Some Undescribed Languages of Luzon

This publication is one of a series projected by the Belgian Commission d'Enquête Linguistique in order to deal with little known languages. The author, who writes in English, is a Belgian missionary in the Philippines, and he presents a study of Casiguran Negrito (CN) speech, with which he has been acquainted for over ten years, and gives grammatical notes, a vocabulary, and several texts in the language. He expresses the opinion that the texts represent the original language of the (Casiguran) Negritos, though (presumably) it is not the language spoken by them today.

In addition, the publication contains a list of 313 words and phrases drawn from fifteen of the languages of Luzon, four of which, spoken by Negritos, were practically unknown hitherto to linguists. Certain others of the fifteen languages have been studied only slightly in the past. In conclusion, there is a note on the method of numeration in use among the Ilongot people, specimens of whose language are included in the second part of the publication.

The study begins with the Personal Pronouns in CN; and one notices immediately their Indonesian character, and also their likeness to the Personal Pronouns of the Melanesian languages in the Solomon Islands. The latter have been shown by Codrington and Ray, as well as by scholars of other nations, to be importations due to immigrants from Indonesia (IN) ; and since the Negritos of Luzon are surrounded by Philipinos speaking an IN language, e.g. the Tagalog, one is inclined to question the author's statement that the texts given represent the original language of the (Casiguran) Negritos.

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