Review: [untitled]

Author(s): Lawrence A. Reid

Reviewed work(s):
Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar: Ilocano-English, English-Ilocano by Carl Ralph Galvez
Rubino
Source: Oceanic Linguistics, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Jun., 2002), pp. 238-243
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3623336
Accessed: 03/12/2009 00:58

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless
you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you
may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use.

Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at
http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=uhp.

Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed
page of such transmission.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

University of Hawai'i Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Oceanic
Linguistics.

http://www.jstor.org
 Book Reviews
Carl Ralph Galvez Rubino. 2000. Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar:
Ilocano-English, English-Ilocano.PALI Language Texts, Department
of Linguistics, Universityof Hawai'i. Honolulu:Universityof Hawai'i
Press. lxxxvi + 778 pp. ISBN 0-8248-2088-6. US$34.00.

Among the Philippinelanguages,Ilokanois rankedthirdin termsof its numberof

mother-tongue speakers(probablyover8,ooo,ooo),yet therehasneverbeena good,
widely availabledictionaryof the languageuntil now. The two majorIlokano-
English dictionariespriorto this work (Vanoverbergh1957, henceforthV, and
GeladeI993, henceforthG) werebothpublishedin thePhilippinesby CatholicMis-
sionaryPress and were based on an originalIlokano-Spanishdictionary(Carro
I888). All werewrittenby missionarylinguistsprimarilyas aidsto newmissionaries
beginningtheirworkin the northernPhilippines.The presentwork,preparedby a
linguistwiththe broadercommunityof scholarsinterestedin the languagein mind,
as well as theneedsof IlokanolanguagelearnersoutsidethePhilippines,containsin
additionto the approximately 20,000 headwords,a moresophisticatedcross-refer-
encingsystem than in earlierworks, equivalentforms(notnecessarilycognates)in
Tagalog and otherlanguages manyof the roots, an Englishindex, anda short
for
grammaticaldescription.The appendixcontainschartsof grammatical forms,such
as articles,pronouns,anddemonstratives,as well as severalchartslisting verbal
affixes.Therearea few mapsshowingthenorthern Philippineprovinceswheremost
nativeIlokano-speaking peoplelive, andfinally46 (untranslated) Ilokanotraditional
songs,a numberof thewordsof whichcannotbe foundin thedictionaryitself.
AlthoughRubino(henceforth R) statesthathe usedtheVanoverbergh dictionaryas
a basefor his own work,he notesthathe has searchedan extensivebodyof Ilokano
literature,muchof it appearingin the highlypopularBannawagandBurnaymaga-
zines, andhis own body of spokenIlokanodatacollectedthroughoutthe Ilokano-
speakingregionfornewlexicalmaterial.However,mostof theforms,bothnativeand
borrowed,appearin G, whose workwas also availableto R. Comparingsome one
thousandentriesin R withthosein G (whichcontains18,500mainentries)fromthirty
randomlychosenpages,I was able to identifyonly abouttwenty-fiveentriesthat
couldbe characterized as previouslyundescribednativeIlokanoroots.In addition,
therewere a similarnumberof botanicalor fishterms,apparently takenfromolder
published materials on these that
topics, were not in G.' Closeto fiftyentriesnotin G
werederivedformsof rootslistedelsewherein thedictionary. In addition,therewerea
dozenvariantforms,severalcross-references, anda halfdozentermsidentifiedas bor-
rowedfromTagalogor othergeographically adjacentPhilippinelanguages.Finally

i. It would be advisable for anyone interested in botanical terms to double check the identifications
given in R with the most recent updated classifications provided in Madulid (2002).
OceanicLinguistics,Volume 41, no. i (June2002)
? by Universityof Hawai'i Press. All rightsreserved.
BOOKREVIEWS 239

