Isinay Rainbow Says Hello to the Isinay World

IT MAY NOT yet have the appeal of the red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-violet colors of the real rainbow, yes. But with its maiden appearance here, Isinay Rainbow takes a bow to users of social media who have an appetite for matters that have to do mostly with Isinay as a language or the Isinay as a people.

Hosted by an Isinay who was born and raised in Isinay country, Isinay Rainbow is a blog created for "Isinay bloods" living far away from home (particularly the towns of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax). But it may also be of interest to those who fall in any combination of these categories:

• friends or colleagues of Isinays
• wife, husband or partner of Isinays
• children or grandchildren of Isinays
• classmates or co-workers of Isinays
• students who want to learn more Isinay
• advocates or supporters of the Isinay language 
• lovers of Isinay birds, forests, rivers, nature areas
• researchers of Isinay history, culture or ethnography
• development workers in Isinay lands or communities
• people interested in stories about Isinay people or places.

Naturally, the posts in this blog will not only dwell largely on Isinay as a language, as a culture, and as a people. They will also touch on recent developments that many an abeveyoyan (townmate or countrymate), especially those living abroad, may not yet have heard. 

The posts will also include photos or images that may be of interest to Isinay Rainbow readers, such as the rendition below of how Isinay country looked like in the early days as perceived by my environmental-artist friend Dante N. Pecson of Agno, Pangasinan.

As you will also see in the succeeding posts, there would also be a generous sprinkling of Isinay texts, including lists of Isinay words and phrases plus tips and examples on their proper uses.  

In cases where the posts' topics or circumstances would mostly call for the use of English, I shall endeavor to insert words in Isinay that would help enrich or improve the vocabulary of learners.

For instance, the rainbow-colored picture above contains a lot of things the Isinay names of which may not yet be in your vocabulary. Here are some of them:

• forest .............................eyas
• waterfall ........................peyasapas
• tree.................................ayu
• vine................................waah
• leaves.............................dawun
• deer ...............................laman
• wild boar........................bavuy si eyas
• monkey..........................araw
• snake .............................iraw
• crab................................ahasit
• monitor lizard ...............baniyas
• dragonfly.......................atittino'
• butterfly ........................kukkuyappon
• grass ..............................botlong 
• loin-cloth (G-string) ......indong
• machete (bolo)...............ota'
• spear...............................gayang  

Salamat podda toy bineleng yu tiyen blog. Thank you very much for paying attention to this blog.

NOTE: In Isinay, the apostrophe ( ' ) indicates a glottal sound. Thus, Isinay words with vowels followed by an apostrophe mean or are pronounced differently compared to those without such mark. (For example, ota' means the big knife called "bolo or machete," while ota means "unhusked grain of rice mixed with milled or cooked rice." In this blog also, the italicized vowel in an Isinay word indicates a stressed sound. (For example, gayang means the hunting or fighting weapon called "spear", but if you don't put a stress on the second a, then the word gayang would mean the black bird called "crow.")