Which Should It Be: Isinay or Isinai?

UP UNTIL RECENTLY, I have been hesitant to give my side on the issue of which term -- ISINAY or ISINAI -- is the correct one to use when referring to both the original language and the native people of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax.

It was a couple of years ago and from a fellow forester and mestizo Isinay -- Allan Gonzales -- that I first heard there was such an argument.

The issue has, I guess, not turned into a word war in Isinay country yet. But at least in Bambang where Allan has gone into semi-retirement, it was a point of contention -- some prefer one over the other -- when the idea of revitalizing the endangered Isinay culture first came out.

I digress but, by way of introduction, Allan is a bachelor nephew of the late Isabelo Gonzales (the composer of the popular Isinay song "War Sipan Uwar"). Allan's sister Zoh Gonzales is one of the founders of the Isinay Global Association group at Facebook and is the one composing and disseminating via the internet those beautifully illustrated psalms and prayers in Isinay Bambang.

If my senior memory has not failed me, Allan batted then for the use of ISINAI -- spelled with three I's.

And, as is obvious in their official name, so are the founders of the Bona^ Si Isinai Dopaj, Inc., the group that in December of 2010 has so kindly invited me to speak -- for the first time in my whole life! -- in pure Isinay, in front of many Isinays, and on a stage at the Dupax del Sur plaza.

Why is your Isinay Bird writing about “Isinay versus Isinai” now?

Well, the two photos here that I shot near the munisipyo (town hall) last February in one of my increasingly frequent visits to Dupax del Sur re-awakened the issue in me.

The creator of the tarpaulin poster above that used a silhouette version of one of Eduardo Masfere's classic photos of a Bontoc tribal warrior must have faced the challenged not only of choosing between ISINAY and ISINAI (see rightmost part of the poster); he faced the same hurdle with ILONGOT and IGONGOT, the old terms for another group of "endangered" indigenous people that used to be integral parts of Bambang, Dupax, and Aritao (and also parts of Quirino and Nueva Ecija provinces).

This tarp poster manifests the prevalence of the use of ISINAI and shows that even Bona^ Si Isinai, a formal organization founded in 2009 to work for the revitalization of the Isinay language and culture in Dupax del Sur, uses the term. Note, however, that Isinay was used in ISINAYA^ ("I am an Isinay").

PERHAPS because I happened to so far be the only one that has been trying to keep a blog of things and matters about Isinay lately -- and using “Isinay” instead of “Isinai” at that -- I felt I owe it to the readers of this humble blog to outline my side of the coin.

Here then. In addition to the fact that it would be more awkward to use ISINAI'YA^ (as in the top photo) compared to ISINAYA^ (as in the lower photo), I personally prefer using ISINAY for the following reasons:

1. The name ISINAY (that is, spelled with a Y) was the one used in the first book ever to be published in Isinay -- the CATECISMO DE LA DOCTRINA CRISTIANA EN LA LENGUA ISINAY O INMEAS (printed in 1876).

2. ISINAY was also used in the first Isinay grammar book to be published -- the INTRODUCCION AL ESTUDIO DE LA LENGUA CASTELLANA EN ISINAY (printed in 1889 by the Colegio del Sto. Tomas and available in the internet).

3. ISINAY was the term used in the 561-page book ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS (authored by Prof. Ernesto Constantino of the University of the Philippines Diliman; published in 1982 by the Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures in Asia and Africa; with contributions and editing guidance from Mrs. Ermelinda Castañeda Magalad and Mr. Edgar Larosa Daniel, venerable Isinays of Dupax and Aritao, respectively, now both gone).

To be fair, one of the earlier studies made on Isinay -- Otto Scheerer's THE PARTICLES OF RELATION OF THE ISINAI LANGUAGE (published in 1918 when the Philippines was still referred to as P.I. or Philippine Islands) uses ISINAI.

Of course, to be sure, both ISINAY and ISINAI are correct. As we jestingly say it in impasses like this, "e-der op da two will do" -- you could use one or the other and no one would bother.

While we're at it, there are three more names that many, including your Isinay Bird, are not so familiar with. One is INMEAS -- which I guess would mean "people who went to the forest." Another is MALAAT which my father once said was the name of the earliest inhabitants of Dupax. And the third is ITUIS or “people from Ituy”.

On a more practical level, the use of ISINAY especially in written materials will prevent mispronunciation by non-Isinay readers.

It is the same with IBALOY, the bigger ethnic group that is closely associated with the Isinays.

If you're not yet convinced, write ISINAI and/or IBALOI on a piece of paper and try letting an outsider read the two words aloud. Chances are that, instead of “i-si-nay”, you would hear the four-syllable “i-si-na-i” and instead of "i-ba-loy" you would hear "i-ba-lo-i."

Now, compare ISINAI'YA^ and ISINAYA^ (both meaning "Isinay ako" or "I'm Isinay") and tell me, plus or minus the circumflex mark (^) used in many Dupax Isinay words, which one is more reader-friendly and confusion-free.

An Isinay's Email to Celina Marie Cruz

Note: As a follow-up of the series of posts we posted on the Isinay language being at risk, we thought it would be fitting to re-print the e-mail exchange that Isinay Bird had with the author of the paper that outlines how Isinay could be revitalized.

OPENING E-MAIL:

To: Celina Marie Cruz
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2011 9:35 PM
Subject: Revitalizing Isinay

Dear Ma’am Celina,

Mawalang galang na po.

While navigating through the internet last night for a free downloadable copy of Otto Scheerer’s The Particles of Relation of the Isinai Language, my serendipity angel showed me your The Revitalization Challenge for Small Languages: The Case of Isinai.

Well, as a mestizo Isinay from Dupax myself, I feel I should thank you on behalf of my fellow Isinays who still care for the value and preservation – or at least prolonging the existence for many decades more – of our centuries-old language. I’m sorry I could not find your paper’s publication date. But based on your mentioning the Bona’ si Isinai Dopaj and mentioning a Department Order No. 74, s. 2009, I get it to mean it came out very recently. You see, I was speaker during the first anniversary of Bona^ in December 2010 and, indeed, it came out that we really need to do bold steps to save the Isinay language from falling into complete oblivion.

I guess that as a result of the suggestion I made in my rambling Isinay talk, the members of Bona^ teamed up with the Senior Citizens of Dupax in including as “major, major” part of the town’s fiesta in April 2011 a live presentation of how the Isinay daluj-daluj and lupeyup are made.

I’m not sure though if there was a complete videotape (or if somebody kept a copy) of the event which included the Isinay “how-to” narration of how such formerly popular glutinous-rice delicacies among us Dupax Isinays were made. Of course, there was also singing by senior and not-yet-senior citizens of the Isinay songs (e.g. “Dattut Ittuam,” “Uar Sipan Uar,” “Osan Lavi”) that young and old alike loved to sing up to the early ‘70s when TV and Tagalog and cellphones were not yet part of our culture in Dupax, Bambang, and Aritao.

Oh yes, one reason I’m sending you this note is to report to you a recent development about our move to revitalize Isinay – in case you are going to write a sequel or an updated version of your maserot on mampagayjayam poddan sinulat. Early this year I included an “Isinay Friends” group in my Facebook account that generated very warm reception from the younger Irupajs (people of Dupax) many of whom now work or live in the USA, Europe, Canada, Hongkong, and the Middle East.

It didn’t take long before our group got linked with another Facebook group called “Isinay Global Association” started by Isinays from Bambang and made more appealing by a lady who translated Bible verses into the Bambang version of Isinay. I had sporadic contributions to both groups by way of photos that generated not only lively Isinay exchanges but also evoked nostalgia among the members now living overseas.

In both FB groups, there is implied enthusiasm for revitalizing the Isinay language, be it Bambang or Dupax. Small steps and small victories, yes. It’s only unfortunate that no matter how I repeatedly included Aritao in my posts in the hope to flush out of the cave, as it were, Isinays of that town, my effort has so far met nakabibinging katahimikan from I-Aritaos.

This is why I’m happy you reported that Aritao also has its Uhmu Si Tribun Si Beveoyar Ari-Tau. Would you know somebody in that group I could contact, preferably through e-mail? Would you also know if that group includes the Isinay writer-editor Edgar Daniel and the UP-based(?) indi-film producer/director Mel Guzman?

Pasensiya na po, Madam, sa aking pang-aabala. Patunay lang po iyon kung gaano ninyo pinasigla ang aba naming puso at mundong Isinay sa inyong sinulat. Magtiwala po kayo na gagamitin namin, kung inyo pong mamarapatin, ang mga mungkahing nakapulupot sa mga findings ninyo – tungo sa aming panggagatong at pagpapalagablab muli sa aming wika na kaakibat ng aming kultura.

MABUHAY PO KAYO!

Osan mangirayaw ira^yun mabves pusonar an tataju sina Diliman,

CHARLZ CASTRO
88 Amistad, Camp 7, Baguio City
(http://isinay-bird.blogspot.com)

REPLY FROM CELINA:

From: Celina Marie Cruz
To: charlz castro
Sent: Wednesday, October 12, 2011 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: Revitalizing Isinay
Dear Mr. Castro,

Thank you so much for your email. It really brightened my day, knowing the people of Isinai are showing so much interest in the preservation and revitalization of the language. And it warms the heart to know that, in my own little way, I could help you in your pursuits.

I wrote my paper on The Revitalization Challenge of Small Languages: The Case of Isinai for a Linguistics Congress held at Cagayan de Oro last February 2010. It's basically a summary of my thesis. I will try to find a copy of my thesis, in hopes of helping you further your initiatives. We (a group of linguistics and anthropology students) also did a paper on the Isinai language and culture around 2009 for field work. We left copies of our study at Aritao, Dupax and Bambang.

