172 Mr Crawfurd on the 



Sometimes one of the Philippine languages gives the sense 

 more correctly than the other. Thus, the Malay word baii^ 

 " odour" or " smell," is, in Tagala, " stench" or " bad smell," 

 while in Bisaya the Malay sense is correctly given. In Malay 

 and Javanese, the word tali signifies " a rope," " string," 

 or " cord," but in Bisaya it is " a sash ;" while in Tagala it 

 is correctly rendered. Nana, " to gape," in Malay, is, in 

 Tagala, " to open," " to masticate," " to eat;" while in Bi- 

 says it signifies " to open the mouth," making a nearer ap- 

 proach to the true meaning. 



The Sanscrit words introduced into the Philippine lan- 

 guage have been equally corrupted with the Malayan. Thus, 

 the word cinta, " affection," is coi-rectly written in Malay 

 and Javanese, but in the Tagala and Bisaya the letter c not 

 existing, s is always substituted for it, and cinta becomes 

 sinta. 



The well-known Sanscrit word Avatar, meaning " descent," 

 and commonly applied to a descent or an incarnation of 

 Vishnu, is corrupted in the Malayan languages into Batara, 

 and not confined to the incarnations of Vishnu, but applied 

 as a generic term to any of the chief Hindoo gods. This is 

 the sense in which it was used by the Philippine islanders on 

 the arrival of tlie Spaniards, but by a permutation that is fre- 

 quent with words introduced from the Malayan, / is substi- 

 tuted for r, and an aspirate being added, the word has become 

 Bathala. 



The Spanish missionaries found ihis word ready to their 

 hand, and applied it as an appellative to the Deity ; so that, 

 by a strange coincidence among the native Christians of the 

 Pliilippines, the Hindoo Avatar comes to be the translation of 

 the Jehovah of the Jews, and the Dio of the Spaniards.* 



The noiure of the Malay and Javanese words inti'oduced 

 into the languages of the Philippines, points, I think, plainly 

 enough to their foreig-n origin. Of these found in the Ta- 



* Baron Willinra Humboldt, in Lis great work the Kawe Sprache, seems to 

 consider the Piiilippine languages as exhibiting the supposed great Polynesian 

 language in its greatest purity, but on what ground I am not aware. As far 

 as my judgment goes, the common terms are greatly-corrupted Malay and Ja- 

 vanese. 



