Tuesday, August 14, 2007 Tantingco: Kapampangan sex words By Robby Tantingco Peanut Gallery
ONE of the surprises found in the Bergaņo dictionary (which the Center for Kapampangan Studies is launching on August 24) is the number and variety of sex words it contains.
I found in it the Kapampangan words for vagina, penis, clitoris, copulation, masturbation, sodomy, semen, wet dream and many more, and this surprised me because the dictionary was written by a Spanish missionary priest in 1732, at a time when friars were condemning to hell anyone caught saying these words.
Fray Diego Bergaņo, OSA collaborated with a native from Mexico, Pampanga named Juan de Zuņiga to produce the dictionary, which makes the inclusion of the sex words more surprising.
Imagine what courage it took the Spanish priest to even say the word vagina to a native, and similarly, how much embarrassment the native had to suppress to be able to utter the word antac before the priest.
And to think that the dictionary was reviewed before it was published in 1732 by the entire hierarchy of the Augustinian Order, from the designated reader-priests to the Censor of the Holy Office to the Definitor of all Augustinians in the Philippines, who described it as "a work of art" and "so perfect that there is nothing else to ask for and nothing to modify."
The dictionary with all its sex terms is therefore a testament to the Augustinians' respect for scholarly effort, their broadmindedness and their total dedication to their mission, which enabled them to overcome their scruples and religious intolerance in order to produce a good and complete dictionary.
The dictionary also shows our ancestors' healthy regard for sex, because they could openly talk about it--unlike us, who still blush and giggle and use metaphors, euphemisms and even sign language to refer to sex.
For example, we use words like sampaga, bibingka and kuweba for the female genitalia, and bandi and ari for the male. Our ancestors needed no such poetry; they said puqui and antac for vagina, butu for penis (not titi, which means "to fry," which is why we have the word pititian). Tuca is clitoris, tingguil is "a part of the private parts of a woman." The head of the penis is bulasisi (synonym is burat), while the frenum or frenulum--the underside of the penis to which the foreskin is attached -- is called guilit. Tungtung refers either to the foreskin of the penis, or to the fold over the tip of a woman's clitoris.
Today there are still Kapampangans who say butubutu to refer to anything that dangles like a penis, like the clapper of a bell. In Candaba, they say butung uran to refer to a tornado, because it looks like a phallus jutting down from the sky.
According to Bergaņo, uncircumcised natives were "prevalent throughout the islands," but there was a word for circumcision, tuli, which means some men availed themselves of the procedure, but Bergaņo adds, "according to the bad practice of the land," probably a reference to the unhygienic circumcision tool called batacan. The Kapampangan term for uncircumcised is siput (corrupted to suput today).
Between antac and puqui, our ancestors preferred using puqui. Antac was and is still used as a cuss word, as in "Antac nang inda mo!" (contracted to "Taknaydumo!") and "Antac nang apu mo!" ("Taksyapumo!")
When referring to the act that we euphemistically call "making love," "sleeping with" and "the F word," the ancient Kapampangans simply said ayut and a synonym, mipangatauan (from the root word catauan).
Bergaņo gave this example: Y Francisca pangatauanan ne ning asaua na (Francisca is being made love to by her husband).
Two other Kapampangan terms for copulation are atdac (which Bergaņo defines as "the thrust of the male organ") and quinyud ("to move the belly, as in copulation").
And then there's mibanisan (to receive, or be stained with, ejaculated semen), from the root word banis, which is the ancient Kapampangan word for semen. Cupal was, and still is, used today as a synonym, but often meant as an insult (Cupal mo!). The word quebaitan, which means birthday today, meant nocturnal emission (wet dream) in those days.
There are many hints at homosexual practices among ancient Kapampangans. Examples are: bulditan ("to sodomize"); alung (root word of pialung), which Bergaņo defines as "to play with one's private parts or to amuse one another;" magbulasisi ("to masturbate oneself or another"); mipaglibi ("to arouse each other") as in Ali iyan picuyug ing lub yu yang mayap, nun e ing calibian yu ("It is not your goodwill that has bound you as friends, but your lust").
Kapampangans in 1732 used the word libi to refer to lust; could this word have anything to do with libido (original Latin, adopted by English)? Another Kapampangan word for lust is gatal; Bergaņo illustrates with a sentence that a furious mother is supposed to have said to an erring daughter: Inta nung minggatal ca, e micudcuran cabibi?! ("If the itch was so strong, why didn't you just scratch it with a clam shell?")
The Kapampangan language is quite a colorful, complete and articulate language; it has a word for everything, including those we dare not say. There is no such thing as a dirty word; dirt is in the mind of the speaker and the listener.
Even today, Kapampangans are mapanagcas (prone to using expletives), but somehow the expletives are funny rather than offensive. When you come to think of it, Taknaydumo! should be extremely, extremely insulting, and in other cultures, saying it can lead to family feuds, even murder, but Kapampangans -- even refined, educated Kapampangans -- say it all the time, always in jest, and no offence is intended and therefore no offence is taken.
It probably speaks well of us as a people. We don't take things too seriously, we have a sense of joie de vivre, we enjoy life, especially the good life, and that includes good food, good clothes, and yes, good sex, and if our ancestors were not embarrassed by it, should we be?
Reference: Vocabulario de Pampango (1732), by Diego Bergaņo, OSA, translated by Fr. Venancio Q. Samson and published by the Holy Angel University Center for Kapampangan Studies. For reservation of copies, call (045) 888-8691 local 1311, or email rptmt@yahoo.com.