Mr. Edgar Daniel III was one of my research sources. You can try and contact him through this number 0906-5748717 or his wife at 09155778368. I'm sorry but I still can't find his email address. I will email you again once I find it.

Thank you again for updating me on the developments of the revitalization of the Isinai language and culture. I am excited for all your efforts! I hope your initiatives will soon bloom into greater things! Please continue updating me. And if there is anything I can help you with, please, do not hesitate to ask! :)

Regards,
Celina Cruz

SECOND EMAIL:

Pinavlen Ma'am Celina,

Maraming salamat po sa inyong reply, at sa mga contact numbers.

It would be great to find out if the III in Mr. Daniel's name means he is the same person or a younger version of the Vizcaya Advocate editor I wrote a letter to and he liked the Isinay line I used ("Ayyu ayyu bebeyoyar Dupaj!" -- Literally: Kawawa naman ang bayang Dupax!). Well, that was in the pre-Martial Law years and I was a scrawny student then in UP Los Baños.

Actually, my interest at helping revitalize one of my dual native languages started as a game between me and my sisters in 2007 when, each time we meet, we would talk in Isinay and tried to outdo one another in using what we thought was the deepest Isinay word or phrase we could use -- and even imitated the sing-song way my father and uncle (natoy ra mot) talked.

We started with the names of vegetables, insects, household utensils, and parts of the body. Since then our little game continued and included even my Dupax-based nieces and cousins, such that it became an unwritten rule to use Isinay when we talked with one another.

Interestingly, in cases of disputes involving wrong pronunciation or Ilocanized/Tagalized terms, we used our mother (a pure Ilocana who was forced to learn Isinay so she could get along with her pure Isinay mother-in-law and my father's Isinay relatives) as arbiter. Quite often, too, we consulted some of her senior citizen Isinay friends.

I kept arbitrary listings here and there of the words that I myself have already forgotten, and pretty soon the few dozens of quaint or even moribund Isinay terms on my list became hundreds.

The hundreds soon became thousands and, before I knew it, I was already compiling and alphabetizing enough words in my computer to make an Isinay-English dictionary.

The cellphone had been very useful as now and then my sisters would send in new words they remembered or came across with while conversing with fellow Isinays. In my little place in Baguio, I would also be alert for Isinay-sounding words each time my Bontoc-Barlig wife talked with her siblings.

And that was how I got invited to speak before the Bona^ si Isinai Dupaj. Somehow news got around that this prodigal son of Dupax was trying to make an Isinay dictionary, and the officers thought it would be best to encourage their members to help.

To make the story short, napasubo na po ako. In fact, each time I go to Dupax to visit my mother, several members of the Bona^ (we use the circumflex here) who are also members of her senior citizens' association would come to the house and would ask me if I already had in my compilation this word, this song, this prayer, this saying, this lojlojmo^ (riddle), etc.

For the younger Isinays, mabuti na lang may Facebook na kung saan di lang kami nagkakakilanlan at nagpapalitan ng Isinay jokes at nag-re-react sa photos using Isinay. Believe me, enthusiastic din sila sa paggamit ng Isinay! In the process, marami akong napupulot na Isinay Bambang at Isinay Dupaj na di ko pa narinig sa tanang buhay ko.

Hulog ng langit din itong Internet na kung saan nadiskubre ko ang napakagandang sinulat ninyo.

Pasensya na po kung makuwento ako (ganyan daw yata ang medyo tumatanda na!) pero nakalimutan ko palang ireport din na napakalaking tulong sa revitalization ng Isinay language ang paggamit sa mga kanta at dasal na Isinay sa mga misa tuwing Linggo sa St. Vincent Catholic Church ng Dupax.

Mavves an ejao ira^yu, Madam Celina!

charlz

This Beetle Was a Favorite Isinay Toy

EVER SINCE I got my ID as official proof that I'm now a full-fledged senior citizen, I got into this habit of being on the alert for -- and enjoying -- life's pleasant surprises.

One such briefly but sweetly "resurrected childhood" happened to me when I was sweeping fallen avocado leaves on our part of the road in Baguio City one morning last January. As if my guardian angel gave a sign that she was happy I was starting the day right — I chanced upon this rhinoceros beetle.

Yes, you got it right. No sooner than when I realized I still had an angel that looks after the kid in me, I quickly finished what I was doing. And before I knew it, I scooped the beetle on my hands and gave in to the nostalgic emotions ushered in by my accidental encounter with the insect.

This type of beetle is called dumoj in Isinay (“barrairong” in Ilocano and “uwang” in Tagalog).

It has been years, nay, decades, when I last saw the creature up close and even listen to its almost inaudible but sweetly familiar "eeekkk... eeekkk" sound.

It was my first time, too, to find one in cold Baguio. And so I faintly wondered it must have flown from the warmer soils of La Union downhill, and even suspected that one boy caught it from Nueva Vizcaya and upon reaching Baguio he let the creature go.

Anyway, upon seeing that the beetle was alive and well, right then and there half-forgotten boyhood memories of playing with the beetle (as well as cicadas, dragonflies, fireflies, crickets, and grasshoppers) raced like video tape on fast forward in my mind’s eye.

Part of my memories was that slightly forested carabao-grazing part of Abannatan downhill of the Dupax Elementary School where one of my Isinay friends -- Wilfredo Felix -- discovered and revealed to me a particular spot where dumoj were clinging in some vines among the sapang and achuete shrubs.

I passed by the Latar Road last year and I was neyomdaran (surprised) to find that part of Abannatan was already a verdant ricefield flanked by flowering mango trees.

But back to our beetle...

Before I called my daughters to come look at a sample of my insect toys as a boy in Isinay country, I plucked a twig of my wife’s wild button tomato, put it beside the sleepy dumoj on my palm, set them for a good photo op in the morning light, and the picture above was one of the results.

You must have heard how many of us Filipinos, particularly Ilocanos, eat almost anything that moves and are able to use as food any succulent green on the mountain trail. Well, I would like to add that Isinays are also that good at sourcing food from the wilds. This was why during World War 2, it was said that American soldiers loved going with locals rather than their countrymen.

Bayaw ot, e... sorry to spoil your entomophagous (insect-eater) curiosity. Marin masira tiyen dumoj. This beetle is not the one that could be fried and eaten with gusto. Its edible cousin that we folks in Isinay country (Isinay man asta Ilocano) cherished as summer food was the May beetle that is called e-ve in Isinay, abal-abal or sibbaweng in Ilocano, and salagubang in Tagalog.

It is a different thing, however, with the wild button tomato. I have yet to find out if it has a specific Isinay name, but it is called butinggan by some Ilocanos, butbutones by some. Yes, it is also common wild food plant among us Ilocano-Isinays in Northern Philippines. But I'll reserve my take on it for a separate post.

The Isinay Word for Earthquake

A few steps away from the door of the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic church of Dupax del Sur today is a small structure with a cross on top.

The thing was not there before. By “before” is meant not so long ago, starting when I was a church-going boy in the 1960s up to when my wife and I got married there in 1979.

The first time I noticed it, it looked to me like a tombstone. Yet I didn’t bother to inquire whether it was intended to commemorate a VIP connected with the almost two-and-a-half centuries old church.

And one time I attended a burial or a wedding, I saw kids playing hide-and-seek on it. Thus, I got the impression that it was meant to cater to the playful nature of angels while their elders are attending mass, memorizing the faces of new in-laws witnessing a church wedding, or listening to kilometric eulogies for a dead relative, or something.

It was only when I went to take photos of the St. Vincent patronal procession and town fiesta last April that I came to know the whys and wherefores of the monument.

It was built to commemorate a big event that literally shook not only the church but also the entire towns of Dupax, Bambang and Aritao -- and killed hundreds of people in the cities of Baguio, Cabanatuan and Dagupan, and forced thousands of survivors to once again walk and carry loads as roads and bridges were erased in many parts of Luzon.

That big event was the intensity 7.7 killer earthquake of July 16, 1990.

IF YOU GO to that monument in Dupax nowadays and pretend to ask someone around what is it for, most probably you’ll hear in their statements the Ilocano word ginggined or the Tagalog lindol.

It would be fun, indeed, if one Sunday morning I’ll visit that Spanish-era church and do a little experiment of asking 100 or so church-goers. I bet, even if they know that I am an Isinay, I’d be lucky to get 10 who would utter the Isinay word YOJYOJ while the majority will most likely say "saru ngay ertkweykkar."

Alternatively and phonetically spelled yohyoh, the Isinay term for earthquake is a good example of words in the southern Nueva Vizcaya language that are now seldom used in Dupax del Sur, said to be the base as well as the last bastion of the Isinay tongue.

A number of Isinay words associated with the effects of earthquakes have also been replaced by Ilocano or Tagalog or even English terms.

Examples: NAJBA (narba in Ilocano, nagiba in Tagalog); NAJDAY or NAJURAY (nagidday in Ilocano, nagiray in Tagalog); NAJPING (nasping in Ilocano); NATABU-AN (nagaburan in Ilocano; natabunan in Tagalog; buried in English); NABANTU-AN or NAT-ONAN (napandagan in Ilocano; nadaganan in Tagalog); NITAPUSAN (napabutngan in Ilocano; kinilabutan in Tagalog; scared to death in English).

AS PART of Isinay country’s collective memory, a story went around that a day or so after the earthquake, a DZRH correspondent went to Dupax to report the incident.

I have yet to verify the story but I know the Isinay fellow interviewed by the field reporter. Anyway, he was said to have uttered on nationwide radio: “Nuung nag-lindul, ang simbahan ay napunit!”

