The phonetic component in the missionary grammars of the Philippines (17th-18th centuries)

1. INTRODUCTION

Missionary linguistics is a discipline that crystallises in the early 21st century, although there are many previous studies (see Segovia-Gordillo, 2023Percival, W. K. (1999). Understanding the vernacular turn. In G. Hassler, &P. Schmitter (Eds.), Sprachdiskussion und Beschreibung von Sprachen im 17. und 18. Jahrhundert: Beiträge der X. Internationalen Tagung des Studienkreises Geschichte der Sprachwissenschaft, 18-21. Juni 1997 in Potsdam (pp. 11-21), Nodus Publikationen., or Esparza-Torres & Niederehe, 2023Calvo-Pérez, J. (1994). Valdés contra Nebrija: el otro fondo de la polémica. In R. Escavy, M. Hernández Terrés, & A. Roldán (Eds.), Actas del Congreso Internacional de Historiografı́a Lingüı́stica. Nebrija V Centenario: Vol. III. Nebrija y otros temas de Historiografía Lingüı́stica (pp. 141-150). Universidad de Murcia. for a complete bibliography), and as a discipline it encompasses a wide range of territories and languages (García-Medall, 2010Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2015). La escritura antigua filipina y la adopción del alfabeto latino para la representación de las lenguas del archipiélago en las artes y ortografías de la tradición misionero-colonial española, Onomazéin, 32(3), 37-61.; Acevedo-López, 2022aNebrija, Elio-Antonio de (1492). Gramática Castellana [Introduction and notes by M. Á.Esparza-Torres and R. Sarmiento, Fundación Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, 1992]. & 2022bNebrija, Elio-Antonio de (1495=1481). Introductiones (Recognitio). Salamanca.; Acevedo-López & Esparza-Torres, 2020Ortiz, Tomás (1740). Arte y Reglas de la Lengva Tagala. Por el M. R. P. Lect. Fr. Thomas Ortìz Ex-Provincial de su Província del Smo. Nombre de JESVS del Orden de N. P. S. Agustin en eftas Islas Philipínas, y Prior de el Convento de Nra S. de Guadalupe. Dedicado al Smo. y Dulcisimo Nombre de JESVS. Viderunt omnes populi gloriam nominis ejus. Omnia in Nomine Dni. N. Jesu Christi, facite. Impresso con las Licencias necessarias en el Convento de Nra Señora de Loreto en el Pueblo de Sampaloc. Año de 1740.). These studies have shown how the grammars and vocabularies produced in the Spanish colonies between the 16th and 19th centuries are of special interest for the history of linguistics, in that they reveal significant aspects of the extensive processes of grammatization that involve the knowledge of, and reduction to, grammars of European and non-European vernacular languages, Amerindian and Philippine in the Spanish case, starting from the Renaissance. This is the result of a much broader transcultural process that involved constructing, understanding and describing the culture of these peoples, discovering new realities, and communicating the doctrine of the catholic faith in the language of the other speakers (Zimmermann, 2006Sueiro-Justel, J. (2003). Historia de la lingüı́stica española en Filipinas (1580–1898). Axac.).

There are numerous works on grammars of American origins, whereas those dedicated to the languages of the Philippines are not as plentiful. Hence, we believe that there remains a need to situate these languages in the context of a Hispanic tradition, as products of their own epistemological framework and as examples of a contrastive approach which uses Latin and the missionary’s vernacular language as points of reference.¹On numerous occasions, missionaries from the Hispanic tradition also use varieties of Spanish as a point of comparison, and even other languages, such as Chinese or Hebrew.

In the remarkable process of the grammaticization of the languages of the New World and the Philippines, it is fundamentally Nebrija’s Introductiones (along with other notable influences), in its Recognitio edition or in a subsequent editions, that within integrate them in the long Graeco-Latin tradition. As Baños-Baños & Téllez-Nieto (2015San Agustín, Gaspar de (1787=1703). Compendio de la Arte de la Lengua Tagala. Por el Padre Fr. Gaspar de San Avgvstin, Religioso de el mismo Orden, Comissario de el Santo Oficio, Visitador de esta Provincia de Philipinas, y Prior de el Convento de Tambobong (Año 1703). Segvnda Impression. Con las Licencias necessarias en la Imprenta de Nuestra Señora de Loreto del Pueblo de Sampaloc: Año de 1787.) point out, the influence of this grammatical treatise can be observed early on in missionary-colonial grammars, first in America and later in the Philippines. In their analysis of Andrés de Olmos’s²Regarding the Graeco-Latin grammatical tradition, see Matthews (2019). Arte de la lengua mexicana (1547), they accurately identify the model provided by the Introductiones (see also Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.; Acevedo-López, 2022aNebrija, Elio-Antonio de (1492). Gramática Castellana [Introduction and notes by M. Á.Esparza-Torres and R. Sarmiento, Fundación Antonio de Nebrija, Madrid, 1992].) and date Olmos’s source to an edition following the Recognitio, probably the editio cantabrica extensa of 1508 or a later one (the Venetian or Lyon editions, 1512 and 1513, respectively), which, of particular relevance to us, contained the minor work De vi ac potestate litterarum.

TThat said, as these authors acknowledge, and as Esparza-Torres also notes, we cannot assume that the missionaries who arrived in the Philippines aboard the Manila Galleon from New Spain (along with copies of the Introductiones) simply relied on this work, which they would undoubtedly have studied in their religious training, continuing as it did the de-Latinisation of grammar initiated by Nebrija. Rather, they “conocían no solo por sus estudios las obras del gramático, sino también el modo en que sus compañeros habían aplicado sus saberes a la gramatización de lenguas muy diferentes del latín” [knew not only the works of the grammarian through their studies, but also the way in which their companions had applied their knowledge to the grammaticization of languages very different from Latin] (Esparza-Torres, 2023Breva-Claramonte, M. (2008b). Grammatization of indigenous languages in Spanish America: The mental language, language origin and cultural factors. Histoire Épistémologie Langage, 30(2), 11-24., p. 96; see also Esparza-Torres, 2015Baños-Baños, J. M., & Téllez-Nieto, H. (2015). El modelo nebrisense del Arte de la lengua mexicana (1547) de fray Andrés de Olmos. Historiographia Linguistica, 42(2-3), 233-260. and 2016Breva-Claramonte, M. (2008a). El marco doctrinal de la tradición lingüı́stica europea y los primeros misioneros de la Colonia. Bulletin Hispanique, 110(1), 25-59.)³All translations our own.. The expectation that the learner would recognise the Graeco-Latin model and that of the missionary-colonial tradition allowed grammarians to omit extensive explanations of the meanings of metalinguistic terms (vowel, consonant, penultimate prorrepta/corrupta, diphthong, herir (to weaken a vowel or consonant), etc.), explanations that occur when these terms are redefined to adapt to the reality of the languages they describe, or concerning the internal structure and organisation of the grammar itself.

In this regard, we must bear in mind that, if an indigenous grammatical tradition existed, in many cases, and particularly for the Philippines,

However, as we will see, they use terms from that tradition to explain particular features of the language, as happens, for example, in the case of uayaon, or else establish correlations between these and Latin ones, as we will see in the case of soft and hard vowels (malatà and matigàs, respectively, in the Filipino tradition) (see also Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.).

