Various attempts have been made over the years to establish
an orthography for Cuyonon, most important the orthography
used in the 1982 edition of the New Testament. None of these
spelling systems have met with general acceptance among
Cuyonons, and each has manifested problems. At the outset
of their dictionary project, Elphick and Sohn devised a new
orthography (in Roman script) in lengthy consultations with
the late Leonard Newell, an eminent lexicographer-linguist of
Philippine languages.
The new orthography has been discussed extensively with
the advisory panel in the Philippines and with many other
Cuyonon speakers. Its clarity, accuracy, consistency, and
ease of learning have been confirmed by its successful use
in the transcription of the tapes. While it is likely that small
modifications will be needed in the future, the CLCP is
confident that it is closing in on a definitive solution to a long-
standing problem. The orthography is the first concrete
result of CLCP’s labors.
an orthography for Cuyonon, most important the orthography
used in the 1982 edition of the New Testament. None of these
spelling systems have met with general acceptance among
Cuyonons, and each has manifested problems. At the outset
of their dictionary project, Elphick and Sohn devised a new
orthography (in Roman script) in lengthy consultations with
the late Leonard Newell, an eminent lexicographer-linguist of
Philippine languages.
The new orthography has been discussed extensively with
the advisory panel in the Philippines and with many other
Cuyonon speakers. Its clarity, accuracy, consistency, and
ease of learning have been confirmed by its successful use
in the transcription of the tapes. While it is likely that small
modifications will be needed in the future, the CLCP is
confident that it is closing in on a definitive solution to a long-
standing problem. The orthography is the first concrete
result of CLCP’s labors.
Since 1999, three researchers, now under the direction of Rachel
Tablazon in Puerto Princesa, have intermittently been taping
Cuyonon speech, chiefly among older speakers (those whose
speech is least inflected by English or Tagalog) in Puerto Princesa,
in several small towns in Palawan, and in Cuyo. The largest number
of tapes have been collected, most expertly, by Phebe Abis, a
resident of Dumaran, Palawan. Conversations are open-ended, with
only a minimum of prompting from the tapers.
Each conversation deals with one, or at most two, topics chosen by
Elphick and Sohn following George Peter Murdoch’s Outline of
Cultural Materials. The Murdoch outline, adapted to the needs of
Philippine culture, ensures completeness and balance in the
subjects covered. Among topics documented to date are rice
planting, boat building, navigation, palm-wine collection, childbirth,
child rearing, courtship, marriage, death, funerals, wakes, riddles,
proverbs, Holy Week celebrations, witchcraft, ghosts, enchantments,
oral histories, recollections of World War II and the Japanese
occupation—and many others.
Tablazon in Puerto Princesa, have intermittently been taping
Cuyonon speech, chiefly among older speakers (those whose
speech is least inflected by English or Tagalog) in Puerto Princesa,
in several small towns in Palawan, and in Cuyo. The largest number
of tapes have been collected, most expertly, by Phebe Abis, a
resident of Dumaran, Palawan. Conversations are open-ended, with
only a minimum of prompting from the tapers.
Each conversation deals with one, or at most two, topics chosen by
Elphick and Sohn following George Peter Murdoch’s Outline of
Cultural Materials. The Murdoch outline, adapted to the needs of
Philippine culture, ensures completeness and balance in the
subjects covered. Among topics documented to date are rice
planting, boat building, navigation, palm-wine collection, childbirth,
child rearing, courtship, marriage, death, funerals, wakes, riddles,
proverbs, Holy Week celebrations, witchcraft, ghosts, enchantments,
oral histories, recollections of World War II and the Japanese
occupation—and many others.
The officers of CLCP have always viewed the dictionary as a
catalyst whereby persons of Cuyonon ancestry could study and
renew their own language and culture. Even though Elphick and
Kingsbury are Cuyonon speakers resident in the USA, it is
necessary that Cuyonon speakers in the Philippines take ownership
of the project at the earliest possible moment. For that reason,
CLCP, in its Philippine operations, has relied exclusively on
Cuyonon speakers, training them in the principles of data collection,
cultural investigation, and critical analysis of oral Cuyonon.
The seven-person advisory panel, which Elphick intends to expand
to include younger Cuyonon speakers, has so far vetted the
proposed orthography and given guidance on publicizing the project
among Cuyonon speakers. Its future role will be larger, as it
becomes the core of a network of consultants providing feed-back
on dictionary entries, and as sources of data in such specialized
topics as astronomy, botany, and zoology.
