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A. Paulita Roa

THE late Fr. Francis Madigan S.J. wrote that Kagay-anons speak Cebuan Binisaya. I beg to disagree in this because even if our mother tongue is Cebuano, it has through the centuries evolved to a language variant that many called Kinagai-anon. Last week, I shared the Kagay-anon’s propensity of using words that could be shortened to the extent of creating a new word although the meaning is entirely the same. That this is a sociologic phenomenon of linguistic contraction. Then we use suffix AN to indicate that the word is a reference for a place.
The place name “Molugan” is of great interest to local historians not because it was one of the oldest pueblos of Mindanao and was once a part of Cagayan de Misamis, but many believed that this place used to be known as “Himologan,” the prehispanic settlement of Cagayan. In 1622, two Recollect missionaries became the first Spaniards to enter Himologan, a community of 500 families under a Datu Salangsang. This was located within the Cagaiang (Cagayan) territory. Unfortunately, the priests did not give the exact location of Himologan but just a brief description of the landscape–that it was situated on top of a steep promontory by a river. That they had to use rattan ladders to reach area.
Since the topography of Misamis Oriental shows numerous cliffs or promontories along rivers, it would be best to study where the word “Himologan” came from based on the old Cebuan Kinagai-anon speech. This may possibly give us answers on the claim of some quarters that the ancient settlement of Himolugan is located in Barangay Molugan in El Salvador City.
There is this conjecture that the place name Himologan was taken from the phrase “Himoan ug tulogan” which means to set up a sleeping area. It was the old custom of the farmers in Molugan to take noon day siesta in their tulogan or small huts in the middle of their fields and these can be seen even to this day.
However, the word contraction of this phrase is quite contrived as the original meaning of the Bisayan words “himoan ug tulogan” are not easily discernible in its original context in the resultant word. The meaning of “himoan ug tulogan” (to make or set up a sleeping quarters) cannot be easily understood in the contracted word “Himologan.” The Bisayan word “tulog” means to sleep. It is observed that in this transposition, the initial letters of root words beginning with letter “T” is replaced with the letter “N.” When transposed in to a descriptive noun, Tulog becomes Hinulog (fond of sleeping), as opposed to Himulog. So it may be deduced that “fond of sleeping” does not obviously refer to Himolog.
Thus, the search for the root word of Himolugan leads to subject Bisayan words as the probable root:
Olog-olog (v. to joke) and Bulhog (opaque, unclear)
The word Olog means to joke and when transposed it becomes Himolog and further transposing it to make the word as a reference to a place, the letters “A” and “N” are added as a suffix thus, it becomes Himologan.
It is very clear that the place name Molugan has close linguistic similarity to Himologan. As to how Himologan was shortened to Molugan remains subject to further contradiction as centuries went by. But is there more to this place than just a name?
Tal (native) Kagay-anons will readily agree that one of their inherent cultural traits is the fondness for telling jokes on almost every occasion and situation to family and friends.The Recollect missionaries wrote that when they first came to Himologan in 1622, Datu Salangsang and his subjects did not leave their homes without carrying their weapons.They were amazed to see the priests going around unarmed. Later, they would tease or joke about this to the priests.
I came across a nostalgic piece about the town fiesta of Cagayan de Misamis in the 1890s where the celebration lasted for days. That in the evenings, many bands played around the town as masked Kagay-anons holding colorful lanterns had a great time exchanging “tistis” or jokes with their friends. So telling jokes and teasing each other in good jest is truly a customary trait of the Kagay-anon. Suffice to say that the locals were “himolog” or fond of making “olog” or jokes. Therefore, to refer to a place where people often tell jokes or tease a lot could be called as the Himologan. My assertion may prove too rash for linguistic experts nevertheless, this analysis can be subjected to further study and I welcome this very much for there are still many things that we have yet to know about the way we speak and how much this is closely linked to our cultural heritage and our identity as a people.

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