It’s obviously a funny Tagalog, purists among us might say.

But that just goes to show how we people of the Isinay world go all out to accommodate strangers and to voice out what we feel. On the side, the interviewee might be right in using “napunit” – because, after all, the church part torn away by the yojyoj was the same cross used as crowning glory of the earthquake monument now gracing the front of the church.

WHAT IS NO longer part of the collective memory of Dupax is the earthquake that happened in 1882 or thereabouts. You see, I happened to have a copy of a yellowing 11-page typewritten document titled History and Cultural Life of Dupax (handed down to me by my Ilocana mother who found it while arranging the files of my Isinay father a few months after he died).

In the section on Important Facts, Incidents or Events, the document carries this:

1882 – There was an earthquake which lasted for about a month. Daily masses were said outside the church. It was said that at times water from jars spilled out because of the violent shakes caused by the earthquakes.

I checked the internet for major temblors that occurred in 1882 and, except for a report that said earthquakes occurred that year in Oregon, USA, nothing was mentioned about the Philippines.

But I did discover the closest information about a cataclysmic event that could possibly have affected Dupax “for about a month.” This was the eruption of Indonesia’s most famous volcano -- Mount Krakatoa.

According to Wikipedia:

“Krakatoa was a volcanic island made of lava in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia.The volcano exploded in 1883, killing 36,417 people. The explosion is considered to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from its point of origin. The shock wave from the explosion was recorded on barographs around the globe…. The recordings show that the shock wave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe seven times. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (50 mi). The sound of the eruption was so loud it was said that if anyone was within ten miles (16 km), he would go deaf.” [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa]

“The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa began in May 1883 and culminated with the destruction of Krakatoa on 27 August 1883…. In the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the volcano was intense, with some earthquakes felt as far as Australia…. On 27 August four enormous explosions took place at 05:30, 06:44, 10:02, and 10:41 local time. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 3,500 km (2,200 mi) away inPerth, Western Australia and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away, where they were thought to be cannonfire from a nearby ship.” [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa]

If you ask me, the month-long earthquakes felt in Dupax (that caused daily masses to be held outside the church) and the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa (that started in 1882 and continued May-August 1883 and whose explosions were heard thousands of kilometers away) were most probably related. In other words, the earthquakes felt in Isinay country were repercussions of the volcanic movements of Krakatoa (Karakatau to some).

But why the discrepancy between 1882 and 1883 in the recorded history of Dupax? Well, I guess there might have been a clerical error committed by one who recorded the year and another who transcribed the same data many years later.

On second thought, it could have been due to extremely challenged recall on the part of an informant who, according to a naughty whisperer in my mind, must have said in an aging voice:

“Yojyoj? E… attu ye, idong… dongngem si mavves. Nave^leng on namummutoja^ tay an unga siriye… ot mansajsajov ami tay siri Avannatan… i-us-usa mi ya andu-oy an bayombong toy neyir tay timba… ot pingsanyen napnu mot si danum di sajban on mawaga si batalan miar, otoy mot ta dajas an dimmatong ri naansananar podda an yojyoj… ot wara, najday ri baiyurar siri Avuwew… natabu-an ri wayilar Pitang… nan-ajpa^ on nan-avalin di sajban on mawaga miar dari… ot, e, aytu, omoy nin sinbuwenan an om-omoy amid di simbaanar an nandu^duuj on nanpajo^go^gos y Apu San Vicente Ferrer toy, wara, opong si ejaw ya mitapusan amit atdiyar an masden poddan yojyoj!”

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (Last of 6 Parts)

LET'S FORGET for a moment that Dr. Constantino is not a Novo Vizcayino and probably had not been to Aritao-Bambang-Dupax before doing the book (and, I guess, must not have gone back to do a possible sequel or even merely to distribute copies of the book after coming back from Japan).

But what he has done for Vizcaya, particularly the Isinays, should more than qualify him to be an adopted son of the province, particularly Isinay country.

The Book's Illustrious Co-Authors

Equally monumental as the contents of the book, is the way Prof. Constantino was able to bring into its making a synergy of Isinays from Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax del Sur. Indeed, he could not have assembled a more formidable powerhouse of informants as well as gatekeepers to produce his book.

Consider, for example, the following authorities on Isinay he was able to harness from Dupax alone:

ERMELINDA C. MAGALAD, CARLINA LIQUIGAN FELIX, AMBROSIO PATING, ESTELA G. FERNANDEZ, CONCEPCION C. FELIX, ALFONSO CASTAÑEDA, JUAN FELIX, GENOVEVA LAZAM, VICTORIA S. ARROYO, GENARO GUZMAN, PIO DAGGAO, MARY AMADOR, JUANA S. BASTERO, EUFRACIO TOJE, ANASTACIO ACOSTA.

Except for Carlina Liquigan Felix, Genoveva Lazam, Genaro Guzman, Mary Amador, Eufracio Toje, annd Anastacio Acosta, I'm quite familiar with most of the venerable people in the list above -- now all gone to the Isinay world up there!

Madam Magalad, for instance, was my favorite teacher at St. Mary's High School and it was from her that I learned that the correct Isinay for "sour" is "maesom" (not mapayit), and that the correct Isinay for "a while ago" is "besan ye" (not the erroneous "umommoyar"). I heard the grand old man Osio Pating is my granduncle as he was married to a Maxima Castro, an aunt of my father.

I used to call Estela Fernandez and Concepcion Felix, respectively, Auntie Tating and Auntie Concing. And I hasten to add that Auntie Tating was my teacher in Grade 6 where I got the highest grades ever of 96 then 98 for "original" and "rewritten" theme (not to forget my being Valedictorian under her care when I finished going to the Dupax Central Elementary School).

Don Alfonso Castañeda was, of course, the first and only Isinay so far who rose to become Governor of Nueva Vizcaya. Ama Juan Felix was the eng-eng (violin) player in the St. Vincent Church during his time.

Ina Ane^ Bastero was one of our catechism teachers during my pre-Holy Communion days and was one of the golden voiced cantores (church singers) when I was growing up> Other members of the church singers during her time were Ina Vito^ Arroyo, Ama Juan Dinu, and Mrs. Magalad.

As for Ama Pio Daggao, well, I remember that morning in 1967 when it was my turn to guard the road by the Dampol Bridge for "violators" while the flag ceremony was going on at the St. Mary's High School. I think I blew the whistle when Ama Pio was still on that part of the road that used to have teak and mahogany trees on one side, and the old man got off his carabao, stood at attention, then got back to his farm animal later when the singing of the national anthem was over, and when he passed by me I heard him say: "Naveyandaj tiyen nuwang, nayyi gineje nan adal!" (This pest of a carabao, he has no manners.)

Seeing their names in the book (and reading or singing what they have contributed to its pages) is thus, for me, not only a journey back to that particular time siren poto^ (in the olden days) when I could see them or hear their gentle voices somewhere and even get to talk to them and kiss their hands during the Angelus!

Tapes Were Used but No Photos

Apart from the nap-em porat nabalitu-an an laman (packed with golden contents) main pages of the book, the author's preliminary pages are also a joy to read.

I was particularly attracted to two parts of the Acknowledgements. Here's one:

The collection of the texts included in this book was begun in 1963 in a research project on Philippine languages and dialects which received financial assistance from the University of the Philippines for more than ten years.... During my one-year stay as Visiting Professor in the Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, I was able to transcribe phonemically and translate all the texts in this book.

Since 1963 when Dr. Constantino probably first visited Isinay country onwards to when he flew to Japan to finish the book, could it be possible that he took photographs not only of the Isinays he interviewed but also of certain spots in the towns of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax del Sur?

I guess the book would have been doubly more appealing and historical now had it included photos that were at least representative of the topics and the people, places, customs, and practices mentioned in the book. For example, a good picture of the anino^ singers or perhaps even the newly wed couples they were singing to would have been a jackpot for the children of those involved.

If he transcribed the interviews/recitations/singing, where are the tapes now? Could he have left the tapes in Japan? Or are they getting eaten by silverfish and fungi now somewhere in UP Diliman or in the Constantino household's filing boxes? If they still exist and are still usable, is it possible to borrow them so that at least we the living and caring Isinays could possibly listen to the voices of our pinavlen darauway an Isinay (beloved elderly Isinays)?

Here's another part that caught my interest:

I am especially grateful to Mrs. Magdalena Larosa-Aliaga, her son Mr. Edgar L. Daniel and Mrs. Ermelinda C. Magalad for additional help for translating some of the difficult words and phrases. I wish also to thank Mr. Dominador C. Boada, Sr. for giving me the typed copy of the Isinay diaries which are included in this book and for taperecording the entire Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana en la lengua de Isinay & Inmeas (1876), and Mayor William Giron of Dupax del Sur, Nueva Vizcaya who extended to us his hospitality and help when we went to his town in 1976 to undertake fieldwork.

Two of those named in the acknowledgement were both my uncles. Mr. Boada was married to my father's only sister Atanacia Mambear Castro while Mayor Giron was married to my father's first cousin Josefa Mambear Guiab. (Except for Auntie Pepang who is now in the U.S., all the names mentioned above, including my father, did not live long enough to at least tell me something about their reactions to the book.)

The following parts of the 9-page Introduction also titillated my senses:

This publication is the first volume of my study of the language and literature of the Isinay people in the Philippines.

The oral compositions were collected from Isinay informants with a taperecorder between 1963 and 1982. A few texts were written down by the informants before they were taperecorded.

All the words in the texts included in this book were compiled in a vocabulary which will be published immediately following this book.

I wonder whether Dr. Constantino was able to come up with that follow-up publication.

