Lawrence A. Reid

Who Are the Philippine Negritos? Evidence from Language

Abstract This article addresses the linguistic evidence from which details about Philippine “negritos” can be inferred. This evidence comes from the naming practices of both negrito and non-negrito peoples, from which it can be inferred that many negrito groups have maintained a unique identity distinct from other groups since the dispersal of Malayo-Polynesian languages. Other names, such as Dupaningan and Dumagat, reference locations, from which it is assumed the negritos left after contact with Malayo-Polynesian people. Evidence also comes from the relative positions of negrito groups vis-à-vis other groups within the subfamily with which their current language can be grouped. Many of these languages can be shown to be first order branches, suggesting early separation from the people whose languages they first acquired. The geospatial distribution of the northern languages of the Philippines closely matches the proposed dispersal routes of early Malayo-Polynesian peoples into the Cagayan River Valley and up the Chico and Magat tributaries from which negrito groups were displaced. One lexical item that is discussed is the word for the traditionally widespread practice of head-hunting, the term for which is reconstructible to Proto-Austronesian with reflexes throughout the Philippines and countries to the south. The practice was probably associated with agriculture and not only may have contributed to the early rapid spread south of Malayo-Polynesian languages through the Philippines and ultimately into the Pacific but also was later a major factor in the long periods of isolation of negrito peoples, during which the languages they had first acquired became very different from that of their former neighbors.

Cross-Linguistic Tendencies and Durational Contrasts in Geminate Consonants: An Examination of Guinaang Bontok Geminates

In Guinaang Bontok, there is a phonological contrast between singletons and geminates in all consonants (/ptk?bdgmnnlswj/) (Reid 1963, 1973; Thurgood 1997). All phonological geminates except for the oral voiced stop geminates are phonetically long consonants (Reid 1963), allowing a phonological distinction which is primarily based on phonetic duration for nasals, fricatives, liquids, glides and voiceless stops. In a cross-linguistic examination of geminates (Thurgood 1993), there were more languages listed as examples for having stop and nasal geminates than for glide geminates, and it was suggested that alveolar was the cross-linguistically preferred place of articulation for geminate consonants. In this study, it was hypothesized that the cross-linguistically less common length contrasts, such as the length contrasts in glides, were phonetically less clear than the more common ones, such as contrasts between short and long stop and nasal consonants. Similarly, it was hypothesized that contrasts in the cross-linguistically common place of articulation (i.e. alveolar) is phonetically clearer than less common contrasts (e.g. velar). In order to test these hypotheses, duration measurements were conducted on single and geminate consonants in Guinaang Bontok. The average durational contrast between short and long glides was smaller than the contrast in stop and nasal consonants. The hypothesis was therefore partially supported.

Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar: Ilocano-English, English-Ilocano

This root-based dictionary of the Ilocano language is the most comprehensive dictionary produced of Ilocano (Iloko), the lingua franca of Northern Luzon, and historically the native language of the majority of Filipino immigrants to the United States. The body of the dictionary includes entries for roots and affixes with illustrative sentences, idioms, common derivations, and scientific names (when applicable). Ilocano synonyms are also furnished when appropriate. Derived words that undergo morphological fusion are listed as separate entries to facilitate lexical searches. There is also an affix cross-reference list to help the beginning student recognize root words. Unlike most dictionaries of Philippine languages, it has an extensive English to Ilocano section, information on the pre-Hispanic syllabary, and language maps of the Philippines showing where the largest concentration of Ilocano speakers reside.

Austro-Tai Hypotheses

The Austro-Tai Hypothesis claims that the Tai-Kadai language family of mainland Southeast Asia, and the Austronesian language family of island Southeast Asia and the Pacific are genetically related. Various linguists however have claimed that the apparent lexical similarities which can be found between the two families are the result of contact and are not true cognates. Recent research however, which includes newly published data from a previously undescribed language of Southern China, Buyang, suggests that the relationship is in fact a genetic one. The nature of the genetic relationship is still controversial, with some claiming that Proto-Tai-Kadai was a sister of Proto-Austronesian, with others claiming that Proto-Tai-Kadai is a daughter of Proto-Austronesian.

