OCEANIC LINGUISTICS, VOL. 36, NO.2(December 1997)

This volume lists 851 lexical items for two Yami dialects (Imorod [IMO] and Iraralay [I RA]), Itbayat(ITB), two Ivatan dialects (Ivasay [IVA] and Isamorong[ISA] ) and Babuyan(BAB. The items are arranged according to semantic categories, such as body parts, food, plants, animals. For each dialect included in this study, there are tables listing Phonemes and restricted-class morphemes, including personal pronouns, deictic pronouns, case markers, major interrogatives, enclitics and conjunctions. This work is a combined effort of fieldwork carried out by three competent Austronesian linguists who have worked on these dialets for a number of years. It is a valuable and convenient source for comparative studies. Root forms are given for verbs, greatly facilitating comparative work. It is a welcome contribution to Austronesian linguistics and fills a gap in the area connecting Formosan and Philippine languages.

¡@According to Tsuchida (pers. comm.), the authors had to publish the results of their field investigation in a few months and did not have enough time or funding to meet often, since they all lived far away from each other. In the absence of time to get their data in better order, minor defects and typographical errors are almost inevitable. This reviewer has checked in the field most of their lexical data for all the dialects except BAB and agrees Tsuchida that, "Those who investigate first [are apt to] make mistakes, whereas those who investigate later can improve."

¡@Although the same questionnaire prepared by Tsuchida was used to elicit linguistic data, different linguists may have different understandings for some of the lexical items. The lexical data for these dialects do not always match very well. For example, both /ngahay/ and /tiipa/ or /ci:pa/ are listed in #36 'saliva' for IVA and ISA. The former means 'saliva, drivel', while the latter means 'spittle'. Yet only /cipa/ or /ci:pa/ is listed for three other dialects in this entry, and only /ngaxay/ is listed for ITB. In #37, 'drivel, drool', /ngahay/ is listed for all dialects except ITB, for which /tiipah/ is listed. In other words, the two lexical items for ITB. Similarly, ISA /viyot (mamiyot)/ 'to blow (of wind)' and /alop (alopan)/ 'to blow (with breath)' are also reversed. In another case,IVA /mohed (maymomohed)/ is listed for #20 'nose'. In fact, it means 'to have a runny nose'; the correct form should be /modan/ 'nose'.

¡@Some pairs of words are distinguished in Batanic languages, both not in English. The authors may list one form for one or more dialects, but another form for the other dialects, as if they were variants for the same lexical item. For example, #65, 'chest cavity', lists /vatavat/ ('upper chest') for Yami and ISA, but /kalangaangan/ ('lower chest') for IVA. This may give the misleading impression that these dialects did not share the same cognates for these items. There is a similar problem for the following pairs of items:ITB and Ivatan /peeteg/ 'male urine' vs. /opis/ 'female urine' ; ITB /artek/ and Ivatan /artek/ 'back part of calf of leg' vs. ITB /vaxa/ and Ivatan /vaha/ 'front part of calf'. Both /tongaw/ 'mites, chigger' and /zipzip/ 'ticks in goats and dogs' are listed for IMO, but only /zipzip/ is listed for IRA and /liplip/ for ISA, while only /tongaw/ is listed for ITB. In fact, both forms for the two different insects occur in these dialects. The general term for 'current' is /ries/ in both ITB and Ivatan, yet /amteng/ 'type of current' is listed for ISA instead.

¡@Very often, more than one lexical item is listed for each dialect where there may be minor semantic differences, especially for verbs. For example, both /saray/ and /soyot/ are listed under #474, 'happy, glad'. Unfortunately the order of listing is not always consistent, making comparison harder. Despite this minor problem, the authors have taken pains to list some cognate forms that have undergone semantic shifts, thus greatly facilitating the identification of cognates.

¡@More lexical data would be desirable for comparative studies. The distinguished anthropologist and naturalist, Kano (1941 a/b), has already provided interesting comparative wordlists for Yami and Ivatan animal and plant names. It would be useful to include his wordlists and provide more accurate transcriptions, as the three competent linguists are able to do. Only some of the animal and plant names appear in the monograph, usually in their technical terminology . Readers cannot find the familiar term 'eggplant' if they do not know its scientific binomial, Solanum ferox (#847). Nor can they find the term for 'guava', an ordinary fruit that grows in the islands. One of the authors, Yamada (1995), has recently published a monograph on fish names in Itbayat. It would be useful to collect the same fish names for the other Batanic dialects.

¡@There are no large wild animal, such as 'monkey' or 'deer' in the Batanes, Lanyu or Babuyan. Yet these terms are listed (# 665 & #666). In fact, Yami /acacinga/ means 'flying squirrel', not 'monkey'.