The Isinay World Years From Now

Constantino's Isinay Texts and Translations has set the pace or ran a very good lap, were it a relay race, and it’s now up to us concerned Isinays and language activists to pick up from where he left off.

In fact, the book's Introduction carried just such a marching order:

We hope that the publication of these texts will not only result in their preservation and dissemination but will also provide original data for the study of the life and culture of the Isinays.

Continuing the race after Constantino has made a great starting run is, however, a huge challenge now. For one thing -- reincarnation aside -- it would probably take forever to wait until a convergence or at least a semblance of such could be made of the Isinay authorities he has so enviably spent many hours with.

In the interim, I just hope that the Isinay language would not degenerate further, like what happened to Aritao’s part in terms of speakers -- this, even as the Larosa and Daniel elders have done their big, big part with no heir apparent so far coming out to pick up the baton for them.

Incidentally, I heard that the writer Edgar Daniel of Aritao (of "Mount Malussong" fame) passed away only last April. I remember he was editor-in-chief of the Vizcaya Advocate when I wrote a letter to the editor that started this way: "Ayyu-ayyu beveyoyar Dupaj!"

In publishing my letter, Apo Daniel even did a translation of my Isinay lines and, as I didn't know he was an iAritao then, I was surprised that there was an Isinay up there in that newspaper's office.

Anyway, that letter aired the collective grievance of the people of Dupax regarding the results of the elections where Benjamin Perez (brother of then COMELEC boss Leonardo Perez) became Congressman -- and later authored the bill that divided my hometown Dupax into Dupax del Norte and Dupax del Sur.

But so much for that lamentation.

For now it would help Isinay language activists as well as Isinay world historians to know that Constantino has propitiously did his now-an-indispensable-Isinay-language-and-history reference at the right time and at the right place -- in particular because the unassailable authorities he consulted were still alive at the time.

Had he done it later, say in the late 1980s up to the 1990s, he would probably meet only a sprinkling of Isinays who may not have good sutsur or appoyaw to tell, genuine anino^ songs to chant, and past Isinay events and places to revisit.

In other words, I bet Constantino could not have come out with a gem of a book on the Isinay language and many of the now mostly forgotten customs and stories of the Isinay world the way he did.

Be that as it may, I hope Dr. Ernesto Constantino is still alive and would make himself available -- so that, among other things, I could possibly do a reversal of roles: this time an Isinay videotaping him making sutsur of his experiences with the Isinays and asking him to possibly sing a few strains of the baliwaway and anino^ he very fortunately taped many, many years ago!

SALAMAT PODDAT TIPE YUWAR NANBASA

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (5)

I HOPE I DON’T sound like a salesman of Dr. Ernesto Constantino’s ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS. In case you don’t know, it’s not or was it ever available in book stores nor, I guess, even in Amazon.com and other such publication sellers through the internet.

But if I appear like I’m advertising the book, it’s perhaps because I’m just voicing out my indebtedness to Dr. Constantino for his efforts at producing not only a book that we Isinays could use for a long, long time, and for making the book a treasure trove of bits and pieces of Isinay history as well as tidbits on the people, geography and natural resources of the Isinay world that should not be side-stepped by history buffs worth their salt.

For instance, iBambangs, iAritaos, and Irupajs who wish to review how their respective towns got their names would probably want to get a taste of history – flavored with interesting folklore – told by representatives of such Isinay families as Acosta, Arcega, Castañeda, Daniel, Felix, Gonzales, Larosa, Liquigan, Pating, and Tungpalan -- and not from outsiders.

A number of interesting places in the three Isinay towns have also been represented. There is an ala-Romeo and Juliet legend of the Salinas Salt Springs written by Aritao’s Edgar Daniel. And it surprised me that the characters are different from the Gumined and Yumina love story of Salinas that I wrote about for the Ilocano magazine Bannawag when I was fourth year at St. Mary’s Dupax and then again for the martial law era Focus Philippines as a forestry student at UP Los Baños.

I also liked an oral account by Ama Juan Felix on how Banila (a former sawmill site in the southeastern part of upstream Dupax del Sur in the early 1960s) used to be called Kaynu (as it used to be the home of an Ivilaw named Kaynu along with his sister Betta and brother Betuwag) and how it looked like siren poto^:

Masdé tay ri dèdee-ar, toy war dèdee-ar an Antonio Felix ot mangan-anup da, toy sari si amung ugalen di Isinayar situ Dupaj. Ot satiyen dèdeȇ, inaw-awita sirin lugar, dahdahngan mi daratiyen Ilungut an tiyun sin-iiva. Besan, pingsaneyan dinatong di dèdee-ar an satiyen lugar ya maserot an pittuwan on maserot an pangkudalan si baha, inaplayan di dèdee-ar si pangkudalan mit baha. Siriyen taw-on an inaplayan di dèdee-ar ya tinultuloy min tinartaravaho. Ot nambaliw an payaw.

Tiyempon di gerar, immali ra Mister Ceferino Abordo an nammaymayor si beveyoyar Aritao, an wa pisiya niyen Mayor Abordo ya tahun promanentetdi Aritao. Isinay ra, Isinay ri lapu rar pirira.

Addi ela, satiye nambaliwanar mot tiyen lugar, e, siriyen navus di gerar, ya na-impruv. Nambaliw agrikultura. Siriyen marin maliluwa, ya naappiya mot di kalsarar dari. Inappiyan mot Apu Mayor Giron an ama pay la si Isinay, tahuttiye Dupax, promanente, on nanggovgovernador di dèdee nar dari, si Apu Don Alfonso Castañeda, an dirat natural pay la an nanpobrika si saratiyen lugar. Besan, nammayor si Apu Giron ot nambaliw. Wa mos di nambaliwanar ot impambaliw mos di konseho munisipal an barrio Banila besan.

Addi ela, ya, salamat si ap-apuwar dari an naun-una toy inesep da ri innun di Dupajar an mangaronan mangan-anup lohom an mandodopah. Addi ela ya, salamat toy satiyen piyô an nambaliw mos an barrio. Dioy ami tay siri, on dioy tay si urittî si piyô mit natdan si tawir mit na-un-unar darin dèdee an Isinay, an dèdee tau lom-an.

Ot satu lohom si domo an iptaw. Besan ma-enjoy mit maves di barrio war an Banila, mibus si mayor miyar besan, Mayor William Giron. Satu lohom si domo baba-on.

Incidentally, I chose to lengthily quote Ama Juan Felix here for two reasons. First, his contribution to the book was done orally and thus represents the typical way Isinays of my hometown used to speak in the 1970s when the native language was not yet “polluted” or “deformed” so much by Tagalog from TV. Second, his story is the only one that has touched on the Ivilaw/Ilongot part of the history and life of Isinays.

Indeed, no account of Isinay world, particularly Dupax (be it Sur or Norte) would be complete if it did not include the screaming fact that Isinay country also used to be Ilongot and, for that matter, also Igorot country. [Note: I shall write a couple or so of posts later to give readers of ISINAY WORLD an idea how life was when Dupax was still headhunting country.]

Other Must-Read Parts of the Book

And how about the origin of the word “Isinay”?

The “Sussur di Isinayar Dari si Beveyoyar Aritao” by Apu Eufronio Larosa Sr. should usher in eureka moments to interested readers. Here are excerpts:

Si na-un-unar darin ehaw, ya diyoy si osan bayur si as-asupar bayur Caraballo. Satiyen bayur ya na-ingaronan si bayur Sinay. Mibus toy war leya-iyar daritdin poto ot masde ran manganup, ya diyoy si osan ehaw na naansasavayat di leleya-iyar dari an nambeyoy si tandih di wangwangar ta amoy ran manganup si bayurar Sinay. War appiyon di manganupar dari ot ibolos dan pa-un-unon di asu rar dari an ingngaronan dat tonor toy dirat na-un-unan mannor si lamanar on asan seyunuron di leleya-iyar dari an tondon on gayangon di lamanar.

Si sariyen ehaw an inoy ran inpanganup ya inbolos dan inpa-un-una ri asu rar dari. Ot marin naliluwa ya diyoy si dingnge rant eyun di asuwar dari. Dinahas dan inoy tinun-uran. Ot andiyen eyomdaran di inila rar toy osan bavayi an nilawus di serot nar si timma^doh si tu^tu^ di bayurar, mu marin matahun tahu toy osa lohom an rebulto. Si amma-iyar gayhayan leleya-iyar dari ya ivuya ra otiyan oppaton ta iratong dat po^dah dar omu naaliyar lugar da, mu neyomdaran da toy marin poddan ma-iniin toy amung poddan batu an nivangbang di dam-ot nar.

Andoholan inavoleyan da ot dinahas da bayaw an immulit po^dah dar dari toy inoy ra bayaw inbalita si tahuwar lom-an si sariyen inila ra. Dinahas si deen poddan leleya-i an ni-oy nisangat si naaliyar bayur Sinay, ot neyomdaran dan tuwa si inila rar an serot na riyen rebulto. Nandara^dan dan inoppat toy amma-in podda ri gayhaya rar mangi^pas siri lugar dar ta siri otiyat pittuwana, mu siyari pay lan marin poddan ma-iniin.

Data-Rich Isinay Diary in the Spanish Era

A big positive point for Constantino's book is having included three Isinay diaries of Mr. Juan Mallo written from August 1810 to August 1811. The diaries contain a blow-by-blow record of his experiences as a cavecilla (troop leader) and of how life was during the advent of Spanish colonization.

At the time, there was no Nueva Vizcaya yet; there was only a big province of Cagayan. Although Mr. Mallo didn't mention it, at the time also, the Isinay-speaking region (including Aritao and Dupax) south of the Magat river was called Ituy. But at least he used "Paniqui" to refer to the communities further north of Aritao.

