Bansay: in search of the Filipino ‘virtue’
Nierva, Victor Dennis. “Bansay: In Search of the Filipino
Virtue.” Hingowa. The Holy Rosary Seminary Journal IV. 2
(March 2001), pp. 117-122. Print
I wish to begin this inquiry by plotting a timeline because this is
essential when one is putting together a narrative of
contruction. Here, I wish to create a triangular matrix which
corners are occupied each, respectively, by a particular word
—and thereafter examine their interconnectivity as determined
and established by definitions and usages set by scholarly
ruminations on each of them.
The primordial purpose of this paper is to contribute new
lexical entries from the Bikol region to the compendium of a
rather enriched and more comprehensively national Filipino
vocabulary. A caveat, however, is that the word in question is,
in fact, neither a new word nor a new creation or a coinage. It
is also not a friut of any recent linguistic evolution brought
about by the cybernetic culture of the contemporary times.
Rather, this is a way of recommending a kind of refashioning
and even refining meanings that we assign to a word that must
have been an essential appellation—and utterance as well—in
Bikol and Central Visayan languages probably even before the
coming of the Spaniards to the Philippines. After all, for us
scholars of words, language is not something that is inorganic
and lethargic, language itself is a turgid entity. We continue to
describe language in, perhaps, the simplest adjective, that
is, dynamic.
It is from these understructures that I am going to present the
word I wish to advocate for as a Filipino word that I believe is
quintessentially significant in our enquiries regarding identity,
culture, social psyche, history and even nationhood.
I. ORAG
In Sawikaan 2007, I presented the paper of the foremost Bikol
historian (and now probably the world’s leading scholar of the
1521 conquest), Dr. Danilo Madrid Gerona. The title of his
paper was “Orag as Bikol Virtue” which elucidated as well as
endorsed the resurrection of the original meaning and
understanding of the Bikol word orag. Gerona’s paper meant
to recover the recognition and acceptance that the word
deserves after the Spanish colonizers bastardized its
supposed noble definition. From a postcolonial viewpoint,
Gerona’s study was a simple response to an intense appetite
for the authentic past so that Bikol as a people as culture may
move on to ascertain its real identity.
In the quest to restore oragon into how it was originally
characterized, in this case, as a virtue, as something that was
positively positive, Gerona probed the meanings given
to orag during the period which can be regarded as Bikol’s
antiquity. By charting historical orientations and positions of
the word orag, Gerona provided the circumstances that the
Spaniards would endure bringing to fruition their colonialist
agenda.
It was during this period when the definition of the
word orag was altered, and the repercussions of this
transmogrification (if I may call it as such) are still felt and
experienced by many Bikolnons even until now. The utterance
of the word orag remains a taboo in many Bikol homes. In the
hands of the Spaniards, especially the friars, orag lost its
grandeur and was transformed into a spiteful, undesirable
word, and eventually became no less than a signification for
sin. The oragon, he who once had been exceptional, valiant,
fearless, and who had emerged unscathed and triumphant in
sagas and adventures, was reduced in Fray Marcos de
Lisboa’s lexicon into a person who is deshonesto o libidinoso
—he could no longer be trusted, he was the thief, the
covetous, the pervert, the master of immorality. The devil,
perhaps, in Christian sense, was the most oragon of all.
Gerona concluded his paper by sharing contemporary
manifestations of recovery of orag‘s old meanings. He ended
by articulating the evident resurging usage of the word orag,
may it be deliberate or not, as an exemplary character and
virtue of the Bikolanos.
In the same year, 2007, in her critical paper “Ang Orag Bilang
Estetikang Bikol (A Theorizing in Progress),” the eminent Bikol
critic Dr. Paz Verdades M. Santos further dissected the word
orag and espoused its potencies. By employing several texts
that link together cultures and sensibilities, Santos posited
that orag is not just a virtue, it is also an aesthetic—a way of
reading or looking at literature, particularly Bikol. Using
theories on literature and citing the complexity of history,
evolutions, studies, uses, etc. of the word orag and its
variations, Santos employed her aesthetic in exploring certain
Bikol literary texts and provided an intimate view of the
intricacies of the region’s negotiations with letters.
The studies by Gerona and Santos intersected again and
again in many aspects. It may even be considered that the
respective voices of both papers were in unison at many
junctures about many things. Particular, however, for this
paper, I would like to take note of what I think was most clear
for both studies. Santos pointed it out that the nature of the
word orag and its variations is “male-oriented ad patriarchal”
which affirms the original circumstance and milieu in which the
word orag was used.