Spanish is the language of description⁴This was not the case with all missionary grammars. For example, the grammar Lingua Mariana (1668) by Sanvitores was written in Latin, likely because, as the author points out, not all missionaries were Spanish speakers (see Winkler, 2016)., and Latin grammar constitutes the foundational descriptive framework from which the metalanguage is also adopted. This metalanguage is modified with new methods and explanatory approaches in order to bring it into line with what has come to be called the vernacular turn. This adjustment uses the data from the languages that are being analysed, but without proposing much new metalanguage that would be more in line with the linguistic characteristics of those languages (Breva-Claramonte, 2008aSan José, Francisco de = Blancas deSan José (1610). Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala. Por el Padre. F. Fray Francisco de .S. Ioseph de la Orden de .S. Domingo Predicador General en la Prouincia de .N. Señora del Rosario de las Islas Filipinas. En el Partido de Bataan. Por Thomas Pinpin Tagalo, Año de 1610 [Study and critical edition by A.Quilis, Madrid: Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica. A.E.C.I., 1997]., 2008bTotanes, Sebastián de (1745). Arte de la lengua tagala, y manual tagalog, para la administración de los Santos Sacramentos, que de orden de sus superiores compuso Fray Sebastián de Totanes, Hijo de la apostolica, y Seraphica Provincia de S. Gregorio Magno, de Religiosos Descalzos de la Regular, y mas estrecha Observancia de Nuestro Seraphico Padre San Francisco de las Islas Philipinas, Para alivio de los religiosos de la misma Santa Provincia, que de nuevo se dedican à aprender este Idioma, y son Principiantes en la Administracion Espiritual de las Almas. Impresso en la Imprenta del vso de dicha Santa Provincia, sita en el Convento de Nra. Señora de Loreto en el Pueblo de Sãpaloc Extra-muros de la Ciudad de Manila, Año de 1745.; Nieto, 1975Klöter, H. (2011). The language of the Sangleys: A Chinese vernacular in missionary sources of the seventeenth century. Brill., vol. II, p. 39; Suárez-Roca, 2000Quilis, A., & Casado-Fresnillo, C. (2008). La lengua española en Filipinas. Historia, situación actual. El chabacano. Antologı́a de textos. CSIC.; Swiggers, 2003Spitz, W. L. (2001). Hiligaynon/Ilongo. Lincom Europa., 2004Suárez, J. A. (1983). Mesoamerican Indian languages. Cambridge University Press.).

However, they did develop and seek out original descriptive solutions (Altman, 1999Prisciano (1855). Institutionum gramaticarum Libri I-XII, Tevbeneri, Lipsia.), and in this way declensions, word classes, etc. became the initial foundations on which contemporary theoretical frameworks are built, frameworks that “[son] producto de la aguda capacidad para percibir diferencias intrínsecas, rasgos únicos o construcciones originales” [are the product of an acute ability to perceive intrinsic differences, unique features or original constructions] (Galeote, 2002Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2011). Las ideas lingüísticas en las gramáticas misionero-coloniales de Filipinas (ss. XVII y XVIII) [Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade de Vigo]., p. 1727) .

As Esparza-Torres (2023Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2023). De Nebrija y la gramatización de las lenguas Filipinas: ¿Viajó Nebrija en el Galeón de Manila? In C. Quijada van den Berghe, B. Alonso Pascua, F. Escudero Paniagua, C. Martín Gallego, & G. B. Garrido Vílchez (Eds.), De Estepa a Salamanca. Miradas en torno a la lengua (pp. 85-100). Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca., p. 96) argues “la caja de herramientas con la que contaban los gramáticos incluía un instrumental de origen grecolatino, pero cuando empiezan a trabajar en Filipinas, atesoraban ya una experiencia de muchísimos años” [the tools available to grammarians included Greco-Latin instruments, but by the time they started working in the Philippines, they had already gained extensive experience] from their work on Amerindian languages. This is clearly seen through the various references in these works not only to Nebrija, but also to earlier texts from the missionary-colonial tradition, from which they borrowed strategies and examples (see also Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.; Ridruejo, 2011; Esparza-Torres, 2016Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2016). Las ideas lingüísticas en los orígenes de la lingüística misionera en Mesoamérica: enunciados, argumentos, imágenes y ejemplos. Rilce. Revista de Filología Hispánica, 33(1), 135-164.). In many cases, there are references to earlier missionary grammars, particularly that of Blancas de San José (Fernández-Rodríguez, 2014Calvo-Pérez, J. (2005). Fonologı́a y ortografı́a de las lenguas indı́genas de América del Sur a la luz de los primeros misioneros gramáticos. In O.Zwartjes, & C. Altman (Eds.), Missionary Linguistics II / Lingüı́stica misionera II. Ortography and Phonology, Vol. 109, (pp. 137-170). John Benjamins.; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.).

The approach involves a dual process. On the one hand, given that the grammatical artifice from Europe is applied, we find a form of exogrammatization. On the other, since they use grammatization tools from the missionary tradition, they are aware of the typological affinities between the languages they describe. These instruments of grammatization were developed for other languages – whether European, Amerindian, or specifically Philippine – regardless of whether these belonged to the same linguistic family or not.

As various authors have noted, the application of the Latin model was not done unthinkingly; as Suárez-Roca (2000Quilis, A., & Casado-Fresnillo, C. (2008). La lengua española en Filipinas. Historia, situación actual. El chabacano. Antologı́a de textos. CSIC., p. 78) observes, the languages that the missionaries described required new methods and explanatory schemes. The missionaries themselves were aware of the inadequacy of the Latin mould, and indeed they adapted, redefined and transformed it, a fact which the grammarians themselves acknowledged⁵Let us simply note the title of Oyanguren de Santa Inés’ work: Tagalysmo Elucidado, y reducido (en lo possible) á la Latinidad de Nebrija. On some occasions, despite being aware of the differences between Latin and the language they seek to describe grammatically, they adopt Nebrija as a reference. This can be observed, for instance, in the prologue of Francisco López’s Ilocano grammar (1792=1627).. Klötter (2011, p. 89), for example, points out that, alongside knowledge of the Greco-Latin tradition, we find other explanatory elements in the missionary grammars: “(1) the use of transcriptions and the arrangement of examples, which are not related to terminology in any way; (2) the avoidance of terminology; (3) the questioning of existing terminology by denying its relevance; (4) the redefinition of existing terminology; and (5) terminological innovation” (see also Gómez-Asencio, 2001Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2022). Nebrija como puente entre la tradición hispánica y las gramáticas misionero-coloniales de Filipinas. Aspectos fónicos, Revista sobre Investigaciones Léxicas, (Nº Extra 1), 121-146.; Galeote, 2002Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2011). Las ideas lingüísticas en las gramáticas misionero-coloniales de Filipinas (ss. XVII y XVIII) [Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade de Vigo]., p. 1725; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52., chap. 4; a concept recently revisited by Winkler, 2016Sueiro-Justel, J. (2002). Francisco Blancas de San José, pionero de la lingüı́stica española en Filipinas. In I. Báez Montero, & M.ª R. Pérez (Eds.), Romeral. Estudios filológicos en homenaje a José Antonio Fernández Romero (pp. 231-252). Universidad de Vigo., though without citing these earlier works)⁶This explanation is not exclusive to the processes of missionary-colonial grammar formation. Swiggers (1988, 1991, 1997, 2003, 2004) highlights the relevance of harmonising Greco-Latin grammar with the data from the languages being grammatically described through five procedures: 1) literal transposition, 2) correspondence between elements based on a functional criterion, 3) restrictive use of the model, 4) analogical extension of the model, and 5) abandonment of the model. As Winkler (2016) rightly points out, although without considering these sources, although without considering these sources, and as has been described at length in a previous study (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011), in almost all cases, there is a primarily functional criterion rather than a restrictive morphosyntactic one.. This results in an intermediate phenomenon between exogrammatization and endogrammatization.

