REVIEWS. 279 



If a passive is wanted, there is one on hand, in all times and moods of Igorot 

 (265-2.76): prefix »! a- + root + personal endings. Experiments with the Igorot 

 by means of their own vernacular (but not through interpreters) proved in- 

 disputably their correct consciousness of an active and a passive idea. 



The fact that the Three Passives Fallacy has been propagated in good faith 

 for about two centuries and is still indefatigably copied and republished and 

 taught, shows (as also other factors do) how necessary it is to revise and to 

 compare the "Artes" of time-honored "authorities" and the entire material of 

 sacred books, catechisms, confessionals, prayerbooks, with the living dialects 

 spoken by the natives. The result of such future careful investigations into the 

 people's vernacular, the collection of tales and songs in the unbiased dialects of 

 the different tribes ought to be most welcome to Comparative Philologists who 

 seem to rely only on the unreliable material at hand, faute de mieux, material 

 collected by unphilologieal compilers, with a few admirable exceptions, such as 

 Totanes, Minguella. 



The unfelicitous term of the Three Passives (which may have sprung from 

 its originator's inability to distinguish between the Gerundium and the Gerun- 

 divum) was employed unscrupulously in many grammars and learned articles 

 and papers on various Philippine dialects, Bontoc Igorot excepted. The Three 

 Passives and their alleged application occur, for instance, in . . . [follows a list 

 of 25 authors, titles of books, and some comment]. 



THE VOCABULARY. 



The vocabulary contains some 3,000 English catch-words, each of 

 which either is given one or more- Igorot equivalents or is treated as a 

 theme developed into a summary of Igorot expressions for identical 

 and related ideas, always, however, with sharp discrimination between 

 words indigenous to the people and those borrowed from outside. "Verbs 

 are given fh'st in the Present Active in their most common form (not 

 special form) ; the other "principal parts" follow : Preterite — Passive Par- 

 ticiple in Present — Nomen agentis. Personal Verbs are found in Present 

 and Preterite onlj'."" The basic form, the stem-word, of derivatives, for 

 which comparative philologists probably will look first, is not given. 

 The reason for this perhaps may be found in some remarks made by the 

 author in the preface to the vocabulary : "Is it necessary to warn against 

 using my Vocabulary any one who would, without having studied and 

 practiced the (Jrammar, attempt to derive any benefit from the Vocabu- 

 lary ? . . . The student of the Bontoc Grammar can easily construct and 

 supply the missing forms. The Author thinks he could do the same; 

 btit he does not intend to depart from his principle : to write down only 

 what he has heard and as he has heard it." 



THE TEXTS. 



A large amount of Bontok Igorot "Text" is found scattered throughout 

 the grammar in the shape of phrases taken down by the author from the 

 Igorots' mutual conversation, and used by him as examples for illustrating 



' Page 279 ( Preface to the Vocabulary ) . 