¡@Many Tagalog words appear in the Batanic wordlists, among them /bigooti/ 'beard', /pepi:no/ 'cucumber', /karni/ 'meat', /piklat/ 'scar', /bogbogen/ 'to hit with fist', /saksaken/ 'to stab', /bango, banglo/ 'fragrant', and /asol/ 'blue'. It might have been better to leave out these Tagalog words, several of which are Spanish loans, as Tsuchida(pers. comm.) acknowledges.

¡@Since the lexical data were collected by three different authors, there are also inconsistencies in transcriptions. For example, vowel length is indicated by two geminate vowels in IVA /deekey/ 'small', but by a length mark in ISA and BAB /de:key/. Transcriptions should be regularized when published in the same volume.

¡@In the orthography originally devised by Tsuchida and later adopted by the Yami Bible Society, the symbol z stands for a trill, while r stands for a retroflex fricative. This practice may be fine for Yami alone, but may obscure its phonetic resemblance to the other Batanic dialects, as when comparing Yami /aztek/ 'calf of leg' to ITB /artek/; Yami /tagzang/ 'ribs' to ITB /tagrang/ 'ribs'; or Yami /tawoz/ 'heart' but ITB /tawor/. In fact, Yami z and ITB r are both trill. Similarly, h indicates the voiced uvular fricative in Yami (written x in ITB) but denotes the voiceless glottal fricative in all other dialects. More consistency among the orthographies would be desirable.

¡@Serious comparative study of the Batanic dialects requires not only more lexical data, but also more morphological and syntactic materials. Kano (1941a/b) provides comaprative wordlists for many Yami and Ivatan animal and plant names, many of which are not included in the monograph under review. Yamada (1995) provide a good basis for collecting many more lexical data for the other Batanic dialects. Tsuchida et al. (1989) provides lists of 590 sentences or expressions, not only for the Batanic dialects, but also for three other Philippine languages, Ilocano, Ibanag and Tagalog, the first two being spoken in northern Luzon, geographically close to the Batanes.

¡@Errors of transcriptions are found here and there. For example, the glottal stop is missing from IVA /pa'ngay (pa'ngayen)/ 'to put' in the comparative wordlists. The glottal fricative /h/ is missing in ISA /hakay, sihakay/ 'grandfather', /salvah (missalvah) 'to save', as is the voiced uvular fricative in Yami /vacih/ [vatsiR] 'to break off'. Occasionally there is confusion of /l/ and /r/, as in ISA /oritek (maoritek)/ 'thin', not /olitek (maolitek)/.

¡@The diphthongs /ay/ and /aw/ have been centralized as /ey/ and /ew/, respectively in IRA (Yami), espically in the word-final position. Yet many non-centalized forms are given for IRA--too many to list them here. Moreover, the voiced uvular fricative is often represented by /w/ instead of /h/ in several forms in IRA.Perhaps the investigator was eliciting from younger speakers.

¡@This review will conclude with a list of transcription errata and a reminder of the pioneering and preliminary nature of work under review.