How Juan Mallo's Isinay diaries came to be part of the book is itself a story. Here’s what Dr. Contantino says in his Introduction:

The texts of the diaries found in Chapter VII of this book are based directly on a typewritten copy which was given to me by Mr. Dominador C. Boada, Sr. from Dupax delSur on October 25, 1976 when I went there to do fieldwork. Mr. Boada told me that the copy was given to him by the Catholic priest assigned to the municipality for translation. However, Mr. Boada could not find the time to translate said diaries.

I had the diaries translated by Mr. Eufronio Larosa Sr. in 1978. He translated them into English rather freely. He also identified and corrected some errors in copying. In 1979, I had the same diaries translated by Mrs. Magdalena Larosa-Aliaga, the elder sister of Mr. Larosa, and she translated them into Ilokano. Later, I was told by Dr. William Henry Scott, a lay missionary of the Philippine Episcopal Church and a scholar, that it was he who sent the typewritten copy of the diaries to the Catholic priest of Dupax del Sur and that the manuscripts of the diaries were in the Dominican Archives in Quezon City. The manuscripts have not been published.

After Mr. Larosa and Mrs. Aliaga had translated the diaries, I retranslated them into English in Tokyo in 1981, and I was able to identify and correct some ‘miscopied’ words. I also changed some word divisions in order to make it easier for the words to be entered into the vocabulary of the texts found in this book which I compiled. The texts of the diaries in this book should be checked against the manuscript of the diaries by someone who knows Isinay very well.

Except for the Doctrina Cristiana, the three diaries are the oldest entry in the book. The first diary details how Mallo and his men had to hike and cross deep rivers often at midnight and sometimes without eating, and how they were always on the lookout for the Buccalot's "lugarar dien panguiralijan dat batu" to be able to safely reach Quiangan where they were part of joint Spanish forces sent out to subdue the Ifugaos in the area who were then referred to as "Buccalot."

An interesting part of the diaries were the account of the atrocities committed by the Spanish military to subdue the Buccalot. They contain how many rice granaries and entire villages were burned to starved and defeat the Bugkalots – using Christianized natives such as Isinays and Gaddangs and imported warriors from Cagayan and the Ilocos. As if to give the other side of the war zone, the diary also describes how the forest-dwelling indigenous peoples fought back, using spears and shields made of "catat si nuang on baja", well-positioned rocks ready to be rolled against the enemy on mountain trails, pit traps armed with pointed bamboo poles, poisoned kalderos, and their mastery of the jungle terrain of Bagabag and Ifugao.

Oh well, the book is certainly a fountain of many more materials that can make your Isinay Bird sing and sing all day long, but I have to stop twittering for now so I can go out and peck some fruits as well as exercise my wings.

[MAVUS MOT SI MISEYUNURAR AN PARTE]

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (4)

COMPLETOS RECADOS

I SPENT THE whole night and long, long hours the days and nights after that voraciously feasting on and savoring every page of Constantino's Isinay book.

If it were a food item and you're going to ask me to describe it, the least I could say is that it is completos recados. It has all the ingredients – nay, the items – I was looking for, including even some juicy bits about the exploits of an Isinay playboy of yesteryears.

What I was looking for, mainly, were words in Isinay – particularly authentic Isinay words and ways of articulating thoughts and weaving them into coherent language all of which I needed to enrich and substantiate my already around 12,000-strong collection of Isinay words as of April 2012.

Again, I'm not stretching it when I say I got much, much more than I prayed for.

Not only were the book's Isinay pages packed with Isinay vocabulary, expressions, songs (including the anino^), mottoes, riddles (lojlojmo^), stories (sutsur, appoyaw), and prose many of which I barely remember hearing or coming across before. Mercifully for us struggling Isinay survivors now, Dr. Constantino also did a wonderful job giving their English equivalents or translations. And on a one-on-one or paired-pages format at that. Thus, there's no need for me to squeeze some other people's brains or to second-guess what the more difficult Isinay words and phrases meant.

What's more, the book did not only focus on Isinay-Dupax but also contained equally golden items on Isinay Bambang. For Irupaj guys like me whose knowledge of Isinay-Bambang has not gone beyond takallo (corn), bansing (matches), mangaw (cat), dadak (frog), ansisinno^ (dragonfly), and masing-aw (delicious), the book is a vocabulary builder and should help one to better understand the Isinay phraseology of the Facebook postings of friends from Bambang.

As for Isinay Aritao, the book is also certainly a windfall as it contains very generous samples of vintage documents – such as patayav and testamento – written in unadulterated Isinay. The Aritao Isinay customs concerning marriage and those concerning death are certainly enlightening as well as entertaining reading for one concerned not only with the language but also now vanishing practices.

For children or even those who want to be equipped with bullets to tell their kids or grandkids bedtime stories, the book has a very generous menu, too, of legends, prince and princesses stories, fairy tales, and even ghost stories. I’m now 60 but you better take my word when I say that I became a child again – in fact, the voice of my father telling bedtime stories to my sisters came alive again – when I read the two versions of “Bidan di Ba-uuwar on si Araw” (Tale of the Turtle and the Monkey) contained in the book.

The moro-moro that used to be the most awaited attraction during town fiestas in the Dupax of my boyhood also got resurrected when I was reading Pablo Larosa’s comedia-estoque (sword comedy) titled “Bilay Don Juan Pugut si Reynoar Escocia” (Life of Don Juan Pugut of the Kingdom of Escocia).

I digress, but hindsight tells me now that, when I was a boy, the crowd-drawing moro-moro, even if it carried traces of Spanish influence, was largely helpful in keeping the Isinay language alive and interesting to children – be they Ilocano, Pangasinan, Igorot, or Isinay.

Indeed, the sights and sounds of the moro-moro of my youth came back and I saw myself, an Ilocano-speaking kid, picking up Isinay words here and there while watching with excitement the red-shirted “Moros” engaging blue-uniformed “Cristianos” in swordfights, when I read this part of Larosa’s script:

“Mebbes si ejao isaon. Saon si Emperador Bulbulagao manlajlajot ajdao. Imbevena situ y Apo an umalin mangibaja an dioy si osan comedia an paila mi sitien mablen ejao si fiesta. Besan amoya umuli toy deet visita siri beoymi pura la loman an sin-ili an neyaput di Babaddi. Dee tay otiat ba’bao mu asa pay mu umuli. Adios, goodbye.”

Larosa’s Don Juan brought back the images of that makeshift bamboo stage that each fiesta time came up on that formerly vacant spot between the house of Apu Ariston Reyes and the then Municipal Dispensary (now replaced by the front building of the Governor Alfonso Castaneda Elementary School). In my mind’s ear, I heard the “pasa doble” music played again alternately by the St. Vincent and Eagle Swing orchestras to signify who was winning between the Moros and the Christians… while a “princesa” was up there on a bamboo tower being taunted by a “bulbulagaw” carrying a naping-awan an parajol (dilapidated axe).

For the more serious Isinay language students, the inclusion of Isinay prayers from the first Isinay book ever to be published – the Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana de la Lengua de Isinay o Inmeas (printed in 1876) – should be interesting. In fact, even a fluent Isinay speaker like me would find the prayers challenging to read and to understand as their author/s used an orthography that looks alien compared to today's largely phonetic Isinay way of spelling words.

[ [DIOY RA TAY SI ATUPTUPNA]

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (3)

NOT SO LONG ago, after sensing that I would never get personal hold of a volume of ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, I tried to apply the "Control A + Control C" technique of getting copies of books for free via the Internet.

You see, I applied that downloading technique earlier -- with satisfactory results -- to two books that I was willing to shell out part of my allowance for blood-pressure maintenance tablets, had they been available at National Book Store. One was a beautifully written book on biology by a scientist who certainly knew how to inspire lay people or non-technical readers. The other was probably the best reference on writing for scientific publications I ever encountered.

I needed the books so much, not only to nurture my self-imposed mission as a forester writer but also to stay fully armed, as occasional lecturer at DENR and as Editor-in-Chief of the Ecosystems & Development Journal, with the latest “5 wives + 1 super husband” of science writing and technical editing.

But in the case of ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, even as I wanted to peruse it so much I was thinking to go take digital photos of even only a few pages in the copy said to be available at the museum of the St. Mary's University in Bayombong, the Ctrl A + Ctrl C magic didn't work.

Indeed, I was only able to reach the foot of the hill insofar as going to the pages that I wanted to read in full or to closely inspect. Except for a few discordant lines that would appear on my laptop's screen, there was not much I could extract from the book even with the combined forces of Google and Yahoo.

When I say it hit me like it was the end of the world, you better believe it.

Like staring and salivating at a smiling, fragrant and seductive lechon enclosed in a restaurant's display counter, I thought I would content myself with being able to catch only an Isinay word here -- like teyantah (riverbank) and sinewah-sewah (searched and searched)... and a couple more there -- like sinungop (entered the house) and pingsanean (after, once).

But just as I was beginning to forget about the book and the thought was starting to gel in my subconscious that there was nothing much to it (meaning, no need to salivate for it), an angel came down from Heaven, as it were, to come to the rescue.

Her name was Dr. Analyn V. Salvador-Amores, a social anthropology professor of UP Baguio.I met her through my daughter Leia.

How I came into the picture was not clear. It could be that Leia (who also teaches in UP Baguio) mentioned something about her Isinay roots or my doing an Isinay dictionary, or that Dr. Amores (Ikin for short) sounded off her plan to do research on the Isinays.

Or whatever.

Ikin and I met one afternoon last April. It came out that she's interested in a kinuttiyan cloth that is said to be made by Isinay weavers and is called uwes pinutuan.

