LANGUAGES.

The Tagál and Bisayan are the most widely spread of the languages of the Philippines, but each has such a variety of idioms that the inhabitants of different islands and districts frequently are not intelligible to one another, still less the indigenous races who occupy the mountainous districts. The more remarkable divisions are the dialects of Pampangas, Zambal, Pangasinan, Ilocos, Cagayan, Camarines, Batanes, and Chamorro, each derived from one of the two principal branches. But the languages of the unconverted Indians are very various, and have little affinity. Of these I understand above thirty distinct vocabularies exist. The connection between and the construction of the Tagál and Bisayan will be best seen by a comparison of the Lord’s Prayer in each, with a verbal rendering of the words:—

Tagál.

Ama nanim[1]
Father our (to us)
sungma[2]
art
sa langit ca[3],
in heaven thou,
sambahin[4]
worshipped (be)
ang
the
ngalan
name
mo;
thine;