AN NATONG

An natong (apod sa Rinconada, katnga’) iyo an tinanom na maski saen na matubig-tubig o kaba’san, nagtatalubo’. Sa ibang parte kan Kabikolan (arog sa Nabua), an natong tinatanom na garo arog kan paroy, por ektarya man an inooma kaini.

Sa Ingles, taro leaves an apod sa natong. Sa pagluto, dakul an pakinabang kaini. Ginagamit ining pamatos sa pinangat, pamatos sa sinanglay o kinukurunit ini asin linuluto sa guta’ na may bangot pritos o karneng adobo.

Igwang natong na makura’sil (makunot), o magatol. Igwa man kaining malomhok saka maramismis pati sa panamit. Mas masiram an gulay na natong kun ini binalad saka pinaalang ba’go lutoon sa guta’. Totoo, pwede man lutoon na la’bas na la’bas o pakagutola sana.

Bakong suba, an inalang na dahon natong pig-eeksport na sa California, Estados Unidos ta dakul naman an mga bikolanong Kano’ na hidaw na gayo an lutong bikol. Ogaring ta an guta’ na ginagamit daa de lata imported pa sa Korea!

Kitang mga Pinoy dapat makanood mag de-lata kan gutang niyog saka i-eksport man sa Amerika ta duman ma-ipo an niyog, saka mayo daa duman nin kodkoran! He, he.

AN ALABADO

Kun ika may kotse, dai tood maglakaw sa kalye
Pirming naka-aircon, naka-Revo, padyan padigdi
Dai mo mamaanan, mga alabadong nagkuriyat
Igdi sa sementong kadlagan, nakatukaw nakaga’dat!

Mga daing sukat, duwang beses gayod sana magkakan
Sa aga mainit na tubig an saiyang pamahawan
Luwayluway nasayasay pasiring sa kantong poste
Duman matukaw, mahagad limos sa tuyong maaragi!

An mga mata garo harap mayong buhay o silyab
An mga takyag kurumbot maniniwang nagkarayat
An tulak hipyak higot an kublit garataw an kostilyas
Oldot an mga bali’wang, ano nang niwang nanggad!

Alabado sana siya, dai mayong nota sa kina’ban
Inaagihan lang baga, sya haros sipaon sa dalan
Alpog kan tinampo sinasa’ngab hinahangos man
Lutab kan mga tawo, tipsik talsik saiya natama man!

Kun anong iwitik sa palad o sa latang nakaabang
Oke sana saiya maski piso pisong mga takal
Makabakal lamang siya tinapay na pan de sal
Ibuntog sa pulis-kape timpladong dai babayaran!

Pag’uli lakaw sana siya dai mapadyak o madyip man
Ta an takal na singkong plete pwde pang itangway
Sarong solyaw na gin ki Tiyang Masang na dai napautang
Ngani an tuhod bumaskog, maogma an pangiturogan!

Iyo ini an buhay kan mga alabadong baragbarag
Kun ano ta nagin siring daing nakakapaliwanag
Huli sa tios, pinabayaan nin mga aking paog
Daing panakin sa mga magurang na naool-og!

Maagagha ka sa makayoyogtong kamugtakan
Kan mga alabadong tinampo na daing padumanan
Gusto ta man tarabangan darahon sa pailihan
Siisay baga maataman, aro-aldaw mapakakan?

THE ISSUE OF LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

Here’s another site worth clicking into: www.terralingua.com

This is the article on its homepage that should give us much thought:

Terralingua supports the integrated protection, maintenance and restoration of the biocultural diversity of life – the world’s biological, cultural, and linguistic diversity – through an innovative program of research, education, policy and on-the-ground action.
Language, knowledge, and the environment have been intimately related throughout human history. This relationship is still apparent especially in indigenous, minority, and local societies that maintain close material and spiritual ties with their environments. Over generations, these peoples have accumulated a wealth of wisdom about their environments and its functions, management, and sustainable use. Traditional ecological knowledge and practices often make indigenous peoples, minorities, and local communities highly skilled and respectful stewards of the ecosystems in greatest need of protection. Local, minority, and indigenous languages are repositories and means of transmission of this knowledge and the related social behaviors, practices, and innovations.