therewere aboutthirtySpanishborrowingsthatdo not appearin G. A few variant

forms,obsoleteterms,andSpanishborrowings foundin G do notappearin R.
Theintroductory materialto thedictionaryprovidesinformation on theorthogra-
phy, a chart of the Ilokano pre-Hispanicsyllabary, and an affix cross-reference list,
containingsome 400 prefixesand prefixalcombinations,fourteensuffixes and
suffix-encliticcombinations,nine infixesandinfixalcombinations,andforty-four
encliticsandencliticcombinations. No functionalexplanations or meaningsarepro-
videdin the list, althougheachof the affixesandthe clitcs,as well as some of their
combinatorialpossibilities, appearas entriesin the dictionarywith appropriate
explanationsof theirmeaningsanddistributions. The list also includesa summary
statementof thereduplication patternsin Ilokano.Withreferenceto theCV-pattern,
R states,"Whena reduplicated rootresultsin an open syllableof CV structure,the
vowel of the open reduplicatedsyllable is lengthenedwith inherentsecondary
stress"(xxxii).Thisis onlytrue,however,of thosereduplicative functionsthatdevel-
oped from *CVC-, in which the original final C was a glottalstopor a glide (xvii),
and resultedin a patternin which the vowel carriedlengthand secondarystress.
ThereareotherCV-reduplications in Ilokano,suchas manynounpluralsandverbs
havingplural actors (xlvi),that do not havevowellength.
notes
Theorthographic explain the difference betweenthetraditional orthography,
whichwas basedon Spanish,and that used in the dictionary,whichR claimsis the
standardized alphabetof theTagaloglanguageas used in themagazineBannawag.
Oneof themajordifferencesbetweenthetwo orthographies thatR does notmention
is therepresentation of semivowels.In Tagalog,unstressedhighfrontandbackvow-
els arealwaysfollowedby the appropriate semivowelbeforea stressedvowel (e.g.,
Tagliydd, 'bent backwards', Tag buwdya 'crocodile'),whereasin Ilokanotheynever
are(e.g.,Ilk lidd'bentbackwards', Ilk budya'crocodile').In otherwords,in Tagalog
the canonicalstructureof the syllableis representedorthographically, while in Ilo-
kanoit is not.Thereareno phonemicvowel clustersin Ilokano.R notesthatevery
syllablein Ilokanohasa consonantal onset(xxxviii).
A furtherdifferencebetweenthetwoorthographies is theirrepresentationof stress.
In newspapers, and
magazines, literaryworks, writerstypically never representstress,
even thoughin both languagesstressis phonemicallycontrastive.Nevertheless,
officialTagalogorthographic conventionsareto representstressonly on finalsylla-
bles.A wordwithouta stress mark is stressedon thepenultimate syllable.InIlokano,
R represents stresswhereverit occurs,butonlyon the headword of eachentry.
InbothTagalogandIlokano,a contrasthasdevelopedbetween two backvow- the
els, u ando, primarilyas the resultof the introductionof Spanishloans with an o
vowel.However,whileTagalogtypicallymaintainsan orthographic rulethato only
appearsin (non-Spanish) wordsin ultimatesyllables,andu elsewhere,thereseemsto
be no attemptto maintaina regularorthographic rulefor theiruse in Ilokano,despite
R's claim(389) thatthisis one of theconventionstypicallyused.Generally(butby
no meansalways)in the dictionary,nonfinalstressedor unstressedbackvowels in
nativeIlokanowordsarerepresentedas eitheru oru (butnote goro,olang, oriles,
pold, etc.)exceptwhenfollowedby a suffix-en,or -an (panguloten, katataxan), but
240 OCEANIC LINGUISTICS, VOL. 41, NO. I