In “Orag as Bikol Virtue,” the oragon was the man who
succeeded in wars and similar exploits. It was only during the
Spanish colonial period when the word orag was given a
female attribution, but this new assignation of meaning also
meant an imposition of a social pariah for any woman
receiving it. According to Gerona, the word ooragón was used
in sermons in the Roman Catholic Church to refer to a female
prostitute.
In Bikol literature, according to Santos, the brilliant writer is
described or labeled as someone who is oragon. A person
who masterfully performs tigsik is also an oragon because
despite intoxication, he is able to maintain his way with
sophisticated and heightened language on many things, he
can still succeed in arguing using poetry, he can still roast or
toast anyone, he can still censure even those who are in
power.
II. GAYÓN
In 2009, Adrian V. Remodo, a professor of Philosophy at the
Ateneo de Naga University, won the Premio Tomas Arejola for
his essay “Paghubà sa Magayon (Undressing the Beautiful)”.
The title of Remodo’s essay presents a kind of irony, even an
oxymoron, if we are to read it against the conservative
viewpoint of Bikol. For a Bikolnon raised and formed to
be cerrado Catolico, the beautiful must never get exposed,
and anyone who is naked can never be beautiful.
In the annual processions of Our Lady of Peñafrancia, whom
the region fondly calls Ina, nothings is more ardent than the
devotees’ desire for Ina’s manto (mantle) to remain covering
her until the end. Despite prayers, the voyadores, who were
supposed to enthrall Ina as their Queen and Mother, would
always strip her of her manto year after year. To resolve this
matter, a recast of the image of Our Lady of Peñafrancia was
made, now in fibre glass, including her manto. Then they will
no longer triumph, the voyadores—all inebriated because they
would drink before the procession to endure the acrid stink of
the mixture of sweat and musk emanating from an ocean of
male bodies. In this way, the Ina of the Bikol people will
remain magayón—the beautiful.
From Remodo’s essay emerged a way of looking at the
identity, way of thinking, and culture of the Bikolnon. A
dichotomy was created at the forking of paths
of orag and gayón. Remodo questioned the patriarchal nature
of the positive orag and how it becomes totally negative when
assigned to the female gender. The male oragon has the
faculty to overpower or even hurt (mang-urag) a woman, this
also means that man possesses the greater power and force,
physical or not. Remodo took off from the studies of Gerona
and Santos when he predicated that there is a need for the
Bikolano to reexamine his or her way of looking at orag. In his
recommendation, I saw a two-fold purpose: first, to enrich the
meaning of orag, but not simply by following its praxis,
because—the other agenda—this also consequentially
enriches our notion of gayón.
Unlike orag, Remodo admitted, gayón has its vulnerabilities.
He explained this by recalling the narrative of Daragang
Magayon in the legend of Mount Mayon, which according to
him is a metaphor of surrender to patriarchal power.
Because gayón is for the woman, and woman is weak, curled
up in a corner, weeping when hurt. The woman simply submits
to the will of the father, she yields to his decisions not just on
who to marry (maáagom), but even as to whom she will be
married (mapa-agom). The magayón—the beautiful—is bereft
of two things: courage and strength. Because of this fragility,
what was left to the magayón, the woman, were household
chores—indoors and unexposed.
For Remodo, this uneven treatment of orag and gayón in the
Bikol consciousness takes root from the notion that gayón is
maintained within the politics of strength which is the essence
of orag. Hence, orag remains a male attribute because he is
the one expected to be strong and stouthearted. In
appropriating social roles, the woman needs the man to
protect her, and man must fulfill this task. In this manner, it
appears that man is in possession of the steering wheel. The
woman is simply an accomplice. The magayón is simply an
assistant to the oragon.
Remodo then suggested an equal footing for orag and gayón,
this time, as complementary
virtues. Gayón needs orag, orag needs gayón. Orag reaches
its totality because of gayón. Each of them completes what
each has done. Whatever orag has made becomes more
significant and meaningful when it has an aspect of gayón,
and it is more empowered in the greater scheme of things.
In trade, it is not enough that a product is strong and lasting, it
must also look and feel pleasing to the client.
Remodo concluded by saying that the Bikolano is summoned
to do this: pagayunón an orag kan buót, asin paurágon an
gayón kan buhay (give beauty to the strength of the will, and
make strong the beauty of life). Every time orag is used, there
is also a need to understand the meaning of gayón. These two
entities will always be complementary.
