INTRODUCTION

The publication of a Bisayan grammar has been eagerly awaited by many. It has been desired by those who are interested simply in the study of a native dialect. It has been needed by all Americans who desire an acquaintance with the language of the people among whom they live in order that they may get into closer touch with the great mass of natives as yet unable to speak either Spanish or English. It has been requested by many natives who wish to improve their use of their mother tongue. To all such, the present volume will prove of great value.

The author is recognized throughout Samar and Leyte as one of the highest authorities on the Samareño dialect. His statements may therefore be accepted as authoritative. His treatment of prefixes and suffixes, of similar words with different meanings, and of the various forms of the verb are especially interesting and valuable.

It is hoped that Mr. Norberto Romuáldez may be able to carry out his intention of putting out a combined grammar and language book designed especially for those just beginning the study of Bisayan. Such a work in conjunction with the present grammar would immensly facilitate the acquisition of a speaking knowledge of the dialect.

W. W. MARQUARDT, Division Superintendent of Schools. [V]

PREFATORY REMARKS

This book is not intended to be a complete grammar, but is only an elementary work containing a collection of some principles governing the formation of the words and the construction of the sentences of the Bisayan1 dialect spoken on the islands of Samar and nearly half of Leyte, by about four hundred thousand people.

At random and at odd intervals as the author’s time permitted, he arranged, more or less in a logical grammatical order, the material gathered. Bearing in mind that there has never been any previous treatise on this subject worthy the name, the whole field therefore remaining practically unexplored, it will not be surprising that the use of spare moments covering only a short period has left much of the field undeveloped. However, what has been collected in this book will be found to be of primary importance to any one desiring to gain a quick acquaintance with the dialect for immediate practical use. After a careful study of the many examples under the different rules, coupled with a continuous practice, the user will be surprised—if he is a stranger—at the ease with which he acquires an Asiatic dialect, and—if he is a Filipino—how clear and logical is one of the most spoken dialects in his Mother-land.

The author had no intention of launching this work at the present time; but it is done at the behest of his American friends who have urged him to issue what has been collected, a portion only of what is intended ultimately to be a complete treatise and grammar of Bisayan, in order that this material may be available for the use of persons [VI]taking an interest in the Islands, thereby bringing about a common means of communication, which promotes a better feeling between the people born here and the newcomer.

The exposition of the different subjects is not in the modern didactic form generally used in this class of works. This is simply due to the lack of sufficient time. Thus the grammar is divided into the usual parts: orthography, prosody, etimology, and syntax. Some of these parts have been treated to a very limited extent, because time has not admitted of the collection of sufficient material and of the opportunity to weigh the relative values and eliminate the exceptions from the rules.

An appendix has been added where two topics are treated: notes on Rhetoric and Poetics of Bisayan, and notes on Filipino Dialectology consisting in a short comparative study of this dialect in reference to Tagalog, one of its sister-dialects in the Archipelago. The first notes are designed to complete the knowledge of Bisayan after the grammar is mastered; the second are intended to show the possibility of the formation of a common Filipino language2 out of the different dialects scattered thru out the Archipelago, in a similar way as the Modern High German has been formed out of the main primitive groups Frisian and Saxon. Frankish, Hessian, and Thuringian, and Alemannian and Bavarian.

We have to repeat that our work is far from being perfect, even complete, on account of lack of sufficient time. Owing to the same circumstance, many errors in printing have crept into this book, which we have tried to correct at the end under the heading Errata. But we sincerely admit that not all of the mistakes that may be found in this book are to be assigned to lack of time. Like any other product of human industry, this work bears marks of errors arising from the two sources pointed out by Horace

quas aut incuria fudit,

Vut humana parum cavit natura.

[VII]

Acknowledgement is hereby made for the help rendered by Messrs. W. W. Marquardt, Div. Superintendent of Schools of Leyte, P.I., Fred Shoemaker, and H. W. Halbourg, in correcting part of the proof, and for the collaboration of Mr. Henry E. Neibert, Former American Teacher of Jaro, Leyte, P.I. whose knowledge of both tongues, English and Bisayan, added much material to the work.

