Complex linguistic world of the Philippines

When the El Adelantado Miguel López de Legazpi and his companions, including six Augustinian missionaries, arrived in the Philippines on 13 February 1565, they found a relatively complex linguistic world. On the island of Luzon alone, six major languages were spoken and a considerable number of dialects. According to statistics, of approximate value, carried out in 1591, Tagalog, the most widespread language, was spoken by 124,000 people, Ilocano 75,000, Bicol 77,000, Pangasinan 24,000, Pampango 75,000, and Ibanag 96,000. The broadest linguistic group was Bisaya, spoken in the center of the archipelago.

This wide linguistic diversity that persists today decisively influenced the planning of the missionary strategy of Augustinians, Franciscans, Jesuits, Dominicans and Augustinian Recollects. The missionaries were aware, from the beginning, of the need to master languages in order to be able to faithfully and effectively transmit, firstly, the Gospel, and secondly, important aspects of the Spanish culture itself.

Linguistic studies on Tagalog (1580–1898)

The first missionary who devoted special attention to the study of the languages of the Philippines was the Augustinian Martín de Rada (1533–1578), who chroniclers say spoke fluently in Visayan and Chinese. However, it does not seem that an effort was made to study any language systematically until the Franciscan Extramaduran Juan de Plasencia undertook a great project, one of the most interesting results of which was the publication of the Doctrina christiana en letra y lengua española y tagala, Manila 1593, one of the first three works printed in the Philippines, although by the xylographic method traditionally used by the Chinese, attributed to Plasencia.

The division of the missionary territory carried out by virtue of royal decree of 27 April 1594, allowed the religious Oeders to focus their linguistic efforts on two, three or, at most, four important languages, in addition, logically, to Tagalog, the language spoken in the Manila hinterland that has served as the basis for the national language. For the reasons indicated, all the Orders cultivated Tagalog, although not with identical interests and equal results. In reality, the linguistics studies on this language, as well as the books published in it, far exceed those carried out on the rest of the languages and dialects of the Philippines. Below are brief summaries of the grammars and dictionaries of the Tagalog language printed during the period corresponding to the years 1593–1898. It should be remembered that confessionals, Christian doctrines and other devotional works written in Tagalog are also very important for the knowledge of this language.

The Augustinians printed in Manila, in 1703, the Compendio de la lengua tagala, by Gaspar de San Agustin (1650–1724), Arte de la lengua tagala, Sampaloc 1740, by Tomás Ortiz (1668–1742), and Gramática de la lengua tagala dispuesta para la más fácil inteligencia de los religiosos principiantes by Manuel Buezeta (1808–?), Madrid 1850. One of the most interesting and original works published by the Augustinians, although relatively recently, is the Estudio de los antiguos alfabetos filipinos, Malabon 1895 by Cipriano Marcilla y Martín (1851–?).

Bañezano Agustín María de Castro (1740–1801) wrote, under the pseudonym Pedro Andrés de Castro, Ortografía y reglas de la lengua tagala, published for the first time and in facsimile edition in Madrid, in 1930, by the distinguished bibliophile Antonio Graiño.

The Jesuit priests Juan José Noceda (1681–1747) and Pedro Sanlúcar (1706–?), in collaboration with other members of the Order, published in Manila in 1754, Vocabulario de la lengua tagala.

The Dominicans despite having arrived in the Islands after the Augustinians, Franciscans, and Jesuits, were ahead of all of them with the publication of Arte y reglas de lengua tagala, Bataan 1610, the first printed Tagalog grammar, by Fr. Francisco Blancas de San José (died 1614), promoter of the printing press in the Philippines and considered the best Tagalist of all time. This is another of the invaluable Filipino incunabula. Francisco Blancas did not, however, have successors within his Order. Only at the end of the 19th century, José Hevia y Campomanes (1814–1904) published his Lecciones de gramática hispano-tagala (Manila 1872), reprinted twelve times in few years.

Only one Augustinian Recollect, Toribio Minguella y Arnedo (1836–1920), occupies a place in the list of Spanish tagalists. In addition to Ensayo de gramática hispano-tagala, Manila 1878, he published Estudios comparativos entre el tagalo (Filipinas) y el sánscrito (Valladolid, 1888).

The Philippines experienced a spectacular increase in its population, accompanied by a strong economic development, in the last decades of the 18th century and throughout the 19th century. Both phenomena contributed to the fact that Europeans—soldiers, civil servants, missionaries and businessmen, mainly Spanish and of a higher cultural level than in previous times—flocked to the islands in greater numbers than until then. Many of the newcomers felt the need to learn the language of the natives as quickly as possible. Hence, in the second half of the 19th century several grammars and vocabularies signed by laymen belonging mostly to the aforementioned classes appeared.

