Isinay Words for Baby and Grandchild

ONE OF MY daughters gave birth to a healthy baby girl last April 25. 

The 3-kg and 47-cm (at birth) baby is my first grandchild and so, to mark her coming to Planet Earth (as well as announce the good news to friends and faithful readers of Isinay Bird), the happy lolo in me thought of doing this celebratory piece on Isinay words pertaining to or associated with babies. 

Amihan Lesnai Castro Margate on April 30, 2013 (photo by Apu Charlz)

First off, the Isinay word for ‘baby’ is unga. 

Those of you who speak Isinay will of course know that unga is the same term used for ‘child’, and its plural form uunga also refers to both ‘babies’ and ‘children.’ (Incidentally, the Ibaloy for baby is a similar sounding nganga.)

This may be funny, but I guess unga is an onomatopoeia. Which means that my Isinay ancestors who first used the term might have been mesmerized by the first sound “ungaaa!” uttered by babies and so they stuck to it as name for their bundles of joy. Or they might have equated their infant’s cry with the “ooonga^” cry of the ubun (baby carabao) as well as its mother’s call when they don’t see each other.

Yes, the Isinay unga is not as exact as the English baby or infant, the Ilocano maladaga or tagibi, the Visayan masuso or puya, and the Tagalog sanggol. While the latter languages respectively use child, ubing, bata, and bata once the baby has started to talk or walk, Isinays still use unga for both infant and childhood life stages of a human being.

Thus, if you hear an Isinay say "Maves tiyen unga toy mansusu lan mansusu" (This kid is good because it always sucks milk), you're sure by context that the unga referred to is still a baby. But when you hear "Timbo^ tiyen unga toy amplamu olyawam ya marin umali" (This kid is hardheaded because even if you shout  at him, he doesn't come), you get the inference that the person referred to is no longer an infant.

I think this Isinay inexactitude of using unga for both a new-born baby and a not-yet-mature person has a positive implication: Isinay parents love their children so much that they would not want to call them other terms than unga until they have become old enough to be called mariit (if female) or beyuntahu (if male). Which means that they give their uunga all the care and freedom and time to grow until the said kids would no longer want to be treated as such.

And now, for our second word: grandchild. It is referred to as apú in Isinay.

Note the diacritical mark over the letter u. This is to warn readers of the proper pronunciation of the word – it rhymes with and is enunciated like “taboo.” 

Yes, if you pronounce apu as an unaccented word or what they call in Filipino balarila (grammar) as “malumanay” (smooth), it gets another meaning – this time it becomes “grandparent” or the gender-neutral apung in Ilocano and apohan in Visayan.  

Used in a sentence: Amihan di ngaron di apú ar, ot manggayhaya^ podda toy dioy mot si mangayah isaon si Apu Charles! (Amihan is the name of my grandchild, and I am very happy because there is now somebody to call me Grandfather Charles!)

An Isinay Word Hunter's Story (Conclusion)

Conclusion: Fun with Isinay Words

I STARTED WITH some exercises on Isinay words in Part 1. For the benefit of those who had little success so far with those aerobics, I might as well end this presentation by giving the answers.

In Isinay, the basic greetings “good morning,” “good afternoon,” and “good evening” are literally and respectively translated as mabves an bi^bihat, mabves an mauhav, and mabves an lavi. However, you commonly hear traditional Isinay speakers use si bi^bihat, si mauhav, and si lavi.

In Dupax Isinay, a single woman who got pregnant is called namesang. An adopted child is inamong. A bachelor or unmarried man is beyuntahu. Elderly people are collectively called darauway. A person with crab mentality or one who does not want others to progress is considered mase^se^lat.

The words idong and eteng are both terms of endearment used by one to call a much younger person; idong is masculine, eteng is feminine. Indong is loin-cloth or G-string and e-eng is shirt or blouse.

Innaru is the paddle-shaped utensil used to laddle out illutu (boiled rice) whereas seung is the spoon-like utensil used to scoop out viand from the pot. In Ilocano, both are called aklo; in Tagalog, also both are called sandok.

Mapayit is bitter (napait in Ilocano, mapait in Tagalog) while maesom is sour (naalsem in Ilocano, maasim in Tagalog, aslom in Binisaya). Mapayit is one of the most misused Isinay words in Dupax as many speakers use it to mean the taste of a green sompalo (tamarind); the correct word should be maesom.

Be careful when you use mandeya and mandereya in a sentence. Mandeya is to have menstruation while mandereya means to bleed. There is one more sound-alike word, mandineya. Like the other two, it also pertains to blood; this one, however, means to cook dineya (dinardaraan in Ilocano, dinuguan in Tagalog).

