On “New” and On Restarting
While home in the province during this long vacation, I found myself repeatedly asking a simple question during conversations: What is the word for “new” in our native language? Almost everyone I asked gave the same answer—balu or balbalu. Examples came easily: balu an tawon—new year; balu an lubung or balbalu an lubung—new clothes. That was also what I knew growing up in the province and learning my native language naturally. Yet at the back of my mind lingered the question: Is balu truly indigenous, or is it an adaptation of the Iloko baro or barbaro? As can be observed, tawon closely resembles the Iloko tawen and the Tagalog taon. These overlaps, of course, do not diminish the value of the word. It is very possible—if we consider certain theories of migration—that these words already existed before our ancestors finally settled in these mountains. If that is the case, then what we often refer to as “adaptation” may actually be evidence of shared linguistic ancestry. It is difficult ...