Yes, she said, she heard of the Isinay dictionary I was working on and we could probably do a joint research project.

Of course, how could I say no? I could not contain my excitement at having a Ph.D. graduate from the prestigious University of Oxford conduct research on Isinay culture, and in Dupax at that.

But equally exciting was her words that she has a copy of Dr. Constantino's book.

And so, I forgot most of what we were discussing. But I do recall Ikin mentioning something like she found the Isinay book lying in one library at Oxford (probably gathering dust and awaiting a trip to the trash bin) and she just picked it up.

So that was it. She gave me a folder containing Celina Marie Cruz's "Revitalization Challenge for Small Languages: The Case of Isinai" and The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project small grants information pack.

And a day or so later, Leia came home with a paper-bound photocopy of the book.

[DIOY TAY SI ATUPTUPNA]

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (2)

I FIRST CAME to know of the existence of Dr. Ernesto Constantino's presumably now rare book in 2008 when I Google-searched for any material about Isinay available in the Internet.

You see, except for one election campaign pamphlet written by former Nueva Vizcaya Governor Alfonso Castañeda for Mrs. Betty Calderon when she ran for governor (a copy of which was lent to me two years ago by Bona^ si Isinay Dopaj President Lilia Castañeda-Magquilat), I have yet to see a printed material on or using Isinay. All my life in Isinay country, the reading fare we had in the house were in English (e.g. Philippines Free Press), Iluko/Ilocano (e.g. Bannawag), and Tagalog (e.g. Pilipino Komiks).

Thus, under the circumstances now of the Isinay language fast slipping away due to dwindling users let alone lack of literature, finding any Isinay item – no matter how poorly written, no matter how vaguely relevant, no matter how trivial – would be like discovering a large mudfish in a carabao pond known to have no fish at all.

The internet hits I got of Constantino’s 561-page “nabalitu-an an libru” showed an unadorned slightly green cover of the book, plus notes to the effect that a copy is available in this library and that. No review whatsoever was made of the book. The sites that allowed a sneak of its pages did not go beyond its table of contents and a few snippets of the inside pages. Modesty aside, I therefore feel that this writeup might just be the first such book review of the UP Professor’s obra maestra.

ABOUT THE BOOK'S AUTHOR

WHO IS Ernesto Constantino? Which part of Dupax, or Bambang, or Aritao did he come from? If he is not an Isinay, how in the world was he able to write a book like that? Andiye sin^tonar ta nileleman an nangapyat ma^pen libru an mi^pun si Isinay? (What qualifications did he have to come out with so thick a book about Isinay?)

Definitely intrigued, I Google-searched "Ernesto Constantino." And here's what I got from his curriculum vitae in http://www.languagelinks.org/oldsite/book/authors_econst.html --

ERNESTO A. CONSTANTINO Academic Rank: University Professor
Primary Academic Unit: Department of Linguistics
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines

Date and Place of Birth:
August 25, 1930 / Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija

Educational Background:
AB English (cum laude), U.P., 1953
PhD Linguistics, Indiana University, 1959
Summer Program in Linguistics, Linguistic Society of America, University of Michigan, Summers 1956, 1958
Post-doctoral studies in Malayopolynesian Linguistics, Yale University, 1958-59
Graduate Studies in Linguistics, Cornell University, 1955-56

Positions Held:
University Professor, U.P., 1993-1999
Professor of Linguistics, U.P., 1969-1992
Associate Professor of Linguistics, U.P., 1965-69
Assistant Professor of Linguistics, U.P., 1959-65
Graduate Assistant, U.P., 1954-55
Student Assistant, U.P., 1952-54
Chairman, Department of Linguistics, 1963-72, 1982-85
Chairman, Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature, 1969-74
Visiting Research Professor of Linguistics, Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan, 1981-82
Senior Specialist (in Linguistics), East-West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1968-69
Associate Linguist and Associate Director, Philippine Languages Project, Pacific and Asian Linguistics Institute, University of Hawaii, 1968-69
Fellow, John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, 1963-64
Fellow, Southeast Asia Program, Cornell University, 1955-56
Fellow, U.P., 1955-59.

Other services or contributions:

I was able to contribute significantly to the adoption and development of the Filipino national language. The 1971 Constitutional Convention adopted the proposal, popularly known as the "universal approach", submitted by the UP Department of Filipino and Philippine Literature and the Department of Linguistics, both of which I was the chairman from 1969 to 1972, for the development of Filipino as the national language of the Philippines in place of Pilipino. Subsequently, the 1986 Constitutional Commission adopted Filipino as the national language of the country even though as early as 1970 the UP had already adopted and started using this language as the national language. Thus the Filipino national language is the distinct contribution of the UP whose linguists were singularly consulted by the 1986 Constitutional Commission for the adoption of this language by the 1987 Constitution as the national language of the Philippines.

I was one of the three U.P. faculty members who made decisive contributions to the framing of the final version of the law entitled "An Act Creating the Commission of the Filipino Language, Prescribing Its Powers, Duties, and Functions, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for Other Purposes." I have attended meetings and conferences in linguistics and Austronesian languages in the USA, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Moscow and Jakarta in which I read papers. I have attended far more meetings and conferences (including symposiums, seminars and workshops) in the Philippines on linguistics, Philippine languages, language in education, language in science and technology, folklore, and other topics. In almost all these academic gatherings, I was a paper reader, or a discussant, or a reactor.

As could be deduced from his enviable credentials, Dr. Ernesto Constantino is not only more than qualified to author a book on Isinay. As a nationalistic Filipino and coming from a province not far from Isinay country, he is also one champion for Isinays that your Isinay Bird would very much want to meet soon – even if only to kiss his hand and say “Manmano wa^ ira^yu, Apu Maestro!” as well as to give AMMAIN SALAMAT (big thanks) on behalf of all surviving Isinays as well as the miseseyunur an bona^ si Isinay (next generation of Isinays).

[DIOY SI ATUPTUPNA]

The Greatest Isinay Book Ever Published (1)

IN EARLY 2008, smarting from an almost fatal case of myocardial infarction (that's "mild heart attack" for us non-doctors) the year before, I have started work on what I envisioned to be the most comprehensive -- if not the very first -- dictionary of the Isinay language.

Part of my game plan, apart from squeezing the brains, let alone the patience, of senior and not-yet-senior Isinays in my hometown Dupax (and ushering all my guardian angels so that I won't appear too "manangaranga" or acting like a pest to them) is to first list down all Isinay words I could gather.

And after having checked, cross-checked, and double-checked the words' meanings as well as their spellings, I would format them using MS Publisher into a book, complete with photos and drawings, then make a printout, and then present the draft output in a meeting with the Senior Citizens of Dupax del Sur and the Bona^ si Isinai Dopaj.

The trajectory I have mapped out is to come out with an Isinay-English dictionary first, then immediately follow this up with an English-Isinay version.

Now, if you ask me when would the dictionary see the light of day, I would most probably give you a standard "it's a work in progress." Why? Because I miscalculated the extreme challenge presented by this self-imposed mission.

For love of Isinay -- both the language and the people -- I'm not surrendering. Mandajmu^ mu satut maayar an apyo^ nanung an dumatong ri oras uwar, urya^ iavoloy an marin marapus ri in-inopon tauwar an diccionario taun Isinay!

Bayaw ot, perish the thought, in case I would not be able to finish this project before my expiry date comes, and someone or some concerned group more able and hardworking would continue the "Isinay revitalization thru dictionaries" mission I have committed myself to, I strongly recommend that he/she/they get a copy of what I think is the greatest Isinay book ever published.

That book is UP Professor Constantino's Isinay Texts and Translations -- a 561-page volume published in December 1982 by the Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, with office at Kita-ku, Tokyo, Japan.

Why do I say the greatest? And why do I recommend it?

Because, as in a gold mine, it is a pure mother lode of Isinay words (many of them in varying levels of being forgotten!) from Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax.

Not only that. It is also a paradise of folktales, songs, documents, and historical bits all of which have yet to be fully explored and enjoyed by those who care for Isinay country and its culture.

Well, for Doubting Thomases, the book's table of contents should be instructive for now. Here:

