De vulgari eloquentia: On religion and language documentation in the Philippines
Presenter(s)
Affiliation
Topic
Documentation of indigenous and minority languages: vocabulary and grammar
Type
Papers
Abstract
The histories of religion and language documentation have long been intertwined, as the roots of linguistics may be traced back to the thinkers of Antiquity (Atherton, 2013), philosophers in Ancient China (Cheng, 2000), and interpreters of the Vedic texts in India (Raster, 2013). In the Philippines, the introduction of Catholicism also brought upon the description of some of the vernaculars in the archipelago, especially as the 1582 Synod of Manila emphasized the teaching of the Bible through the "natives'" tongues (Vibar, 2013). Meanwhile, during the post-WWII stay of American protestant missionaries in the country, the documentation of lesser-studied languages was prioritized (Johnson, 1996)–countless grammars and dictionaries were published, with the ultimate goal of use for church service. While endeavors of this kind have decreased over the following decades, we still see similar movements as contemporary non-profit religious organizations collaborate with ethnolinguistic groups, the academe, and government agencies to arrive at community-written grammars. This study narrates the history of these three waves of missionary linguistics in the country, deliberating their contributions to Philippine linguistics while juxtaposing their effects to the scientific discipline and to the speaker communities. In particular, the paper critiques the impact of the following institutions: the Jesuit, Dominican, Franciscan, and Augustian Catholic denominations for the Spanish period; the Summer Institute of Linguistics and the Joshua Project for the mid-century American protestantism in the Philippines; and the Translators Association of the Philippines for the modern era. It furthermore compares the three waves, with the first honing in on linguae francae, and the latter two focusing on "minor" (Paz, 1984) and endangered languages. Finally, the paper details the shifts on the native speakers' role in language documentation, from being informants for non-Filipino linguists (Liao, 2009), up to having the first and last say in the description of their languages.
