INATI: THE HIDDEN LANGUAGE OF PANAY,

PHILIPPINES

F. DOUGLAS PENNOYER

Reported By:Laura Francesca T. Gonzales

Lingg 121

Introduction• üConsidering the tremendous 20th century compilation of

linguistic data on Philippine languages, it is incredible to realize that there exists today in the island of Panay, a separate Philippine Language spoken by the Ati Negritos for which no published material exists, the Inati language.

• üTwo distinct dialects of this language survive. • üThis article begins with a general description of the

research area and explores some reasons why past investigators failed to research and analyze this language.

• üRelationships with other languages are explored through lexical and grammatical comparative analysis.

• üThe survival, past research and it’s uniqueness is given.

Chronology of Ati Linguistic Research

• üChirino was first to mention Visayan negrito vocabulary items but includes no distinction from Visayan languages

• üPavon completed a dictionary and grammar of a Negrito language which was lost afterwards.

• ü Semper started the plea for linguistic work among Visayan Negritos because he feared the language would soon be extinct

• üIn 1939, Manuel Gloria recorded and published three short sentences of the Negritos in his Primitive Man. He notes: “there is a great deal of Visayan in the language spoken by the Negritos of Janiuay. But their language differs much from the Visayan spoken today…the Visayans assured me that they can hardly understand the Ates when they are talking among themselves…”

• üRahmann and Maceda attempted to record any different Negrito languages. They mentioned a ‘faint possibility’ of an Ati language existing among more remote groups. They were aware of a different language spoken by the Ati’s among themselves.

• üZorc’s comprehensive study of 36 Visayan speech varieties provides the basis for a comparison between Inati and those languages. Yet, he listed Ati as a Kinaray-a dialect for the reason that many Ati speaks the latter elsewhere so it is a natural assumption that the Ati speak a Kinaray-a dialect.

• üDelgado (1981:41) in a paper on Ati of barrio Tina in Antique,reports that “the Negritos used to have a dialect of their own which they called the ‘inati’, and which was much different from the Kinaray-a of the Antiqueños. The said dialect is fast vanishing and presently, only a few Atis can speak it. It is now being replaced by Kinaray-a which they find more convenient to use among other Visayans.

• üKwong (1978L:77) states, “Inati, as it was still in existence, was observed to be very distinct and different from the dialect of the place which was Malaynon…”

• üThe Tezukas, upon visiting Nagpana, Barotac Viejo, provided much information concerning the language and it’s distinctness from Kinaray-a. Their survey report also provides evidence of the existence of the two dialects of Inati.

• Pennoyer supports the conclusion that the “best Inati” (fewer borrowings) is spoken in Nagpana and that the Ati of Cogon, Malay speak a different language.

• üThe demographic data gathered in 1983 indicates that there are around 1,000 Inati speaking population and many of them are bilingual speakers.

• üNagpana, where Inati is spoken widely, is a polyglot community and the SIL survey validates that fact.

Two Inati Dialects:

Ati and Bisayan speakers throughout Panay commonly refer to the Ati language

as “Inati”.However, majority of the speakers who reside in Iloilo use the term Inete for their language. While that spoken in Northern

Panay is called Sogodnin.

A trip to Cogon, Malay confirmed the existence of the dialect ‘Sogodnin’ spoken by the Ilo-ilo Ati. Although, when they speak it, the result was usually a mixture of Tagalog and Malaynon (the local language). An Ati informant said that the Ati of that area are ashamed of their language and rarely used it. Now, knowledge of Sogodnin is limited to only few individuals who can speak isolated sentences, and one or two who could converse in the dialect.

For the purpose of this paper, since Sogodnin is no longer in daily use, the term Inati is used for Inete, the dialect of the Iloilo Ati, and Sogodnin for the disappearing dialect of Northern Panay.

Phonemic Inventory and Chart

o

w

m

b

p

l(r)

y

(h)(š)s

ngn

aeg(z)d

ik(ts)t

Parentheses suggest doubtful phonemic status requiring further analysis

Tezuka lists 19 consonants (p, t, k, , b, d, g, s, ts, s, h, z, m, n, ng, l, r, y,and w) and 5 vowels (i, e, a, o, ).

Data on stress and vowel lengths were presented with no conclusions.

Ex: ánay ‘termite’ anáy ‘to wait’ Minimal pairs contrasting these phonemes were

given except for ts, š, and ž. Pennoyer found these phonemes on his data as well.

Ex: ts is found in loan words pitsay ‘cabbage’ tsuper ‘driver’

THE VOWEL e: the low, front, unrounded vowel

The phoneme e or ä, which is found in Inati, is not found in the surrounding Visayan languages and is rarely found in Philippine languages.

