Introduction to ambahanAmbahans inscribed on a bamboo slatThe ambahan is a literary product and poetic expression oftheSouthernMangyansof Mindoro, Philippines. Althoughthere are about seven different ethnic groups living inMindoro, collectively called the Mangyans, these groups arequite distinct from each other as to language, customs, andway of living. nly the ethnic group living in the south ofMindoro, roughly comprising the areas within themunicipalities of !ulalacao "San Pedro#, Mansalay, rientalMindoro and San $ose, ccidental Mindoro, claims the nameMangyan as the descriptive title of their tribe. To stress theirpoint, they might add the epiteth% &'anunuo& Mangyan, thatis, a &truly, real, genuine& Manygan.Together withtheir northernneighbors, the!uhids, theypossess a pre(Spanish writing system, considered to be of)ndic origin, with characters expressing the open syllables ofthelanguage. Twodistinctsyllabariesarestill inpracticaluse among the ethnic groups in Mindoro, vi*. the northern!uhid on one hand and the southern !uhid with the'anunuo(Mangyans on the other. The existence of a writingsystem among these tribes certainly accounts largely for thewealth of literature prevalent among them. ne of theliterary products, the one written down most frequently onbamboo(tubes or slats, is the ambahan.+or better understanding and appreciation of the ambahanspresented here, a short outline on the character and use ofthe ambahan will be given here.As a definition, it can be stated that the ambahan is%A. A rhythmic poetic expression with a meter of sevensyllable lines and having rhythmic end(syllables.!. )t is most oftenpresentedas achant without adetermined musical pitch or accompaniment by musicalinstruments.,. )ts purpose is to express in an allegorical way,liberally using poetic language, certain situations or certaincharacteristics referred to by the one reciting the poem.The meter of seven syllables in one line is the characteristicof the ambahan which most obviously distinguishes it fromother -inds of 'anunuo(Mangyan poetry. 'owever, there areexceptions to the rule. +or instance, more than sevensyllables may be found at the beginning of the ambahan,especially when it starts with the standard expressionmag-un-uno "spea-s, says# because the one who &spea-s&here may have a long name containing more than the usualsevensyllables. Actually, thesefirst lines shouldnot beconsideredaspart of thepoemproper,but rather asanintroduction to or an explanation of the circumstances whichgave rise to the ambahan itself. Sometimes, there may bemorethansevensyllablesbecause the employed word orwordscannot beshortenedandnoother combinationofwords is available. n the other hand, a line may containless than seven syllables in order to preserve the meaningof the line itself which might be disturbed if more syllableswere added. 'owever, the last exception rarely occurs.)nanefforttoconformtotheruleof havingonlysevensyllablesineachline,thecomposertriestofithiswordswithin the pre(determined quantity of syllables. Thisaccountsfor themanyelisionsandcontactionsof wordsthat ma-ethereadingof theambahaninthe'anunuo(Mangyan script so difficult and exasperating to thetranslator.Thusnirwasancomesfromniruwasan. nil-asanfrom nilu-asan. the mono(syllables gin from ginan. u fromuna. ,onversely, the words may be extended, i.e. syllablesmay be added in order to have the required seven syllables.)nmostcases, thenormal procedureinvolvestheuseofaffixes and suffixes, both of which are extensively used inthe Philippine languages. The most commonone inthe'anunuo(Mangyan language is the suffix (an. Mano-becomes manu-an, balunos becomes balunusan, without achange in meaning. /ithin the word, &extensions& may alsobe found which might be old infixes, no longer common. Sodayap becomes dalayap, layaw becomes lugayaw. Anotherway of lengthening a word is by repeating the word itself,not somuchtoma-eit superlativeinmeaning"e.g. inTagalog% la-ing(la-i#, but rather to complete the sevensyllable requirement./hile it is not my intention to be technical on this point, asa linguist0s analysis of morphological phenomena would be,the foregoing illustrations demonstrate that the prescribedschemeof sevensyllablesinambahanversegivesampleopportunity for lexicalcalisthenics, an exercise which mayfascinate many students.Therhymingend(syllablesareanessential featureof theambahan. The most common rhyming syllable is (an, beinga regular suffix for verbs and substantives in the 'anunuo(Mangyan language. !ut other combinations with the vowel aarerathercommontoo,suchasinlineshavingtheend(syllables% a, a-, ag, ang, as, aw, ay. 'ere the vowela iscombinedwithnearlyall theconsonantsinthePhilippinealphabet. )n the same way, the vowels ) "or e# and o "or u#canbefoundastherhymingsyllables,eitheraloneorincombination, e.g.