Marlies SPIECKER-SALAZAR

A Contribution to Asian Historiography : European Studies of Philippine Languages from the 17th to the 20th Century

The study of Philippine languages by Europeans has always been closely intertwined with their interest in the cultures of other peoples, even if it has followed in its development the various stages of the evolution of linguistics as a science. Both these cultural and scientific interests can be seen in the way the Philippine languages have been examined by Europeans across a little over four centuries. At the same time, one also sees the growth of linguistic and ethnological interest among native Filipinos as Filipino nationality and linguistic science matured in the second half of the 19th century. In fact, it was at this time that, with the Propaganda movement, Filipinos for the first time began to study their languages, principally with a view to understanding their nationality. This was analogous to the earlier German nationalist movement which saw the works of the Grimm brothers, although Filipino linguistic interest and efforts did not at first go far beyond their nationalist function. This would happen only with the formal introduction of linguistics as an academic field of study in the University of the Philippines in 1925. It is within this context of cultural and linguistic interplay that the development of European studies of Philippine languages can be examined in relation to their utility to historiography. Four stages can be identified :

1) Early Contact : Pragmatic Linguistics (1521-1767), when the main preoccupation was to communicate with the « natives », resulting in the elicitation of historically relevant data about the cultures of the country ;

2) Studies from Afar : From Philology to Comparative Linguistics (1767-1861), when the interest in Philippine languages (particularly Tagalog) aroused in Europeans by expelled Jesuits in their midst permitted the comparison of these languages with others in the world, thereby contributing to the birth of Malayo-Polynesian linguistics, even as in the Philippines the earlier « pragmatic » view continued to prevail ;

3) Malayo-Polynesian Comparative Studies (1861-1925), when the Philip