Some notes on the bibliography of the Philippines — John Shaqi
Some notes on the bibliography of the PhilippinesMiddleton, Thomas C. (Thomas Cooke)
History
Some notes on the bibliography of the Philippines
Middleton, Thomas C. (Thomas Cooke)
Philippines -- Bibliography; Printing -- Philippines -- History
In the Aeta language of the Negritos, or little black men, perhaps the
primitive race of the Philippines--whose name I have encountered in
many forms of spelling, as Ata, Ataa, Aeta, Agta, Aita, Ita, Itaa,
[13] there are similarly, only two works known to Retana, whose
bibliographical notices have been of so much value,--one a Report
on the Philippine Islands (Paris, 1885), addressed to the French
Minister of Public Instruction by J. Montano, a book of over two
hundred and nine pages, illumined with numerous phototypes, and,
what renders it of exceptional value, enriched with vocabularies,
"the first," Retana declares, in Aeta, Bilaan, Manobo (of the natives
of Mindanao), Sámal and Tagacaolo dialects.
As companion volume to the above, though far smaller in bulk, is a
little treatise (Dresden, 1893), of double authorship, the German
A. B. Meyer giving therein a very interesting Aeta vocabulary, and
his Dutch co-laborer, H. Kern, a comparative study of the same tongue,
which he traces to Malay ancestry.
For the study of Chamorro, idiom of the Marianas Islands, one
will find serviceable the little book of devotions (Manila, 1887),
with counsels for the worthy reception of the Sacraments of God,
(p. 248)--the only work, in fact, we have in this dialect, by the
Recoleto linguist and traveler, Aniceto Ibáñez del Carmen.
Finally, with three other samples of the Philippine press as proofs
of the variety of its polyglot fonts, and I shall have done with this
digression on the many languages used in this part of Polynesia,--one
a grammar in the dialect of Yap or Guap (p. 248), in the western
Caroline archipelago (Manila, 1888), composed apparently by the
Capuchin missionary, Ambrosio de Valencia; the second (p. 332)
a Hispano-Kanaka dictionary (Tambóbong, 1892), by another Capuchin
wanderer, according to Retana, Agustín María de Ariñez. While the
last, a work, as will readily be acknowledged, of interest as well
as importance to ethnologists, linguists, Americanists especially,
is the list of Nahuatlisms of Costa Rica (San José de Costa Rica,
1892), by Juan Fernández Ferraz, a goodly-sized volume of over two
hundred pages, wherein, on purely linguistic grounds, the author
has maintained the kinship of our own Central Americans and the
Philippinians, from the fact especially that in the respective
countries of these two antipodal peoples, abound very many terms of
every-day use, with identical spelling and meaning. In his Biblioteca
(p. 340), Retana has gathered a few of these homonyms and synonyms.
Such, then, are the chief authorities on language among our Philippina
that, while entertaining, nay instructing the philologist, will
delight also the general student, the writers whereof, as the reader
will not be slow to observe, were in far larger number all churchmen
and missionaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account