In this regard, recent research, seen from the perspective viewed through the lens of the transmission of knowledge, identifies three stages in the history of missionary-colonial linguistics in the Americas, which could potentially include the Philippines. The first stage involves missionaries acquiring knowledge, which they then organise and structure to fit a specific model, as previously noted. In the second stage, they aim to understand grammatical structures and vocabulary in order to facilitate evangelisation. Finally, they document this knowledge in writing for broader dissemination (see Loon & Peetermans, 2020Fernández-Rodríguez, R. (2014). The description of Ilokano in the 17th century. Linguistics in Amsterdam, 7, 49-62.).

It should be noted that the missionaries recognise the typological proximity of the languages. Nonetheless, they do not often establish a concrete linguistic genealogy nor explain their common origins of these, as observed in the following passages:

With the aim of teaching the missionaries who would arrive after them, a grammaticization project was initiated. Almost from the very beginning, in America, this project involved, in addition to translations of gospels, lives of saints, confessional writings, etc., the creation of primers in the Latin alphabet, grammars (or arts), and vocabularies. These included descriptions of the phonetic units and some of the suprasegmental features, primarily (or almost exclusively) accent (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.; Máynez, 2023García-Medall, J. (2010). Los prólogos de la lexicografía Hispano-Filipina (1613-1914). In C. Asunção, G. Fernandes, & M. Loureiro (Eds.), Ideias linguísticas na península ibérica (séc. XIV a séc. XIX) (pp. 303-314), Nodus Publikationen.).

Grammars, therefore, were closely linked to the practical and everyday use of the language, the cultural immersion of the missionary in the indigenous society, the vocabularies, and the doctrinal and sacramental books, etc. These served simultaneously as guides for evangelisation and the administration of sacraments, and as tools for formalising the translation of sacred matters to ensure that they were in full communion with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. They differ, thus, from what was being done in Europe at the same time in a more formal and systematic way. In these grammars, for example, we do not find explicit definitions of either the letters or their properties.

The analysis described in the present study is based on 15 grammars and one orthographical work from the 17th and 18th centuries, produced by missionaries in the Philippines, (references listed in the Primary Sources section). In selecting these works, we have attempted to cover most of the known documents of this type that have been preserved. We focus on the first stage of the grammatical description of indigenous languages, which can justifiably be properly termed missionary linguistics, in that it was carried out by religious figures and spans the 16th to 18th centuries (see Suárez, 1983Quilis, A. (1982). El Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala. Nueva Revista de Filologı́a Hispánica, XXXI(1), 1-24.; Sueiro-Justel, 2003Ridruejo, E. (2005a). La descripción de los sonidos en las primeras gramáticas del pampango. In Filologı́a y Lingüı́stica. Estudios ofrecidos a Antonio Quilis: Vol. II (pp. 1830-1842). CSIC/UNED/Universidad de Valladolid.; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.). In the 19th century, there was a decline in production, which Koerner (1994Esparza-Torres, M. Á. & Niederehe, H.-J. (2023). Bibliografía de la lingüística misionera española (BILME). Nodus Publikationen.) associates with growing interest in universal and philosophical grammar. Sueiro-Justel (2003Ridruejo, E. (2005a). La descripción de los sonidos en las primeras gramáticas del pampango. In Filologı́a y Lingüı́stica. Estudios ofrecidos a Antonio Quilis: Vol. II (pp. 1830-1842). CSIC/UNED/Universidad de Valladolid.) notes, as a primary reason here, a shift in language policy at the end of the 18th century. This shift, with the generalisation of the school system, led to the emergence of different audiences and a corresponding change in the methodology for describing languages, alongside the increased promotion of the teaching of Spanish (see Quilis & Casado-Fresnillo, 2008Máynez, P. (2023). Instrumentos de codificación en lengua mexicana para la implantación de un dogma. El primer siglo novohispano. In M. Á. Esparza-Torres, & A.Segovia-Gordillo (Eds.), Nuevas aportaciones a la lingüística misionera española (pp. 21–40). Peter Lang., §1.4.4.3). Additionally, civilians began to take part in this grammatical work as they moved increasingly into university education (Wesseling, 2003Suárez-Roca, J. L. (2000). Tradición e innovación en la descripción de la lengua náhuatl. In O. Zwartjes (Ed.), Las gramáticas misioneras de tradición hispánica (siglos XVI-XVII) (pp. 73-95). Rodopi.[1993]). In this study, we will not address other grammars from the same missionary sphere (such as Chinese or Chamorro) that relate to languages not spoken in the Philippines, even if they were printed there, such as the Arte de la lengua chio chiu (see Klöter, 2011Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2016). Las ideas lingüísticas en los orígenes de la lingüística misionera en Mesoamérica: enunciados, argumentos, imágenes y ejemplos. Rilce. Revista de Filología Hispánica, 33(1), 135-164.; Klöter & Zwartjes, 2008Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2023). De Nebrija y la gramatización de las lenguas Filipinas: ¿Viajó Nebrija en el Galeón de Manila? In C. Quijada van den Berghe, B. Alonso Pascua, F. Escudero Paniagua, C. Martín Gallego, & G. B. Garrido Vílchez (Eds.), De Estepa a Salamanca. Miradas en torno a la lengua (pp. 85-100). Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca.; Winkler, 2016Sueiro-Justel, J. (2002). Francisco Blancas de San José, pionero de la lingüı́stica española en Filipinas. In I. Báez Montero, & M.ª R. Pérez (Eds.), Romeral. Estudios filológicos en homenaje a José Antonio Fernández Romero (pp. 231-252). Universidad de Vigo.).

2. THE DESCRIPTIVE ORTHOPHONIC FRAMEWORK

In previous studies (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.; 2015Allen, W. S. (1981). The Greek contribution to the history of phonetics. In R. E.Asher & J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics (pp. 115-122). Edinburgh University Press.; 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.), we analysed how the missionaries in America and the Philippines described phonetic systems using the Latin alphabet as a reference. We noted the importance of the previous tradition and how, similar to the grammars of vernacular languages, we find contrastive grammars addressing language difficulties in the Spanish/Latin-Filipino context (see Quilis, 1982Martínez-Gavilán, M.ª D. (1983). Las ideas fonéticas en la lingüística española del siglo XVII. Facultad de Filosofı́a y Letras – Universidad de León., 1997Matthews, P. H. (2019). What Graeco-Roman grammar was about. Oxford University Press.; Sueiro-Justel, 2002Ramajo-Caño, A. (1987). Las gramáticas de la lengua castellana desde Nebrija a Correas. Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca., 2003Ridruejo, E. (2005a). La descripción de los sonidos en las primeras gramáticas del pampango. In Filologı́a y Lingüı́stica. Estudios ofrecidos a Antonio Quilis: Vol. II (pp. 1830-1842). CSIC/UNED/Universidad de Valladolid.; Ridruejo, 2005aMonzón-Garcı́a, C. (2005). Tarascan orthography in the 16th century. Franciscan sources of inspiration and their analysis. In O. Zwartjes, &C.Altman (Eds.), Missionary Linguistics II / Lingüı́stica misionera II. Ortography and Phonology (pp. 65-88). John Benjamins.). This is also seen in the Portuguese tradition (see Carvalhão-Buescu, 1983Acevedo-López, V. F. (2022b). Lingüística misionera española: Límites, geografía y lenguas[Ph.D. dissertation, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos].).

