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The first Philippine words ever recorded were Bisayan, consisting mostly of Cebuano and a few Butuanon words.

The 160-word vocabulary was compiled by Antonio Pigafetta, the Vicentine diarist who wrote the most comprehensive account of the first circumnavigation of the globe.

Pigafetta recounts in his book that on Good Friday, 29 March 1521 he had written down words of the people of Mazaua.

“There [at Mazaua],” said Pigafetta, “I wrote down several things as they call them in their language. And when the king and the others saw me writing, and I told them their way of speaking, all were astonished.” (See Page 68, English translation by R.A. Skelton of the French Nancy-Libri-Phillipps-Beinecke-Yale codex, one of four surviving manuscripts of Pigafetta’s account).

The wordlist is called by Pigafetta
“Words of those heathen people”
to distinguish it from the 450-word
Malay vocabulary which he called
“Words of the heathen peoples of Molucca.”

As far as I can tell, no Magellan scholar or navigation historian or lexicographer has noted this historical fact that Pigafetta’s Bisayan vocabulary consisting of 145-160 words come from two languages, Butuanon and Cebuano.

Among the words picked up at the island port named Mazaua were “tuba nio nipa” which means your (”nio”) tuba which comes from nipa. An astonishing word also from this place is “Abba” which stands for their concept of their god.

Mazaua was an island whose king, raia Siaiu, was the brother of the king of Butuan, raia Calambu; the two were blood kins of raia Humabon of Cebu. The name of the island-port, Mazaua, is found only in Butuanon (also Tausug which is derived from Butuanon—it was brought by a brother of a king of Butuan to Sulu sometime in the 16th century). The Butuanon word “masawa” means brilliant light or dazzling light.

The wordlist is called by Pigafetta “Words of those heathen people” to distinguish it from the 450-word Malay vocabulary which he called “Words of the heathen peoples of Molucca.”

There are orthographic (spelling) variations in the Bisayan wordlists as found in the Italian Ambrosiana manuscript and in the French Yale manuscript. These are duly noted in the edition of the French Manuscript 5650 by the Belgian scholar J. Denucé. Thus, for example, the word for woman is “Perampuan” in Yale Ms. While it is “paranpoan” in the Ambrosiana. The word for married woman is “Babai” in the Yale, “babay” in Ambrosiana.

Here are the complete wordlist in the Italian Ambrosiana:

For man lac, For woman peranpoan, For young woman beni beni, For married woman babay, For hair boho, For face guay, For eyelids pilac, For eyebrows chilei, For eye matta, For nose ilon, For jaws apin, For lips olol, For mouth baba, For teeth nipin, For gums leghex, For tongue dilla, For ears delengan, For throat liogh, For neck tangip, For chin silan, For beard bonghot, For shoulders bagha, For the back licud, For breast dughan, For body tiam, For armpit ilot, For arm bacchen, For elbow sico, For pulse molanghai, For hand camat, For the palm of the hand palan, For finger dudlo, For fingernail coco, For navel pusut, For the male member utin, For testicles boto, For the female nature billat, For intercourse with women tiam, For buttocks samput, For thigh paha, For knee tuhud, For shin bassag bassag, For calf of the leg bitis, For ankle bolbol, For heel tiochid, For sole of the foot lapa lapa, For gold balaoan, For silver pilla, For brass concach, For iron butau, For sugarcane tube, For spoon gandan, For rice bughax baras, For honey deghex, For wax talho, For salt acin, For wine tuba nio nipa, For to drink minuncubil, For to eat macan, For hog babui, For goat candin, For chicken monoch, For millet humas,

For sorgo batat, For panic grass dana, For pepper mantissa, For cloves chianche, For cinnamon mana, For ginger luia, For garlic laxuna, For oranges acsua, For egg silog, For coconut lubi, For vinegar zhucha, For water tubin, For fire clayo, For smoke assu, For to blow tigban, For balances tinban, For weight tahil, For pearl mutiara, For mother of pearl tipay, For pipe musical instrument subin, For disease of St. Job*alupalan, Bring me palatin comorica, For certain rice cakes tinapai, Good maiu, No tidale, For knife capol sundan, For scissors catle, To shave chunthinch, For a well adorned man pixab, For linen balandan, For the cloth with which they cover themselves abaca, For hawk’s bell colon colon, For the paternosters of all classes tacle, For comb cutlei missamis, For to comb monssughud, For shirt sabun

