G',From my own work, I.have added provision; comparaison linguistique in Language, .29 (1953) ally °e , "L , "L , "La' " ." 2 l 2 577-590. • • J LJLY, 1966 147 01' not these are exclusively shared inno Isinai, 2) a central group centering in the vations or retentions is used as the basis regions bordering the Sibuyan Sea (be of subgrouping. tween southern Luzon and the Bisayas) and includes such languages as Sugbuha In his study of 75 linguistic and ethnic non (or Cebuanon), and probably (be groups in the Philippines, Harold C. Conk cause of scanty evidence) Dumagat (with lin made a preliminary subgrouping of Sierra Madre), PoliIlo, Alabat, Kalawat), the languages,"? employing the same Negrito (with Bataan-Zambales Mt., Apayo method. Conklin divides the linguistic Swamp, Paranan, Baluga, Agta), Pula, Ba groups" first of all geographically into tangan, Bangon, and Agtaa. Luzon, Bisayas and Mindanao, and then •• gives the subgroups of these three major Building on the results of Conklin's groups directionally from North to South work and on that of Fox, Eggan and Sib and from East to West. Linguistically, only ley'", the Subcontractor's Monograph, two of these groups were easily discernible which appeared in 1955, divided the at the time: 1) a northern group center Malayo-Polynesian languages into four ing in northern Luzon and including such "traditional" branches: Indonesian (Ma languages as Ivatan (with Batan and It layan), Melanesian, Micronesian, and Poly bayat), Kalinga (with Abling-Saligsig, nesian. The Philippine languages were then Kalagua, Nabayugan, Mangali-Lubo, Lu subsumed under the Indonesian branch of buagan, Sumadel, Balbalasang-Ginaang), the family. Gaddang (with Gaddang proper, Yogad, Within the Philippine group of lan Maddukayang, Katalangan, lraya), and guages, there were three subgroups enu merated: • 10 This was a pioneer attempt to subgroup the Philippine languages and Conklin did it as a graduate student at Yale University in 1952. He I-Northern Luzon-most of the lan entitled his paper "Outline Gazetteer of Native guages north of the languages Philippine Ethnic and Linguistic Groups".

Load more