15 March 1887

Biñang

Biñang, 15 March 1887

MR. JOSÉ RIZAL

MY DEAR BROTHER,

I received your precious letter and I’m informed of its content. With regard to what you say that only through Silvestre and our brother that you learned about my new status rather than through me directly, you should not expect one like me who is working and whose mind is troubled with weighing my new life to write you. Perhaps you are also aware of all the things that a person who accepts a position needs to analyze very well [and] the problems of life, though they are the will of Heaven. In another letter I’m going to relate to you everything about my new status which I cannot do now because the cool breeze of tranquility [has] not yet blown my way.

Concerning your regards to those here, all are glad to know of your good wishes and they also send you theirs. With regard to your desire to know the name of your new brother, he is a very young man from Biñang whose name is Daniel Faustino Cruz.

As to other things that you say in your letter, you really should not apply them to me, inasmuch as all those are not needed by man either in this life or in the next. I mention this because, according to your letter, I don’t understand your resentment.

This is all, regards to you, and may we live long. And if you would ask how we are, I tell you that we are well, thank God, though we are not yet in very peaceful condition. Please excuse your new brother-in-law for not writing you because he fell ill.

MARÍA R. MERCADO

02-205 [Blumentritt V.1]

1887. 03. 15 Leitmeritz

From: Ferdinand Blumentritt

To: Jose Rizal

What is Catalonan?

* * *

Leitmeritz, 15 March 1887

Mr. José Rizal

71-III Jaegerstrasse, Berlin

Esteemed Friend,

In the chronicles dealing with the pagan Tagalogs of the XVI century, the pagan priests are called Catalonan and the priestesses Catalona. In the vocabulary of Noceda-Sanlucar, we find Catalonan = Priestesses. In Santos (whose knowledge of Tagalog does not seem to me very important) I read Catalona = Sacerdotisa. Which is correct? And to what other Tagalog terms is catalonan related?

With affectionate regards.

Yours very affectionately,

F. Blumentritt

02-206 [Blumentritt V.1]

1887. 03. 16 Berlin

From: Jose Rizal

To: Ferdinand Blumentritt

Historico-philological explanation of the word Katalonan — Such a term has never existed in the Tagalog lexicon — An error which has become accepted as truth by a dint of writers copying one another — Pure Tagalog words have no “o” in the middle — It is only used at  the end of the expression and it is “ou” — Spanish pronunciation introduced “o” into Tagalog words.

* * *

Berlin, 16 March 1887

Esteemed Friend,

I’ll give you my definition of Katalonan[1] in Spanish so that I can express it better.

To tell you the truth, the word katalonan, etc. is no longer found in Tagalog as a religious term, nor is the word known in the four principal Tagalog provinces, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, and Bulakán. Neither does any root remain in the language referring to the meaning of this word (priesthood). Ka-talu-han or ka-talu-nan, root talo, means loss, what is lost, the act of losing, etc., root talo, to lose. Katalonan (better, katalunan) does not exist either; but indeed, katalungan, root tulung, to help. Katanungan, root tanung (to ask); katalinungan, root talinong (intelligence); katulinan, root tulin (“speed”), etc. I am afraid that in this case a mistake has become an accepted truth by a dint of writers copying one another, as it happened with the word Bathalà or Bahalà which has been given a false interpretation in a facetious Tagalog saying: Ang bathalà (or bathalà) ay nasa may Kapal. A friar translated this in his dictionary as “God is above all.” Literally this expression means: Care is in God’s hand; God is May Kapal (Creator) and that is what we call Him and thus He is called; radical Kapal means bilden, therefore, Bildner.[2] At the most bahalà could have been a deification, a personification of “care,” which is not proven.

What makes me believe that catalona is wrong is that distinction between Katalonan (priest), Katalona (priestess), which shows that the author who draws this distinction does now know well the peculiarity of the Tagalog language. The Tagalog does not distinguish the sex by the last syllable of the word, removing or adding a letter, but by adding lalaki or babai.

Could it be katánungan? Ka prefix means company (“with”) tanung, to ask; an, ending of substantives, hence, ka-tánung-an means “he whom we usually ask.” Is it not the priest whom young people consult about their doubts and ask in their ignorance? Can the katánungan be the catalonan? Because it is strange that we have preserved the nouns anito, poon, tikbalang, asuang, tianak, multú, buling-buling, etc. and we have not preserved the noun Catalona or Catolona, nor anything that approach it or resembles it. This is all that I can tell you about this matter. I have read almost all genuine Tagalog works and there is almost no purely Tagalog writing that I do not know, and nevertheless I have never seen this word Catalona, meaning priestess or priest.

It must be noted also that pure Tagalog words have no “o” in the middle. “O” is used only at the end of words and it has the sound of the Italian “o” or like “o” in the French word dos. An example of our “o” is one “ou”, and it does not sound like the Spanish “o.” Only the Spanish style of pronunciation introduced the “o” into Tagalog words. If, then, catalonan has existed, it must have been katalunan, which in the language of today mean “lost”.

I should like to send you my photograph, but I have been waiting already for two weeks for the photographer to finish it.

Greetings from your most affectionate friend,

Rizal

There is still another root talon (jump, to jump), but from this root is derived only Catalón, Katalón (man, woman), etc. with whom one jumps; Ka (prefix: “with”). Tálúnan, the place with where one jumps; but from this word one cannot derive Katalunan. It does not exist, there is no Katalunan with the root talón in the language.

Catalo or Katálo (adversary) comes from the root talo, to lose, to quarrel, etc.

The word Tála (morning star, evening star), gives no other like Katálâ, for example; Katála without the circumflex on the last syllable means a bird— the kakadu.[3] Tulâ (rhymes) gives katulâ (a word that we rhyme with another).

One must be very careful in reading Tagalog words written by Spaniards. At home we give not value, absolutely none, to the Tagalog of the Spaniards. It would be the same if I should treat of the German language as spoken by the maid or servants without reading the classics, because I cannot understand these. Until now I have not yet found any Spaniard who understands our books; even the famous Jesuit Fr. Jepes who knows Tagalog best, always has to ask and reflect for a long time in order to understand Baltazar, a little book[4] which has always been an enigma to the Tagalogs of Manila. And the Spaniards speak Tagalog worse than the Tagalogs of Manila.

03-207 [Reformists]