As with biological species, languages and cultures naturally evolve and change over time. But just as with species, the world is now undergoing a massive human-made extinction crisis of languages and cultures. External forces are dispossessing traditional peoples of their lands, resources, and lifestyles; forcing them to subsist in highly degraded environments; crushing their cultural traditions or ability to maintain them; or coercing them into linguistic assimilation and abandonment of ancestral languages. People who lose their linguistic and cultural identity may lose an essential element in a social process that commonly teaches respect for nature and understanding of the natural environment and its processes. Forcing this cultural and linguistic conversion on indigenous and other traditional peoples not only violates their human rights, but also undermines the health of the world’s ecosystems and the goals of nature conservation.

ON ENDANGERED LANGUAGES

Surfing cyberspace, I stumbled upon this website( www.ogmios.org) which gives special focus on the endangered languages of the world. Not that Bikol is near its death throes (will it still be around by the end of the century?) but the site has raised valid concerns on the immeasurable loss of cultural wealth resulting from the extinction of many world languages.

I take the liberty to copy and paste the Manifesto of the Foundation for Endangered Languages here for anyone who care to come upon my blog:

Foundation for Endangered Languages
Home | Manifesto | Membership details | Proceedings | Grant Applications | Newsletter | Links | Bibliography

1. Preamble
1.1. The Present Situation

At this point in human history, most human languages are spoken by exceedingly few people. And that majority, the majority of languages, is about to vanish.

The most authoritative source on the languages of the world (Ethnologue, Grimes 1996) lists just over 6,500 living languages. Population figures are available for just over 6,000 of them (or 92%). Of these 6,000, it may be noted that:

52% are spoken by fewer than 10,000 people;
28% by fewer than 1,000; and
83% are restricted to single countries, and so are particularly exposed to the policies of a single government.
At the other end of the scale, 10 major languages, each spoken by over 109 million people, are the mother tongues of almost half (49%) of the world’s population.

More important than this snapshot of proportions and populations is the outlook for survival of the languages we have. Hard comparable data here are scarce or absent, often because of the sheer variety of the human condition: a small community, isolated or bilingual, may continue for centuries to speak a unique language, while in another place a populous language may for social or political reasons die out in little more than a generation. Another reason is that the period in which records have been kept is too short to document a trend: e.g. the Ethnologue has been issued only since 1951. However, it is difficult to imagine many communities sustaining serious daily use of a language for even a generation with fewer than 100 speakers: yet at least 10% of the world’s living languages are now in this position.

Some of the forces which make for language loss are clear: the impacts of urbanization, Westernization and global communications grow daily, all serving to diminish the self-sufficiency and self-confidence of small and traditional communities. Discriminatory policies, and population movments also take their toll of languages.

In our era, the preponderance of tiny language communities means that the majority of the world’s languages are vulnerable not just to decline but to extinction.

1.2. The Likely Prospect

There is agreement among linguists who have considered the situation that over half of the world’s languages are moribund, i.e. not effectively being passed on to the next generation. We and our children, then, are living at the point in human history where, within perhaps two generations, most languages in the world will die out.

This mass extinction of languages may not appear immediately life-threatening. Some will feel that a reduction in numbers of languages will ease communication, and perhaps help build nations, even global solidarity. But it has been well pointed out that the success of humanity in colonizing the planet has been due to our ability to develop cultures suited for survival in a variety of environments. These cultures have everywhere been transmitted by languages, in oral traditions and latterly in written literatures. So when language transmission itself breaks down, especially before the advent of literacy in a culture, there is always a large loss of inherited knowledge.

Valued or not, that knowledge is lost, and humanity is the poorer. Along with it may go a large part of the pride and self-identity of the community of former speakers.

And there is another kind of loss, of a different type of knowledge. As each language dies, science, in linguistics, anthropology, prehistory and psychology, loses one more precious source of data, one more of the diverse and unique ways that the human mind can express itself through a language’s structure and vocabulary.
We cannot now assess the full effect of the massive simplification of the world’s linguistic diversity now occurring. But language loss, when it occurs, is sheer loss, irreversible and not in itself creative. Speakers of an endangered language may well resist the extinction of their traditions, and of their linguistic identity. They have every right to do so. And we, as scientists, or concerned human beings, will applaud them in trying to preserve part of the diversity which is one of our greatest strengths and treasures.

1.3. The Need for an Organization

We cannot stem the global forces which are at the root of language decline and loss.

But we can work to lessen the ignorance which sees language loss as inevitable when it is not, and does not properly value all that will go when a language itself vanishes.

We can work to see technological developments, such as computing and telecommunications, used to support small communities and their traditions rather than to supplant them.

