| TheStateoftheArtoftheDocumentationofPhilippineLanguagesThePhilippinesisalandwithgreatlinguisticdiversity.AccordingtothelatesteditionofEthnologue(Gordon2005),thereare175languagesspokeninthePhilippines.Ofthese,168areAustronesian.Inthepastfewdecades,anumberofarticlessummarizingthestateoftheartofPhilippinelinguisticshaveappeared,includingConstantino1971;McKaughan1971;Reid1981;Quakenbush2003,2005;Liao2006.However,noneofthesepapersfocusonthedocumentationofthelanguagesofthePhilippines.ThispaperfillsinthegapbyfocusingthediscussiononthestateoftheartofthedocumentationofPhilippinelanguages.Theterm“Philippinelanguages”referstoindigenouslanguagesofthePhilippines.Thus,thoselanguagesthatarenotfoundinthegeographicalconfinesofthePhilippinesthathavebeenproposedtobepartofasubgroupofPhilippinelanguages,suchasYamiandtheSangiric,Minahasan,andGorontaliclanguagesofnorthernSulawesi(Blust1991),areexcludedfromthepresentstudy.Moreover,languagesthatarespokeninsidethePhilippinesbutarenotconsideredtobeindigenoustoit,suchasEnglish,Spanish,andChineselanguages,arealsoexcluded.ThispapersurveysworksonPhilippinelanguageswithanattempttoaddressthefollowingtwoquestions.First,whattypesofwork(e.g.dictionaries,grammars,texts,etc.)havebeendoneonthedocumentationofPhilippinelanguages?Second,aretheseworksmainlydonebyFilipinosornon-Filipinos?Statementsmadeinthispaperarebasedoninformationgatheredfromthefollowingsources:(i)BibliographyoftheSummerInstituteofLinguisticsPhilippines1953-2003(Johnsonetal.2003)—forSILacademicpublications,(ii)annualreportsofKomisyonsaWikangFilipino;(iii)listsofpublicationsdirectlysolicitedfromscholars,(iv)abstractsofthesesanddissertations,DepartmentofLinguistics,CollegeofSocialSciencesandPhilosophy,UniversityofthePhilippinesatDiliman,and(v)websearch.ItishopedthatthisstudynotonlyoffersanoverviewofthedocumentationofPhilippinelanguages,butalsocaninspiremorelinguistsand/orlocalcommunitiestogetinvolvedinthedocumentationofPhilippinelanguages.Moreover,itishopedthatthisstudycanalsoinspireand/orencouragemoreFilipinostoworkondocumentingPhilippinelanguages. |