For sewing needle daghu, For to sew mamis, For porcelain mobuluc, For dog aian ydo, For cat epos, For their scarps gapas, For glass beads balus, Come here marica, For house ilaga balai, For timber tatamue, For mats on which they sleep tagicban, For palm mats bani, For leaf cushions uliman, For wooden platters dulan, For their god Abba, For sun adlo, For moon songhot, For star bolan buribun, For dawn mene, For morning vema, For cup large tagha, Big basal, For bow bossugh, For arrow oghon,

For shields calassan, For quilted garments used for fighting baluti, For their daggers calix baladao, For their cutlasses campilan, For spear bancan, Like tuan, For figs (banana) saghin, For gourds baghin, For the chords of their violin gotzap, For river tau, For fishing net pucat laia, For small boat sampan, For large canes canaghan, For the small one bonbon, For their large boats balanghai, For their small boats boloto, For crabs Cuban, For fish icam yssida, For a fish that is all colored panap sapan, For another red fish timuan, For another kind of fish pilax, For another kind of fish emalvan, All the same siama siama,For a slave bonsul, For gallows bolle, For ship benaoa, For the king raia.

Numbers: One uzza, Two dua, Three tolo, Four upat, Five lima, Six onom, Seven pitto, Eight gualu, Nine ciam, Ten polo

*Syphillis

Italian spelling, once understood, will make certain words familiar. The word for eight is spelled as gualu which seems foreign. Gu stands for w which is absent in the Italian alphabet, so the word is present-day walo. The double zz in uzza (one) is identical to s. Ch in chilei (eyebrow) is pronounced k.

The Ambrosian codex is written in Renaissance longhand which is not easily readable. This will explain why certain familiar words are mis-spelled, but are otherwise spelled correctly in the Yale Ms which is written in clear calligraphy. Here are a few examples, tubo (sugarcane) in Yale Ms is tube in Ambrosiana; pussud in Yale, pusut in Ambrosiana; tudlo (finger) is dudlo in Ambrosiana; bolaoan (gold), balaoan in Ambrosiana; bughaz (rice), bughax; utma (morning), vema; bancau (spear), bancan; illoc (armpit), ilot.

There is a puzzling Cebuano phrase uttered by the Ciam (Thai?) trader who acted as interpreter in the negotiation between Magellan and rajah Humabon. The phrase: Cata raia chita. Pigafetta wrote this phrase meant, “Have good care, O king, what you do, for these men are those who have conquered Calicut, Malacca, and all India the Greater. If you give them good reception and treat them well, it will be well for you, but if you treat them ill, so much the worse it will be for you, as they have done at Calicut and Malacca.”

Up to now, no Cebuano speaker or linguist has decoded the mystery phrase.

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Related articles:

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Butuanon River is dead; the 3 Kings of Butuan, Cebu, and Mazaua

CebuAsia welcomes Rennaisance navigation historian, Vicente C. de Jesus

Humabon not Sikatuna signed first Peace Treaty

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Vicente Calibo de Jesús has specialized in Renaissance navigation history particularly on Mazaua historiography. He is the only Asian who joined the Hakluyt Society and The Society for the History of Discoveries. He is also the only Asian member of the Discovery Exploration e-list forum whose members are largely from the above two societies.

He moderates a webpage, MagellansPortMazaua@yahoogroups.com, devoted to an earnest search for solution to the Mazaua puzzle. The site has the most comprehensive resource on the issue that can be found on the Net or in print. (Anyone interested to join can just subscribe.) On October 13, 2000 he brought before the attention of the world’s leading experts on navigation, exploration, cartographic, geographic history the problem of Mazaua at an international gathering held at the U.S. Library of Congress.

He has written several articles at Wikipedia among these on Ginés de Mafra, Carlo Amoretti, Jacques N. Bellin, Ruy Lopez de Villalobos, Gatighan, Ceilon/Seilani which have been published on at least 90-110 sites on the web. De Jesus was national coordinator of the media-education campaign behind the Philippine government’s food production efforts in the 70s and 80s for which he received one of the highest decorations of the Republic, the Presidential Golden Plow Award. He took up A.B. Pol. Sci. at the University of the Philippines. He is from Butuan City.

His debut post:

Humabon not Sikatuna signed first Peace Treaty

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