The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-05
TUBING THE PHILIPPINES.
4 Grammar OF TagalOg Prepared by a
JOHNS Hopkins Professor.

For two years past DR. F. r. Blake has
been conducting courses in the Tagalog
and Vsayan languages AT Johns Hopkins
University.
Tagalog ia spoken by most Of the in
habtants of the northern part of the Philip
pines and is the language OF the educated
and more intelligent classes. Visayan per-
walls very largely in the great central group
of the archipelago. DR.. Blake has now
prepared practical grammar Of the Taga-
log tongue and there is no doubt it will
be most helpful to all Americans in the
Philippines.
Practically all the works on the Philip
pine languages and dialects are in Spanish
or German At last We have practical
Tagalog manual in English.
If we keep on studying the languages
and the customs Of the natives Of our new
possessions We will be doing just what
the British did during the rise and expansion
of their dominion in India. For more
than forty years the British Government
has encouraged linguistic and chronological
research in India as much as possible.
BY this means the work of acquiring more
intimate knowledge of the peoples of India
f.,
many times over.
In 1900 the American Oriental Society
urged upon Congress the importance of
extending the work Of the Bureau of Ameri-
can Ethnology to the Philippine Islands
for the study of the languages and customs
, of the native populations and the issuing
of simple vocabularies and other works
which would he of use to officers Of the
army and navy and the civil service in those
| islands. Congress has not yet seen fit
| TO act upon this suggestion, though its
practical importance has been urged not
! only by Orientais but also by come of
| our foremost representatives in the Philip
| pines.
Ir the work which the Bureau of Ethnol-
| ogy has done among our Indian tribes had
| been carried out a half century ago we
! should have underst God the nborigines
| better and doubtless would have been
| wiser in our dealings with them, The
! white race has succeeded best in its inter
course with other races when all the parties
| concerned have come TO know each other
| very well.
| of 1857 in British India might have been
, averted if il had not been that the cart
! ridges for the British rifles then in Use
! were creased with slet and lard. The
| Hindu S"pOys. OF course, had great preju
| dice against both these articles, while the
! lard was an abomnation in the eyes of the
Mohammedan soldiers.
| The military order was Issued and the
| Sepoy and Mohammedan soldiers were told
! that they must obey it. Probably if the
British had been familiar at that time with
| native prejudces they would have taken
care rot 10 offend needlcssly the sensi-
| biIi,ies of the native troops, and the trouble
/ mirht have been aVprteu,
The publication Of the Tagalog manual
| in English will have the same usefulness
! among our countrymen in the Philippines
a. the practical Arabic Grammar" com
piled years ago by Major Green of the
Royal Engineers for the special purpose
of meeting the requirements Of Brit ish
officers in Egypt, has had elsewhere. The
WORK was in such demand that $50 copies
Of the first edition were issued sheet by
sheet to the officers IA they came from the
press. The Englishmen couldn't wait for
bound copies. The first edition was ex-
hatIsted ~ nine months.
We are teaching English in the public
schools of Manila, but IT. will he years be-
fore the great mass even of the better edu-
Gated people can talk English. Az present
We need nothing more to facilite our efforts
to develop the filipinos and their country
than the ability to talk with them in their
principal languages and make the nut ual
acquaintanceshipS and friendships which
such knowledge would promote :,