In Filipino grammars, the section dedicated to the phonological component can sometimes appear at the end of the work, as in Francisco de San José (=Blancas de San José, 1614), following the model of Nebrija’s Introductiones. It may even be placed within a section that includes orthography, the suppression/addition of letters, syncope, or the way of describing time, as seen in Ortiz (1740López, Andrés (1690). Arte de la lengva de Pangasinan Compvesta por el R. P. Fr. Andres Lopez del Orden de Predicadores. Dedicada al M. R. P. Fr. Bartholome Marron de dicha Orden. Calificador del S. Officio, y Provincial que á sido de esta Prouincia del Santissimo Rosario de Philipinas. Con las Licencias Ordinarias en el Collegio, y Vniversidad de Santo Thomas de Aquino. Por el Capitán D. Gaspar de los Reyes. Año de 1690.). In other works, it appears at the beginning, within the preliminary notes, as observed in Ezguerra (1747Ezguerra, Domingo (1747=1663). Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte compvesta por el P. Domingo Ezgverra de la Compañia de IESVS, su Vice Provincial en las Provincias de Pintados, y Rector de la Residencia de Carigara. Tiene enxeridas algvnas advertencias de la lengua de Zebù, y Bool: las de Zebù señaladas con la letra Z, y las de Bool con la letra B, y juntamente algunos adverbios con su uso para hablar con elegacia. Reimpressa. Con las Lic. necessarias en Manila en la Imp. de la Compañia de Iesus, por D Nicolasde la Cruz Bagay. Años de 1747.=1663) or Totanes (1745Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776.). This positioning reflects the way Nebrija’s Gramática de la lengua castellana (1492Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776.) presents orthographic matters. After explaining the invention of letters, he identifies which ones from Latin are used for Castilian, which ones are not, and those that are absent from the classical language, adhering to Quintilian’s principle (see Cuevas-Alonso, 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.). This final distinction, with clear pedagogical value for those familiar with Latin, is broadly followed in all the works there.

However, as Ridruejo (2011Nieto, L. (1975). Del origen y principio de la lengua castellana de Aldrete, ideas lingüı́sticas de Aldrete. CSIC.) observes, in the anonymous Sambal grammar (1601), it is peculiar to find this section as a note in the fifth section, which is dedicated to the verb (although, as he points out, later correctors added a reference to this part on folio 1v). This may have been because it had originally a separate section at some point.

The missionaries were aware of the difficulty in pronouncing these new languages, due to differences in some sounds compared to the reference languages: Latin and Spanish, and in the Filipino case also the previously grammaticised Amerindian languages. They also recognised the challenge of oral comprehension for learners encountering languages so different from those with which they were familiar.

Castro, in the 18th century, expressed it thus in his orthography: “La mayor dificultad esta en pronunciar natural y rectamente; y tambien en entenderlas quando el Tagalo las pronuncia; que si no tienes oido de corzo, y de buen musico, trabaxos te mando” [The greatest difficulty lies in natural and correct pronunciation, and also in understanding the Tagalog when they speak. If you do not have a keen ear and musical talent, you will face great challenges] (Castro, 1776Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776., p. 48) .

Although the Filipino languages had syllabic writing systems for various languages when the Spaniards arrived, the missionaries established a connection between these symbols, the Latin alphabet letters, and the corresponding sounds. They followed the same strategy used in America, based on Nebrija’s Spanish grammar, which draws on Latin. This involved distinguishing between letters that represent sounds directly (graphic-phonetic correspondence), letters that represent different sounds than in the reference languages, and letters that are not used in Spanish or Latin. For these, various strategies were developed, such as using trigraphs, adding signs to known letters, or borrowing from other alphabets (Cuevas-Alonso, 2015Allen, W. S. (1981). The Greek contribution to the history of phonetics. In R. E.Asher & J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics (pp. 115-122). Edinburgh University Press.; 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.). They adhered, then, to the Quintilian maxim of ‘pronounce as you write and write as you pronounce’. Some grammarians, such as Blancas de San José (1610Méntrida, Alonso (1818=1637). Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiliguayna de la Isla de Panay Compuesto por Fr. Alonso de Méntrida de la Orden de San Augustin. Impreso en Manila en la Imprenta de Don Manuel Memije por Don AnastacioGonzaga. Año de 1818.), recommended learning the Tagalog characters to pronounce them correctly, although he noted the great difficulty in reading “expeditamente la lengua Tagala en sus mismos caracteres” [the Tagalog language fluently in its own characters].

They describe “aquellos sonidos que, si bien son similares a los de español y latín, presentan diferencias relevantes, una fonoortografía del castellano y del latín trasladada a estas nuevas lenguas (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.), aspecto este, el fonoortográfico, que subyace a todo alfabeto (Moses, 1964Hospers, J. H. (1980). Graphemics and the history of phonology. Historiographia Linguistica, VII(3), 351-359., p. 33)” [those sounds that, while similar to those in Spanish and Latin, present significant differences, a phono-orthography of Spanish and Latin transferred to these new languages (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.). This phono-orthographic aspect underlies every alphabet (Moses, 1964Hospers, J. H. (1980). Graphemics and the history of phonology. Historiographia Linguistica, VII(3), 351-359., p. 33)] (Cuevas-Alonso, 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.) , and create terms for unknown sounds: g gangosa,⁷For the treatment of this velar nasal consonant in missionary-colonial grammars, see Cuevas-Alonso (2011) and Urban (2020).saltillo or cortadilla, for example, which they describe in an impressionistic manner, although in many cases they leave the learning of these to a process of usage and practice with the native speakers (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.; Ridruejo, 2011Nieto, L. (1975). Del origen y principio de la lengua castellana de Aldrete, ideas lingüı́sticas de Aldrete. CSIC.). This impressionistic description is found even in the tradition prior to the arrival of the Spanish in the islands. For instance, Totanes — and later, Castro (1776Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776., p. 32) — noted a differentiation that relates avant la lettre to the degree of openness (greater articulatory tension in the hard versus soft sounds):

Thus, unlike the Spanish grammarians who adhered strictly to Nebrija’s orthography, these grammarians had some freedom to adapt the Latin alphabet to the linguistic realities they were describing (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52.).