¡@¡@ISA /kalavokab/ 'dandruff', not /kalabokab/ (28)
¡@¡@IRA /atey/ 'liver', not /atayi/ (40)
¡@¡@IRA /boboh/ 'hair', not /bobow/ (44)
¡@¡@IRA /kevekevet/ 'wrinkled', not /kevkevet/(44)
¡@¡@ISA /kalekalen (mikalekalen) 'wrinkled', not /kalkalen (micalkalen)(44)
¡@¡@I SA /ayowayob/ 'clothing', not /ayobayob/ (47)
¡@¡@I SA /votoh/ 'grain', not /botoh/ (48)
¡@¡@I RA /vizaoz/ 'cucumber', not /vizoz/ (49)
¡@¡@I SA /vinyiveh/ 'banana', not /vinyoveh/ (51)
¡@¡@I RA /vottoh/ 'seed', not /vottow/ (52)
¡@¡@I RA /oos (mangoos)/ 'chew sugarcane', not /os (mangos)/ (56)
¡@¡@I SA /maysepsep/ 'to suck', not /mangsepsep/ (56)
¡@¡@I SA /hano (omhano)/ 'to vomit', not /hamo (omhamo)/ (56)
¡@¡@I RA /tahaman/ 'taste', not /tahamen/ (57)
¡@¡@IRA /reveng/ 'wall', not /rereng/(59)
¡@¡@I VA /jinjin/ 'wall', not /jinjing/ (59)
¡@¡@I TB /a'neban/ 'to close', not /a'nevan/(63)
¡@¡@I MO/tohongen/'to cover', not /tohngen/ (63)
¡@¡@I TB/isigi/ 'to sieve', not /sigi/(66)
¡@¡@ISA /sigi/ 'to sieve', not /cigi/ (66)
¡@¡@I RA /mahakay/ 'man, male', not /mehakay/ (71)
¡@¡@I SA /hakay, sihakay/ 'grandfather', not /akay, siakay/ (72)
¡@¡@I SA /vakes/ 'grandmother', not /akes/(73)
¡@¡@I SA /kataysa/ 'cousin', not /katayasa/ (73)
¡@¡@I RA /liam (manliam)/ 'steal', not /lam/ (76)
¡@¡@I TB /ma'ay, ha'ay/ 'to go', not /maay, haay/;(77)
¡@¡@I RA /mayi/ 'to come', not /may/ (77)
¡@¡@I RA /keykayi (makeykayi) 'speedy', not /keykay, makeykay) (79)
¡@¡@I RA/yaheb/ 'thwart', not /yaweb/ (82)
¡@¡@I RA /havas (mihavas)/ 'to pass by', not /avas (miavas)(83)
¡@¡@I RA/maganam/ 'to dance', not /miganam/ (86)
¡@¡@I SA /salvah/ 'to save', not /salba/ (89)
¡@¡@I RA/ngingit (ngingiten)/ 'to pull', not /ingit (ingiten) (93)
¡@¡@I RA /kalaen/ 'to seek', not /kalahen/ (95)
¡@¡@I VA /pa'ngay (pa'ngayen)/ 'to put'(96)
¡@¡@I RA /pagcinen/ 'to unload', not /agcinen/ (96)
¡@¡@I SA /pongos/ 'to wrap,' not /pomgos/(97)
¡@¡@I RA /sagit (pasagiten) 'to hang', not /sajit (pasajiten)/ (97)
¡@¡@I RA /vacih/ 'to break off', not /vaci/(99)
¡@¡@I VA /mayramon/ 'to wash one's face', not /maramon/ (99)
¡@¡@I RA /nanawoen/ 'to teach', not /nanawoan/(106)
¡@¡@I RA/yahey/ 'to fear', not /yohey/ (106)
¡@¡@I RA /anyit/ 'sky', not /hanyit/ (107)
¡@¡@I RA /honag (amhonag)/ 'to melt', not /onag (amwonag/ (110)
¡@¡@I VA /a'ned (omned)/ 'to sink,' not /a'neb/ or /omneb/ (114)
¡@¡@I RA /aharang/ 'seashore', not /ahalan/; /matabheh/ 'sea', not /matabeh/ (115)
¡@¡@I RA /attew/ 'salt water', not /attawo/ (116)
¡@¡@I VA /vato/ 'stone,' not /bato/ (117)
¡@¡@I RA /wotek/ 'mud', not /atek/ (118)
¡@¡@I RA/mohahen/ 'to plant', not /mohaen/ (122)
¡@¡@I SA /daciw/ 'bird sp.', not /laciw/ (123)
¡@¡@I MO/hahay/ 'fish spp., halfbeak', not /ahay/ (126)
¡@¡@I TB/kosikosi/ 'fish spp. (kuhlia),' not /kosicosi/ (127)
¡@¡@I SA /cinarey/ 'fish sp.', not /cinaley/ (129)
¡@¡@I RA /vahoyo/ 'fish sp.', not /vawoyo/ (130)
¡@¡@I SA /voras/ 'fish spp. (wrasse)', not /boras/ (131)
¡@¡@I RA /tamonong/ 'mosquito', not /tamoneng/ (133)
¡@¡@I RA /sasavongan/ 'rooster', not /asavongan/ (138)
¡@¡@I RA /kananyis/ 'squid', not /kananiis/ (140)
¡@¡@I SA /somoneb/ 'to dive', not /somneb/ (144)
¡@¡@I RA /hedhed (mahedhed)/'round', not /eded (maeded)/ (144)
¡@¡@I RA /vavahey/ 'hole', not /ravahey/; Isamorong /ascip/ 'cave', not /ahcip/ (145)
¡@¡@I RA/naro (anaro)/ 'long', not /naro (manaro)/ (147)
¡@¡@I RA /zabtek (mazabtek) 'thick', not /zabteh (mazabteh)/(148)
¡@¡@ISA /oritek (maoritek) 'thin', not /olitek (maolitek)/ (148)
¡@¡@I RA /cingeh/ 'tight', not /singeh/ (151)
¡@¡@I SA /salapan/ 'front', not /salapen/ (154)
¡@¡@I RA /telem (tomelem)/ 'up', not /telen (tomelen)/ (155)
¡@¡@I RA /zaong (mazaong)/ 'high', not /zaon (mazaon)/ (156)
¡@¡@I RA /dadan no arew/ 'east', not /dadan no arow/ (157)
¡@¡@I RA /poho/ 'ten', not /poo/, Isamorong /asa poho/, not /asa poh/(163)
¡@¡@I RA /asa poho/ 'hundred', not /asa poo/(163)
¡@¡@I RA /adoangalnan/ 'twenty', not /adongangalnan/(163)
¡@¡@I SA /roapoho/ 'twenty', not /raoapoh/ (163)
¡@¡@I RA /apereh/ 'few', not /apere/ (164)
¡@¡@I MO /labnoy/ 'plant spp., Ficus hauili', not /yabnoy/ (167)

Paul Li¡@¡@¡@¡@
Academia Sinica