FOLK SONGS FROM THE PHILIPPINES

This is among the most easily recognizable Cebuano-Visayan folk song. Thanks to Yoyoy Villame, this already popular song became even more popular especially to non-Visayan speakers. The comic song is about a fisherman named Filemon who went fishing in the sea. All he got was a small mudspringer ( tambasakan ), which he sold at a dilapidated market for 50 centavos ( kura ) each. His earning was enough to buy himself tuba wine.

This is originally a Cebuano nursery rhyme which became popular to Philippine school children in its Filipino translation. The Cebuano lyrics here given is translated: Tong, tong, tong, pakitong-kitong (Vocables)/ Crabs in the river ( suba ) are known to be hard to catch/ It is only me who can catch, and only I can eat.

The study of Philippine history during the Spanish colonial era is never a task solely relying on digging of chronicles, travel accounts, books published during that time, letters, government documents, statistical reports, catechisms and various ethnographic reports written (and most were published) by the frailes  themselves.  While the invaluable pieces of information the aforementioned offered can't be discounted, something  as paramount and as encompassing are on vernacular dictionaries and lexicons! The foreword written by Fr. Jose M. Cruz, S.J. for   prolific writer William Henry Scott's book  Barangay: Sevententh Century Philippine Society   mentioned the importance of dictionaries in the reconstruction of 17th century Philippines Society and culture: Dictionaries figure importantly in this book.  in the sixteenth century, there were only about a million and a half natives and only a small number of missionaries.  Aware of t...