04/07/2025
| Nutrition Month 2025
๐๐ซ๐๐๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฒ๐ญ๐ก: ๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ง๐ ๐๐๐ง๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐ค๐๐ง๐จ, ๐๐ง๐๐๐ซ๐๐ฐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐๐ญ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ-๐๐๐๐ง๐๐ ?
In southern Cagayan, where there is considerable Itawit and Ibanag presence amid the dominant Ilokano pop**ation of the entire province, a curious case of linguistic borrowing has developed throughout the decades, one involving a particular vegetable dish-- the ๐๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐, or ๐๐ฃ๐๐๐ง๐๐ฌ, as others call it.
Generally, dinengdeng appears as soup-like, with a combination of vegetables (usually leaves, fruit parts, flowers, and legumes), and is flavored mainly with bagoong, and sometimes, fried fish, or shellfish. It is a common household favorite, due to its simplicity, heartiness, and health benefits. Growing up with dinengdeng in southern Cagayan, one might also get used to the term inabraw, a synonym and one that is used interchangeably with dinengdeng in natural frequency.
On the other hand, many from southern Cagayan would argue that although the two names are synonymous, they have different linguistic provenances-- dinengdeng is Ilokano, and inabraw is Itawit or Ibanag. In this part of the province, people have gotten used to this notion. But, how factual or historic is it? Historical and linguistic research provide clues that could disprove its perceived veracity.
Let us retrace our steps to the starting point of the Ilokano migration to Cagayan-- to Spanish-period Ilocos Region itself. Augustinian Friar Andres Carro, who wrote his Vocabulario Iloco-Espaรฑol in the 18th Century (published in 1888), listed both the root words for dinengdeng and inabraw, and both were defined distinctively. In the old Iloko language, "๐๐๐ฃ๐๐๐๐ฃ๐" originally meant "boiling vegetables with bagoong". On the other hand, "๐๐๐ง๐๐ฌ" originally meant to "parboil meat or fish with salt", the method of which can be applied to vegetables. Perhaps, due to their close similarities in terms of cooking method and process, both terms eventually became synonymous among most of the Ilokano people, which is still the case today whether in the Ilocos Region or Cagayan Valley.
The use of the term dinengdeng in Ibanag-Itawit southern Cagayan can be considered a case of linguistic borrowing from Iloko, implying that the dish was introduced among the natives during or after the migration period that started in the 19th Century. Does it mean therefore, that the native Ibanag and Itawit of Cagayan originally did not prepare something similar as dinengdeng? This is not true, of course, as the peoples of northern Luzon, besides having closely-similar cultures because of a common origin, also subsisted more or less on the same natural resources-- this include native vegetables.
So, what is then the indigenous Cagayano name for dinengdeng? Apparently, it is not inabraw, as many had assumed in the past; we have already established that the root word, abraw, is Ilokano. Moreover, abraw is absent in the Diccionario Ybanag-Espaรฑol, a lexicon written by Dominican Friar Jose Bugarin in the 17th Century (published in 1854). What is present in the dictionary, instead, is the root word "๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐", which refers to an all-vegetable dish that is prepared by boiling; its synonyms are "๐๐ฃ๐๐ฌ" and "๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐" (cognate of the Ilokano ๐ฃ๐๐ฉ๐๐ฃ๐). The 1867 Diccionario Espaรฑol-Ybanag, on the other hand, defines "lappa" or "inaw" as cooking vegetables solely with salt. Both definitions are similar to how abraw was defined in Iloko according to Carro.
Some Itawit and Malaueg speakers have retained the word "lappa" in their own native vocabulary, while very few Ibanag elders in southern Cagayan remember the term. The term lappa seems to be more used among the Isabela Ibanag, surviving in the terms "๐ฃ๐๐ก๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐", "๐๐ฃ๐๐ฃ๐๐ฌ", both of which are used to refer to dinengdeng or inabraw. Nevertheless, the latter two are now the more familiar names used by all Ibanags in the valley.
Now comes the question: why did the Ibanag and Itawit of southern Cagayan adopt the Ilokano names dinengdeng and inabraw, despite having indigenous equivalents? A clue lies in the diccionarios-- it may be possible that the native nilappa was indeed flavored solely using salt, despite the Ibanag also having the custom of producing bagoong (๐๐ช๐๐๐ช๐ค๐ฃ๐ in Iloko; ๐๐๐๐ค๐ฃ๐ in Ibanag). Adopting the recipe for the bagoong-based dinengdeng might have eventually replaced the term nilappa in the native vocabulary; bagoong, as an umami source, might have been more appealing with regard to taste. This is only, at best, a hypothesis as of the moment. What is sure is that languages are never static. They are subject to linguistic borrowing resulting from the contact between languages, which in this case, are Iloko, Ibanag, and Itawit.
Whatever it is called, the vegetable dish stands as an important icon of Cagayano culinary tradition, serving as a cultural heritage and legacy that symbolizes the best of both worlds.
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SOURCES:
Bugarin, J. (1854). Diccionario Ybanag-Espaรฑol. Los Amigos del Pais.
Carro, A. (1849). Vocubulario de la Lingua Ilocana. Manila: Tip. del Colegio de Santo Tomas.
Diccionario Espanol-Ibanag o sea Tesauro Hispano-Cagayan (1867). Manila: Imp. de Ramirez y Giraudier.
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