Hoping that this little volume may be of interest and real help, it is offered to an indulgent public for what it is worth.

Norberto Romualdez

Takloban, Province of Leyte, Philippine Islands. November 8, 1908. [IX]

1 We write Bisayan, and not Visayan for the reason, among others, that there is no V or sound of V in our dialect, and that there seems to be no necessity for changing in English the B of the original Bisayâ into V. ↑

2 A commitee has been found lately in Manila for this purpose. ↑

LETTERS.

The Bisayan letters are twenty:1

[2]

After knowing the respective sounds of these letters, according to the preceding table, no rule is necessary for the pronunciation of Bisayan words.

1 According to the nature of the Bisayan dialect and according to what some Filipino philologists have written, Rizal among them, referring to the dialects in the Philippines, the letters of the Bisayan language must be the following:

a, b, d, e, g, g̃, h, i, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, y, w.

As it can be noticed, the letters c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x and z are omitted from the preceding list, and g̃ and w are introduced. The reason for this is as follows:

Notwithstanding the preceding considerations, the orthography used in this book is the old one, but simplified to a certain extent, on account of the fact that this alphabet (if it can be properly called an alphabet, it having no f or sound of f) is not yet used, even known, but by very few persons among the Bisayan speaking people.

It would be very desirable for the people to adopt the new orthography proposed in this note, because it is evidently more simple and proper for the particular nature of the Bisayan dialect. [2]

A study of the method of reducing the number of Bisayan vowels is also to be desired, as it seems that not more than three are needed, to wit: a, e or i, o or u.

The nature of the Bisayan tongue argues for such a simplicity. Dr. T.H. Pardo de Tavera, referring to the ancient Filipino alphabet, says: “The alphabet was composed of seventeen letters, three of which were vowels. A consonant standing alone was always pronounced with an a sound following; by the use of a dot or dash near and above the consonant stem, in much the same fashion as is used in certain systems of shorthand, instead of the sound of the a, the sound of the vowels e or i was produced: when the dot or dash was placed below the consonant stem the vowel sound given was equivalent to o or u.” (See Census of the Philippine Islands: 1903 Volume One, page 327). ↑

THE ACCENTS.

The orthographical accent is an important sign in Bisayan, in order to give to the words their proper pronunciation, and, consequently, their proper meaning.

Of the emission of the voice in pronouncing the Bisayan vowels, there are two ways: one is the ordinary way, like that of the English vowels, as in

and the other is by a guttural suspended emission of the voice, like

This guttural pronunciation is only used in the endings of words.

From the various combinations of these ways of pronouncing the vowels and the force with which they are pronounced, it follows that a vowel, no matter which one it is, has four different sounds:

[3]

The first way does not need any orthographical sign. But the last three ones require a special orthographical accent in each ease.

When a vowel is pronounced as ordinarily, but with more force than others in the same word, the proper accent is the acute (´).

When a vowel is pronounced with a suspended guttural sound, but without any force, the corresponding accent is the grave (`).

And when a vowel is pronounced with a suspended guttural sound with force, its accent is the circumflex (ˆ), which is simply the combination of the two foregoing accents, as this last represents a sound that is the combination of the two sounds, suspended guttural and with force.

Therefore, in writing the word quita, for example, in its three different meanings and according to its three different pronunciations, it must be as follows:

RULE. There are three different accents in Bisayan: the acute (´); the grave (`); and the angular, which we may call improperly circumflex (ˆ).

The acute is located wherever it is needed, either at the beginning or in the middle or at the ending of the word. Examples:

The grave and angular, by their nature, are only used upon words ending in a vowel, and then only upon the last vowel. Examples:

PUNCTUATION.

The signs of punctuation in Bisayan are the same as those in English, the rules for the use of the period (.), colon (:), semicolon (;), comma (,), parenthesis (), dash (—), quotation marks (“ ”) and apostrophe (’) being identical. [4]

But the rules are different for the use of the interrogation and exclamation points, and hyphen.

In Bisayan, the Spanish way is followed in using two points of interrogation and two of exclamation, the one at the beginning of the question or exclamation (¿) (¡), and the other at the ending (?) (!).

