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Help[Facts] Re: Help with meanings of Filipino names
in reply to a message by Loads of Randomness
I think your problem will be twofold:
1. "The number of individual languages listed for Philippines is 187". Aside from English, Spanish, Basque, Chinese and sign language, most are classed as Austronesian>Malayo-Polynesian>Philippine, but not all. Tagalog may be the basis of Filipino, but it's just one language in the Central Philippine branch among dozens of other branches of the Philippine languages. Then there's Chavacano, "mostly" Spanish, but with Philippine grammar; Eskayan, a mix of Spanish, English and Cebuano. Several langauges belong to other branches of Malayo-Polynesian instead of the Philippine, mostly the Greater Barito group of languages of Borneo and Sulawesi, but one has defied classification beyond Malayo-Polynesian. Good luck identifying which language tradition a name belongs to, essential for knowing what it means. Many may be Philippine adaptations of Spanish names, which in turn could come from various Germanic, Celto-Iberian, Basque, Latin, Berber or Semitic sources. Even in one language, words and names which are distinct in one dialect can be spelled and pronounced exactly the same in another, simply because the accent is different (this includes adding or removing vowels and consonants as well as altering how they're said or written).
2. Without a long trail of documentary evidence (and I mean thousands of years), it can be impossible to link a name with it's original meaning. Names are rapidly disassociated from the prosaic words used to form them, and various processes such as attempts at folk etymology, borrowing, migration and culturalisation (names tend to be retained when people change languages) can quickly obscure an original meaning. Eve a relatively small shift, such as the movement of the Claudian family from the Sabine nation to neighbouring Rome and it's closely related Latin language can completely obliterate the original meaning.
1. "The number of individual languages listed for Philippines is 187". Aside from English, Spanish, Basque, Chinese and sign language, most are classed as Austronesian>Malayo-Polynesian>Philippine, but not all. Tagalog may be the basis of Filipino, but it's just one language in the Central Philippine branch among dozens of other branches of the Philippine languages. Then there's Chavacano, "mostly" Spanish, but with Philippine grammar; Eskayan, a mix of Spanish, English and Cebuano. Several langauges belong to other branches of Malayo-Polynesian instead of the Philippine, mostly the Greater Barito group of languages of Borneo and Sulawesi, but one has defied classification beyond Malayo-Polynesian. Good luck identifying which language tradition a name belongs to, essential for knowing what it means. Many may be Philippine adaptations of Spanish names, which in turn could come from various Germanic, Celto-Iberian, Basque, Latin, Berber or Semitic sources. Even in one language, words and names which are distinct in one dialect can be spelled and pronounced exactly the same in another, simply because the accent is different (this includes adding or removing vowels and consonants as well as altering how they're said or written).
2. Without a long trail of documentary evidence (and I mean thousands of years), it can be impossible to link a name with it's original meaning. Names are rapidly disassociated from the prosaic words used to form them, and various processes such as attempts at folk etymology, borrowing, migration and culturalisation (names tend to be retained when people change languages) can quickly obscure an original meaning. Eve a relatively small shift, such as the movement of the Claudian family from the Sabine nation to neighbouring Rome and it's closely related Latin language can completely obliterate the original meaning.
This message was edited 7/20/2016, 11:37 PM
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