The purposes for study are three-fold: (1) To provide teachers with a sourcebook on their dialect, so that they can understand the formalities of Aklanon. With supplementary seminars and workshops, it is hoped that more concise and efficient curriculum guides can be prepared for the teaching of the vernacular. Up to the present time there has been much disagreement about such problems as the spelling of the vernacular, and it is hoped that conventions can be established about the dialect through the agency of this present study. (2) To provide foreign learners of the dialect, particularly Peace Corps Volunteers or missionaries, with a reference grammar, covering the peculiarities of the sound and structure of Aklanon speech. (3) To provide linguists with a treatment, however basic or humble, of a hitherto unresearched dialect; and hence to enrich the catalogue of literature available on the less-known languages or dialects of the world.
Like any paper or publication, this is an unfinished and unending work, a part of an ongoing and growing process. The particular organization or explanation of the phenomena of the Aklan dialect could very well be debated and changed. No doubt, as time goes on and interest in the dialect develops, subsequent works will be published and may surpass this paper. This not, then, to be considered--either by the authors or by the readers--as a finished treatise or an absolute statement about the Aklanon dialect; particularly since this edition is the result of much hurried effort to meet a deadline and other requirements.
This grammar will not be easy to read--as no grammar is easy to read. It has not been made to be difficult, although it has been made to be thorough. The reader does not have to come to this book sophisticated in linguistic techniques, but if he keeps with it, he should leave with a good deal of sophistication, not only about Aklanon, but about linguistic methods as well. The study is presented in the light of the above-mentioned purposes and qualifications in the hope that it may encourage those who absorb it to make their own personal analysis of the vernacular, for it is only in personal struggle that understanding and knowledge are found. The authors trust, then, that it will fill the explicit and projected needs of the province of Aklan, the U.S. Peace Corps, and any other similar interested parties.
The authors wish to acknowledge gratefully the help of the following:
Dr. Tommy Anderson of Philippine Normal College for his invaluable linguistic help in proof-reading and editing this paper, who is greatly responsible for the present format and a good many ideas contained herein.
The United States Peace Corps for its total support of this project, particularly in the persons of: Dr. Richard Wilson, Mr. John Bossany, Mr. Allan Kulakow, Mrs. Theresa Boucher and Mr. Charles Shackelton. The Bureau of Public Schools, Manila in the person of its director Juan C. Manuel for their support.
Mayor Federico O. Icamina and the Municipal Council of Kalibo, who helped in a previous mimeographed edition of this text.
Prof John U. Wolff of Cornell University. Ithaca, New York, who gave several suggestions for various articles in this paper.
Mr. Stephen J. Banta, Peace Corps Volunteer in Kalibo, for proof-reading the entire text and for suggestions about its format. Mr. Thomas C. Marshall, past Peace Corps in Banga, Aklan, for helping in preliminary research of the dialect.
The various citizens of Aklan, for their informant work, gi1en freely and continually throughout the long period of this book’s composition--to whom this book is heartily dedicated.
THE AUTHORS