Christopher Sundita’s Salita Blog “is dedicated to his thoughts about the language situation and the over 160 languages in the Republic of the Philippines.” His “obligatory introductory post” says:
Salita is a Tagalog word. Its meanings include word, speech, talk/speak and language. I wanted a word that not only reflects the subject of this blog, but also something that is found in a number of Philippine languages. So far, I have found six more; Ilokano (sarita), Kapampangan (salita), Pangasinan (salita), Rinconada Bikol (sarita), Botolan Sambal (halita), and Tina Sambal (salita).
(If I’m reading my Tagalog dictionary aright, it’s pronounced /salitá’/, with stress on the second /a/ and a final glottal stop.) Chris is a man after my own heart; the bio at the end of his essay “Languages or Dialects?” says: “He is fluent in English, Tagalog, French, and Spanish and has a working knowledge of other languages like Japanese, Bikol, Ilocano, Korean, Portuguese, Catalan, Italian, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Hindi and others.” I wish him luck in his study of linguistics, and I hope he’ll update the blog regularly—there are recent entries on Christmas and New Year greetings in various Phillippine languages and a very interesting entry on noun markers in Waray-Waray and other languages.
I found his blog via a typically meaty post at Sauvage Noble, which uses the discovery of Chris’s blog as a springboard for a discussion of Sanskrit loans in Tagalog, including a transcription of a pop song (!) about such loans.
oops, I’d meant to mention this blog to you before a time or two and usually something got in the way. Glad you found it and enjoy it as much as I do.
Well, I could have found it the way Sauvage Noble did, via my own comment section, but somehow I never clicked on Chris’s name and checked out his site.
Thanks for the plug, Language Hat. 😀 I’ve posted an entry about something that’s been on my mind lately.
And I didn’t know you read my blog, Mike. Glad you enjoy it.
–Chris
Nice entry! By the way, where is the stress in the name Sundita? I hate not knowing how to pronounce things…
On the second syllable.
The pronunciation of my surname itself depends on what language you’re speaking.
American English: [s@n’diR@] (I let /R/ represent the tap that Americans usually do)
Tagalog: [sun’di:ta?]
Sundita used to be Lundete [lun’dE:tE?] before the US Army misread my great-grandfather’s handwriting in WWI.
–Chris
Aha! Glad I asked. I love these family-name stories.