By the 18th century, the Latin alphabet had completely replaced the Filipino syllabaries.⁹Even in the early 18th century, we still find references to the rare use of Filipino characters, such as in Comintan (Gaspar de San Agustín, 1787=1703). However, the webpage dedicated to this writing system by the National Museum of the Philippines says that the Baybayin “was eventually replaced by the Roman alphabet but retained in the islands of Mindoro (Buhid-Mangyan and Hanunuo-Mangyan) and Palawan (Pala’wan and Tagbanua) until today” (https://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/exhibitions/anthropology/baybayin/). Oyanguren de Santa Inés noted in his Tagalog grammar: “Oy dia se van olvidando de estas letras, porque los Españoles introdujeron las letras Gothicas, y los Operarios Evangélicos ayudan con incessante desvelo, manteniendo en cada Pueblo su Escuela” [These letters are gradually being forgotten, as the Spaniards introduced Gothic letters, and the Evangelical workers tirelessly assist by maintaining schools in every town] (Oyanguren de Santa Inés, 1745, pp. 3-4). This situation was similar to what happened with the American writing systems and symbols when the teaching of the alphabet was introduced to children (Motolinía, 1541Gómez-Asencio, J. J. (2001). (2001) Lo latino de las gramáticas del española. In M. Maquieira-Rodríguez, M.ª D. Martínez-Gavilán, & M. Villayandre-Llamazares (Eds.), Actas del II Congreso Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Historiografía Lingüística (pp. 35-54), Arco/Libros.). Such a shift was intended to resolve interpretation issues, as observed by Ortiz in his work on Tagalog (1740López, Andrés (1690). Arte de la lengva de Pangasinan Compvesta por el R. P. Fr. Andres Lopez del Orden de Predicadores. Dedicada al M. R. P. Fr. Bartholome Marron de dicha Orden. Calificador del S. Officio, y Provincial que á sido de esta Prouincia del Santissimo Rosario de Philipinas. Con las Licencias Ordinarias en el Collegio, y Vniversidad de Santo Thomas de Aquino. Por el Capitán D. Gaspar de los Reyes. Año de 1690.), and also noted by Castro in a text filled with colonial undertones:

It is worth asking how the missionaries were able to determine the sounds corresponding to the letters. Let us briefly recall how in the European tradition, which these scribes knew well, primarily through Nebrija’s Latin grammar, the concept of a letter held almost a phonematic value — the triple graphic-phonetic dimension of nomen-figura-potestas (see Pérez-Rodríguez, 1996Koerner, E. F. K. (1994). Gramática de la lengua castellana de Antonio de Nebrija y el estudio de las lenguas indígenas de las Américas; o, hacia una historia de la Lingüística Amerindia. In R. Escavy, M. Hernández Terrés, & A. Roldán (Eds.), Actas del Congreso Internacional de Historiografía Lingüística. Nebrija V Centenario: Vol. II. Nebrija y las lenguas amerindias (pp. 17-36). Universidad de Murcia. and 2002Loon, Z. van & Peetermans, A. (2020). Wide-lensed approaches to Missionary Linguistics: The circulation of knowledge on amerindian languages through sixteenth-century Spanish printed grammars. In A. Alexander-Bakkerus, R. Fernández Rodríguez, L. Zack, & O. Zwartjes (Eds.), Missionary linguistic studies from Mesoamerica to Patagonia (pp. 53-80). Brill.; for the Spanish tradition, see Martínez-Gavilán, 1983French, K. M. (1988). Insight into Tagalog reduplication, infixation, and stress from nonlinear phonology. The Summer Institute of Linguistics / The University of Texas at Arlington.). Various researchers link this to an unconscious analysis of language “y la reflexión sobre la segmentación del contínuum sonoro” [and reflection on the segmentation of the sound continuum] (Cuevas-Alonso, 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.; see also Abercrombie, 1965Méntrida, Alonso (1884=1637). Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiligayna de la Isla de Panay Compuesto por el M. R. P. Fr. Alonso de Méntrida de la Orden de N. P. S. Agustín corregido y aumentado por el M. R. P. José Aparicio de la misma orden. Tambobong. Pequeña Litografía del Asilo de Huérfanos de Nuestra Señora de la Consolación.; Kramsky, 1974; Hospers, 1980Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2015). On the linguistic ideas underlying the work of 16th-century Mesoamerican missionaries. Historiographia Linguistica, 42(2-3), 211-232.; Allen, 1981Oyanguren de Santa Inés, Melchor (1742). Tagalysmo Elucidado, y reducido (en lo possible) á la Latinidad de NEBRIJA Con su Syntaxis, Tropos, Prosodia, Passiones, &c. y con la alusion, que en su uso, y composicion, tiene con el Dialecto Chinico Mandarin, con las Lenguas Hebrea, y Griega. Para alivio de los RR. Padres Missioneros Appostolicos, que passan à aquellas Missiones, y Exaltacion de Nra Sta. Fee, Catholica, Apostolica Romana. Compuesto por N. H. Fr. Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Ynès, Religios o Descalzo del Seraphico instituto, Predicador, y Missionero Appostolico Comiss. Proâl. de la Mission. Debajo de la proteccion del S. D. Pedro Anselmo Sanchez de Tagle, Inquisidor Mayor en los Reynos de es ta Nueva España, y Islas adjacentes, &c. Con Licencia en Mexico: En la imprenta de D. Francisco Xavier Sanchez. En la Calle de S. Francis co. Año de 1742.; Auroux, 1994San Agustín, Andrés de (1795). Arte de la Lengua Bicol para la Enseñanza de este Idioma en la Provincia de Camarines. Dispuesto, y ordenado por Nuestro Hermano Fr. Andres de San Agustin, Predicador, Guardian del Convento de de San Phelipe, y Santiago del Pueblo de Minalabag, y Comissario Provincial, que fue de dicha Provincia. Segunda ves Reimpresso con las Licencias necessarias en el Convento de Nuestra Señora de Loreto del Pueblo de Sampaloc por el Hermano Pedro Arguelles de la Concepcion. Año de 1795.; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52. and 2015Allen, W. S. (1981). The Greek contribution to the history of phonetics. In R. E.Asher & J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics (pp. 115-122). Edinburgh University Press.). Zwartjes (2010Swiggers, P. (1988). Les premières grammaires des vernaculaires gallo-romans face à la tradition latine: stratègies d’adaptation et de transformation. InI. Rosier (Ed.), L’héritage des grammairiens latins de l’Antiquité aux Lumières (pp. 259–269), Bibliothèque de l’Information Grammaticale.) further notes that missionaries managed to identify the significant units of the languages they were describing, linking them to the written symbols by starting from the materiality of speech but using the Spanish phonological system as a filter. As Calvo Pérez (2005Acevedo-López, V. F. (2022a). La presencia de Nebrija en la lingüística misionera española: Análisis de las publicaciones. Revista sobre Investigaciones Léxicas, Nº Extra 1, 101–119.) points out, orthography and letters are not arbitrary; the phonetic criterion leads us to “considerar que la palabra letra tiene dos significados: el de signo escrito y el de signo pronunciado” [consider that the word letter has two meanings: the written sign and the pronounced sign] (p. 166). This method explains why the authors make observations in their works that are close to phonology, although not in the current sense, as they lacked the systematicity and thoroughness of applying the principle of commutation.

However, they do not explicitly distinguish between a letter and its properties – nomen, figura and potestas; rather, there. There is an identification between a letter and its phonetic and graphic properties. This situation becomes evident when, in referring to the units of indigenous languages, they note the absence of some letters and the presence of others which differ from Latin, directly alluding to the presence, absence, or necessity of certain letters. Consider this example.