The Use of Matrix Technique in an Analysis of Atta Personal Pronouns

0. Introduction. All Philippine languages have multiple pronoun sets, differing in distribution within the clause, and differing in internal complexity. Traditionally, 2 pronoun sets have been listed and their distribution stated, but few attempts have been made to describe their internal structuring. Smearing of morpheme boundaries has made conventional morpheme analysis of the pronouns a difficult and often unproductive exercise. 3 It will be demonstrated in this paper, however, that by using the techniques of matrix permutation and conflation, 4 the ranking of pronouns and a display of their internal structure is entirely possible. The purpose of this paper is, first, to demonstrate how this was accomplished for the Atta pronouns, and second, to show how on the basis of these matrices meanings can be attributed to each of the pronoun formatives. 5

The acquisition of quantity contrasts in Guina-ang Bontok:

This study reports on the acquisition of quantity contrasts in Guina-ang Bontok, an indigenous language spoken in the Philippines. Four-year-old and 5-year-old children’s perception and production of quantity contrasts were examined using a pair of names that contrast in the quantity of the medial nasal. Frequencies of the quantity contrast were also calculated using stories in Guina-ang Bontok. The results indicated that even though the overall frequency of geminate consonants was very low in Guina-ang Bontok, children clearly differentiated the single and geminate nasals in both perception and production. Guina-ang Bontok children’s perception and production data resembled those of Finnish children although the frequency of the geminates was much lower in Guina-ang Bontok than in Finnish. Possible explanations for this are provided.

Ibatan to English dictionary, with English, Filipino, Ilokano, Ivatan indices by Judith Y. M. Maree and Orland R. Tomas (review)

Ibatan is the language of Babuyan Claro, one of the islands in the Babuyan group that lies directly south of the Batanes Islands and north of Luzon in the Philippines. Babuyan Claro has a population of around 1,300, of whom around 1,000 are native speakers of Ibatan. Judith Maree, one of the main compilers, has been doing research on the language since 1978 along with her husband, Rundell Maree (RM), who is the author of the Introduction, grammatical sketch, and appendices of the volume, under the auspices of SIL International. The second main compiler, Orlando Tomas, whose photo appears on the beautiful cover of the book, is an elementary school teacher. They were ably assisted by a group of native speakers and an editorial committee who reviewed and edited the volume prior to its submission for publication. Despite its relatively small size (about 5,000 main entries), this dictionary is a fine addition to the growing number of good dictionaries of little-known Philippine languages (cf. Newell and Poligon 1993; Hassan, Ashley, and Ashley 1994; Wolfenden 2001; Newell and Tarbadilla 2006; et alia) produced in recent years by members of SIL utilizing the software developed by SIL, in this case Toolbox. Apart from the set of lexical entries, the book contains a small map of the island and its position in relation to the other northern islands of the Philippines, a short introduction containing information on who the Ibatan are, the form of entries, how to use the dictionary, and a phonological and grammatical sketch. Following the lexical entries, there are twelve appendices containing a wide range of supplementary materials, including charts of affixes, a list of archaic terms, and lists of semantically related terms such as numerals, body parts, phases of the moon, terms related to the ocean, plants, rice culture, kinship, and so on, all complemented by appropriate photographs, charts, and figures. There is also a list where a wide range of terms of specific topics such as different kinds of plants, parts of birds, bodies, fish, roosters, eggs, wind directions, ways of carrying, and including even stages of gestation of a female crab can be accessed under listed head words in the dictionary. Three pages of relevant references are followed by four indices that will make the dictionary eminently accessible to a wide range of users: English (ca. 7,000 entries), Filipino (ca. 2,000 entries), Ilokano (ca. 2,500 entries), and Ivatan (ca. 1,500 entries). The introductory material stresses the position of Ilokano (ILK) as the language of large numbers of migrants into Babuyan Claro, a language that now forms a sizable component of the Ibatan (IBT) lexicon and whose morphology is now competing with native Ibatan morphology in everyday speech: for example, the use of the actor voice magfor ILK agin place of the inherited reflex of Proto–Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) *maRas IBT may-. A large pro-