How about kumáw and kùmaw? The former refers to a bowl (malukong in Ilocano, mangkok in Tagalog) while the latter refers to the stranger said to kidnap hardheaded boys, put them in sacks, bring them to where a bridge is being built, and pour their blood on the bridge to make it able to withstand typhoons and floods. Used until now to scare rural kids not to stray too far from home during summer, this bugaboo is called sipay or manunupot in Tagalog.

As for ba^ba^ and ba^ba^ a, the shorter one is the Isinay both for language and word while the latter is a command for someone to shut up or keep quiet.

The Ilocano “Sangkabirokan, sangkaapuyan” is “Sin-anapan, sinsi^meyan” in Isinay Dupax-Aritao.

“Balinom tuutu^… balinom tuutu^…  Andiye tiye?” is roughly translated into English as “If you invert it, you see a hole… if you invert it the other way, it’s still a hole… What is it?” The answer to this Isinay lojlojmo^ (riddle) is be-ang, a kitchen utensil usually made of split awwoy (rattan) or awwayan (bamboo) and woven in the form of a ring to stabilize banga (earthen pot) on flat surfaces or to make sajban  steady when carried on top of a woman’s head. (Sahban is called malabi in Ilocano and is a water container that looks like but is much larger than the banga).

By the way, I didn’t give the answers yet to the Nature-related items (that is, rainbow, … mountain, … forest, …baby butterfly). Honestly, I’m afraid my answers may differ from those among our participant teachers. The butterfly, for instance, may be kuyapyapon by those from Bambang, and kukkuyappon by those who are more at home with the Dupax-Aritao version of Isinay.

I have a proposition: why don’t we put this item on hold and use it as part of the “homework” for the participating teachers? I’m sure the outputs would be useful for those who handle Science and Math subjects. For example, when you describe to your pupils what insects are involved in pollination. Or when you teach Grade One kids how many or what animals crawl and which ones can fly.

If you so wish, we can also include naming the parts of an insect, parts of a plant, parts of the house, and parts of the human body – all in Isinay.

A bit more challenging, perhaps, is translating into Isinay Bambang or into Isinay Dupax-Aritao the poem All Things Bright and Beautiful (by Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander) or Trees (by Joyce Kilmer).

If you want more excitement, let’s try to play around with Bahay Kubo. Should there be no time to translate the whole song for now, then at least we can make do with listing the Isinay names of the vegetables plus the turnip, peanut, garlic, onion, sesame and other plants immortalized in this classic Tagalog song for children.

Finally, may I please remind you that our outputs must be submitted – “finished or not finished” – at the end of the class or before we sing or say “Goodbye, dear teachers, goodbye!”

-oOo-

PUBLICATIONS CONSULTED

AHEARN, Laura M. 2012. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. West Sussex, UK: Wiiley-Blackwell.

CONSTANTINO, Ernesto. 1982. Isinay Texts and Translations. Tokyo: Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa.

CRUZ, Celina Marie. 2010. The Revitalization Challenge for Small Languages: The Case for Isinai. Paper presented at the Linguistics Seminar. Cagayan de Oro City. Feb 2010.

HARRISON, K. David. 2007. When Languages Die: The Extinction of the World’s Languages and the Erosion of Human Knowledge. New York: Oxford University Press.

RYMER, Russ. 2012. Vanishing Voices. National Geographic. July 2012.

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Appendix 1

ANSWERS TO "WHAT'S THE ISINAY FOR RAINBOW..."?

(NOTE: The Isinay equivalents used here are Dupax-Aritao Isinay. Bambang Isinay has lexically or phonetically different terms.)

Rainbow is tabungeyon or tavungeyon. 

Fullmoon is tallivong. Shower is diyumarim. 

Mountain is baiyur. Anthill is dalimahon or dalimojon. 

Forest is eyas (related terms: watershed is nappu; brushland is gitaw). River is wangwang (and creek/brook/stream is wayil). 

Waterfall is peyasapas.Vine is waah. 

Deer is usa or laman. Python is ine^eyaddang (snake is iraw). 

Goby is sappilan (and the bigger one is guggur). 

Tadpole is tohong (frog is tadah). 

Turtle is ba-uu. 

Cicada is duluriyaw. 

Preying mantis is paspasusu but is also sometimes called parparahol. 

Tailor ant is eha. 

Bumble bee is ababbayung. 

Honeybee is iyu-an. 

May beetle is e-ve. 

Rhinoceros beetle is dumoh. 

Dragonfly is atittino^. 

Firefly is i^irong. 

Baby butterfly (or the crawling and leaf-eating stage in the life-cycle of butterflies and moths) is bangbangawan.

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Appendix 2 

 ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

 by

Cecil Frances Alexander 

ALL THINGS BRIGHT AND BEAUTIFUL

ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL

ALL THINGS WISE AND WONDERFUL

THE LORD GOD MADE THEM ALL.