III. BANSÁY
Yes, I need to retell what were shared before by Gerona,
Santos, and Remodo, regardless of length, because, first, I
want to make clear the concepts from which I draw this desire
to espouse a word and, probably, its new meanings drawn
from its different uses in the Bikol region. Secondly, as I have
mentioned earlier, I see this as a construction of a triangular
matrix which two corners are occupied, respectively,
by orag and gayón. Let us then assign to the third corner the
word bansáy.
Why bansáy?
In contemporary Bikol, the word bansáy has almost no place.
It is found in novenas, in the Pasyon, and other devotional
reading materials, and may only be mentioned in
conversations among sexagenarians and further. At the time I
was writing this paper, I made a small survey asking twenty
college students from Ateneo de Naga University whether they
know or not the meaning of the word bansáy. It did not
surprise me that not a single one of them knew. But it
surprised me that in Malcolm Warren Mintz Bikol-English
Dictionary (1980) there is no entry for the word. I considered
this occurrence as a sign, or even an evidence of neglect or
forgetting—or it may be a case of taking the word for granted
after half a century of rare use.
September of 2015, Ateneo de Naga University Press
released the first installment of a biography series. Through
short biographies, the series intends to introduce to Bikolano
students certain personalities who may serve as models
because of exemplary character, contributions to the society,
or admirable qualities. He or she must have shown
unparalleled love and service for the Bikol region, or a
Bikolnon who is known in his or her field.
While we were conceptualizing the project, I suggested to use
the word bansáy to Fr. Wilmer Joseph S. Tria, the AdNU Press
director. Kristian S. Cordero, then deputy director, expressed
reservations due to the fact that it sounds similar to
“Banzai!”—the battlecry of the dreaded Japanese Imperial
Army during the Second World War. But there was not a single
word more fitting. In the end, the project was finally called
Bansáy Bikolnon Biography Series.
But even prior to the biography series, the AdNU Press has
started in early 2015 a series of books called Bikolyana
Klasika, these are books that were published during the
colonial period until the mid-twentieth century but were not
widely read by intended readers thereby not yielding
significant fruits in the development of Bikol culture, letters,
and consciousness.
In the process of putting together the books categorized
as Bikolyana Klasika, the word bansáy became a usual topic in
our daily banter as we go on editing, designing books,
detecting errors in manuscripts, or simply dreaming of possible
book projects.
The university press releaned the first of the Bikolyana
Klasika in time for the Peñafrancia Fiesta last year. The
book An Kasaysayan kan Simbahan kan Peñafrancia/Nobena
sa Mahamison na Ngaran ni Maria was published in 1867 at
the behest of then Bishop of Nueva Caceres, the Dominican
Francisco Gainza.
Kasaysayan kan Peñafrancia is a comprehensive narrative
that commences at the moment a pious man named Simon
Vela heeds a voice summoning him to search for an image of
the Blessed Mother in the mountains near Salamanca in Spain
until the spread of the devotion among the natives residing at
the foot of a certain mountain in Bikol called Isarog. In the
book, the word bansáy is used to describe, in positive manner,
objects, characters, persons, or even places.
mabansay na patawad (forgiveness)
mabansay na paralingkod (servant)
mabansay na daran (path)
mabansay na ulang na batbat (an iron door lock)
urog kabansay na simbahan (physical structure of a church)
In these, examples, the note the uncertain-ness and
randomness in direction of the meanings suggested by the
word bansáy. It was used for a variety of objects: a good act, a
lowly person, a smooth path, a sturdy door lock, a magnificent
church building.
Before the year 2015 ended, another Bikolyana Klasika was
launched, this time, it was Mga Ehersisyo Espiritwal ni San
Ignacio de Loyola, a translation in Bikol of a fragment of
the Exercitia Spiritualia of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, originally
published in 1872 by Imprenta de Colegio de Santo Tomas,
again, at the behest of Francisco Gainza. In Ehersisyo, the
word bansáy also figured:
mabansay na samno (ornament)
Roma na mabansay (city of Rome)
paghuhurup-hurupan… dai maduduunan… kabansayan (an
intangible quality)
burak… na urog kabansay (flower)
kabansayan nin Dyos kong maherakon (merciful God)
baga saldang na maliwanagon asin mabansayon (brilliance of
the sun)
kumpisyon heneral… nagdadara nin kabansayan (grace)
kabansayan na inako sa Santo Bautismo (grace received
through Sacrament)
In these manifestations, the probable direction of signification
of the word bansáy is even made lot clearer. Bansáy—the
loveliness of an ornament, sun’s luminosity, all qualities point
toward another signification: that kabansáyan goes something
beyond our physical and feeble touch, it is a principle, which is
even more heightened when Ehersisyo said that it is a grace
received through any of the Sacraments. The merciful Creator
is mabansáy, therefore we are also called to
attain kabansáyan.
