One Rice, Dozens of Names: Filipino Words for Rice at Every Stage
In English, rice is just rice. In the Philippines, it has a different name at almost every stage of its life. A vocabulary that rich only comes from ancestors who grew rice for a very long time.
The seedling: punla
In Tagalog, the rice seedling is punla. Older Tagalog vocabulary also includes baslay for rice that is just beginning to sprout (from secondary sources on Doreen Fernandez's work on rice words).
The growing plant: palay, pagay, palé, pagey, humay
Tagalog palay, Ilocano pagay, Kapampangan palé and Pangasinan pagey all trace back to the same ancient Austronesian root. In Hiligaynon and other Visayan languages, the plant can be humay.
The grain head: uhay
The rice head is uhay. The soft, milky early grains are malagatas.
Harvest and husking
Dayami is the straw, ipa the husk and darak the bran — once pounded off with the lusong at halo, the mortar and pestle.
Milled, uncooked: bigas, bagas, bugas, abias, belas
Tagalog bigas, Ilocano bagas, Cebuano bugas, Kapampangan abias and Pangasinan belas are all relatives of Malay beras.
Cooked: kanin, inapoy, nasi, kan-on, niluto
Tagalog kanin, Ilocano inapoy, Kapampangan nasi, Cebuano kan-on and Pangasinan niluto. And here's a twist: humay means the plant in Hiligaynon, but cooked rice in Aklanon.
After the pot
Tutong is the crispy crust at the bottom of the pot. Bahaw is leftover rice. Sinangag is garlic fried rice. Lugaw is rice porridge, and malagkit is sticky rice. In Pangasinan, leftover rice is baaw.
Ugat means root
Historian Ambeth Ocampo has written about how rich our rice vocabulary is, and linguists have counted around 200 rice-related words in an early Spanish-era Tagalog dictionary. These words are roots too.
What's the word for rice in your family's language?
Sources
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