CLCP hopes that its work will be of use to Cuyonons in the
Philippines and abroad who are already actively working for the
survival and revival of their language. Cuyonons in Palawan have
established regular radio programs that broadcast in Cuyonon to
the entire province, and lately Cuyonon has been used in some of
the meetings of the Palawan Provincial Council in Puerto Princesa.
There is also an ongoing interest in collecting, arranging, and
recording Cuyonon songs, instrumental music, and dances. A lively
Cuyonon website, Cuyo Press, is now accessible on the internet.
And, in 2008, Ploning, a popular movie shot in Cuyo, has been
distributed in the Philippines and North America.
catalyst whereby persons of Cuyonon ancestry could study and
renew their own language and culture. Even though Elphick and
Kingsbury are Cuyonon speakers resident in the USA, it is
necessary that Cuyonon speakers in the Philippines take ownership
of the project at the earliest possible moment. For that reason,
CLCP, in its Philippine operations, has relied exclusively on
Cuyonon speakers, training them in the principles of data collection,
cultural investigation, and critical analysis of oral Cuyonon.
The seven-person advisory panel, which Elphick intends to expand
to include younger Cuyonon speakers, has so far vetted the
proposed orthography and given guidance on publicizing the project
among Cuyonon speakers. Its future role will be larger, as it
becomes the core of a network of consultants providing feed-back
on dictionary entries, and as sources of data in such specialized
topics as astronomy, botany, and zoology.
CLCP hopes that its work will be of use to Cuyonons in the
Philippines and abroad who are already actively working for the
survival and revival of their language. Cuyonons in Palawan have
established regular radio programs that broadcast in Cuyonon to
the entire province, and lately Cuyonon has been used in some of
the meetings of the Palawan Provincial Council in Puerto Princesa.
There is also an ongoing interest in collecting, arranging, and
recording Cuyonon songs, instrumental music, and dances. A lively
Cuyonon website, Cuyo Press, is now accessible on the internet.
And, in 2008, Ploning, a popular movie shot in Cuyo, has been
distributed in the Philippines and North America.
Establishing the Cuyonon
Archive of Language and Culture
Archive of Language and Culture
The Cuyonon Orthography
(Writing System)
(Writing System)
Each conversation is identified by the date and location of taping; the name,
age, sex, and occupation of the tapee; and the topic(s) of the conversation.
All the tapes have been indexed in Microsoft Excel, allowing researchers to sort
under any of these headings. The audio tapes have then been carefully and
accurately transcribed into Microsoft Word files, first in the Philippines and more
recently in the United States, by Ellen Tablazon Kingsbury, a native speaker of
Cuyonon trained in the new orthography devised by Elphick and Sohn.
As of November 2008, 258 (mostly hour-long) tapes have been transcribed.
They consist of 1448 conversations. The total corpus of Cuyonon already
available in digital form comprises 1,889,222 words--1,611,967 from the
transcribed tapes, 247,414 from a scan of the Cuyonon New Testament, 9,268
from scans of minor Cuyonon publications, and 20,573 from word lists compiled
by earlier investigators, among them Elphick and Sohn.
To create the bilingual Cuyonon-English dictionary, the CLCP aims to expand its
corpus to at least 3,000,000 words. This written and oral corpus of natural
Cuyonon speech, unmodified by recent mingling with other languages, will be of
immense value to Cuyonons themselves if, as CLCP hopes, they take steps to
preserve and revive their language. Should Cuyonon die, however, the corpus
will be an invaluable record, not only of the language, but of an entire culture
encoded within it. One objective of this project is to render this material
permanently accessible to Cuyonons, other Filipinos, and the scholarly
community.
age, sex, and occupation of the tapee; and the topic(s) of the conversation.
All the tapes have been indexed in Microsoft Excel, allowing researchers to sort
under any of these headings. The audio tapes have then been carefully and
accurately transcribed into Microsoft Word files, first in the Philippines and more
recently in the United States, by Ellen Tablazon Kingsbury, a native speaker of
Cuyonon trained in the new orthography devised by Elphick and Sohn.
As of November 2008, 258 (mostly hour-long) tapes have been transcribed.