The following assignations of meanings furthere sharpen
what bansáy is all about.
karatan na nagpapabansay
delight drawn from sin
Satanas, mabansay kuta nang anghel
Satan, once a beautiful angel
kabansayan na nasalidahan nin kasigsukan
gentleness turned into wrath
kabansayan nin hawak… daing pakinabang kun dai para sa
Dyos
earthly pleasures… pointless if not directed to God
In the dynamics of Ignatian spirituality, the bansáy—goodness
—of the cosmos is given to man to make smooth his journey
to the Creator. Ignatius says this is the primordial and sacred
reason for the event of creation. But we also have to deny
ourselves of these kabansáyan—these delights—if they move
us away from God. Ignatius called this movement of
estrangement as desolation, and these may happen even
when we are glazed with kabansáyan. On the other hand,
there are certain entities that we may find as devoid
of kabansáyan, as they are horrible, gruesome, or painful, life
fasting, self-flagellation, or other forms of sacrifice that,
according to Ignatius, may draw us even closer to the spirit of
God, and this he called consolation.
It was at this point when I went back to Lisboa’s Vocabulario
de la Lengua Bicol (1865) where, I found out, bansáy is
generally defined as “beauty or anything with pleasing quality”
and consequently, the variation pagbansáy is described as a
process from ugliness to beauty—misshapen to handsome,
unpleasant to pleasant, perilous to safe, turbulent to calm. In
Lisboa’s entry, it is clear that man is the primary object of the
word bansáy. As I further dissected the whole of
the Vocabulario, however, I found out that the word is also
used to describe a human trait, a dagger, an unidentified
object, and a place.
Furthermore, a deeper meaning of the word can be drawn
from Fruto del Prado’s translation in 1867 of Fray Modesto de
Castro’s Urbana at Felisa.
cabansayan nin boot
purity of disposition
gaue, cabootan, catubisan na nagpapabansay sa paglacao
character, kindness, humility that make movement graceful
cabansayan nin ugale
goodness of character
cabansayan nin cagayon, rinaraoraoan gabos can arac
admirable beauty, stained by wine
ugale, bacong maraot, cundi mabansay
character, not unpleasant, but respectable
In del Prado’s translation of Urbana at Felisa, the
word bansáy is not confined to describing man, it also provides
character to human descriptions. Here, we also find that which
we may consider as the opposite of bansáy the
word raot and raót—disarray, chaos, disgrace, wrong, corrupt,
unpleasant, putrescent, guilty, foul, filthy, etc. Bad character is
not mabansáy. Defective objects are not mabansáy. Unhealthy
body is not mabansáy. Offensive words are not mabansáy. A
choir gone off-key is not mabansáy.
There is mysticism in the use of the word in Teodosio
Homillano’s Mes del Rosario (1870):
cabansayan na madadangog sa mga doros
consolation whispered by the wind
As it was in orag and in gayón, the meaning of the
word bansáy is diverse and complex. It points toward a
multitude of objects. Yet, the manifold meanings and
significations of bansáy converge at a singular point of being:
that which is an absolutely positive condition, if not perfection.
In the Visayas, the word bansáy is both an endeavor and a
quality of being an expert.
magbansay (to master)
nagbabansay (the act of mastering)
Meanings, that, still, point to something absolutely positive.
1. BANSÁY: URAG, GAYÓN
Once, while in the middle of a conversation about the
word bansáy, Fr. Wilmer Tria, the leading figure in Bikol
Philosophy, mentioned something that set the background of
this rumination, he expressed his reservation about coming up
with a book on Ethics in the Bikol language because he could
not find any Bikol equivalent of the English word virtue. I want
to look at this as a kind of subversion and deligitimization of
how the word virtue was used by Gerona.