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS = ⅲ
Chapter
Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION = 1
Ⅱ. ISINAY STORIES = 13
A. From Aritao = 14
1) Tale of the Turtle and the Monkey = 14
2) Prince Juan of Two Spans = 22
3) The Deer and the Snail = 40
4) Beautiful and the Beast = 46
5) Juan the Oracle = 64
6) The Salt Springs in Salinas = 76
7) The Princess of the River Marange = 82
8) The Mermaid in the River = 88
9) Origin of the Name Aritao = 92
10) Story of the Isinays in the Town of Aritao = 94
B. From Dupax = 102
11) Tale of the Turtle and the Monkey = 102
12) The Bird Called Sippayut = 110
13) Three Bachelor Friends = 112
14) Little Pedro and Big Pedro = 118
15) The Legend of Ping¬ao = 120
16) The Story of the Ghost in Abannatan = 122
17) The Story of a Ghost = 126
18) The Princess of the Dampol Bridge = 126
19) Secret Story of Saint Vicente Ferrer = 128
20) Saint Vicente Ferrer = 132
21) The Name of the Town of Dupax = 134
22) Barrio Banila = 134
C. From Bambang = 138
23) Mr. Snail, Mr. Bumblebee and Mr. Dragonfly = 138
24) Juan the Pitch¬Coin Player = 140
25) The Dog That Knew How to Talk = 146
26) The Town of Bambang = 154
27) The Name of the Town of Bambang = 156
28) Story of the Town of Bambang = 158
29) Story of the Town of Bambang = 162
30) A Short History of the Town of Bambang = 170
31) Origin of the Magat River = 172
Ⅲ. ISINAY RIDDLES AND PROVERBS = 175
A. Riddles = 176
a. "Let's Tell Riddles" = 176
b. The Riddles = 178
B. Proverbs = 190
a. "Listen to What I'm Going to Tell You" = 190
b. The Proverbs = 192
c. Proverbs from the Comedia ¬Estoque¬ Isinay, Life of Don Juan Pugut of the Kingdom of Escocia = 200
Ⅳ. ISINAY SONGS = 203
1) Song of the Suitor = 204
2) Who Owns This House? = 204
3) Before You Stood Up = 206
4) Here is My Humble Self = 208
5) Farewell = 216
6) Like the Light of a Candle = 218
7) Oh Star! = 220
8) Where are You? = 220
9) Pity My Heart = 222
10) Beloved Rosing = 224
11) My Promise = 224
12) The Happiness on Earth = 226
13) We Who are Merciful = 228
14) Lullaby: My Child will Go to Sleep Now = 228
15) Baliwaway: Neneng, Just Go to Sleep Please = 230
16) We are Three Women = 232
17) We Who are Here Suffering = 232
18) God is in You = 236
19) Hymn to Our Mother Saint Catalina Virgin and Martyr = 236
20) The Angels = 244
21) Lovely Night = 246
Ⅴ. ISINAY PERSONAL NARRATIVES = 249
A. "My Life" = 250
1) Eufracio Toje = 250
2) Juan Mallo = 250
3) Magdalena Larosa¬ Aliaga = 254
4) Ambrosio Pating y Umamos = 262
5) Carlina Liquigan Felix = 272
6) Anastacio Acosta = 274
7) Narcisa TungPalan = 276
B. "My Experiences During the Japanese Period" = 278
8) Juan Mallo = 278
9) Magdalena Larosa¬Aliaga = 286
10) Gavino Madumi = 292
Ⅵ. ISINAY CUSTOMS ABOUT MARRIAGE AND DEATH = 299
A. Old Customs of the Isinays Concerning Marriage = 300
1) Eufronio Larosa, Sr. = 330
2) Edgar L. Daniel = 320
B. Old Customs of the Isinays Concerning Death = 330
1) Eufronio Larosa, Sr. = 330
2) Edgar L. Daniel = 336
C. Documents = 344
a. The Patayav for Eufronio Larosa, Jr.(1934) = 344
b. The Testament of Margarita Larosa. Granada(1925) = 352
Ⅶ. ISINAY DIARIES
1) First Isinay Diary: Diary of the Quiangan Troop This Present Year Which is One Thousand Eight Hundred and Ten = 362
2) Second Isinay Diary: 〔The Things Which the Alferez Did Which We Did not Like〕 = 400
3) Third Isinay Diary: Diary Which Records the Things Done by the Troop Sent by the Lord Commander Don Juan Mallo from the town of Bagabag on Order of the Lord Mayor and on Order also of the Superior = 414
Ⅷ. AN ISINAY DRAMA: LIFE OF DON JUAN PUGUT OF THE KINGDOM OF ESCOCIA = 433
Ⅸ. ISINAY PRAYERS FROM THE CATECISMO DE LA DOCTRINA CRISTIANA DE LA LENGUA DE ISINAY O INMEAS = 523
Making the Sign of the Cross = 524
Our Father = 524
Hail Mary = 526
I Believe = 528
The Salutation = 530
Commandments of God = 532
Commandments of Our Mother Holy Church = 534
Sacraments of Our Mother Holy Church = 536
Articles = 536
The Sins from Which the Other Sins Originate are Seven = 540
The Virtues Which Oppose the Seven Sins are Seven = 542
The Acts of Mercy = 542
Blessings of the People = 544
The Powers of the Soul are Three = 546
The Senses of the Body are Five = 548
The Enemies of the Soul are Three = 548
The Virtues Which are Called Theological are Three = 548
The Virtues Which are Called Cardinal are Four = 548
The Destinations of Us People are Four = 550
The Gifts of the Holy Spirit are Seven = 550
The Fruits of the Holy Spirit are Twelve = 550
The Gifts of the Body of People Shared from God are Four = 552
The Whips of God on People on This Earth are Three = 552
The Acts Which are Done in Payment Sins are Three = 554
The Sins Which Clamor for Retribution from God are Four = 554
The Sins Which are Clearly Opposed to God the Holy Spirit are Four = 554
The Sacramental Acts Which Can Cause the Forgiveness of Small Sins are Nine = 556
The Confession = 558
Manner of Repentance = 558

[DEE TAY SI ATUPTUPNA]

Isinay Territory Was Formerly Called Ituy

As if to remind the writer in me that the world of Isinays is indeed a wonderful one, a half-forgotten topic pertaining to Isinay country and its people pops up now and then and, like a long-unseen bird that from out of nowhere perches by my window, it gets my undivided attention.

One such “did you know” topic is the fact that the part of Nueva Vizcaya that has been and still is known to be Isinay territory used to be called Ituy. I don't know why, but I suddenly posted it as a "tajtaje" (just for fun, not serious) question in the Isinay Friends and Isinay Global Association groups in Facebook.

Unfortunately, there were no takers. Or probably the challenge was not interesting enough.

Anyway, it was my fellow forester Romy Acosta (of Vista Hills, Bayombong) who first mentioned to me this historical tidbit on Ituy. I think it was a couple of years back during a break in a senior foresters’ meeting at the conference room of the DENR Bureau of Forest Development in which he was Director.

Perhaps I had deadlines to meet. Or that I was doing something very urgent. For it developed that I didn’t pursue Director Acosta's lead on Ituy and just took the discovery as an object of curiosity to add to my coconut’s collection of sundry trivia.

About two weeks ago, however, the rainy weather made our internet as well as cable TV connections in the house erratic. So what better thing to do than curl up in bed and catch up on my readings.

Thank the rains. It was because of them that I was able to leaf through a book that had been gathering dust in my "junk files" for many years now but which I didn't know had Ituy on its pages.

The book is William Henry Scott's 370-page The Discovery of the Igorots: Spanish Contacts with the Pagans of Northern Luzon (published in 1974 by New Day Publishers, Quezon City).

Dr. Scott has served as Principal of St. Mary's Sagada, has published extensively on the Igorots, and is considered by many as the foremost scholar on the Cordillera region.

I may be putting my researcher's head on the chopping board here, but I believe his book may be used as major reference on Ituy. In fact, its Index lists some 23 pages where Ituy is mentioned or discussed.

It was from the book that I got enlightened on the "Paniqui" being referred to in other literature on Nueva Vizcaya and the Cordillera.

Before this, I was wondering how the combined forces of Spanish soldiers and Isinay volunteers mentioned in the August 1810-August 1811 Isinay diaries of Juan Mallo (included in Ernesto Constantino's 561-page Isinay Texts and Translations) were able to walk from Dupax and Aritao to "Paniqui" overnight when the Paniqui that I know is more than a hundred kilometers away in Tarlac.

Anyway, Scott's footnote on Page 85 of his book says: Paniqui was the name given the Gaddang-speaking Mission centered on Bagabag downstream from the Isinay-speaking Mission of Ituy.

In case one is interested in going to the book's original sources, among Dr. Scott's references were: 1) Manuel del Rio, Relacion de los Sucesos de la Mision de Ituy (Mexico, 1739), 2) Bernardo Ustariz, "Relacion impresa de los Sucesos y Progresos de la Mision de Santa Cruz de Paniqui y Ituy," AUST Libro de Becerros, No. 37, fol. 222 (1745), and 3) Vicente de Salazar, "Relacion de la Conquista de Pituy por la Tropa de Cagayanes Año de 1748 (APSR, MS, Filipinas, Vol. 113, fol. 195).

Here are excerpts from the Introduction of Dr. Scott's book:

If the Spaniards had drawn a map of their new colony in the 16th century, (the) Cordillera territory would have appeared as part of the provinces of Cagayan, Pangasinan and Ilocos... and an unconquered area called Ituy in the upper Magat valley around the present municipality of Aritao. Mountaineers trading gold in Pangasinan and Ituy were called Ygolotes -- later to be spelled Igorrotes -- but mountaineers farther north on the Ilocos coast were called by the ordinary term applied to mountain dwellers all over the archipelago -- tingues or tinguianes (from the Malay word tingi for 'high, elevated'), except in Pampanga where they were called Zambales....

In the Cagayan valley the need for such a term did not arise because the more gentle eastern slope of the Cordillera presented no sudden mountain wall, so the Spaniards simply called the Kalingas and Apayaos infieles (pagans) as they called the Ibanags and Gaddangs of the Cagayan valley itself. But when they went up the Apayao River, they called the mountaineers there by another native name, Mandayas (literally, 'those up above'). Then when they made expeditions into the Baguio gold mines in 1620 and Kayan in 1668, they called the people there Igorots, too, and when they built a fort at Bagabag in 1752 against Ifugao attack from the west, they called them Igorots or, occasionally, Tinguians. (pages 1-2)

In Chapter 1 (The Search for Igorot Gold: 1575-1625), Dr. Scott again mentioned of a place named Ituy and insinuated that it was a gold-rich area:

Reports of wealthy communities in the headwaters of the Pampanga and Cagayan Rivers inspired further Spanish exploration in that direction, and about 1585 Governor Santiago de Vera sent out a prestigious local chieftain from Candaba, Dionisio Capolo, at the head of 100 native troops. Capolo reached the Caraballo, consulted his allies there, decided to proceed no farther into hostile territory, and returned to join a secret conspiracy against the Spaniards led by the Lakandula family of Tondo.