They consist of 1448 conversations. The total corpus of Cuyonon already
available in digital form comprises 1,889,222 words--1,611,967 from the
transcribed tapes, 247,414 from a scan of the Cuyonon New Testament, 9,268
from scans of minor Cuyonon publications, and 20,573 from word lists compiled
by earlier investigators, among them Elphick and Sohn.
To create the bilingual Cuyonon-English dictionary, the CLCP aims to expand its
corpus to at least 3,000,000 words. This written and oral corpus of natural
Cuyonon speech, unmodified by recent mingling with other languages, will be of
immense value to Cuyonons themselves if, as CLCP hopes, they take steps to
preserve and revive their language. Should Cuyonon die, however, the corpus
will be an invaluable record, not only of the language, but of an entire culture
encoded within it. One objective of this project is to render this material
permanently accessible to Cuyonons, other Filipinos, and the scholarly
community.
Phebe Abis
Ellen T. Kingsbury
Virginia Howard Sohn,
Co-Lexicographer
Co-Lexicographer
Ester Timbancaya Elphick
Lexicographer
Lexicographer
Doug Rintoul, consultant and technical
expert, explaining intricacies of software for
lexicography.
expert, explaining intricacies of software for
lexicography.
Len and Jo Newell on their last visit
with Ester T. Elphick in Middletown, Ct.
with Ester T. Elphick in Middletown, Ct.
From the beginning of the project, CLCP’s cardinal objective has been to create
a bilingual Cuyonon-English dictionary. The dictionary will be directed primarily
to Cuyonons, offering them a powerful means to analyze, revive, and expand
their own language; and also to Filipino and expatriate outsiders wishing to
understand and speak Cuyonon. The dictionary will serve, too, as an entry point
for scholars wishing to gain access to the rich documentation of Cuyonon
assembled by CLCP.
The proposed Cuyonon-English dictionary is to be modeled on Leonard Newell’s
1993 dictionary of Batad Ifugao and his 2006 dictionary of Romblomanon; both
are widely regarded as among the very best Philippine dictionaries and they
serve as models for others. CLCP wishes to imitate two particular features of
Newell’s dictionaries: his description of the language within an ethnographic
context, with frequent cultural notes that enable the dictionary to double as an
encyclopedia of the culture; and the presentation of each dictionary entry in
passages of natural, not contrived, speech (hence the need for taping).
CLCP regards such a dictionary as the most direct way for non-Cuyonons and
Cuyonons to enter into a study of the language. Before his recent death, Newell,
a retired professor at the Canada Institute of Linguistics in Langley, British
Columbia, provided expert guidance to Elphick and Sohn in shaping the
dictionary project. In this task he was competently assisted by his wife Jo.
The dictionary will be based primarily on the texts compiled by CLCP. Elphick
and Sohn have now “parsed” more than half of the transcribed texts. Parsing
involves transporting Cuyonon text into Toolbox, a software designed by the
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Toolbox allows the researcher to indicate,
in interlinear format, the numerous prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and reduplications
that alter a single root into scores of forms that are maddeningly difficult for an
outsider to recognize. Toolbox enables the lexicographer to group all forms of a
root into a single dictionary entry.
Furthermore, in combination with Lextools, another SIL software, Toolbox
displays every appearance of a particular word from the entire corpus. This
allows the lexicographer to see instantly its full range of uses and pick the best
phrases to illustrate its idiomatic use.
In mastering the requisite software, and in tweaking it for Cuyonon, CLCP relies
on the expertise of Douglas Rintoul, a consultant on the technological aspects of
documenting Philippine languages. Rintoul worked for 14 years in the
Philippines and is now manager of information technologies at the Canada
Institute of Linguistics.
a bilingual Cuyonon-English dictionary. The dictionary will be directed primarily
to Cuyonons, offering them a powerful means to analyze, revive, and expand
their own language; and also to Filipino and expatriate outsiders wishing to
understand and speak Cuyonon. The dictionary will serve, too, as an entry point
for scholars wishing to gain access to the rich documentation of Cuyonon
assembled by CLCP.
The proposed Cuyonon-English dictionary is to be modeled on Leonard Newell’s
1993 dictionary of Batad Ifugao and his 2006 dictionary of Romblomanon; both
are widely regarded as among the very best Philippine dictionaries and they
serve as models for others. CLCP wishes to imitate two particular features of
Newell’s dictionaries: his description of the language within an ethnographic
context, with frequent cultural notes that enable the dictionary to double as an
encyclopedia of the culture; and the presentation of each dictionary entry in
passages of natural, not contrived, speech (hence the need for taping).
