Some undescribed languages of Luzon

This document is a landmark linguistic study published in 1937 by Father Morice Vanoverbergh, C.I.C.M., a Belgian missionary who spent a considerable time in the Philippines. It was issued as part of the Publications de la Commission d'Enquête Linguistique (C.E.L.) , a commission established in 1928 to urgently improve global knowledge of existing languages. The work is dedicated to Antoine Meillet, who championed the C.E.L.'s mission. The study is the result of an expedition arranged in November 1936 to document the languages of the Negrito groups in eastern Luzon. Vanoverbergh's primary goal was to make a thorough survey of the Negrito culture and, more specifically, to investigate their languages. The author notes that the Negrito people had largely lost their original speech, adopting languages from the Filipino tribes with whom they first made contact, primarily Ibanag and Isneg. This monograph focuses on a detailed examination of one such adopted language, Casiguran Negrito, providing extensive grammatical notes, a vocabulary, and textual examples. It concludes with a comparative word list of fifteen languages spoken across northern Luzon. The work is a crucial early documentation of several Philippine languages and dialects, many of which were previously unknown to linguists.

The book is considered valuable. It is advised that researchers use digital copy rather than physical books for preservation purposes. APA Citation: Vanoverbergh, M. (1937). Some undescribed languages of Luzon. Dekker & van de Vegt N.V.