When the plot failed, he was sentenced to eight years' exile from the Manila jurisdiction, but successfully appealed to a higher court for a reduction of the sentence to four years, and then devoted the rest of his life to loyal service to the Spanish government. Don Dionisio was especially useful to the Spaniards in a series of expeditions across the Caraballo and down the entire Cagayan River Valley sent out by the energetic Governors Gomez and Luis Perez Dasmariñas, father and son, in the 1590s.

The Governor himself attributed the pacific results of the expeditions -- the first extracted tribute in the form of gold jewelry from dozens of villages without the loss of a single life on either side -- to the presence of missionary chaplains, but Dionisio Capolo's presence is the more likely explanation. He already had contacts with these people, more than once entertained recalcitrant captive chieftains in his house in Manila, often travelled into the same regions almost alone, and in the early 17th century was the favored go-between when leaders from this area sought Spanish intervention in their local conflicts. He almost lost his own life in one of these expeditions when he guided a detachment up from the Aritao area into what is now the municipality of Kayapa in 1595, searching for Igorot mines. (pages 11-12)

As for internet sources on Ituy, my Google-search led me to one http://www.cbcponline.net/jurisdictions/bayombong.html which carries the following:

The first Christian mission established in Nueva Vizcaya was that of Ituy in 1609. This sitio or barrio could have been anywhere between what is now the province of Cagayan in the north, and the mountains bordering Nueva Ecija in the south, because as the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, the entire Cagayan Valley, now Region II, was simply one province called Cagayan.

The faith spread over the region through the efforts of the Augustinian and Dominican missionaries who came from areas now called Cagayan and Pangasinan. By 1717, Father Alejandro Cacho went on mission trips to Ituy, and slowly picked up once again whatever threads of Christianity had been left by the earlier missionaries. Within twenty years, with the help of the Augustinians, Father Cacho was able to baptize many Isinays and Ilongots, original inhabitants of the place, and build cogon chapels in some eight settlements in the Marag Valley.

Over the years the settlements grew in number. Bujay, now the town of Aritao, and Dupax already had their resident priests. In 1739, Holy Mass was celebrated in Bayombong for the first time. The parishes of Bayombong, Bagabag and Dupax were established in 1741, and that of Solano soon after.

In April of 1841 the province of Nueva Vizcaya was born, created as a politico-military province by royal decree from Spain. The original line dividing the valley into two – Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya provinces – ran between Tumauini and Ilagan (now the capital of Isabela). The name Nueva Vizcaya came from that of a province in Spain called Vizcaya. The capital was the town of Camarag (now Echague in Isabela).

In 1856, the province of Isabela was created, deriving half of its land from Cagayan, and half from Nueva Vizcaya. With this new partition, Bayombong became the new capital of Nueva Vizcaya.

ISINAY: A language at Risk (4)

[Last of a four-part series on the endangered status of the Isinay language]

What Exactly Is Happening To Isinay?

THE PAPER of Celine Cruz puts in a nutshell why the Isinay language is at risk. In the section on Problems of Endangerment, she wrote:

Although Isinai is strongly used in Dupax del Sur, there is also evidence of language shift among the children. Children are using the Tagalog language in communicating with peers, and they seldom use the Isinai language even at home. Tagalog is   reinforced in the school together with English as medium of instruction. The influence of the media is also said to be a factor that encourages language shift. There is also hardly any documents written in the Isinai language.

Bambang has also seen a shift in language use as more and more members of the Isinai community speak the dominant language, Ilocano. The parental and grandparental generations remain fluent and frequent in usage of the language with other Isinai speakers. However, only some individuals found in the younger generations are fluent in the use of the Isinai language. There is also the problem of language shift evident in intermarriages, as the language that the family uses is dependent on the prevailing language—most commonly, Ilocano.

The Isinai language in Aritao can be said as the most endangered language among the three dialectal groups. To this day, there remain, at most, 100 individuals that speak Isinai, mostly from the older generations. There is also the problem with fluency as the grandparental generation and those from the ages of later 40s are the only ones that remain fluent in the language. The rest know very little of the language, and at most times the Isinai language is mixed with the Ilocano language.

Current Revitalization Efforts

I DON’T want to spoil your reading the whole paper, but I can’t help being excited myself on getting to know from her one bright and happy fact -- that at least my fellow Isinays are not sleeping.

Indeed, the following account by Ms. Cruz shows that there are valiant efforts initiated in Aritao, Bambang, Dupax and Nueva Vizcaya to rescue not only the Isinay language but also the Isinay culture from falling into total oblivion (defined by my Collins English Dictionary as “the condition of being forgotten or disregarded”):

Aritao

Several groups have been made to address the unification of the Isinai people of Aritao. However, among these, the Uhmu Si Tribun Si Beveoyar Ari-Tau was the most prominent. This group is pushing to  preserve the language, culture and land of the Isinai in Aritao. Regular meetings attended by Isinai families in Aritao serve as a venue for discussing ideas and concerns, preparations for different projects, and plans for annual general assemblies. Annual general assemblies feature cultural presentations, showcasing Isinai traditions, speeches, songs and plays.

Other projects by the Uhmu are the regular teaching of the Isinai language. Unfortunately, due to the lack of funding from the local government, only one class is held during Saturdays, with one teacher. A minimal number of students is also accommodated as facilities are lacking.

There is also an Isinai dictionary being made by one of the elders of the community. And plans for brochures with translations of common terms and conversations are in progress. Some members of the community are also doing further research on the Isinai language and culture.

Bambang

The movement to withdraw recognition of the Isinai as a cultural minority triggered the need for the regrouping of Isinai people. The Bambang Isinai Tribe was a way to reorganize the Isinai in order to fight for their rights as an indigenous group.

Another reason was the dwindling number of Isinai speakers among the younger generation. The Isinai community fears that if this trend persists, it will only take a decade before the language dies.

Dupax del Sur

Similar to the Isinai of Bambang, the threat of disenfranchisement against Isinai as an indigenous group initiated the formation of the Bona’ si Isinai Dopaj meaning “from the Isinai Tribe of Dupax”. The main goal of Bona’ is to preserve and revitalize the Isinai language and culture -- concentrating more on language revitalization, the most pressing problem. The language is said to be the most important part of being Isinai, for this is what they are more known for. The loss of the language will lead to the loss of their identity. 

Isinai Federation of Nueva Vizcaya 

Formed in December 2008, the Isinai of Aritao, Bambang and Dupax del Sur make up the Isinai Federation of Nueva Vizcaya. The group’s objectives are:

·         To revive and preserve the cultural traditions of the Isinai;

·         To elevate, promote and improve the economic, social and educational pursuit of its members;

·         To financially assist its members; and

·         To protect the agricultural lands of the Isinai.

The recently formed Isinai Federation is still working on its plans to revitalize the Isinai language and culture as a whole.

In the meantime that one has yet to get hold of the three references cited by Ms. Cruz, her paper itself is an enlightening material to hand-hold Isinays or Isinay friends on how to grab the Isinay language from the jaws of death -- or what we Isinays call mansu^su^put di long-aj nar -- and resuscitate it to a state of health that should ensure we would be hearing Isinay commonly spoken again for many more years to come.

So What’s Next?

AS A SENIOR citizen, I may claim to have read, ruminated, and travelled enough to be able to say something on many topics under the sun. But I admit I am a greenhorn when it comes to linguistics. In Isinay, nayyi tay panarawum u an mileleman si atattun pansasavayatan. And so, I’d rather that we get the words directly from Ma’am Celine Cruz. In her section on Suggested Action, she says:

…We can see that the three dialectal groups of Isinai are located at different levels of endangerment. However, they are similar in most needs.

It would help, in addition to the current efforts of the communities, if the three Isinai communities encouraged and actually used the language at home. In the case of Bambang and Dupax del Sur, this would allow children to learn and practice the language. The trend of diminishing speakers among the younger generations will be addressed, as the children will have a venue to interact with fellow speakers.

In Aritao, however, even parents cannot speak the language fluently.  This problem may be addressed by teaching Isinai to the parents first and helping them regain mastery in it.   After this, they may incorporate it in their homes and teach it to their children.

It is also important that the three dialectal communities devise a standard orthography for the language. It is a common complaint that the lack of a standard orthography discourages speakers to write in their language. By standardizing the orthography of the three groups, the speakers will become less critical of writing in Isinai. This will encourage more written materials and documentation—as some of the speakers are willing to do.

As mentioned, the documentation of the language and the culture of Isinai is imperative. As of now, the history and other cultural practices are still not documented, leading to varying information or misconceptions. There is little linguistic documentation and researches done in Isinai and most if not all are outdated or are in need of revisions.

Teaching materials in the Isinai language may also serve to address the literacy of the children as well as the proper documentation of the language.

NOW THAT at least a road map exists on how to rescue our language from getting lost forever in the language and mass media jungle, it is now up to us living Isinays whether we put into fruitful motion our collective love for the our being Isinays and put to good use our tacit knowledge on the Isinay language. While we may not have our Isinay ancestors’ full facility of words and ways of articulating thoughts, at least some seeds have been passed on to us or even sown by them in our collective consciousness.

Antamotni mu andiye apyon tauwar si daranen bu-e an impatawir ri nawayirar mot an de^de-e tau. Mu saon lojom si maunur, dioy mot irita-u mu itanom tau daratye si mavves an piyo^ ta weymu manlota^ ot umammai on mambunga rat mamis ta weymu dioy si maramitan ri miseyseyunurar iritaun tataju siri beveyoyar Aritao, Bambang, on Dupax.

(SALAMAT SI TIPE YUAR AN NANBASA)