We must realize that the general Filipino usage of the
word birtúd is not at all different from the way it was used by
the Spaniards. In the U.P. Diksiyonaryong Filipino, birtúd is
1. puring malinis o dalisay
2. katangiang kahanga-hanga
3. bisà
4. kakaibang kapangyarihan o kahusayan
5. anting anting
I believe we are all privy to the fact that, like orag, the nature of
the origin of the word virtue is patriarchal, and therefore it is
not surprising that even the general use of this word in the
contemporary times is still in the realm of the masculine. In the
Filipino cinema, for example, the word birtúd has always been
attributed to anyone in possession of strength and courage.
Someone reeking of the disgusting ansud (body odor) is said
to be may birtúd (in possession of virtue) and, still, often
masculine in association. Anyone who can move things from
one place to another without touching then is said to be may
birtúd. The quack healer who is believed to have the faculty of
saving anyone from perils of illnesses and even death is said
to be may birtúd. Any man who can charm a beautiful woman
is said to be may birtúd. But, after all these things, when does
a woman possess, receive, or attain birtúd? Vice Ganda is
even more fortunate, he can speak with Madam Birtúd!
If we are to follow Remodo’s contention, this concept needs to
be reexamined. Even our understanding of birtúd (virtue)
needs to be deeply, critically reassessed.
In Fr. Tria’s lecture, University as Hub for Virtue-
formation (2015)m he opines that virtue is the necessary
essence of student formation in the university. For Tria, this
concept advances the purity or integrity of intentions, and that
university life is not simply truth-seeking but living out this very
truth.
If we are to consider this concept of virtue, we are then, after
all, in search of a birtúd that transcends questions on gender,
language, and ideologies.
In this context, I wish to advocate for the word bansáy as the
Filipino for the foreign virtue.
In the variety of uses for the word bansáy in Bikol publications
during the Spanish period, the object of the word was
absolutely uncertain. This character of bansáy elevates the
word into cosmological or universal dimension. Like the
universe as seen from the lenses of theoretical
Physics, bansáy proposes boundlessness, yet points to a
particular direction.
Furthermore, bansáy is not limited to any gender. In the Bikol
edition of Doctrina Cristiana (1875), the quality of
being mabansáy is a description for both Mary and Joseph.
Virgen na mabansayon
admirable, powerful, beautiful, faithful, etc. virgin
mabansayon na pagka-Hade
royal majesty, ardor, justice, brilliance, goodness, etc.
Mary is mabansáy—her beauty is beyond compare, her heart
is purest, her faith is superlative. Similarly, the God-King
is mabansáy, his greatness is eternal, he is all-powerful, his
brilliance is glorious.
I am, at present dissecting the translation in English by Dr.
Evelyn Caldera Soriano of Lisboa’s Vocabulario, and started
studying a matrix of root sounds of Bikol words. I discovered
that the smallest unit of linguistic understanding for the Bikol
language is not the root word but the root sound. This is an
exciting undertaking but a tedious one. For example, words
that start with the sound /sû/ generally suggest upward or
rising movement.
sùngáy : sit on another’s shoulders
sùníp : upward movement of the eyeball
sùgóng : rising of water level in rivers
sùyáb : extension of a house, usually elevated
According to Tria, Bikol words ending in the sound /say/
suggest a movement toward order, mastery, righteousness, or
beauty.
husay : towards proper function
saysáy : towards meaning
rinsáy : towards order
mansáy : towards clarity
I still find it inconclusive, but Fr. Tria also suggests that words
starting in the sound /ban/ suggests identity, like banwâ (town,
locale), bantog (known), bansag (alias), etc., but if I have to
use this as a framework in further understanding the
word bansáy, the word will be a lot sweeter and filled with
more power. Bansáy, from the sounds /ban/ and /say/, will give
as a terminology which can be understood as “identity
endowed with sense of order, reason, excellence, or beauty.”
I also wish to mention here the meaning of the word bansáy to
our Visayan friends, which is currently the meaning of the word
in the U.P. Diksiyonaryong Filipino: sanáy (mastery). At this
portion, to give prominence to the place of bansáy in the field
of learning, I wish to quote what Prof. Victor John Loquias in
his paper, “Tuod Na: Ladawan nin Kanuudan sa Kinaban asin
Tubong Kahulugan nin Edukasyon (Tuod Na: Image of
Learning in the World and Root Meaning of Education)”
(2014):
…education is not only acquiring knowledge about skills and
competencies we need to live, it is also pagkatuod (mastery)
of world we live. We need to acquire various faculties that
enable us to exist in this world and commune with other
human beings because it is here where we live and attain
meaning, it is also here where we find our social relevance.
