Tagalog, history, remnants of old Tagalog, origin of Marinduque
One of the earliest historical records in the 17th century was a brief account from Murillo Velarde where he mentioned Tagalog as the dialect spoken in Marinduque. He provided an account on the martyrdom of Padre Juan de las Misas in the sea between Marinduque and Mindoro. Mises was the first Jesuit martyr in the Philippines. In part it read:
“A la vuelta de predicar a los tagalos de la isla de Marinduque en la fiesta de San Francisco, una nave de camucones de las islas cercanas a Borneo ce les acerco asu barca,,,” (Murillo Velarde). (“On their return from preaching to the Tagalogs of the island of Marinduque at the San Francisco fiesta, a ship of camoucones from the islands near Borneo brought them closer to their boat… "). (Murillo Velarde)
Misas who learned the language and ministered in Marinduque in Tagalog was born in 1593 and was martyred in 1625).
Another account from Biographical Catalogue of the Religious
Franciscan Province of San Gregorio Magno of the Philippines from the First
Arrival to Manila in 1577:
“Fray Bartolome de la Cruz, confessor, professed in observant province of Santiago, he ministered in the Tagalog, he was appointed minister of the town of San Juan de Marinduque then called Malindig…”
Marinduqueńos have always known their dialect to be Tagalog, indeed. A certain study has described the Tagalog spoken in this island-province as “originally the
roots, or among the roots, from which modern national forms have sprung, and
that in them may, therefore, be found remnants of the more archaic speech of
our forefathers.” (Cecilio Lopez)
Lopez is known as the 'Father of Philippine Linguistics', and his work on this subject, (On the Boak Tagalog of the Island of Marinduque by Cecilio Lopez, University of the Philippines, 1924), has not been squarely contested nor debunked by anyone in the academe. He wrote:
"When listening to a conversation between people belonging to the speech-group here in question, a native from the country around Manila is likely to receive the impression that Boak Tagalog is simpler, more imperfect form of his own more highly developed speech, an impression comparable to that experienced under similar circumstances by an Englishman, German, or Frenchman, when listening to one of the different dialects spoken in his country.
"We should not forget, however, that altho they have followed a different development, such provincial forms of speech have been originally the roots, or among the roots, from which modern national forms have sprung, and that in them may, therefore, be found remnants of the more archaic speech of our forefathers, remnants long forgotten by our modern parlance but nevertheless of great interest to the linguist". (Lopez)
The Lopez systematic study included comparing the Boak Tagalog words and those spoken and their use in the former Tayabas, then Laguna, Batangas, Cavite, Manila up to Bulacan and their interesting evolution.
Incidentally, today, a marker that could be found in the Bantayog-Wika monument now
installed at the capitol grounds, a project of the Provincial Government of Marinduque
in partnership with NCCA and Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), referring to the
Putong ritual as an example where remnants of old Tagalog could be found, reads
in part:
“… ang mga salitang ginagamit sa ritwal na ito ay kinapapalooban ng mga sinaunang Tagalog at itinuturing na sagrado. Tunghayan ang ilan sa mga panimulang linya ng ritwal:
Lakad mga kasama, iputong na ninyo,
Ang palma ay sa kamay, korona’y sa ulo;
Kahimaniwari ay makamtan ninyo,
sambahi’t igalang ang mahal na Santo/a.”
And going back to the earlier-mentioned committee hearing, (see first part of this series), in trying to justify why ‘Marindukanon’ is “not yet fully established and that “the study on the said term is still on-going”, the good professor quipped that “hanggang ngayon hindi pa rin natin alam kung saan nanggaling yung 'Marinduque'.
This blog has, many years ago posted on this subject and for all it's worth may be useful to repost here even in part:
Fr. Miguel Bernad in a brief account commented on the origin of the names of a number of places in the Philippines, among which was Marinduque. He said that "Malinduk (or Malindik) is now Marinduque." Explaining that there are provinces, towns and villages whose modern names have been the result of some inability on the part of the Spaniards (or of others), to pronounce the original native name.
F. Arsenio Manuel (of the former National Historical Institute, a National Artist for Literature), who conducted a study of place-names, made an interesting one on the origin of 'Marinduque'. He said that 'Marinduque' could not have originated from Malinduk or Malindik but rather from "Malindug".
This he said, has historical implication, for the word "malindig" which means "tall and elegant stature" in Tagalog has similar if not parallel meaning to the Visayan term "malindug". These were two cognate terms, Manuel wrote in the study, which fittingly describe the island's volcano, Mt. Malindig. (Obligacion)
However, Lopez had written much earlier on Boak Tagalog, the focus of his work, his own research about the origin of 'Marinduque':
"In old chronicles the name of the island occurs in such varying forms as Malinduc, Marinducq, Marinduc, Malindic, and Malindig, forms quite evidently to be analyzed into the well-known 'adjectival' prefix 'ma-' denoting chiefly existence, and a radical word, or stem, occuring in Tagalog as 'lindig', in Bikol as 'lindog' or 'lindug', the second vowel of both forms (i.e. Tag. 'i', Bik. 'o' or 'u'), going back, in accordance with the so-called 'pepet law', to the indistinct vowel 'e'.
"The change of the first sound of the stem, 'l', to 'r' is likewise in consonance with a common Indonesian phonetic law, while the conversion of final 'g' into the Spanish ending 'que' finds an exact parallel in the case of the town Paranaque on Manila Bay, which in Tagalog is called Palanyag. Note, in this connection, also the fluctuation of the last sound of the name Boac which is given by Buzeta y Bravo (Diccionario geografico de las Islas Filipinas) as 'Boac o Boag'.
"The stem 'lindig occurs, according to Noceda y Sanlucar, in the new obsolete Tagalog word 'maglindig', meaning 'rising up straight so as not to be covered by the water', while for the Bikol form 'lindog' Marcos de Lisboa states quite clearly that it means 'monte muy alto y derecho', both forms embodying thus the idea of English 'steep, towering'." (Lopez)
Curiously, the Lopez paper was written a hundred years ago, and even then he already had a strong warning against those "who seem to have allowed themselves to be guided away from that historical sincerity which true patriotism should dictate to them":
"A few words may here be said regarding the derivation of the name Marinduque, a word around which the same kind of regrettable, because superficial and erroneous etymologyzing and inventive story-telling has sprung up which is indulged in, nowadays, by only too many of my countrymen who seem to have allowed themselves to be guided away from that historical sincerity which true patriotism should dictate to them."
(To be continued)