And we can work to lessen the damage:

by recording as much as possible of the languages of communities which seem to be in terminal decline;
by emphasizing particular benefits of the diversity still remaining; and
by promoting literacy and language maintenance programmes, to increase the strength and morale of the users of languages in danger.
In order to further these aims, there is a need for an autonomous international organization which is not constrained or influenced by matters of race, politics, gender or religion. This organization will recognise in language issues the principles of self-determination, and group and individual rights. It will pay due regard to economic, social, cultural, community and humanitarian considerations. Although it may work with any international, regional or local Authority, it will retain its independence throughout. Membership will be open to those in all walks of life.

2. Aims and Objectives

The Foundation for Endangered Languages exists to support, enable and assist the documentation, protection and promotion of endangered languages. In order to do this, it aims:-

(i) To raise awareness of endangered languages, both inside and outside the communities where they are spoken, through all channels and media;
(ii) To support the use of endangered languages in all contexts: at home, in education, in the media, and in social, cultural and economic life;
(iii) To monitor linguistic policies and practices, and to seek to influence the appropriate authorities where necessary;
(iv) To support the documentation of endangered languages, by offering financial assistance, training, or facilities for the publication of results;
(v) To collect together and make available information of use in the preservation of endangered languages;
(vi) To disseminate information on all of the above activities as widely as possible.

The Pillories of England

Surfing through the internet, looking for material about pillories, I was shocked by the evident cruelty of old England society.

If pillory was meant to immobilize an offender and punish him for misdeeds, it was obvious the punishment did not merely “immobilize” him or subjected him to public scorn. This unusual punishment exposed him to grave physical danger.

What usually happened was the pilloried offender got pelted by rotten eggs, mud, excreta, vegetable refuse, and even stones which bruised his face to a bloody pulp. And if that were not enough, he got his ears lopped off!

There were other crueler forms of torture ostensibly meant to punish an errant citizen but we need not enumerate them for they are so horrible as to make one vomit out in disgust.

One begin to wonder how a supposed civilized society could exact punishment of the cruelest form. In Old England, even mere dissent could send you to the gallows or to the pillory.

Aside from pillories, it had the so-called stocks which were clamped on the offender’s feet while on a sitting position. This admittedly was a lighter punishment but try sitting immobilized for the whole day under a blistering sun unable to change position! Moreover, you have the ranting crowd to pounce on you, conditioned to draw blood at the slightest encouragement.

But then it suddenly occurred to me, was it any different here? I imagined it would not be any different in old bikol society when an offender, a thief for instance, got clamped in a pandog. He would be kicked, spat upon, thrown stones at and subjected to other forms of cruelty by people in a murderous mood.

It is only now that human civilization has evolved a deeper respect for human rights as enshrined in a United Nations Declaration and punishments are more humane. It has also recognized the validity and importance of dissent.

Dissent is a vivifying element in a democracy as it is that which opens avenues for new ideas and new approaches. To stultify dissent is to ossify a civilization and human progress is thereby stunted.

Dissent

TRACING THE ORIGINS OF WORDS

It is always fascinating to trace the roots or origins of words.

The etymology offers us an explanation of how a word came about. Consider for instance these two Bikol words, pandog and takal.

The meaning of pandog intrigues me. My mother explained to me it was used in the days of Spanish occupation to punish serious offenders by locking the head and the two hands of a malefactor in a block of two pieces of wood.

Now, in English “pillory” is the exact equivalent of this contrivance.

How come Bikol has evolved a word for “pillory”? Since this is not Spanish-derived, it would seem to suggest bikol society had already devised an interesting way of punishing offenders even earlier than Spanish colonization… In this contrivance, an offender can move or walk about but he carries a dead weight and definitely he is placed in a very awkward position, looking like a buffoon..

Yet, I failed to find this word in Lisboa’s Vocabulario de la lengua bicol. His entry for the word PANDOG means a “trap”(Sp. cepo, p. 275). Is this simply an extension of meaning?. Lisboa’s pandog does not explicitly describe the physical design of the trap Unless the trap is one that locks into one’s leg like an “atipil”, it is farfetched to assume the new meaning originated from the idea of a “trap”. Such extension of meaning would seem inappropriate for while a trap ( li’tag, a Bikol synonym) is passive as it waits only for a prey, a pandog is active as it is purposely clamped upon a person to limit his physical movement.