Rosalío Serrano (1802–1867), father of Pedro Serrano Laktaw, published Diccionario de términos comunes tagalo-castellano, Manila 1854, which went through several reissues. By the same author is a work entitled Nuevo diccionario manual español-tagalo, Manila 1872. Around the same time, Venancio María de Abella, a Spanish civil servant, printed his Vademécum filipino o manual de la conversación familiar español-tagalo, seguido de un curioso vocabulario de modismos manileño, Manila 1869, which had four reissues between 1869 and 1873. Eligio Fernández published Nuevo vocabulario o Manual de conversaciones en español, tagalo y pampango, Binondo 1876, which was reprinted eight times.

Eusebio Salvá, an infantry commander, printed Vocabulario militar y guía de conversación español-tagalo-visaya, Manila 1884. In 1887, the Método teórico práctico y compendiado para aprender en brevísimo tiempo el lenguaje tagalo, appeared in Barcelona, by Julius Miles, pseudonym from a military doctor it seems. Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera (1857–1925), versatile Filipino writer, among other works, Contribución para el estudio de los antiguos alfabetos filipinos, Losana 1884, and El sánscrito en la lengua tagala, Paris 1887. Wenceslao E. Retana (1862–1924), the Spanish historian who has considerably best known the history of the Philippines, published a pamphlet entitled Los antiguos alfabetos de Filipinas, Madrid 1895. Finally, José Rizal (1861–1896), the national hero of the Philippines, published La nueva ortografía de la lengua tagala (Barcelona 1890).

But the layman who occupied the most prominent place in the field of Tagalog linguistics is Pedro Serrano Laktaw (1853–1924) with his Diccionario hispano-tagalo. Primera parte, Manila 1889. The second part of which did not appear in print until 1914.

Contributions of the Franciscans to Philippine linguistics

The Custodial Chapter of the Franciscans held in 1580 made the decision "[that] a grammar and vocabulary of the Tagalog language be written, and that the Doctrina Christiana be translated into the same language ..." This was entrusted to Father Juan de Plasencia, as their most advanced in the language. Three years later, in a letter to Felipe II, dated June 1585, Plasencia wrote to the King: "In the most general language that exists in these Islands I have written some things, such as the Arte de la lengua tagala y Declaración de toda la doctrina xptiana, and now I am doing the Vocabulario. They are very necessary things for all the ministers if it were printed. It would be a particular favor that Your Majesty would do us, haave us order it to be printed in Mexico at the expense of your Real Hacienda, and for this, send me your Cédula, which would be of great use to these souls".

The second of the works mentioned by Plasencia in the preceding paragraph is none other than the Doctrina christiana en lengua española y tagala. On the other hand, neither Arte nor the Vocabulario were printed, among other reasons because Plasencia died in 1590, three years before the appearance of the printing press in the Philippines. Plasencia, in addition to being a good Tagalist, linked "language and culture, as his predecessors did, the great Franciscan linguists and ethnologists of New Spain", and encouraged other Franciscans to continue their work.

There was a key figure in his life, Miguel de Talavera, whom he met when he was still a child, without whose help it would have been almost impossible for him to achieve his linguistic dream. Miguel was born in Nueva Granada, a Spanish city then located present-day Nicaragua. Salvador — this was Miguel's birth name — arrived in the Philippines with his parents, while still a child, in the army of Miguel López de Legazpi. He remained in Cebu until 1572, when he moved to Manila. In 1578, his parents handed him over to Juan de Plasencia for his education. By then, he already spoke Visayan and Tagalog, the two most important languages of the Philippines. Close bonds of friendship and mutual aid soon emerged between the adolescent and the missionary. Salvador began accompanying the Franciscans as their interpreter. Later, he taught Plasencia Tagalog, and the latter taught the former Latin. In 1580, Salvador took the Franciscan habit in Manila, becoming known by the name of Fray Miguel de Talavera. His biography paralleled that of Alonso de Molina, also a Mexican Franciscan, who taught Nahuatl to his brothers in habit in New Spain. Talavera, who died in Pila (Laguna), Philippines in 1622, when he was about sixty years old, "... learned the Tagalog language from the natives as well as if it were native to it, reaching a profound understanding of it", and he wrote several works of catechetical and spiritual content. Only one came to appear in print, however, whose title, in Tagalog read as follows: An casalanang ipinag cacasala nan onan otos nang Dios (Sins committed against the first commandment of God), printed in Manila in 1617 in a bilingual edition, Spanish and Tagalog.