in final syllables, a stressed back vowel is sometimes representedas 6 (asok,

aggudg6d,dit6y,kutk6t,nabsog,rusros,sao, sall6y,etc.),butsometimesas ui (abtit,
apuy,dalts, gudgid,kibut,kattit,kuskus,rutrnt,etc.).It is unfortunatethatR didnot
take the opportunityto regularizethe representation of these vowels, one way or
another,becausea dictionarysuch as this oftenbecomesthe standardthatwriters
(andlanguagelearners)use whendecidinghow to spell a givenword.It shouldbe
notedthato andu arealphabetized togetherin thedictionarybetweenng andp.
R is carefulto be explicitaboutthephonemicstatusof glottalstopin Ilokano.He
claimsthat,eventhoughnotrepresented initiallyor betweensequencesof vowelsin
which the firstis a high vowel, thereis an underlyingglottalstop thatfrequently
appearsin reduplication andotherphonologicalprocesses.
R providesa briefstatementof Ilokanomorphophonemics. However,someof his
statementsneed clarification.Specifically,he statesthat"ina few cases, high fre-
quencyroots with t/d onsets precedingan unstressedvowel may lose a syllable
(*starred formsarenot synchronically parsable)" (xxxviii).To supportthisstatement,
he providesthefollowingexamples.
i. mangg6d maN-tegg6d 'work'
2. panggedan paN- tegg6d-an 'employment'
3. mangng6g maN-dengng6g 'ear,listen'
4. makang6g(sic)2 maka-dengng6g 'be ableto hear'
5. pangngegin paN- dengng6g-an 'insinuate,hint'
6. mambi maN-tibbi 'cottonspinner'
7. pagpagt6ng pag- CVC-dat6ng 'experiences'
8. mapagt6ng mapag-dat6ng 'experience,undergo'
9. makagt6ng maka(pa)g-dat6ng 'be ableto arrive'
o1. pamkuatan paN- *takkuat-an3 'reasonfor doing'
I. pambar paN- *tebbar 'excuse'
ThedifficultythatR hasin correctlycharacterizing changesin
themorphophonemic
these forms stems from two factors, one a failure to recognize certainregularassim-
ilativeanddissimilativechangesthatareoperating,the otherhis requirementthat
affixation operate on roots whose medial consonants are already geminated follow-
ing the unstressedschwavowel.As can be seen fromtherestatementbelow,if one
treatsthe base formfor affixationas being withoutthatgemination,quitenatural
morphophonemic statementsaccountfor all of the data.The geminationof a root-
medialconsonantfollowingschwais a regularprocessin Ilokanothatapparently
developedafterthe threeprocessesdescribedbelowin (1-3) werealreadyoperating
in the language:(I) the finalnasal(N) of maN-andpaN- assimilatesto thepointof
of thefollowingconsonant,withdeletionof thatconsonantafterassimi-
articulation
lation, as in I, 2, 3, 5, 6, Io, and I I; (2) an unstressed first vowel (usually schwa) of
thebaseis deleted,resultingin a medialconsonantcluster(allexamples);(3) theini-
tialconsonantof theclustereitherassimilatesor dissimilatesto thefollowingconso-
nant accordingto the following rules; (3a) if the sequence begins with a nasal
consonant,the nasalassimilatesto the pointof articulationof a following voiced

2. The form should be makangngleg.

3. The associated root form here should not be takklait, but pekkildt (p. 452).
BOOK REVIEWS 241

consonant,as in I, 2, 3, 5, 6, and I , butnot in io, wherethenasalis followedby a

voicelessconsonant;(3b) if the sequencebeginswitha voicedstopandendswitha
nasalconsonant,the firstconsonantassimilatesto it, bothin point andmannerof
articulation,as in 4; and(3c) if the sequenceconsistsof a voiced alveolarstop fol-
lowed by a voiceless stop at the samepointof articulation,the firstconsonantdis-
similatesto a voicedvelarstop,as in 7, 8, and9.
I. maN-teg6d > man-teged > man-eged> man-ged > mangged
2. paN-teged-an > pan-teged-an> pan-eged-an>pan-ged-an>panggedan
3. maN-deng6g> man-deng6g> man-engeg> man-ng6g> mangng6g
4. maka-dengeg> maka-dngeg> makangng6g
5. paN-deng6g-an > pan-deng6g-an> pan-eng6g-an> pan-ngeg-an> pangngegin
6. maN-tebf> man-tebi> man-ebi> man-bi> mambi4
7. pagpa-dat6ng5 > pagpa-dt6ng> pagpagt6ng
8. mapa-dat6ng > mapa-dt6ng> mapagt6ng
9. maka-dat6ng > maka-dt6ng> makagteng
io. paN-pekuat-an > pam-pekuat-an> pam-ekuat-an
> pam-kuat-an> pamkuatan
> pan-ebar> pan-bar> pambair
I I. paN-tebir> pan-tebar

Grammar outline. The grammaroutlineis a highly abbreviatedsummmaryof

R's doctoraldissertation(RubinoI997). He doesn'tstatehis theoreticalorientation,
butit appearsto be somewhateclectic,withthe inevitableinconsistenciesthatsuch
approachesproduce.AlthoughR breaksfromtraditional descriptionsof Philippine
as
languagesby analyzingIlokano ergative,noting, for example,the distinction
betweentheabsolutive(ornominative),andergative(orgenitive)pronouns,in many
respectshis analysisfollowsthemoretraditional analyses.He followstheseanalyses
in referringto Ilokanoverbclassesas "focustypes,"andclaimingthatverbsassign
"focus"to theirabsolutivenominalargument. Thisis a positionthathastraditionally
been consideredto be a syntacticprocessof voice assignment.But R thenrestates
thenatureof focusby notingmoreaccuratelythattheverbsareclassifiedin "seman-
tic terms,by the semanticrelationshipbetweenthe verbandthe role of the referent
indicatedby theirabsolutiveargument" (lxi). He follows moremodemapproaches
by noting thatall six verbclasses6 thathave a "nonactor" absolutiveargumentare
transitive,while the othersareeither intransitiveor detransitive.
He followsthe traditional analysisthatshowsIlokanoas havinga classof adjec-
tivesdistinctfromnounsandverbs,andstatesthatadjectivesandnounscanoccurin
any orderas long as they areseparatedfromeachotherby a "ligature" (ng)a.This
analysis,however, allows to
"adjectives" immediately follow an articleor a demon-
strative,a positionthathe noteselsewhere7is "nominal" andthuswouldrequirethat
his adjectives,at leastin thisposition,be nouns.It alsoignoresthefactthatall struc-

