August
31, 2002 -- In a series of emails, Dr.
Lawrence A. Reid explains that cagayan comes
from an ancient word that means "river". Reid
is Researcher Emeritus of the Department of Linguistics,
University of Hawai'i.
According
to Reid, the original word is unknown because the ancient
speakers of the Proto-Philippine language are dead. But
it can be scientifically reconstructed as *kaRayan, pronounced
like "cagayan".
The
asterisk in *kaRayan is a linguistic symbol, indicating
that the word is hypothetical. The capital R represents
an unknown sound -- referred to by Reid as "proto-phoneme" --
that was most likely a fricative g, which is similar to
the sound of g in "gamma".
*kaRayan then
evolved into the Northern Cordillera kagayan, the Ilokano karayan,
the Kapampangan kayayan, and others. All these words
mean "river".
| Form |
Region |
Sample
speakers |
| *kaRayan |
|
|
| kagayan |
Northern Cordillera, Tagalog,
Central Philippines |
Ibanag, Itawis |
| karayan |
|
Ilokano |
| kayayan |
|
Batanic, Kapampangan,
Bolinao |
| kalayan |
Central and Southern Cordillera,
and Southern Philippines |
Kalinga,
Bontok, Ifugaw, Inibaloi and Pangasinan; Tboli and Blaan |
Some sources say
that the original word for river is kagay, which, when
combined with -an (place), became kagayan (river
place).
But
Reid explains that *kaRayan is a whole, complete idea,
and is not a combination of several others: "Note
that in all the languages that have a reflex of this
form, it simply means 'river'. It is not a morphologically
complex form. There is no language that reflects a form kagay. Nor is there any evidence that
either the final -an was a suffix, or for that matter
that the initial ka- was a prefix. At some early stage,
it is possible that the -an was a locative suffix
...."
Reid's
explanations are responses to queries sent by webmaster
Elson T. Elizaga to Alibata, a yahoogroup. Reid and
Elizaga later exchanged emails directly to discuss details
about the etymology. More information about Reid is in
his
website.
|
Original,
first email from Dr. Lawrence Reid
  "The
word 'cagayan' is reconstructible, possibly, to one
of the early proto-languages of the Philippines if not
for Proto-Philippines itself, as *kaRayan "river",
where *R represents the proto-phoneme with g
reflexes in the Northern Cordilleran languages, such
as Ibanag and Itawis, as well as in Tagalog and other
Central Philippine languages, as r in Ilokano,
as y in Batanic languages, Kapampangan and Bolinao,
and as l in Central and Southern Cordilleran
languages such as Kalinga, Bontok, Ifugaw, Inibaloi
and Pangasinan, and in the southern Philippine languages,
Tboli and Blaan. Of course the term *kaRayan is not
reflected in all of these languages.
"...
In Proto-Philippines there were two words for 'water'.
The term for 'fresh water' was *wa'iR, hence Bontok,
etc, wa'il 'stream'; Manobo languages wayig,
and similar forms; T'boli 'el; Maguindanao 'ig
'water', all of which reflect the reconstructed term
faithfully, according to the phonological developments
of each language. The general term for 'water' was *Danum,
hence Bontok, etc., danum; Sambalic languages
lanom 'water'. There are no languages in the
Philippines that reflect a term 'ag'. Lists of
terms for 'water' and also 'river' from around 50 Philippine
languages can be found in my 1971 book, Philippine
Minor Languages: Word Lists and Phonologies (Oceanic
Linguistics Special Publication No. 8. Honolulu: University
of Hawai'i Press.)
"The
word that has been reconstructed for Proto-Philippines
by Himes, and also Blust for 'to flow, of a river' is
*bulus. None has reconstructed *agus with this, or any
other meaning. In fact it is doubtful that there was
a *g phoneme in the Proto-Philippine language. The g
sound in Philippine languages usually developed from
a voiced velar fricative, represented as *R in reconstructions.
"The
evidence for the Proto-Philippine word reconstructable
for river, *kaRayan, comes from Ilokano karayan,
Central Cagayan Agta kahayan, Itawis kayan,
etc. Note that in all the languages that have a reflex
of this form, it simply means 'river', it is not a morphologically
complex form. There is no language that reflects a form
'kagay'. Nor is there any evidence that either the final
-an was a suffix, or for that matter that the
initial ka- was a prefix. At some early stage,
it is possible that the -an was a locative suffix.
But perhaps *kaRay was the name of a plant that typically
grew in the river where the term first developed, or
the name of a kind of fish. These are far more likely
than to assume that *kaRay meant 'river'. But to go
beyond the evidence presented above is pure speculation,
and any person's guess is as good as any others ...." |
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