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.