CLCP regards such a dictionary as the most direct way for non-Cuyonons and
Cuyonons to enter into a study of the language. Before his recent death, Newell,
a retired professor at the Canada Institute of Linguistics in Langley, British
Columbia, provided expert guidance to Elphick and Sohn in shaping the
dictionary project. In this task he was competently assisted by his wife Jo.
The dictionary will be based primarily on the texts compiled by CLCP. Elphick
and Sohn have now “parsed” more than half of the transcribed texts. Parsing
involves transporting Cuyonon text into Toolbox, a software designed by the
Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL). Toolbox allows the researcher to indicate,
in interlinear format, the numerous prefixes, infixes, suffixes, and reduplications
that alter a single root into scores of forms that are maddeningly difficult for an
outsider to recognize. Toolbox enables the lexicographer to group all forms of a
root into a single dictionary entry.
Furthermore, in combination with Lextools, another SIL software, Toolbox
displays every appearance of a particular word from the entire corpus. This
allows the lexicographer to see instantly its full range of uses and pick the best
phrases to illustrate its idiomatic use.
In mastering the requisite software, and in tweaking it for Cuyonon, CLCP relies
on the expertise of Douglas Rintoul, a consultant on the technological aspects of
documenting Philippine languages. Rintoul worked for 14 years in the
Philippines and is now manager of information technologies at the Canada
Institute of Linguistics.
Involving the Cuyonon speakers
One of the meetings of the Cuyonon Advisory Panel held in Puerto
Princesa City, Palawan. From left to right: Higinio "Buddy" Mendoza,
Jr., Pura Ora, Carolina F. San Juan, Elizabeth Caporal, Flor Dangan and
Rachel A. Tablazon.
Princesa City, Palawan. From left to right: Higinio "Buddy" Mendoza,
Jr., Pura Ora, Carolina F. San Juan, Elizabeth Caporal, Flor Dangan and
Rachel A. Tablazon.
Eva Valledor, a successful Cuyonon entrepreneur in Puerto
Princesa City with CLCP President and Chief Lexicographer,
Ester T. Elphick
Princesa City with CLCP President and Chief Lexicographer,
Ester T. Elphick
The Bilingual Dictionary
Since the inception of the CLCP, Elphick has visited Puerto Princesa six times,
and Cuyo once, either at her own expense or that of CLCP. She has discussed
the dictionary project on radio three times, and spoken to municipal and
provincial officials, all who have proved cordial and supportive. In June 2005,
she participated in a baragatan (gathering), a fiesta-like event sponsored by
the provincial government, which included a day and evening devoted to
exhibiting and demonstrating Cuyonon crafts, cuisine, dance, and music. During
this Cuyonon day, Elphick twice introduced the dictionary to audiences of
several hundred enthusiastic hearers.
Elphick is confident that local people have begun the long process of engaging
with the project and taking ownership of it. CLCP wants to foster the scholarly
study of Cuyonon, but also to promote its use in literature, popular music,
church, and business. CLCP urges local teachers to create pedagogical
materials for fostering the use of Cuyonon in schools, particularly in Palawan,
where most persons of Cuyonon ancestry live, and where the danger to
Cuyonon survival is greatest.
and Cuyo once, either at her own expense or that of CLCP. She has discussed
the dictionary project on radio three times, and spoken to municipal and
provincial officials, all who have proved cordial and supportive. In June 2005,
she participated in a baragatan (gathering), a fiesta-like event sponsored by
the provincial government, which included a day and evening devoted to
exhibiting and demonstrating Cuyonon crafts, cuisine, dance, and music. During
this Cuyonon day, Elphick twice introduced the dictionary to audiences of
several hundred enthusiastic hearers.
Elphick is confident that local people have begun the long process of engaging
with the project and taking ownership of it. CLCP wants to foster the scholarly
study of Cuyonon, but also to promote its use in literature, popular music,
church, and business. CLCP urges local teachers to create pedagogical
materials for fostering the use of Cuyonon in schools, particularly in Palawan,
where most persons of Cuyonon ancestry live, and where the danger to
Cuyonon survival is greatest.