Another important follower of Plasencia's work was Juan de Oliver. This distinguished missionary was born in Valencia and arrived in the Philippines in 1582, dying there in 1599, aged 73. The third component of the group of Tagalists started by Plasencia was Jerónimo Montes y Escamilla. He arrived in the Philippines in 1583 and died there, in the town of Lumban, in 1610. One of his biographers states that he was "very proficient in the Tagalog language", in which he wrote among others, the following works: Arte del idioma tagalo, Diccionario del idioma tagalo, Confesonario tagalo, and finally, Librong pangalan ay caolayao nang calolova nang quinatha nang Padre Heronymo Montes, Padre sa San Francisco, Manila 1610. Of the last of the mentioned works, three more editions are known: 1648, 1705, and 1837.

The next link in the long chain of interesting Franciscan tagalists is occupied by the name of Pedro de San Buenaventura, author of the 1613 Vocabulario. Other Franciscans continued Buenaventura's work in later times, including Agustín de la Magdalena (died 1689), who published in Mexico, in 1679, his Arte del idioma tagalo. Domingo de los Santos (died 1695) from Extremadura printed in Tayabas, Quezon, in 1703, a Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, which came to replace the one printed almost a century earlier by Pedro de San Buenaventura. A Gipuzkoan from Salinas, Melchor de Oyanguren (1688–1747), published in Mexico, in 1742, his original Tagalysmo elucidado. Finally, Sebastián de Totanés (1647–1748), from Toledo, synthesized and updated the work of his predecessors in his Arte de la lengua Tagala y Manual tagalo para auxilio a los religiosos de esta Santa Provincia de San Gregorio Magno de descalzos de N. S. P. S. Francisco de Filipinas, principiantes en aprender ese idioma, cuando se les ofrezca administrar los santos sacramentos, jointly printed in Sampaloc (Philippines), 1745, of which three reissues are known: 1796, 1850, 1865.

Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura and his Vocabulario

Pedro de San Buenaventura, whose birthplace is unknown, author of the Vocabulario published in 1613, set foot on Philippine soil around the year 1594, and from then until 1627, the date of his death, which occurred while sailing towards Mexico. He devoted himself to evangelization of the towns of Nagcarlang, Paete, Mauban, Pasabango, Santa Cruz, Siniloan, Manila, Pila, Mambulao, Longos, and Capalongan, all located around Laguna de Bay. In 1613, while he was a missionary in the small town of Pila, he gave the aforementioned work to the printer. Finally, he began writing the Vocabulario on 20 May 1606, and finished printing it on 27 May 1613. The Vocabulario of fray Pedro, more than the work of an individual, signifies the culmination of the project initiated in the Custodial Chapter held in Manila in 1580 and gestated over nearly thirty years of missionary effort by a community: the Franciscan Order of the Philippines. This is how one of the main instruments of work of all the missionaries in the Philippines was born for more than a century. The Vocabulario of Fray Pedro de San Buenaventura is a voluminous work. In its 707 pages, there are 16, 350 entries or words, in the first part, including roots and derivatives and 14,500 in the second. Its author confessed that on more than one occasion, due to excessive fatigue, he felt tempted to abandon the work. "This Vocabulario, Señora – said Fray Pedro in the dedication to the Virgin Mary – cost me a lot (as you well know), because when I started it, bored with the hard work and the thought that it was going to cost me any, I put perpetual silence, but considering my innumerable obligations, I turned on myself and determined to continue and bring it to light only for God and for you...". Vocabulario is also of interest for the study of the origin of the printing press in the Philippines. The appearance of the printing press in the Philippines took place at the beginning of the 16th century. Father Francisco Blancas de San José, dissatisfied with the results obtained by xylography, used in 1593 to print the first catechisms, explained to a Chinese Christian named Juan de Vera the characteristics and operation of the movable type printing press. Thus, the Vocabulario of Pedro de San Buenaventura is one of the first works printed in the Philippines using a movable type. This explains its typographical deficiencies, for which Fray Pedro apologized with the following words: "Because the Indios' are printers and new, it carries some other errors such as i by e, u by o, et e against, 5 by 2", and later on: "If there are any mistakes in the spelling, please fill in the discreet one, because the printers are new, and in this work they have been taught, because everything cannot be as punctual as in Castile, which are oficiales primos".