Some grammars, however, will refer to two different aspects: pronunciation on one hand, and the letter on the other. Nonetheless, within the same grammar, proclivity to unify the two concepts is also seen:

TThe grammarians, then, begin with a synchronic description of the most widespread usage, keeping morphological aspects and syllabic restrictions in mind due to their relevance in determining and modifying roots and affixes. Using a contrastive procedure, already attested in contemporary European grammars for foreigners, they employ a commutation method that we have previously described as propaedeutic (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52. and 2022Altman, C. (1999). Between structure and history: The search for the specificity and the originality of Brazilian Linguistic production. In J. E.Joseph, H.-J. Niederehe, & S.Embleton (Eds.), The emergence of the modern language sciences: Studies on the transition from historical-comparative to structural linguistics in honour of E. F. Konrad Koerner (pp. 245-257). John Benjamins.)¹⁰In a similar vein, Loon & Peetermans (2020) note that the knowledge generated by the missionaries is practical, instrumental and aimed at skill acquisition (ars).. This method allowed for a fairly accurate description of the phonetic component of the languages and addressed some issues related to contextually conditioned distribution, whether specific or not, with or without alternation. However, such descriptions are not without instances of under or over-specification (see Smith-Stark, 2005Pérez-Rodrı́guez, E. (1996). El concepto de littera en Nebrija. Análisis a la luz de la tradición gramatical. In J. M.ªMaestre-Maestre, J. Pascual-Barea, & L. Charlo-Brea (Eds.), Humanismo y previvencia del mundo clásico. Homenaje al profesor Luis Gil: Vol. II.2 (pp. 663-671). Universidad de Cádiz / Gobierno de Aragón / Instituto de Estudios Turolenses / Ayuntamiento de Alcañiz., for Amerindian grammars; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52., for Filipino grammars); as Ridruejo (2011Nieto, L. (1975). Del origen y principio de la lengua castellana de Aldrete, ideas lingüı́sticas de Aldrete. CSIC.) points out, confusion sometimes arises between letters due to these cases of under- and over-specification. The same practice of a propaedeutic commutation is attested in Amerindian grammars as noted by Monzón-García (2005Hernández-de-León-Portilla, A. (2003). Las primeras gramáticas mesoamericanas. Algunos rasgos lingüísticos. Historiographia Linguistica, XXX(1/2), 1-44.), who also observes that the introduction of this commutation when exemplified, often replaces the formulation of a rule.

Thus, we observe in our grammars that the grammarians are aware that a change in the phonetic unit —the sound component of the letter— results in a change in meaning. This is expressed by some of them in the following terms:

Also, in some cases, they create tables with oppositions of word pairs. They even compare the phenomenon they are illustrating with what happens in Spanish varieties, or by referring to earlier grammarians of the Amerindian or Filipino traditions. This can be seen again in the following example from Oyanguren de Santa Inés (1742Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776., p. 7).

3. THE PHONETIC COMPONENT IN THE MISSIONARY GRAMMARS OF THE PHILIPPINES

As observed by Suárez-Roca (1992Quilis, A. (1997). Estudio. In Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala (Francisco de San José). Ediciones de Cultura Hispánica, Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana., pp. 82 and ff.) regarding the treatment of phonetic aspects in Nahuatl, missionary-colonial grammars from the Philippines reflect a somewhat unbalanced interest on the part of their authors on these issues. Additionally, they sometimes exhibit attempts by these missionaries to surpass or summarise previous grammars.

Nevertheless, compared to the sections dedicated to syntax or morphology, which are extensive due to the need for a detailed treatment of the particles attached to roots to convey syntactic relations and their various significations, the sections on phonetic aspects are relatively brief. These sections focus primarily on matching graphemes and corresponding sounds of the Latin alphabet to those of the languages being described – and, in the case of the Philippines, also taking into account what was learned in America – plus addressing pronunciation in the most practical way possible. This is done either impressionistically or in a more articulation-based approach, and includes the graphic representation of the sounds specific to the Philippine languages (Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52. and 2015Allen, W. S. (1981). The Greek contribution to the history of phonetics. In R. E.Asher & J. A. Henderson (Eds.), Towards a history of phonetics (pp. 115-122). Edinburgh University Press.).

On numerous occasions, spelling and pronunciation, along with other issues, such as the definition of raíz (Eng. root), are addressed in the preliminary remarks or in the prologue. These remarks have an eminently practical character, facilitating the correct interpretation of the subsequent grammatical text and, at times, presenting supplements ((either in the same section or at the end of the grammar) that deal with accent, the pronunciation of the glottal stop (referred to as cortadillo in missionary terminology), reduplications, syncopations, etc., as we can observe, for example, in the grammars of Blancas (1610Méntrida, Alonso (1818=1637). Arte de la lengua Bisaya-Hiliguayna de la Isla de Panay Compuesto por Fr. Alonso de Méntrida de la Orden de San Augustin. Impreso en Manila en la Imprenta de Don Manuel Memije por Don AnastacioGonzaga. Año de 1818.), Bergaño (1736Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776.=1729) and Oyanguren de Santa Inés (1742Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776.), among others. In some cases, there is even reference to prosody, mainly to accent and poetry (cf. Benavente, c. 1699Benavente, Álvaro de (c. 1699). Arte y Vocabulario de lengua pampanga compuesto por fray Alvaro de Benavente del orden de N. P. S. Augustin obispo electo ascalonense, vicario apostolico de la provincia de kiang si en el reyno de la China. [Transcription and translation into English by Fr. Edilberto V.Santos, Manila: Holy Angel University Press, 2005].) or to mutations related to morphophonemic matters associated with the composition of roots with particles, as in Ezguerra (1747Ezguerra, Domingo (1747=1663). Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte compvesta por el P. Domingo Ezgverra de la Compañia de IESVS, su Vice Provincial en las Provincias de Pintados, y Rector de la Residencia de Carigara. Tiene enxeridas algvnas advertencias de la lengua de Zebù, y Bool: las de Zebù señaladas con la letra Z, y las de Bool con la letra B, y juntamente algunos adverbios con su uso para hablar con elegacia. Reimpressa. Con las Lic. necessarias en Manila en la Imp. de la Compañia de Iesus, por D Nicolasde la Cruz Bagay. Años de 1747.=1663) or Ortiz (1740López, Andrés (1690). Arte de la lengva de Pangasinan Compvesta por el R. P. Fr. Andres Lopez del Orden de Predicadores. Dedicada al M. R. P. Fr. Bartholome Marron de dicha Orden. Calificador del S. Officio, y Provincial que á sido de esta Prouincia del Santissimo Rosario de Philipinas. Con las Licencias Ordinarias en el Collegio, y Vniversidad de Santo Thomas de Aquino. Por el Capitán D. Gaspar de los Reyes. Año de 1690.).¹²For issues of morphophonology related to the presence of ligatures in missionary grammars, see Ridruejo (2005b).

In other works, preliminary remarks are not included, with spelling and prosody constituting independent chapters. Such is the case with the Tagalog grammar by Gaspar de San Agustín (1787Gaspar de San Agustín (1787=1703). Compendio de la Arte de la Lengua Tagala. Por el Padre Fr. Gaspar de San Avgvstin, Religioso de el mismo Orden, Comissario de el Santo Oficio, Visitador de esta Provincia de Philipinas, y Prior de el Convento de Tambobong (Año 1703). Segvnda Impression. Con las Licencias necessarias en la Imprenta de Nuestra Señora de Loreto del Pueblo de Sampaloc: Año de 1787.=1703), which also addresses syncopations, contractions, mutation, and the addition of letters. It is noteworthy that this author titles the chapter “De la Prosodia” (Eng. “On Prosody”) and begins it with the definition of the term. Interestingly, in this characterisation, he combines the classical definitions of spelling and prosody found in Nebrija, without making a clear distinction between the two:

Although we find cases where specific sections do not appear, such as in Coronel’s Pampanga grammar (c. 1621Bergaño, Diego (1736=1729). Arte de la lengua Pampanga, compuesto por el R. P. Lector Fr. Diego Bergaño, de el Orden de los Hermitaños de N. P. S. Agustin, Examinador Synodal de este Arzobispado de Manila, y Prior del Convento de Bacolor. Nuevamente añadido, emmendado, y reducido à methodo mas claro, por el mismo autor, siendo actual Provincial de esta su Provincia de el Santissimo Nombre de Iesus. Reinpresso con las Licencias necessarias, en el Convento de Nra. Señora de Loreto de el Pueblo de Sampaloc. Año de 1736.), Andrés de San Agustín’s Bicol grammar (1795Andrés de San Agustín (1795). Arte de la Lengua Bicol para la Enseñanza de este Idioma en la Provincia de Camarines. Dispuesto, y ordenado por Nuestro Hermano Fr. Andres de San Agustin, Predicador, Guardian del Convento de de San Phelipe, y Santiago del Pueblo de Minalabag, y Comissario Provincial, que fue de dicha Provincia. Segunda ves Reimpresso con las Licencias necessarias en el Convento de Nuestra Señora de Loreto del Pueblo de Sampaloc por el Hermano Pedro Arguelles de la Concepcion. ño de 1795.), or Francisco López’s Ilocano grammar (1792DionisioTracio. (2nd century BCE) Gramática. Comentarios antiguos (= τέχνη γραμματική) [Introduction, translation and notes by V.Bécares-Botas, Gredos, Madrid, 2002].=1627), phonetic issues are generally addressed throughout the texts. However, these often omit references to the alphabet/syllabary and their correspondence with the sounds of the languages undergoing grammatization. Such phonetic considerations are particularly linked to morphophonemic issues (composition, reduplication, etc.) or stylistic matters, which they refer to as “elegancia de la lengua” (Eng. “elegance of the language”): syncopations, epentheses, dissimilations and assimilations, haplologies, etc.

However, in most of the grammars, we witness one of the two patterns established by Nebrija. First, there is the pattern of the Gramática castellana, in which orthography and prosody appear at the beginning of the work — grouped together, unlike in the Latin grammar, for reasons of coherence (Calvo- Pérez 1994Abercrombie, D. (1965). Forgotten phoneticians. In D. Abercrombie (Ed.), Studies in phonetics and linguistics (pp. 45-75). Oxford University Press., p. 128)— similar to Dionysius Thrax, Donatus, or Priscian. This pattern is less common and is documented, for example, in Ezguerra (1747Ezguerra, Domingo (1747=1663). Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte compvesta por el P. Domingo Ezgverra de la Compañia de IESVS, su Vice Provincial en las Provincias de Pintados, y Rector de la Residencia de Carigara. Tiene enxeridas algvnas advertencias de la lengua de Zebù, y Bool: las de Zebù señaladas con la letra Z, y las de Bool con la letra B, y juntamente algunos adverbios con su uso para hablar con elegacia. Reimpressa. Con las Lic. necessarias en Manila en la Imp. de la Compañia de Iesus, por D Nicolasde la Cruz Bagay. Años de 1747.=1663) or Andrés López (1690Castro, Pedro Andrés de (1776). Ortografia y Reglas de la Lengua Tagalog acomodadas a sus propios caracteres por D. Pedro Andres de Castro. Manila 1776.).

Secondly, we find the more widespread model, that of the Introductiones. This work includes a section dedicated to orthography and the general theory of prosody after the paradigms of declensions and conjugations. The description is completed with a detailed treatment of prosody — of initial, medial and final syllables, and accentuation — which is contained in a fifth book, the final one of the work. This model is followed, for example, in the grammars of Blancas, Bergaño, Oyanguren de Santa Inés, and Agustín de la Magdalena (1679Agustínde la Magdalena (1679). Arte de la Lengua Tagala, sacado de diversos artes por Fr. Avgvstinde la Magdalena; Religioso Descalço del Señor S. Diego. Procurador General de la Provincia de S. Gregorio de las Islas Philipinas. Con Licencia, Por Francisco Rodriguez Lupercio, de 1679.), and, as Calvo-Pérez (2005Acevedo-López, V. F. (2022a). La presencia de Nebrija en la lingüística misionera española: Análisis de las publicaciones. Revista sobre Investigaciones Léxicas, Nº Extra 1, 101–119., pp. 165–166) points out, also in Amerindian grammars.

It seems, therefore, that although the possibility is left open for missionaries to consider orthography as a constitutive part of grammar, the majority regard it as marginal. Nevertheless, this does not diminish its pedagogical importance, as they themselves tend to indicate by labelling the relevant sections as “preliminary remarks”. This perspective is already evident in the Amerindian missionary grammars, where phonetic aspects are reduced to notes on difficulties: voice-letter correspondence, phonetic differences between the reference languages and the one being grammaticized, and, in some cases, particularly challenging aspects for Spanish speakers, such as the case of the glottal stop (see, e.g., Rincón’s Mexican grammar (1595, fol. 70)).

However, as Ramajo-Caño (1987Motolinía, T. de B. (1541[2014]). Historia de los indios de la Nueva España. Real Academia Española.) points out, the division into orthography-prosody-morphology-syntax was not the only one. Some grammarians, such as Villalón, Corro, and Correas (in his trilingual grammar), consider only three parts – orthography, morphology and syntax – while others include just two – orthography and morphology – such as in the anonymous Spanish grammar of Leuven (1555), Luna, Franciosini, Zumarán, etc.

Some grammarians also deviated from the manner in which these issues were addressed in previous and contemporary Spanish grammatical traditions. In some cases, the general structure and specific treatment of orthography resemble more closely what is found in the fifth book of Nebrija’s Gramática castellana, titled “De las introducciones de la lengua castellana para los que de extraña lengua querrán aprender” (Eng. “An introduction to Spanish for non-native speakers”); this could have been their model. This seems to be the case, among others, for Blancas, one of the earliest authors whose grammar is preserved and which we reference here. Blancas addresses phonetic issues in the second and fifth sections. The latter section focuses on two important differences between Tagalog and Spanish, the first of these being the presence of two types of g: one similar to the Spanish [g], represented by the letter g, and the other nasal ng̃, [ŋ]¹³The velar or postvelar consonant ng appears in the missionary grammars referred to as g gangosa (nasalised g). This description is not original to the missionaries of these islands. As Monzón-García (2005, p. 175) notes, it already appears in the missionary-colonial grammars of the Amerindian languages by Gilberti and Lagunas in the 16th century. Calvo-Pérez (2005, p. 158) also indicates the presence of this element in the Mapuche grammar by Luis de Valdivia (1606). The name itself is a metaphor, using as it does terms outside the grammatical domain, with the aim of describing the auditory sensation of this phonetic unit.Luis de Valdivia acknowledges that no new character was invented “para escreuirla, sino con la misma (g̃) con aquella uirgulilla encima, lo qual ha sido dificil para la Imprẽta por no auer moldes destas figuras y auer sido menester hacerlos nuevos” (Luis de Valdivia, 1606) [was invented to write it, but rather the same g̃ with a small stroke above it was used, which poses difficulties for the printer, as there were no molds for these figures and new ones had to be created].. The second difference is that the combination ‘u + vowel’ always behaves as a semivowel. Near the end of the grammar, we find a chapter dedicated to “De varia doctrina” (Eng. “Various doctrines”. As part of the fourth rule (pp. 298–303), the author discusses the pronunciation of letters.

