Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar: Ilocano-English, English-Ilocano (Pali Language Texts. Philippines)

Rating:
Summary: Best book on this language
Review: Seeing as this is only one of two grammars of Ilocano I've ever seen--the other one being in a university library 20 years ago that was somebody's doctoral dissertation printed on poor quality, smudgy paper--I was prepared to read it no matter how bad it was. The surprise was that this is a very well done grammar of Ilocano, along with separate phrase and word dictionaries that are quite extensive. The author has a Ph.D. in languages and linguistics himself from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and his interest and enthusiasm in the language comes through in this very well done book.

Ilocano belongs to the northern Marianas subfamily of the western Austronesian language group, and is spoken by about 10 million people, mostly on the northern Philippine island of Luzon. It has many interesting grammatical features, such as having an ergative-absolutive based case system, an extensive system of prefixes, infixes, and postfixes, as well as enclitic particles (i.e., word morphemes that can be attached to more than one category of words), and a three-way spatial system of demonstrative pronouns consisting of the proximal, distal, and medial, similar to Kapampangan, another language from Luzon. Like other Philippine languages, it is a predicate-initial language, meaning that verbs and adjectives usually occupy the initial position in a sentence. It makes extensive use of sound symbolism, having many onomatopoetic root words. In that sense it sounds similar to Swahili, which has something known as "onomatopoetic ideophones"--words which attempt to capture in sound the idea of the object, such as in the word, "trinka-trinka," (or tractor). I'm not sure if the two features in Ilocano and Swahili are really the same, but Swahili is the only other language I've read about that does something like this.

The first 101 pages of the book are devoted to the phonology, morphology, and syntax of Ilocano, with the remaining 165 pages being taken up by the phrase dictionary and the word dictionary. Throughout the grammar portion the author intersperses numerous vocabulary lists, so you can build your vocabulary as you go along. According to what I've read, this is the most extensive dictionary of Ilocano to date, and was compiled from a large number of sources. This is no doubt the best book on Ilocano out there, and one of the most scholarly as well as readable books and grammars on a more exotic language that I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot of them). :-)

Rating:
Summary: Most Comprehensive Ilocano Dictionary - Publisher's Release
Review: The Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar is the most comprehensive dictionary ever produced for Ilocano (Iloko), the lingua franca of Northern Luzon, and historically the native language of the majority of Filipino immigrants to the United States. The body of the dictionary includes entries for roots and affixes, with illustrative sentences, idioms, proverbs, common derivatives, and scientific names (when applicable). Tagalog, Pangasinan, Ibanag, and Kapampangan equivalents are supplied for high frequency words. Derived words that undergo morphological fusion are listed as separate entries to facilitate lexical searches. There is also an affix cross-reference list to help the beginning student recognize root words. Sources of loan words are indicated. The Grammar (including Phonology, Morphology and Syntax sections) is an version of the author's thesis "A Reference Grammar of Ilocano" rewritten in a pedagogical format. The Appendixes include grammatical charts, maps and traditional Ilocano songs. Layout of Volume: Intro and Grammar (i-lxxxv 85 pages); Ilocano-English (pp. 1-647); English-Ilocano (647-752); Appendixes and Bibliography (752-777).

Rating:
Summary: Ti Kaimbagan Nga Diksyonaryo Nga Iloko
Review: This is the best Ilocano dictionary out there.

The author's love and dedication to the Ilocano language is an accurate reflection of the hardwork over that years that he has put into this impressive and high-quality dictionary.

Not many dictionaries dealing with Philippine languages are as detailed as this one. And not many go great lengths as to include a meaty grammatical sketch, history, and explanation of pronunciation. However, this one does. And very well, I may add.

This dictionary itself is two sections (English & Ilokano). Ilokano words are listed by rootword along with its affixed varieties and their varieties. Entries usually have a Tagalog equivalent and maybe even equivalents in other Philippine languages such as Ibanag, Kankana-ey, Pangasinan, and others.

Since stress plays a significant role in the meaning of Ilocano words, I am very grateful that accent marks have been included.

I also have to mention a comprehensive appendix dealing with charts of "fused" pronouns and verb affix charts. There are even lyrics to popular Ilocano songs such as Pamulinawen, Toy Karayo, and Tontonennaka toy Ayat.

This book is perfect for anyone; be it a tourist visiting the Ilocos region, a person of Ilocano descent, a linguist, a language enthusiast, or even a Filipino who is curious about the language of his or her Ilocano countrymen.

Also, the covering of this book ensures that it will last for a long time.

As an enthusiast of Philippine languages, excellent resources such as this gem come few and far between. I am completely satisfied with this book, and I'm guessing that you probably will, too.