Pangasinan

Alumnos Pangasinan Ilokano

Zaragoza Zambal

Bolinao Zambal

Anda Zambal

Of twenty-five towns Zambal is the prevailing dialect of less than
half. As will be seen, the Ilokano have been the most aggressive
immigrants. As a prominent Ilokano in the town of San Marcelino
expressed it, when they first came they worked for the Zambals, who
held all the good land. But the Zambal landowners, perhaps wanting
money for a cockfight, would sell a small piece of land to some Ilokano
who had saved a little money, and when he ran out of money he would
sell a little more land, until finally the Ilokano owned it all.

This somewhat lengthy and seemingly irrelevant sketch of the early
history of Zambales and of the character of its inhabitants to-day is
given to show the former state of savagery and the apathetic nature
of the people who, in the days before the arrival of the Europeans,
were in such close contact with the Negritos as to impose on them
their language, and they have done it so thoroughly that no trace of
an original Negrito dialect remains. Relations such as to-day exist
between the people of the plains and those of the mountains would not
change a dialect in a thousand years. Another evidence of a former
close contact may be found in the fact that the Negritos of southern
Zambales who have never personally come in contact with the Zambal but
only with the Tagalog also speak Zambal with some slight variations,
showing, too, that the movement of the Negritos has been southward
away from the Zambal territory.

Close study and special investigation into the linguistics of
this region, carried also into Bataan and across the mountain into
Pampanga and Tarlac, may throw more light on this very interesting
and important subject and may reveal traces of an original Negrito
dialect. Prominent natives of Zambales, whom I have questioned, and
who are familiar with the subject, affirm that the Negritos know
only the dialect of the Zambal. Indeed those are not lacking who
believe in a blood relationship between the Negritos and the Zambal,
but this belief can not be taken seriously. [17]

Very little mention is made by the early writers of the Negritos. In
fact they knew nothing of them except that they were small blacks who
roamed in the mountains, living on roots and game which they killed
with the bow and arrow. They were reported to be f