The Tagalog Verb, Rich in Nuance I

Crucial to a missionary’s initiation to ministry is learning a people’s language well. For this, the Vocabvlario de Lengva Tagala (Tomás Pinpin and Domingo Loag, Pila, 1613: hereafter, SB 1613) shows not only the translations, but also the nuances therein. Fray de San Buenaventura, OFM, a missionary to the Laguna province, among other places, after a laborious work, shows the intricacies of the Tagalog language, here sampled in an analysis of thirty verbs in Spanish (picar, tapar, deçir, haçer, bolver, tener, comer, pafar, quitar, rebolver, tirar, caer, levanter, menearfe, atar, inçitar, eftender, mirar, añadir, hablar, abrir, tomar, poner, hechar, llevar, meter, sacar, cojer, cortar, dar) with their eight hundred and eighty-four verb (pandiwa) equivalents in Tagalog. The analysis includes the active and passive uses of the verbs, their connection to body parts, space, time, use, instruments, involvement of other persons, and purpose. The verbs provide vignettes of different aspects of daily life of Tagalogs (e.g., animal cultivation, food and food production, woodcraft, goldcraft and silvercraft, sewing, health and hygiene, weaponry and security, communication, conflict, good manners or lack thereof, hospitality, work ethics of lack thereof, house management, communal activities, daily activities, entertainment, commerce and industry, travel, navigation, ecofriendly attitudes, mishaps, presence of a female priestess or healer, folk beliefs, peacemaking, curses, and death) in a southern Luzon region (Laguna, Quezon, Batangas and Manila areas) from the time of the data gathering for the SB 1613 (circa 1590s) which can reflect even the same scenarios existing before the Spanish colonizers came, up to even the start of the fifteenth or the sixteenth century. The present analysis and data classification already show the plurality, richness, and difficulty of data compilation of the SB 1613. Spelling variants of many words hint at groups of data gatherers, translators, and interviewees. The sample Tagalog sentences carried the negative, prohibitive particle hovag/dovag, and mentioned Pa(d)re, animals, names of some Tagalog-speaking places, and even allusions to love. All in all, these details might have helped the newly arrived missionaries from either Nueva España or España, and definitely embedded their cultural footprints between the lines, across the SB 1613.