WHAT THEY had in real life was the “sun” (ari in Kapampangan and hari in Tagalog). They also had the “day” (aldo in Kapampangan and araw in Tagalog). When they were compelled to change the meaning of ari, hari into “king” (rey) even if they had never had one, they “tentatively” used term for “day”, so aldo came to mean both “day” and “sun”, and araw came to mean both “day” and “sun”. This is shown in the tables above.
As late as the 1940’s, Tagalogs were using the term haring araw, referring to the “sun”. If hari means “sun” and araw means “sun”, haring araw would mean “sun-sun”! They were unconsciously trying to hold on tightly to the original word hari.
Also during the 1940’s, the Tagalogs expressed a wish by saying nawa, as in Manalo nawa (I wish he would win.) But they also used the term hari nawa, as in Hari nawang manalo siya (I wish he would win). In expanding nawa into hari nawa, they were presumably “wishing” unconsciously that the term hari would retain its original meaning (sun).
Sadly, however, the Spaniards eventually won the tug-of-war.
This is evident in the Kapampangan and Tagalog translations of the prayer “Hail Holy Queen”. In Kapampangan, it used to be Bapu Ari. Then it eventually became Bapu Reina. In Tagalog, it used to be Aba Po, Santa Mariang Hari. Then it eventually became Aba Po, Santa Mariang Reina.
Correspondingly, “sun” and “day” which should have been ari and aldo in Kapampangan became aldo and aldo, while “sun” and “day” which should have been hari and araw in Tagalog became araw and araw. This is shown in the tables above. Interestingly, at present, the English word “sunflower” is bunga matahari in both Malay and Indonesian.
The Spanish missionaries were familiar with the biblical verse: A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. (Revelation: 12:1).
The woman was identified by the missionaries as the Blessed Virgin Mary. Here, she is associated with the sun. So, they associated Mary with the native word which meant “sun”: Ari or Hari. They introduced the prayer “Hail Holy Queen” as Bapu Ari and Aba Po, Santa Mariang Hari. That was in the 16th century up.
Then when, in the 20th century, the Pampangans and Tagalogs learned that, according to the Spanish friars, ari or hari meant “king”, they adopted the Spanish feminine reina and they changed Bapu Ari into Bapu Reina and Aba Po, Santa Mariang Hari into Aba po Santa Mariang Reina.
The Spaniards eventually won the tug-of-war.
The linguistic analysys ends here. Now, the anthropological evidence.
(To be continued)