A grammar of Mantauran (Rukai) (review)

Mantauran is one of the six dialects of the Formosan language Rukai, spoken in the southcentral region of Taiwan. It is spoken by only 250–300 people and is highly endangered, with only a few elderly speakers still fluent. This alone is reason enough to document the language that in a generation or so will probably no longer be spoken. Rukai is unique in that it apparently exhibits an accusative case-marking system, while most other Formosan languages are arguably ergative, and it does not exhibit the widespread “focus” system characteristic of the so-called “Philippine-type” languages of Taiwan, such as Amis, Kavalan, Bunun, Thao, and Atayal. While a substantial grammar exists of one of the other dialects, Tanan Rukai (Li 1973), until Elizabeth Zeitoun (henceforth EZ) began her research on the language, there was very little information available about the morphosyntax of this dialect. With this grammar, we now have extensive coverage of two considerably different dialects of Rukai. EZ’s goals in writing the grammar in effect match the reasons given above. They were “to provide a description of the most salient characteristics of the grammar of Mantauran in order to reach a better understanding of this language and second, to make available enough empirical data to show in what respect Mantauran differs from the other Rukai dialects and other Formosan languages in general” (13). In these respects it is clear that EZ has succeeded admirably. The grammar is a model of clear prose and elegant argumentation supported by a multitude of carefully chosen examples drawn primarily from over 600 pages of transcribed narrative and folktale texts that the author collected from her primary language consultant. Chapter 1 discusses the current status of Mantauran Rukai (henceforth MR), providing brief notes on some of the commonly used loanwords, most introduced during the Japanese colonial period, and it is to this language, according to the author, that speakers persistently resort. The possibility that Japanese has also influenced the morphology will be commented on below. This chapter also provides the theoretical orientation of the work, stating that the grammar is a functional and empirically based account of MR, utilizing principles laid out by Dixon (1997) and Noonan (2006). The Conclusion (463) also notes that the grammar is “not circumscribed in any formal theory.” Nevertheless, various syntactic operations used by formalists, such as “raising,” form part of her argumentation to support one analysis over another in later chapters. A succinct outline of the grammar closes the chapter. Chapter 2 provides a standard structuralist account of the phonology and morphophonemics of MR, and a summary of the sound changes that have occurred in the language from Proto-Rukai as reconstructed by Li (1977). Of particular interest in this chapter is the evidence, rare in Austronesian languages, of a contrast between vowel-initial forms, and glottal stop-initial forms, such as Ɂoɭipotso ‘unwrap’ vs. oɭipotso ‘wrap’. Of interest in the morphophonemics section are the various processes labeled by EZ as rightward

North Philippine Languages

More than 50 languages spoken in the north of the Philippines belong to several major subgroups of Extra-Formosan, or Malayo-Polynesian, languages. The well-known language Ilokano, which is the major trade language of the area, is a first-order branch of the Cordilleran language family, to which most of the north Philippine languages belong. Kapampangan is a Sambalic language, while Ivatan, Itbayat, and Yami belong to the Batanic subgroup. There are more than 20 languages spoken by Negritos, the pre-Austronesian inhabitants of the Philippines. Most of these languages are now highly endangered because of the influence of Ilokano, Tagalog, and English as languages of education in the public schools.

Nominalization in Formosan Languages (review)

proachable. It is densely laid-out with narrow margins and tight leading. To give some idea of its impact, I did a rough word count. In a recent Cambridge University Press book (Cameron and Kulick 2003) there are approximately 460 words per page; GTP has approximately 730 words per page when it is solid text (nearly 160% over Cambridge). In this respect GTP is typical of the Battlebridge series, and I hope that the editors can 2nd some way of getting out future volumes that have a less frantic and cramped appearance. I am sure that the increased readability will allow interesting and important work like Smith’s GTP to shine for more readers.