% ), id, ing, ip, it, and o, od, o-, on, ong,os, ot, oy.The rhyming in the ambahan is consequent, i.e. oncestarted with (an, all lines will end in (an. This appears to beincontrast tothe rhymingscheme of aTagalogpoem,where at the end of a line a vowel rhyme may include anyconsonant in combination with this vowel. The ambahan isstricter in this respect, though it is interesting to note thathere and there consonants, if belonging to the samephonetic class, may be included as the rhyming consonantincombinationwiththerhymingvowel. 'ence, thewordinwag rhymes with ma(ayad because both g and d belong tothe phonetic class of voiced stops. The word humba-rhymes withdagat becauseboth-andt belongtothephonetic class of voiceless stops. The word sundong, lumonand tayutom are the end(syllables of one ambahan becauseng, n, and mbelong to the phonetic class of voicedsonorants. f course, it is not because the 'anunuo(Mangyan -nows anything about phonetics that theseinstancesoccur,but it isafact that theinterchangesofthese consonants are not considered violations of theunwrittenrulesof theambahan, providedthat thevowelremains the same.The ambahan is a chanted verse, but it is changed plainly oralmost recited. The rendering of the ambahan with musicalpitch might differ from person to person. Some might intonethe words li-e in common conversation. others might use itamonotone recitation.or stillothers mightsingit with adistinct melody. !ut generally, it can be said that when anambahanis &sung,& thereis onlyaslight musical pitchdiscernable, except maybe towards the end, when the lastsyllables are drawn out a bit to indicate that the chant isabout to end. +urthermore, it is well worth noting that theambahan, is &sung& without the accompaniment of musicalinstruments, as differentiated from another -ind of Mangyanverse, the uru-ay, which is preferably chanted to theaccompaniment of the homemade guitar.ne who has a -nowledge of the language of the 'anunuo(Mangyans as it is used in their daily conversation, willbeable to understand very little of the language that is used intheambahan. Thelanguageusedintheambahandiffersfrom the spo-en language, though many a word used widelyin the daily 'anunuo(Mangyan language is also used in theambahan(vocabulary. )t is quite possible to compile a longlist of words "eventuallyacompletedictionary# that areused only in the ambahan verse, but, for the purpose of thisboo-, only a few words need to be mentioned.ConversationallanguageAmbahanlanguageEnglishamang bansay fatherConversationallanguageAmbahanlanguageEnglishinang suyong motherdanom -agnan waterbalay labag houseniyog bu(anay coconutbagaw duyan tal-mata pamid-an eyeThat the words of the ambahan vocabulary are foundnotonly in the ambahan of the 'anunuo(Mangyans but also inthe literaryproducts of theneighboringMangyantribes,seemstobeasignificantcoincidenceworthinvestigating,especially if it is remembered that these other tribes use aconversational language different from the 'anunuo(Mangyan language. Some questions that would confront theinvestigator arethefollowing% /heredotheseambahanwords come from1 Are there other dialects in the Philippinesfrom which they may have been derived1 r do we have toturn our attention to other countries li-e )ndonesia or )ndiato get an explanation1 'ere is a potential field of researchthat should give a linguist enough material to wor- on.)n some of the ambahans here presented, it will be noticedthat the theme is about a bird, a flower, a tree, or an insect.ther ambahans, thoughnot naturepoems inthestrictsense of the term, deal with the sun, the moon, the stars,the rain and the wind./hen a Mangyanpoet writes of aflower, he writes of itnot for the purpose of celebrating itsbeauty or fragrance but to ma-e it an allegory or a symbolof human life, it0s problems, and its challenges. Sometimesthe symbolism of a bird or flower may be clear enough, aswhen a boy tal-s to his girl about &a beautiful flower that hewould li-e to bring home.& 2ery often, however, one symbolmay refer to different conditions or circumstances and,thus, becomes a multiple symbol. An examination ofambahan no. 334 will help clarify this point. /hat does thepoemmean1 +irst, it means simply what it says% &!ecareful, or you will be stung by a bee. Ta-e precautions ingetting honey.& This would be the literal interpretation of thepoem. The added meaning of allegorical interpretationwould depend, of course, on the occasion andcircumstances, such as climbing a mountain, going to sea,going to town, engaging in a contest with another person,or going to the parents to as- for the hand of theirdaughter. The complex set of meanings thus woven into anambahan are gradually unravelled only after the poem hadbeen analy*ed with much care and patience.Arelatedstudywhichis worthmentioningat this pointwould be an investigation into the psychological motivationfor the Mangyan0s frequent use of plants, animals, andnature symbols and their predilection for allegorical poetry.5Postma, Antoon S26. Treasure of a Minority. Manila%Arnoldus Press, )nc., 3783.9