EACH LITTLE FLOWER THAT OPENS

EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS

HE MADE THEIR GLOWING COLORS

HE MADE THEIR TINY WINGS.

THE TALL TREES IN THE GREEN WOODS

THE MEADOWS WHERE WE PLAY 

THE RUSHES BY THE WATER

WE GATHER EVERY DAY.

THE PURPLE-HEADED MOUNTAIN
THE RIVER RUNNING BY
THE MORNING AND THE SUNSET
THAT LIGHTED UP THE SKY.
 

THE RIPE FRUITS IN THE GARDEN
 THE PLEASANT SUMMER SUN
THE VIOLETS BY THE ROADSIDE

HE MADE THEM EVERY ONE.

HE GAVE US EYES TO SEE THEM

AND LIPS THAT WE MIGHT TELL

HOW GREAT IS GOD OUR FATHER

WHO DOETH ALL THINGS WELL!

.....

Appendix 3

 TREES

by Joyce Kilmer 

I THINK THAT I SHALL NEVER SEE

A POEM LOVELY AS A TREE

A TREE WHOSE HUNGRY MOUTH IS PRESSED

AGAINST THE EARTH'S SWEET-FLOWING BREAST

A TREE THAT LOOKS AT GOD ALL DAY

AND LIFTS HER LEAFY ARMS TO PRAY

A TREE THAT MAY IN SUMMER WEAR

A NEST OF ROBINS IN HER HAIR

UPON WHOSE BOSSOM SNOW HAS LAIN

WHO INTIMATELY LIVES WITH RAIN

POEMS ARE MADE BY FOOLS LIKE ME

BUT ONLY GOD CAN MAKE A TREE.

.....

Appendix 4

BAHAY KUBO

BAHAY KUBO KAHIT MUNTI

ANG HALAMAN DOON AY SARI-SARI

SINGKAMAS AT TALONG

SIGARILYAS AT MANI

SITAW, BATAW, PATANI

KUNDOL, PATOLA

UPO AT KALABASA

AT SAKA MAYROON PANG

LABANOS, MUSTASA

SIBUYAS, KAMATIS

BAWANG AT LUYA

AT SA PALIGID AY PURO LINGNGA.

An Isinay Word Hunter's Story (Part 5)

Part 5. Joys of Isinay Word Hunting

THE ISINAY DICTIONARY that I’m attempting to put the rainbow on is definitely not a success story yet. In fact, I bought two huge dictionaries of other Philippine languages last year to, among other reasons, find out – and learn – what best practices as well as innovative approaches their authors employed to overcome the challenges posed by this still rarefied activity of making dictionaries.[1]

I believe, however, that in order to encourage other indigenous-language activists to try their hand at even simply listing all the words they could gather in their target languages[2], I thought I should share some of my delightful experiences as a word hunter (no matter how trivial these may appear):

1) Countless “aha!” and “eureka!” feelings upon hearing for the first time, or encountering again after decades of half- forgetting, certain words. Examples of terms that made my heart skip a beat, as it were, are manbinbiniyu^ (dalaginding in Tagalog), manbajbajilat (agmulmulagat in Ilocano), anamme-on (animo in Tagalog, kunam la no in Ilocano), kamuntok (a fierce forest wasp/hornet whose round and one-holed nest is as big as bowling ball), and lupiit (a woody vine believed to have curative properties when boiled into a tea-like brew and drank by those with hangover, muscle fatigue, and beer bellies).

2) Meeting people, renewing kinship ties, and getting doors opened. Before I got into this habit of hunting words, I only nodded but seldom talked to senior folks in Dupax (vice versa). But when I toned down my being mambear (mahiyain, said to be the distinguishing characteristic of my father’s Isinay clan) and acknowledged that this and that fellow is the authority of this and that subject, my Isinay skies turned from gray to blue, as it were. Nowadays, whenever I go to Sunday mass, you would see me surrounded by a group of bibi-al (senior ladies) volunteering Isinay words they recalled while I was away. Out in the payaw (ricefields) farmers would park their araru (plow) and carabaos, then excitedly share their knowledge of, for example, the amurawun (molave tree), bittuh (talahib grass), manaleban (wild dove), and ato^tong (large water bug). After which I would mampatanir (say goodbye) but not before they would ask me to return soon so we could dine on laoya an aveyuwan (tinolang dumalagang manok) in their abung-abung (farm hut).

3) Delicious re-immersion in rural life and encounters with creatures. Had I not been serious in seeking out sources of now little known Isinay words, I would not have gotten used to hiking long distances (e.g. 10 km going out and 10 km going back) on abandoned logging roads that are dusty in summer and muddy during heavy rains. It was through these outings that I got to revisit my farm playgrounds when I was little, dip my body in sylvan streams and occasionally get leeches on my legs, and taste food that I have not touched before, such as arobo an immanuy (adobong kobra), intangtang an imbayang (tinuno a tigi, inihaw na pongapong), and itluh si eha (tailor-ant eggs).

