2.0 Basis of this work
This dictionary is a comprehensive listing of approximately 25,000 Cebuano roots with English explanations of their meanings and uses and an indication of the affixational system to which each root is subject, with ample illustrations. Most of the forms here listed are taken from written sources or from taped oral sources of Cebuano of nearly a million words, gathered from all over the Cebuano speech area and covering a wide range of topics and styles. The written sources are some 400 issues of Cebuano publications: Bisaya, Silaw, and Bag-ong Suga, a few novenas, novels, and other collections that have been published.[5] About ninety percent of the forms here listed come from these oral or printed sources. Forms which did not occur in these sources but which were well known to me or at least one of the members of the staff that composed this dictionary are also included. Further, any form which occurred in our sources which was not known to our personnel was not included.[6] Although there are numerous published sources of Cebuano forms—dictionaries and anthropological and biological studies, we have not taken any forms from them that could not be confirmed directly from our texts or informants.
2.1 Personnel
The collection, transcription, and classification of the texts was carried out by a large staff in Cebu City, originating from all over the Cebuano speech area. The final stage, the writing up of the definitions, was carried by a small staff, exclusively native speakers of Cebuano now resident in Cebu: Miss E. Agapay, of Malitbog, Leyte, but also a long time resident of Talibon, Bohol, and in Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; Nicolas Ampatin, of Malitbog, Leyte; Abel Angus, of Tudela, Camotes; José Dioko, of Malaboyoc, Cebu; Mrs. E. Emnace, of Dumanjug, Cebu; Atty. A. Estorco, of Guihulngan, Negros Oriental; Everett Mendoza, of Maasin, Leyte; Mrs. D. Ag. Villondo, of Dumanjug, Cebu, but also a long time resident of Ozamis City, and Molave, Zamboanga del Sur.
2.2 Other sources
The scientific names for plants and shells are based upon specimens which were gathered and identified with their Cebuano names by reliable informants. The specimens were compared against the available literature, and where identification was certain, scientific names were given. Our scientific names for plants are taken from the following sources (in order—plants not listed in the first were referred to the second, those not in the first or second were referred to the third, and so forth): Brown, Quisumbing, Merrill, Steiner. For shellfish, we give no scientific names but follow the English terminology of Abbott, 1962. For the fishes and birds, we relied mainly on pictures for Cebuano identification. For fish available in the local markets, we could examine actual specimens. The scientific names of fish follow those given by Herre (1953) and for birds by Delacour and Myer.
We made heavy use of the anthropological sources listed in the bibliography but independently checked all information incorporated and used terminology listed in them only insofar as we could corroborate it.