Along with the expanding horizons
of pakikipagkatúod (friendship) and katuúdan (mastery) comes
also the expansion of the world we have come to know so
deeply.
In these approaches on bansáy, i insist that the extent and
significance of this word is far greater than those of the
words orag and gayón. I insist that anyone who
is mabansáy is orágon; anyone who is mabansáy is magayón.
However, given the examples of Gerona, Santos, and
Remodo, it does not mean that anyone who is
either oragón or magayon is inevitably mabansáy.
In the word bansáy live, breathe, and beat both
the oragón and the magayón—the presence of both is vital
and indispensable. Bansáy is the harmony of the male and the
female, the coming together as one of goodness, bravery,
beauty, valor, expertise, mastery, competence,
etc. Bansáy pushes for no any other ideology but positive
measures, actions, qualities, and characters.
If we are to embrace the word bansáy as the Filipino for virtue,
we are creating a venue so that our studies, researches, our
explorations of disciplines—Humanities, Psychology,
Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, Theology, etc.—are
realized with intimate closeness to our indigenous climates.
Our articulations of our own identity may become more direct
and precise.
Considering the complicated negotiations of the Bikolanos with
the term bansáy, clarified by how the Visayans assign the
word as ‘mastery and expertise,’ bansáy is the birtúd that is
more than the birtúd that we, Filipinos, got used
with. Bansáy goes beyond times, provenances, contexts,
societies, and conditions.
We may, therefore, declare that bansáy is the virtue—that is Santos, Paz Verdades M. “Ang Orag Bilang Estetikang Bikol
more than virtue and birtúd—of the Bikolano, of the Visayan, it (A Theorizing in Progress)” in the journal Malay, Tomo XIX,
is the birtúd—that is more than the traditional birtúd—of the Blg. 3. Manila: De La Salle University, 2007.
Filipino people. Soriano, Evelyn C. Translations in English of Vocabulario de la
Lengua Bicol by Marcos de Lisboa, 1865. Unpublished
REFERENCES manuscript.
Books and Journals Tria, Wilmer Joseph S., ed. “An Kasaysayan kan Simbahan
Almario, Virgilio S., editor-in-chief. UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino. kan Peñafrancia: Francisco Gainza, O.P., Nobena sa
Diliman: U.P. Sentro ng Wikang Filipino : published and Mahamison na Ngaran ni Maria: Manuel Grijalvo,
distributed by Anvil, 2010. O.S.A.” Naga City: Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2015.
Baquiran, Romulo P. and Zafra, Galileo S., eds. Sawikaan ______________, ed. Mga Ehersisyo Espiritwal sa Tataramon
2007: Mga Salita ng Taon. Quezon City: University of the na Bikol. Naga City: Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2015.
Philippines Press, 2008. ______________. “University as Hub for Virtue Formation”
Homillano, Teodosio. Mes del Rosario o Mes de Octubre, paper read at the Congreso Internacional de Filosofia
traducido al Bicol. Manila Establicimiento Tipografico del Intercultural: Tradiciones de Formacion, Espiritualidad y
Colegio de Santo Tomas, 1870. Universidad. Santo Domingo, Republica Dominicana, 2015.
Ignatius of Loyola. The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius: Online Source
Based on Studies in the Language of the Autograph. Bansay. Binisaya.com <www.binisaya.com/cebuano/bansay>
Translated by Louis J. Puhl, S.J. Chicago: Loyola Press, 2001. accessed on Oktubre 16, 2015.
de Lisboa, Marcos. Vocabulario de la Lengua Bicol. Manila:
Establicimiento Tipografico del Colegio de Santo Tomas,
1865.
Loquias, Victor John M. “Tuód Na: Ladawan nin Kanuudan sa
Kinaban asin Tubong Kahulugan nin Edukasyon” in the
journal Bikol Studies: Perspectives & Advocacies, Issue 1,
2014. Naga City: Ateneo de Naga University Press, 2014.
Martinez, Domingo. Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana en
idioma Bicol. Manila: Imprenta del Colegio de Sto. Tomas,
1874.
del Prado, Fruto. Pagpasuratsuratan ni Urbana asin ni Feliza,
na pahinonodan nin marahay na caogalean na dapit sa
paquitabang sa magkasitauo. Manila: Imprenta sa Colegio nin
Santo Tomas, 1867.
Remodo, Adrian V. “Paghuba sa Magayon” in the
journal Pagpukaw: An Invitation to Philosophize, Vol. III. Naga
City: AdNU Department of Philosophy, 2007.