Abstract:

The field of historical linguistics in the Philippines has seen significant developments since its early beginnings in the 1900s, but several questions regarding the relationships among the languages remain unresolved. Current findings indicate a more complex scenario, which involves not only traditional genetic relationship, but also intense and sustained contact among the communities at different scales and time depths.

In this paper, we emphasize an integrated approach for historical linguistics, which considers small-scale contexts, layers of histories, and more fine-grained analyses of data to inform our linguistic reconstructions more fully. Case studies in Ibatan, Porohanon, and the Southwestern and Southeastern Mindanao languages are presented to illustrate how linguistic histories are inextricably tied to complex community histories.

Such a context-dependent approach yields mosaics of micro-histories that are sensitive to “complex geography, ecological disasters, history of migrations and settlement” (Klamer, 2019, p. 19), which can potentially address long overdue questions on the nature of linguistic relationships, points of dispersal of populations, the agents of change, and the spread of innovations across speakers. This pro-
posed future direction for the field of historical linguistics in the Philippines is one which is approached from below—localized and richly informed by fine-grained and on-the-ground case studies led by local scholars in close collaboration with members of the communities in consideration.