4. The associatedform tibbiis the resultof regularassimilationof an initialunstressedschwa pre-

ceding a high vowel in the following syllable, afterregulargeminationof a root medial conso-
nantfollowing schwa (thustebi> tebbi> tibbi).
5. The form of this base must have originallybeen detelg (from whence also dunmteng, datngdtn,
etc.), becauseunstresseda vowels are not normallydeletedon affixationin Ilokano.
6. R labelsthese"focus"types:patient,directional,theme,benefactive,instrumental, andcomitative.
7. "Any lexeme in a nominal position (i.e., after an article or demonstrative)functions as a
noun."(xlviii).
242 OCEANICLINGUISTICS,VOL. 41, NO. I

turesfollowingthe ligaturein nominalphraseshavethe structure

of relativeclauses
dependenton a precedingheadnoun.Numbersarelistedas a separatewordclass,
buthe also notesthattheycanoccuras adjectives.

Dictionary. Eachof the headwordsin the dictionaryis followedby an abbrevia-

tiongivingeitherits wordclass(adj,adv,art,conj,dem,interrog,interj,n, num,part,
pron,v, etc.),its statusin thelanguage(obsolete,colloquial,vulgar,literary,etc.),or
its provenance(Spanish,English,Tagalog,Ibaloi,etc.).Forformswithlimiteddis-
tributionwithinthe Ilokano-speaking areas,R notes thatit has a regionaldistribu-
tion, but without specifying the actual area(s)where the form is used. A large
numberof prefixedformsthatresultfromsome sortof morphophonemic changeof
the root word appear as headwords. These typically have their source forms
specified(butfrequentlywithoutthe stressedsyllablebeing indicated).Following
thedefinition,one or moreformsthataresynonymousorhavesome semanticsimi-
larityto the headwordare providedin parentheses.One, and sometimesseveral,
examples,often apparently drawnfromliterature, areprovidedfor a largepercent-
age of theforms.A set of semanticallysimilarformsin a few of theotherlanguages
of thePhilippinesis givenat theendof theentryin squarebrackets.
Unaffixedformsfor whichmeaningscanbe providedappearinitiallyin anentry,
followedby anyderivedforms,withtheirmeanings.Commonderivationsaregiven
for mostverbs,as well as variousnominalizedformsandtheirmeaning.
Althoughit is clearthatR attemptedto provideseparateentriesfor homonymous
forms,as, for example,thefoursubscripted entrieseachfor hutto,sakscik,etc.,large
numbersof formsthatareclearlyunrelated semanticallyappeartogetherundera single
as
headword,separatedby semicolons, dcbong 'hut;school of mudfish'.The derived
formsthatarelistedforthisrootareall semantically relatedto 'hut',andhavenothing
to do withthesecondmeaning.Similarly, barkds'a skindisease,usuallycaughton the
waist with blisters',has one derivedformwith a relatedmeaning,agbarkes'to be
afflictedwiththebarkesskindisease',buttwo otherderivedforms,neitherof which
hasanythingto do withskindisease:harkese 'totie intoa bundle',andbinarkes'six
bundlesof palaybundledintoone'. Thisfollowsthestyleof entrygivenin V. G was
morecarefulto distinguishsuchhomophonousforms.Comparethelatterentrywith
thatgivenby G:barkes(hisdefinitionsareidenticalto thosein V) I. 'aninflammatory
diseaseof theskin,oftenoriginating at thewaist,andcharacterized by thepresenceof
rednessanditchinganddischargeof a wateryexudation; probablya kindof eczemaor
herpes';agbarkes'tobe afflictedwithsuchkindof skindisease'.barkes2. barkesen'to
tieintoone bundle';binarkes'a bigbundleof palaycomposedof six smallones'.
Perhapsbecauseof thenecessityto restrictthesize of thedictionary, R haselimi-
natedfromhisdefinitionsanyexplanatory materialrelatingto theformandfunctionof
culturalitems,materialthatis prevalent in V (andalsoin G).Forexample,in R, humay
is definedsimplyas 'a kindof deepjar',whilein V it is 'a kindof vaseorjar,a deep
strongbroad-mouthed vesselof earthenware, rounded,witha flatbottomandusually
of greaterdepththanwidth;it is commonlyusedto holdwaterforcleaningpurposes,
butseveralcommodities,as sugar,xisi,etc. areveryoftensoldby thehIrndcy'. Like-
BOOKREVIEWS 243