While the hyphen (-) is also used in Bisayan to connect parts of a word divided at the end of a line, and to connect two or more nouns, adjectives, or particles, so as to form them into a single compound, it has an additional use which is to separate distinctly the syllables of certain words that would have a different meaning or none at all without the said separation. Examples:

NOTE.—The above separations are not of the same character as those caused by contractions or elisions, where the proper sign is not a hyphen, but an apostrophe. As,

Therefore, it would not be correct to write gab-i, cabiton-an, pabay-i, where the apostrophe should be employed instead of the hyphen. However, the apostrophe is used only when needed to avoid wrong pronunciation or confusion. [5]So the last of the preceding examples is written without any sign of punctuation, thus: it im bugtò ng̃an hit ac patód.

1 In most of the towns of the island of Sámar, such separation as well as that by apostrophe is frequently disregarded, this being one of the most noticeable differences between the Sámar and Leyte dialects. ↑

VOWELS

The Bisayan people, especially in Leyte, always have a tendency to separate the vowels in pronouncing the words, there being no Bisayan dipthong. So it is bi-ol (small basket) and not biol; cá-on (eat), ti-il (foot), ma-opay (good), and not cáon, tiil, maopay. But this refers only to spoken language, not to written.

Some words, like uásay (axe), sabáo (broth) are pronounced ua-say, sa-bao, and not u-a-say, sa-ba-o. These syllables ua and ao are not dipthongs. The u in the syllable ua and the o in the syllable ao, are not the vowels u, o, but the consonant w. These words should be written more properly wásay, sabáw.1

1 See the note on the first page of this book. This is one of the facts that urge the adoption of a more logical alphabet (?) for the Bisayan tongue. ↑

SYLLABLES

Every vowel1 with the consonant or consonants pronounced with it and every vowel pronounced alone form one syllable, and are written as such. This is the rule applied to the division of a word at the end of a line. Examples:

1 Except o and u when used as consonants, their function then being properly that of a w. ↑

CAPITALIZATION

In Bisayan, the following words should begin with capitals:

CONTRACTIONS

There is no contraction used in Bisayan, except that in the sign mg̃a (a particle employed to express the idea of plurality).

Mg̃a is for mang̃a composed of ma (an important prefix of the Bisayan and Tagalog dialects, which bears the idea of abundance or plurality) and ng̃a (a conjunctive particle which is necessarily employed to connect the variable parts of speech).

NOTE. It would be desirable to have the following contractions adopted in Bisayan, inasmuch as they are universally recognized:

1 The author believes that it is better to adopt these contractions than to invent others of Bisayan origin for the reason that they afford signs universally understood, and because every tongue has a tendency to assimilate such universal signs. ↑

Parts of Speech.

These are eight in number, in Bisayan: article, noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection. [7]

ARTICLES.

There are three classes:

The definite article, as well as the indefinite, is used in Bisayan in the same manner as its equivalent in English. The definite article, however, is sometimes used before proper nouns, and it is very often used before the demonstrative and possessive pronouns. Examples:

The personal article is always used before the names of persons; it is also used before the personal pronouns, except the third persons. Examples.

Instead of hi, si may be used.2

These articles do not change in gender. Examples: an amáy (the father), an iróy (the mother); hi Juan (John), hi María (Mary).

The definite and indefinite articles change in the plural in the following way: [8]

The personal article does not change, in person or number, except in the third person plural where it takes the form of the third personal pronoun third person, plural number. Examples:

DECLENSION.—Articles have two cases: nominative and objective.

Examples:

The objective case covers all the different cases used in other languages after the nominative, that is to say, the genitive, dative, accusative and ablative cases.

RULES. 1. The Bisayan articles are used immediately before the words to which they refer.

2. The definite article may be used without expressing the object to which it refers, having, in this case, the nature of a relative pronoun. Examples:

[9]

3. The personal article is always necessary before the names of persons. It is not correct to say “Pedro nagsusurat”; hi is needed, and it must be: “hi Pedro nagsusurat” (Peter is writing).

