The Cuyonon Lexicon for the Intertidal Zone: From TUBÓG (Tide Pool) to ATÓL (Stone Tidal Weir)

[Philippine Indigenous Languages Lecture Series]

CUYONON [cyo]: The Cuyonon Lexicon for the Intertidal Zone: From TUBÓG (Tide Pool) to ATÓL (Stone Tidal Weir)
24 October | Friday | 01:00 PM
Pilar Herrera Hall
Aldrin P. Lee, PhD
Professor
UP Department of Linguistics

— Linggo ng KAPP —

The tenth installment of the 2025 Philippine Indigenous Languages Lecture Series (PILLS) will be on the Cuyonon [cyo] lexicon for the intertidal zone. This PILLS lecture is a part of the 2025 Linggo ng Kolehiyo ng Agham Panlipunan at Pilosopiya Celebrations from 20-25 October 2025.

ABSTRACT
This study builds upon an earlier exploratory work on Island Linguistics in the Philippines (Lee, 2022) and focuses on the lexicon of the intertidal zone, a defining feature of small islands and a significant food source for island/coastal communities. Specifically, this work zeroes in on Cuyonon (ISO 639-3 CYO), an island language spoken primarily in Cuyo Islands, and presents an expanded list of terms in this language related to the intertidal zone, highlighting significant ontological distinctions (e.g. tubóg ‘tide pool’ vs. bagumbón ‘tidal flat’) and relevant conceptual systems (e.g. enasán ‘intertidal zone with aquatic vegetation’, bakulód ‘[fringing] coral reef system’).

The documentation also includes lexicalized forms related to human activities in the intertidal zone and communal strategies and/or cultural practices associated with this whole range of intertidal pursuits. One such communal practice is the building or restoration of atól ‘stone tidal weir’, a traditional fish trap made by stacking rocks and/or reef limestones to form a dam/fort-like structure. While stone tidal weirs have long been attested in different parts of the world including some areas in the Philippines (e.g. in Panay Island as discussed by Zayas, 2019), this study seeks to provide a novel description of the stone tidal weir using an indigenous ontological frame (in this case, Cuyonon).

Since intertidal system is a key domain in Island Linguistics, a more comprehensive lexicon for the intertidal zone could serve as an additional eliciting material or baseline documentation tool for probing island (and to some extent, coastal) languages in the Philippines (e.g. Island Language Questionnaire in Lee, 2022). To a broader extent, this study contributes to a scholarship that foregrounds local epistemologies and the role of indigenous languages in articulating traditional knowledge systems.

References:
Lee, A.P. (2022, May 18-20). Exploring Island Linguistics in the Philippines: Mooring Languages to Islandness [Plenary Lecture]. The 31st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 31), University of Hawai’i at Mānoa, Honolulu, HI, United States.
Zayas, C. N. (2019). Stone tidal weirs rising from the ruins. Journal of Ocean and Culture 2:88–109.

This event is free and open to the public.
#LinggongKAPP2025 #PananawatPagtanaw
(The photo of the atól in the poster was taken by Mr. Ronald C. Palay and commissioned by Dr. Lee)

Source: UP Department of Linguistics Facebook