Here are minimal pairs to attest to the phonemic status of e as distinct from a:

aram ‘knowldege’ baga ‘lung’

erem ‘to borrow’ bege ‘ember’ In addition, here are other e words gathered:

bebete ‘husband’ kilele ‘acquaintance’ wele ‘left’

kewkew ‘ fish’ kebes ‘tail, penis’ kite ‘we’

bebe ‘mouth’ medelem ‘dark’

Metebe ‘fat’ keremkem ‘hand’

It is unclear how or when Inati developed a low, front unrounded vowel. Most of the examples are cognates with words in other Philippine languages showing an /a/.

Inati also has doublets.Ex: adlaw ‘day’ and edlew ‘sun’

baga ‘lungs’ and bege ‘chest’these are a/e examples from the same proto-word.

Vowel harmony rule has caused /a/ to assimilate to /e/ in all /e/ words. Even some prefixes are affected by this rule.

Also, a rule involving stress and glides is a factor. Tezuka (1938:8) mentions that there are “cases when w and y occur syllable finally in CVC and receive a stress.”In this language, stress on glides may overrule vowel harmony.kay.ti ‘this’ kay.ni ‘that’kay.nad ‘that’ kaw.ni ‘a while ago’

Proto *R to D

• Basing to the RGH law of Conant, he addressed the issue regarding two of the Philippine languages, Inibaloi and Inati, of having Proto *R to /d/ changes.

• Inati has examples of Proto *R in medial and final positions, as well as one initial *R.

*buRhaw ‘albino’ Inati bodhaw

*busuR ‘bow’ Inati bosod

*sunuR ‘burn’ Sog sunud

Other Reflexes of *R

• *R G

Because of contact on the surrounding languages, Inati has some replacements of traditional words.

Ex: kelep ‘night’ is replaced by Hil and Kin gabi-i from *Proto-Austronesian Rabi-iH

• *R Y

Ex: yemot ‘root, medicine’ (*Ramut)

Inati Pronouns

• Shows forms that are definitely Bisayan, and perhaps not even central Philippine.

• An *I- prefix and *ki- for oblique are the principal differences.

• Several forms are cognates in Northern Philippine languages(e.g. Kapampangan)

ire ‘they’ might be from *qi+da (KAPAMPANGAN ila,PANGASINAN, GADDANG, IBANAG ira)

The most striking comparison can be made between Inati and Itbayaten or Ivatan.

Ivatan Inati

yakin ‘I’ (ki)yakan ‘mine’, ‘to me’

yamin ‘our’ (ki)yamin ‘our’, ‘to us’

yatin ‘we’ (ki)yatin ‘our’, ‘to us’

• This serves to illustrate that Inete retained conservative features and does not share in certain innovations that are characteristic of the Central Philippine Languages.

Syntax

Relationship of Phrase Markers Kay, Ki and Ini• Kay marks the phrase that is singled out for a special semantic-role

emphasis

Ex:

Kay tawo igpangayam ki itok ki bokid ini may tonod.

The man hunts lizards in the mountain with a (bow and) arrow.

• Ki marks out the other semantic-role phrases that are not singled out for emphasis.

• Ini functions as a ligature which links the man with his instrument, the bow and arrow, may indicating possession.

• Kay is also an equational linker. It functions like Tagalog ay.

Si Pedro ay mataas.

I Pedro kay mataas.

• Sogodnin has an o marker in place of Inete kay.

• Negative Phrase Marker it

It is used only after negatives as it is in Aklanon and Kinaray-a. however, in those languages it is also used as an indefinitive common noun marker.

Sogodnin uses it as its marker while Inete employs ki.

• Ta Dimunitive

This prefix is found in some words as a dimunitive.

Ex: ta-anak ‘child’ tamanok ‘chick’

An added Inati innovation occurs with pluralization of ta-forms: ma- is infixed.

Ex: ta-anak ‘child’ ta-ma-anak ‘children’

• Verbal Affixes

Inati uses the suffix –in instead of Bisayan –on. This affects a number of verbal forms and no Bisayan language has an –in suffix like Inati.

another distinguishing factor is the absence of Proto Central Philippine –a- after the prefixes *mag-, *nag-, and *pag-. This is one criterion of grouping these languages according to Zorc.

Conclusion: Inati is a separate language, distinct from any

other speech variety on Panay. It does not belong to the Bisayan subgroup of

languages. It is beyond lexicostatistical solution owing to a

large number of innovations, and heavy loan overlays from Bisayan, Spanish and even some English.

inati shows a unique sound correspondence for the proto-Austronesian phoneme *R which is not found in any other Philippine language both medial and final position, and indeed is rare for any of the Austronesian languages.

Survival Factors:1.) Panay Ati have maintained distinct communities

throughout time where Inati is spoken as the primary language. Racial, socio-economic and cultural factors have all contributed to the maintenance of strong ethnic boundaries separating Ati from lowland communities.

2.) Ati have maintained communication between communities throughout the centuries.certainly, the Ati were not stationary, isolated communities without contact with each other.

3.) the preservation of the language could also be accounted to the survival of the Ati themselves. They value large families and they even adopt if needed.

.Presently,

Sogodnin (Malay Ati dialect) is nearly extinct.

Inati(Barotac Viejo Nagpana) is the prestige dialect