4) Getting privy to now-little-known big events of yesteryears. One such instance was when I approached Ama Isio^ Lumanga, now in his late 70s and known to be a skilled hunter in his youth. I particularly wanted to know how and where he trapped deer and wildpig, but instead his animated recollection dwelt on when the Ibilaw (Ilongot or Bugkalot tribe, known at the time for headhunting) cut off the heads of one Isinay family when their soppeng (kaingin) allegedly intruded into Ibilaw hunting ground. And when a team of policemen and soldiers went to retrieve the headless bodies, Ama Isio^ served as guide. He avoided going to the hills after that because when the Ilongot culprits were arrested, he binansi (kicked) Taynge their leader right on the puli-puli (bone of the anus).

5) Picking up unique stories and other bits of local history. Ama Isio^ again, this time when he worked in the Dupax Nursery, recalled what he described as the biggest lohav (puor in Ilocano) that ever occurred in the nappu (watershed) of Abannatan Creek. After a couple of days and nights that the hills were burning, the fire-starter, himself a Nursery worker, confessed. He said he was umat-attay (defecating) among the giyun (cogon grass) when his gulir (bottom) was bitten by abubbulih (ampipit in Ilocano, large ants with pincers and acid sting), so in retaliation he set fire to the nest of the ants, ot sari mot (and that was it), the fire soon grew too big for him to dopdop (put off the flames) with branch swatters.

FOR THE SAME REASON that I shared some of my adventures as an Isinay word hunter, this sutsur would be incomplete if I didn’t tell why I used “Let The Isinay Forest Sing Again” as catch-title for this sharing.

Earlier, I was thinking of using the jigsaw puzzle as metaphor for the word hunting, collecting, and cataloguing that, as mentioned, I had been doing since 2008. But then my guardian angel (or whoever it is or was that keeps or has kept me warm and away from harm whenever I enter or would linger in real forests) has whispered that, yes, I should use the forest as metaphor instead.

Well, it’s not simply because I am a forester. It is rather more because the jigsaw puzzle suggests an inanimate or lifeless thing the completion of the missing pieces of which would mean the end of the game. In the case of forest, however, I thought it is a more appropriate metaphor for the Isinay language as a living system that symbolizes beauty, diversity, and harmony – and the need to sustain our love and caring for it for generations more to come.

Put another way, like what is sadly and tragically happening to the once fabulous forests of our country, we are now witnessing the Isinay language being pushed over the cliff of deterioration  – nay, even extinction – as a confluence of language-erosive forces that had not been there before.

Just like forests, many things could be done to keep a language alive. In fact, language activists who work in maintaining the integrity and richness of a language and saving it from deteriorating can learn from what we forest ecosystem stewards are doing to protect the biodiversity, aesthetic qualities, soil-and-water-conservation functions, and food- and wood-giving properties of forest landscapes.

One of them is to call public attention to the issue/problem. Emphasize the high price of losing the resource in question but also underscore what needs to be done. Knock on doors of stakeholders, build allies or team up with champions for the cause.

Another is to identify the hot spots and make these the priority areas for corrective action.  The hot spots are usually the homes, neighborhoods, and the schools where children may be taught to speak and value their native language or be drowned or washed away by the flood tide of the dominant or colonizing and media-supported language.

And still another is to fortify the natural protection as well as social defences of the area against agents of destruction. This calls for rejuvenation, reactivation, or redeployment of systems that made the area intact, unspoiled or unfragmented before.

The forest metaphor could also be applied to other endangered indigenous languages like Kalanguya, and the language of the Bugkalot/Ilongot/Egongot/Ibilao. These small languages also need help.

On my part, I really wish I could do more than build a  dictionary. But I only have one life. Anyway, my bottom line is this:  I’m not about to stand there and watch Isinay (the beautiful language that made my formative years in grade school very happy and memorable) die without giving a fight.

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[1] One was Lee Ballard’s 1,148-page Ibaloy Dictionary, Phonology, Grammar & Morphophonemics (written over a period of 16 years) that I bought from UP Baguio for P1,500. The other was the similarly thick (1,135 pages) An English-Cebuano Visayan Dictionary by Rodolfo Cabonce, S.J. (who died while his book was in press) that I got for P695 from National Book Store.

[2] Aside from Isinay, at least two other indigenous and most probably endangered languages are found in the hinterlands of Nueva Vizcaya – the Kalanguya/I’wak language and the one spoken by the Bugkalot/Ilongot/Egongot.

(CONTINUED IN PART 6)