My mother, who explained to me the construction of this contrivance, often quoted a proverb,: An maisog harani sa pandog (A cruel person is neighbor to a pillory, or Cruelty will reap its just reward.) Likewise, Malanyaon, in his book , Istorya Kan Kabikolan (1991), also includes this same proverb in his collection.

The Bicol editor of Balalong, Luis G. Dato, also quoted a similar proverb in two forms: “An maisog harani sa pandog” and “Marhay an daog ta harayo sa pandog.” (Better a person who is humble for he is far from a garrote) . This appeared on page 3 of the March 4, 1977 issue of Balalong, a now defunct weekly newspaper in Naga City. Since Dato did not give an English translation, I took the liberty of making one according to his understanding of the word.

Dato translated the word “pandog” as a garrote (vide, same issue, same page of Balalong, in his regular section Pambihirang tataramon sa Bikol)

I tend to disagree with Dato, however, for a garrote is a Spanish device; an iron collar, in fact, used for executing criminals by wringing the neck and the old Bikols were unlikely to have invented a similar device, especially if it was made of iron altho the act of wringing the neck, or an act similar to the movement of a torque, is “pagbibiling” in Bikol.

So, where does that leave us as regards the valid meaning of “pandog”? I would still hold to my view “pandog” means “pillory” since the contraption is simply made of wood and, if ever- although it seems far-fetched- it could be an extension of meaning from the old word Lisboa referred to as a “cepo”.

Mintz and Britanico in their Bikol-English dictionary (1985) affirmed the meaning I placed to this word. In page 413, this is their entry: PANDOG, pillory, stocks.

Now, what about “takal”?

Takal as used by vendors in Naga City refer to metal currency or “coins” as distinguished from paper money. This also brings up an interesting observation.

The word takal could have sprung up etymologically in this manner: 1. It could be an ancient reference to the old practice of using shells (cowrie shells or clams) for currency as I half-seriously proposed in a previous article (Takal- Bingkay Na Kwarta Kan Mga gugurang?), or 2.) The word could be ancient and related to coinage or currency and drawn from a much older language such as Sanskrit or Chinese,or 3. It is an authentic Bikol word which only happens to be similar in sound and spelling to another bikol word, takal, referring to a specie of clam

So far no historian has discovered if the old Bikols ever possess a pre-Hispanic minting technology although they were noted by the Spanish chroniclers to be the “best artificers of gold” in the country. Gold processing was highly advanced and the old Bikols had technical words to describe every aspect of gold processing and metal working.

Consider these words we draw from Lisboa’s Vocabulario:

Dudulangan, dulangan la mina de cualquier metal (mine; the mining of metal) (p. 128)
Hirapo, gold of highest carat (p.185)
Dalisay, gold of “muy fino de quilates” (p. 115)
Panica, oro fino en quilates (gold of high carat)) (p. 276)
Harom, dark gold or gold of lower carat(p. 171)
Gasak, inferior kind of gold, brittle gold) (p. 138)
Bisig, gold with so many impurities(p. 67)
Hinolog, gold containing many impurities(p. 182)
Malamote, gold mixed with too much silver (241)
Apis, separating gold from grit or dirt (p.
Bare, (to barter two tael of inferior gold with one tael of fine gold ) (p. 58)
Tamas, refining of gold (p. 377)
Gangob, purify or refine gold in a forge (p. 135)
Babasingan, weighing scale for taels of gold(p. 60)
Sangbasing na bulawan, a tael of gold

My mother passed on to me these words related to metal- and gold-working: sanghid(to assay ) and bita (ore). From the sense of the word, Fr. Luis Dimarumba coined the name of his 10-page weekly paper in 1927 Sanghiran Nin Bikol.

Possessed with advanced knowledge in goldworking, did the old Bikols succeed in making gold coins? This is an interesting speculation.

Interestingly, Mintz & Britanico acknowledged the presence of the word “takal” in Bikol. In their Bikol-English Dictionary (1985), right on page 508 we find these entries:

takal (sp-) clam
takal any big coin

Current usage does not connote the size or the kind of coin (whether gold or silver or an alloy) in use but rather more in reference to metallic currency as against paper money.

Incidentally, there is this book by Ramon Villegas published by the Bangko Sentral Ng Pilipinas (2004) on the subject of gold and gold coins: Ginto, History Wrought In Gold I have to see a copy. It must be an excellent piece of research on Philippine goldmaking.