Funny Batangueño Words 2
Last night, I sent out an S.O.S. to my Facebook network for help with the “E” page of my Salitang Batangas Project. Ironically, except for the expletive “eh,” for which all of us in Batangueño-land are irreversibly stereo-cast, I had nothing else on the page.
Nakakapa-isip ngâ, somebody complained. Believe me you, I had been raking my brain for a whole week just to find a word to add to that single entry. Typically – as happens every time I post a link to one of the project’s pages – contributions soon started to pour in using Facebook’s rather convenient form box. Except, in this case, none of the passable contributions started with the letter “e.”
It’s undeniable, though, that the project has caught a lot of people’s imagination. I am getting contributions even when logic dictates I already hit the sack. It is a small price to pay; and I love every minute of the project so far.
Ahhh… Imagine, the French could not care less about this project; yet, they get a mention!
There was a visitor from another office who turned out to be such a goldmine of these words; between him and an officemate, they managed to churn out word after word which I was only too happy to encode into my cell phone’s note pad.
Tangad daw, I was finding out for the first time in my life, was to tie a cow to a tree or a peg. Nah, not the cow of course; its rope! If you – like – tied a kite to a tree to keep it anchored for the night, then the word was tangkal. And I had not heard either word before today…
Does anyone else know that there is – in fact – another Batangueño word for madilim? Pusikit daw… Or that busilik refers to the eyes? Or that buraot is another word for bansot? There is, apparently, even a word for a condition such as when there is more weight at one end of a vehicle than there should be so that the vehicle tips upwards at the other end. The word is salambaw.
The discussion, as it turned out, really captured the imagination our office visitor. We talked about it more during lunch break, and he continued to suggest word after strange word that I frankly never even knew existed. “Exposure lang, Sir!” was his explanation when I asked him why he seemed such a goldmine of these unusual words. He meant, of course, to the simple folks from villages and pocket communities that make this province so unique and colorful!
By afternoon, he had sent me quite a lengthy list of words to consider. I told my officemates about the list and sardonically commented that the other guy apparently did not seem to want me to go to sleep tonight. We all had a good laugh!
Scanning through the list, one unusual word immediately caught my attention. The word was bayu-ot, which was listed as an adjective and defined as “crumpled.” To illustrate its usage, the word nabayu-ot was even thoughtfully supplied.
Remember the original story Funny Batangueño Words ended with this naughty piece about the conjugation of the word pisaot? Well, this contributor was not even aware that the word he submitted is actually a verb.
And just as naughty as pisaot when it is conjugated…
I immediately IM-ed him and told him so. He did not see my point right away, but he eventually did so when I pointed out that the adjective crumpled is from a verb, to crumple. Now try conjugating it, I asked him.
In a couple of seconds, out came the ROFL YM emoticon… Only we Batangueños can come up with such a word as babayu-utin…
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