Warpanish: A Morphologic Analysis of Hispanic Borrowed Words in Waray Visayan

Abstract

One of the most facilely observable proofs of intercultural contact and communication is the set of borrowed words that are imported into the vocabulary of each language involved. The abstract noun "borrowing" refers to the process of speakers adopting words from a source language into their native language. This paper uses a descriptive analysis method of research. Language description is the main concern of this study; it focuses on the analysis of the language, not how language is acquired. This paper aims to identify and describe how Hispanic words borrowed in Waray Visayan become products of acculturation through lexical nativization. Four published Oral Narratives in the target language were used for textual analysis. This linguistic research analyzes morphologically the textuality of the following Waray Visayan susumaton (oral narratives): “An Mga Umorukoy Ha Bough Building†(The dwarf dwellers of Bough Building) as narrated by Amador T. Profetana; “Mga Umurokoy ha Sabang†(Invisible residents of Sabang) as narrated by Florencio Marpa; “Hi Domingo Orioque†(A man named Domingo Orioque) as narrated by Jose Negado and Panfilo Insigne; and “Hi Gimayâ€(A woman named Gimay) as narrated by Matilde Padulla Marpa.  These oral narratives are taken from a book titled Susumaton: Oral Narratives of Leyte, edited by Ms. Merlie M. Alunan.  This book is a compilation of oral narratives from all over Leyte, documented through tape recording, and was transcribed word for word. This paper reveals that the Hispanic borrowed words in Waray Visayan are acculturated by generally nativizing their orthography, which definitely corresponds to nativized phonology, since Waray Visayan (as all Philippines languages are) is a phonetic language (spelled as pronounced) and by adding affixes, a clear process of lexical nativization. In conclusion, this paper proves that Hispanic words borrowed in Waray Visayan are acculturated through lexical nativization. As a result, it is suggested that a parallel lexical investigation be conducted in various genres of mass media, literary textualities, communicative verbal transactions, and documents in the various Philippine languages.