As we can see, orthography and pronunciation do not occupy the same place in all the grammars analysed, nor do they all receive in-depth treatment. This is already evident in the American grammars, in contrast to what we find in the Spanish grammars of Nebrija, Corro, Villalón and Correas, where they occupy a significant chapter and are placed at the beginning rather than in a marginal position, as in Blancas. What is the reason for this treatment? Part of the answer lies in Blancas himself, as we previously mentioned: it is about resolving the difficulties that learners might face in developing their oral production, which cause problems in communication. It is not a systematic description, which is unnecessary for foreigners already familiar with the Latin alphabet’s phonetic values. Rather, it is a tool to assist in an immersive process of learning, serving as a manual for resolving doubts:

In this regard, Zwartjes, when interpreting the grammar by Oyanguren de Santa Inés, argues that “la sección dedicada a la fonología y ortografía no es muy extensa, porque la fonología tagala fue considerada menos difícil que la china, y sigue, grosso modo, la pronunciación ‘europea’” [the section dedicated to phonology and orthography is not very extensive because Tagalog phonology was considered less difficult than Chinese, and it broadly follows ‘European’ pronunciation] (Zwartjes 2010Swiggers, P. (1988). Les premières grammaires des vernaculaires gallo-romans face à la tradition latine: stratègies d’adaptation et de transformation. InI. Rosier (Ed.), L’héritage des grammairiens latins de l’Antiquité aux Lumières (pp. 259–269), Bibliothèque de l’Information Grammaticale., p. 52). We interpret this to mean that, for Tagalog, the letters that function independently are more numerous than for Chinese, and therefore, Tagalog shares more significant units with the Spanish or Latin system of that time than with this other Asian language.

4. FINAL WORDS

The phonetic description of Philippine languages follows the path established by the European tradition and Amerindian colonial missionary work. As we have seen, numerous studies have noted the early influence of Nebrija’s Latin grammar on the Amerindian grammars and how the edition likely used was one published after the Recognitio. However, as has been observed, this was not the only influence on the Filipino artes, just as it was not in the Americas, since the missionaries brought with them a prior grammatical tradition that they were familiar with and used as a model for the development of their own grammatical treatises. Rather than simply adopting this tradition, they reworked and adapted it to fit the specific characteristics of the Amerindian and Philippine languages, continuing what Percival (1999Klöter, H., & Zwartjes, O. (2008). Chinese in the grammars of Tagalog and Japanese of the Franciscan Melchor Oyanguren de Santa Inés (1688-1747). Histoire Épistémologie Langage, 30(2), 177–197.) calls the “vernacular turn” or what Swiggers (2003Spitz, W. L. (2001). Hiligaynon/Ilongo. Lincom Europa.) refers to as the ‘vernacularisation’ de la grammaire.

Thus, in the grammars analysed here we have found references to both the earlier European tradition, primarily Nebrija, and the missionary tradition, particularly in the Filipino context with Blancas de San José. In this regard, as Gómez-Asencio (2001Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2022). Nebrija como puente entre la tradición hispánica y las gramáticas misionero-coloniales de Filipinas. Aspectos fónicos, Revista sobre Investigaciones Léxicas, (Nº Extra 1), 121-146.) points out, what matters most is not the origin or modification of the terms used to describe these languages, but rather the exceptional descriptive adequacy that the grammarians achieve through their redefinition, as in the case of the Latin penultimate law, or by introducing new terms, such as saltillo or cortadilla to refer to the glottal consonant. In this adaptation of Latin material, they did not hesitate to incorporate concepts and metalanguage from the native “linguistic” tradition that existed prior to the arrival of the Spaniards. This is evident in the definition and description of the uayaon or the hard and soft vowels.

In this context, we find that the way phonetic aspects are introduced in the works we studied, with the exception of the Sambal grammar described by Ridruejo (2011Nieto, L. (1975). Del origen y principio de la lengua castellana de Aldrete, ideas lingüı́sticas de Aldrete. CSIC.), aligns with what we observe in Nebrija’s Introductiones. Specifically, they appear either at the end of the work or, serving a preparatory purpose for those familiar with Latin, at the beginning, as seen in Nebrija’s Spanish grammar. These two positions are also attested in the Amerindian missionary tradition.

Despite the existence of native syllabaries at the time of the Spaniards’ arrival, the missionaries did not hesitate to use the Latin alphabet as a reference. This gradually led to the replacement of the existing writing systems with the Latin alphabet.

The descriptive procedure in these grammars follows a pre-established script. This framework seems to follow the one found in Nebrija’s grammar, which is also attested in the Amerindian missionary artes. Thus, in the grammars where a section on orthography appears, we observe that the relationships between the Filipino syllabaries and the Latin alphabet are indicated, coincidences and differences are determined, and elements absent in the reference languages (Latin and Spanish) are described. This approach respects the Quintilian maxim expressed in Nebrija’s Latin grammar as litterae in usu and focuses on adapting the reused alphabet to represent pronunciation accurately. As is attested in the Americas, graphemes are conceived as signifiers of pronunciation, with graphemic diversity reflecting phonetic diversity. This also has pedagogical value. It involves comparing the sounds of Philippine languages with those of Latin, which were well known to the missionaries, and is approached from an orthographic perspective. In addition, references to various Spanish dialects or other languages are often made to illustrate the pronunciations of the languages in this archipelago.

In the missionary-colonial tradition, a “practical” or “pedagogical” shift can be observed, which aims to teach learners the differences in meaning that result from changes in the signifier. It should be noted that this approach is never adopted as a systematic criterion for recognising the units of the languages being grammaticized, leading to under- and over-differentiations. Nevertheless, this significant feature of changes in meaning caused by changes in the signifier is thoroughly exemplified in the grammars analysed here.

Like the Amerindian grammarians, the Filipino grammarians are capable of describing phenomena such as specific realisations or context-conditioned alternations, recognising a difference between what should be written (significant unit) and what is pronounced, which may vary.

We find descriptions of particularly challenging aspects, such as the uayaon or the treatment of semivowels, which are often addressed together with vowels or consonants.

Finally, we believe that we find here a notable chapter in the history of phonetics and phonology, showcasing the development and adaptation of linguistic ideas to accommodate the foreign languages of that era. The descriptions, in their form, structure and content, are very similar to each other, and this similarity extends to the Amerindian artes and even to Nebrija’s grammar, aligning with the idea that we are dealing with gramáticas en cascada (i.e., grammars produced in a series, copying one another and innovating upon what came before) (see Galeote, 2002Cuevas-Alonso, M. (2011). Las ideas lingüísticas en las gramáticas misionero-coloniales de Filipinas (ss. XVII y XVIII) [Ph.D. dissertation, Universidade de Vigo]., for the Americas; Cuevas-Alonso, 2011Acevedo-López, V. F., & Esparza-Torres, M. Á. (2020). Geografía de las lenguas de la lingüística misionera española (siglos XVI-XIX). Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, 18(36), 15–52., for Philippine languages) characterised by a distinct methodological sequence. This is the result of grammaticization processes common to the missionary-colonial sphere, where the prior knowledge and experience of the missionaries —both European and missionary (in the Americas and the Philippine archipelago itself)— play a significant role in this sequence. These grammars, while developed within a shared framework, also reflect individual originality (Hernández-de-León-Portilla, 2003Cuevas-Alonso, M. & Míguez-Álvarez, C. (in preparation). The reformulation of the concept of stress in Greco-Roman and Spanish grammars within the missionary artes of the Philippines.).