Preface 



To know the name of a thing is the first step toward becoming 

 properly acquainted with it. Whenever something new or strange is 

 seen, the first question asked by people of all races and languages is 

 ''What is its name?" or "What do you call it?" 



It is a difficult task in any country to obtain an accurate list of the 

 vernacular names of its fishes. This difficulty has, in the Philippines, 

 become almost insuperable because of the 40 languages and more 

 than 80 dialects in current usage. 



Most native names in all countries are generic rather than specific, 

 as bass or perch, or "bia" for all gobies and "lapo-lapo" for most 

 serranids. Often the same name is applied to widely different fishes 

 as where black bass are called "trout" in Florida, or "puyo," the 

 Visayan name of climbing perch, a fresh-water fish, is applied to 

 certain marine pomacentrids. 



In general, names of fishes in the Philippines are more or less 

 localized, sometimes being confined to a single town or barrio. 



At the same time, some fishes of general distribution have the same 

 name, with slight variations, in a considerable number of Phffippine 

 languages and dialects. A good example of these changes is found in 

 the name of the well known "bangos," Chanos chanos. In various 

 places it becomes "banglis," "banglos," "banglot," banglus," "ban- 

 gris," "bangrus," "bangus," and "bangellus." The "dalag" or 

 murrel, Ophicephalus striatus, is known in the Sulu Archipelago and 

 Visayas as "aruan," "haruan," "aloan," and "haloan," all variants 

 of the Malay name, "aruan." Many additional examples could be 

 cited. 



Because of the social prestige accorded the Spanish language in the 

 past, few educated Filipinos are acquainted with the excellent names 

 of their native tongue. Instead they are more likely to know only 

 the corrupt Spanish names of a few fishes. 



For many years the authors have devoted considerable attention 

 to the native names of Philippine fishes. The accumulation of lists 

 of names, and the identification of the fishes to which they are applied, 

 is difficult. When to this difficulty there is added the confusion of 

 using the same name for several different fishes, and the contradictions 

 in names as given by different groups of fishermen or adjacent barrios, 

 it becomes almost impossible to attain perfect accuracy. 