EXCEPTIONS. 1. Between the definite article and the word to which it refers, other words may be placed, in some instances, as in this phrase:

The regular order in constructing the last phrase is:

2. When the names of persons are in the vocative case, the personal article is not used. Thus we say:

3. In the objective case of hi, can is used before the verb, and ni after the verb. Examples:

N.B.—The indefinite article, when needed at the beginning of the sentence, is replaced by the phrase “usa ng̃a” So, if we wish to say “a boy came yesterday,” we should not say

This phrase usá ng̃a is not a perfect article, but it has the character of an adjective, even when used as an article. Therefore, both the indefinite in and the phrase usá ng̃a may be used in the same sentence. So, we can say, changing the regular order of the last sentence:

NOUNS

These are substantive and adjective. Both may be grouped [10]in the following classes: primitive, diminutive, figurative, verbal, compound, derivative, proper, common, positive, comparative, superlative, cardinal, ordinal, partitive, distributive and collective. Nothing particular needs be said about the primitive.

DIMINUTIVE

Examples:

As is seen, the diminutive is formed by the repetition of the primitive or by adding to the latter the affix ay or hay.

The primitive is repeated when it has not more than two syllables. As,

from

The affix ay or hay is added when the primitive has more than two syllables; ay being used in cases where the noun ends with a consonant, or a vowel with a grave or angular accent; and hay being employed when the primitive ends with a vowel otherwise accented or non-accented or a vowel that is pronounced separately from the consonant preceding it, or is preceded by more than one consonant. As,

from

But the dissyllabic primitive is not repeated when its first vowel is followed by more than one consonant, or when the last vowel has an acute accent or is pronounced separately from the consonant preceding it. In such cases the affix ay or hay is employed, the rules established for the use of these affixes being applicable to such diminutives. As,

from

Generally, as it has been observed in the preceding examples, the adjectives follow the same rules. As,

from

But in must of the adjectives formed with ma (a particle bearing the idea of abundance) and ha6 (a particle that bears the idea of place), like maopay, mabusag, mapulá, hatáas, halabà, the prefixes ma or ha are disregarded in the formation of their diminutives, their abstract roots being the only elements taken into consideration, as if such [12]adjectives were dyssillabic. Thus, opay, busag, pulá, táas, lubà, being the abstract roots of the last mentioned adjectives, their diminutives will be:

from

There are some adjectives that have irregular diminutives. Such are the following:

FIGURATIVE

We call those nouns figurative that are applied to the objects which, not being of the same nature as that which is expressed by their roots, show nevertheless analogy or similarity with those represented by the corresponding primitive, in their meaning, form, use, or application.

Examples:

from

When the primitive has not more than two syllables, the formation of its figurative follows the same rules as those for the dissyllabic diminutive. As,

from [13]

But when thy primitive has more than two syllables, or its last vowel is preceded by more than one consonant or is pronounced separately from the consonant—preceding it, its figurative is formed by adding to the root a prefix composed of its first syllable if it begins with a consonant or of its first vowel if it begins with a vowel and the syllable ro (a particle that bears the idea of imitation, repetition, or collection). As,

from

NOTE.—Many of the figurative nouns have the same forms as the collective. There are few figuratives among the adjectives; of these, those having the form of figuratives are really comparatives.12

VERBAL

These are formed from the verb-root transformed by particles referring to the agents or the objects of the roots.

Examples:

from

from

from

from

from

from

from

[15]

from

It may be observed that not all of the verb-roots produce the same number of verbal nouns. It depends on the particular character of every idea conveyed in the root, and mainly on the use.

From the preceding examples, it is seen that the transformative particles of the verbal nouns are various, the said particles being the prefixes para, tig, mag, ma, hi, the interfixes16 r, ro, um or the affixes an, on. These particles are very important in Bisayan as they greatly help to enrich the limited vocabulary of this tongue.

For the sake of clearness, we shall see first the affixes.

An, on.

These particles refer to the complement of the verb-root, an to the indirect object of the action (generally regarding the place where the act occurs), and on to the direct object (generally referring to the termination of the action).

An or on is used when the root ends with a consonant or a vowel with a grave or angular accent.