wise, in R, adaw:innadawis definedsimplyas 'a childen'sfingergame',whilein V,

nineteenlines areprovideddetailinghow the gameis played.In R, bantakis 'a raft
withsail usedin fishing'.V, however,providesa detaileddescriptionof the shapeof
thesailandthewayit is attachedto theraft.Similarly, definitionsof plantsareabbrevi-
atedin R. Thus,whileR describesbangaras 'a kindof treewithbad-smelling flowers,
Sterculiafoetida',V describesthecolorof theflowersandthefactthatthefruitis edible
whenyoungandyieldsa kindof oil usedforlightinganddyeingpurposes.
In general,the work is well edited, but as is inevitable,typographicalerrors
appearsporadicallythroughoutthe dictionary,andtherearea few mistakentransla-
tions and analysesas well, such as the following:(xxxv, 1. 3) Pagabbarungnak is
mistranslated as 'She reachesup to my chest.'It shouldbe 'I reachup to herchest'
(the former translates Pagabbarungko isuna); (xxxvi, 1. 14) ag-al-al-dl
shouldbe agal-al-al[?a.gal.?al.?al]
[?ag.?al.?al.?al] 'panting';(liii,lastline)balasdng
shouldbe stressedon thepenultimatesyllable,baldsang;(Ixxxiv,1.22) the transla-
tion of Maawdtanka uraydimonbaliksenshouldbe 'I understand you althoughyou
don'tverbalizeit'; (17, entry-ak) the -akendingon nominalizations is saidto be a
combinationof thefirstsingularenclitic[nominative] pronoun -ak and thesuffix-an
in
(it is, fact,the combination of the genitiveencliticfirstpersonpronoun-koandthe
suffix -an; the correctanalysisof -am is given as the combinationof the genitive
encliticsecond-person pronoun-moandthe suffix-an).
In sum,despitethe criticalcommentsprovidedabove,I believethis dictionary
deservesa placeon the shelvesof anyoneinterestedin theIlokanolanguage.It does
nothavethelexicographicsophistication of Newell'sBatadIfugaodictionary(New-
ell I993), northeextensivecoverageof Wolff'sCebuanoVisayandictionary(Wolff
I972). Nevertheless, it is a handyreferenceguideto thesyntax,phonology,andlexi-
con of the language,andits Englishindexis an indispensableaid.But don'tthrow
outyet yourcopiesof Vanoverbergh andGelade!

A. REID
LAWRENCE
Universityof Hawai'i

REFERENCES

Carro,Andres. I888. VocabularioIloco-Espaiol. Manila:Estab.Tipolitograficode M.

Perez e Hijo.
Geladd,George P. I993. Ilokano-Englishdictionary.Quezon City, Philippines:CICM
Missionaries,Inc.
Madulid,Domingo.2002.Dictionary PlantNames.2 vols.Manila:Bookmark,Inc.
cf Philippine
Newell, LeonardE., compiler,with FrancisBon'og Poligon,consultant.1993.BatadIfugao
dictionarywithethnographicnotes.Manila:LinguisticSocietyof thePhilippines.
Rubino, Carl R. G. 1997. A referencegrammarof Ilocano. Ph.D. dissertation,Univer-
sity of California,SantaBarbara.
Vanoverbergh,Morice.I956. IlIco-Englishdictionary.A translated,
augmented,andrevised
versionof AndresCarro(1888).BaguioCity,Philippines: CatholicSchoolPress.
Wolff,JohnU., compiler.1972.A dictionaryof CebuanoVisayan.PhilippineJoural of Lin-
guisticsSpecialMonographIssueNo. 4. Manila:LinguisticSocietyof thePhilippines.