Adverbs, Interjections and Irony

1. Ten sections, by function

Bergaño organises adverbs not by form but by what they are for:

of place	of time
of asking and answering	of doubting and affirming
of supposing	of contrasting
of approximating	the disjunctives
of interjections and ironies

That last category is the remarkable one. He opens it by saying these "significan los afectos del alma y son más difíciles, si no imposibles de trasuntar" — they signify the affections of the soul and are more difficult, if not impossible, to translate — "explicarélas como pudiere", I will explain them as best I can.

2. auo — the opposite of what you sought

Bergaño does not gloss his interjections. He gives you the situation that licenses them, which is the only way this kind of word can be taught.

AUO — "an interjection signifying an expressive feeling that the contrary of what is sought is the case."

The setting: You ask me for a loan — at the very moment I am going about looking for someone to lend to me.

The reply: Auo, aku na pa sa ngeta!
"Ah — if only I could find someone to give to me first!"

The setting: You ask whether Juan is a good student. I know he does nothing but play and knows not a word.

The reply: Auo, e na ngeti paninapan man!
"Ah, poor me — he does not even dream of it."

Two fully specified social situations, for one two-letter word. This is how pragmatics has to be documented, and it is unusual to find it done at all in an eighteenth-century grammar.

3. acaya — and irony

ACAYA is, he says, compounded of a and caya — and kaya is the "I wonder" particle from B2 lesson 14.

Its first sense is a kind of anxious hope:

Acaya, e na pin kerawak!
"Oh, let it not turn out that I did him harm rather than good, when I thought it would help him."

Its second sense is ironic, and Bergaño describes the delivery as well as the meaning — it is said con retintín, with a sneer.

The setting: You are anxiously waiting for the servant to come back from the errand you sent him on. I happen to know he never went, or is off dawdling.

What I say: ¡Acaya!
Bergaño's gloss: "that is — catch him by the tail."

The setting: A man says he will not miss the shot. We know he hits one nail and a hundred horseshoes.

What we say: ¡Acaya! e me turan.
Bergaño renders the force in Spanish as: you are as sure of that as of a fart in your hand.

💡 Irony, documented in 1736

A section heading reading "de las interjecciones e ironías" is treating sarcasm as part of the grammar — a thing with forms, conditions and a characteristic delivery.

Most grammars, then and now, stop at syntax. Bergaño is describing how to be rude in Kapampangan, correctly, and he supplies the tone of voice.

It is also a reminder that the language in these books was a living one spoken by people who teased each other. It is easy to read a colonial grammar and see only catechism.

4. ba and salamat

BÁ is a greeting — specifically for someone you have not seen in a long time.

Ba, makananu ka? — Well! How are you? (to a relative or friend long unseen)

Ba pu, Maria.

It also serves for imploring — Ba, Dios a Ginu ku! — and for "didn't I tell you?", as when you warned someone he would fall, and he fell.

And then SALAMAT, which he files here, among the interjections:

Use	Example
thanking	Salamat pu king lugud mu. — Thank you for your love.
congratulating	Salamat pu king ati ka. — roughly, how good that you are here.

🌱 The first word you learned, thirty lessons later

Salamat was on the second page of the beginner course, glossed "thank you." Here it turns out to be an interjection with a congratulatory use as well, and Bergaño's example sentence — salamat pu king lugud mu — contains lugud, the root behind kaluguran.

This is what the advanced tier does. Nothing new is being introduced; the things you already knew are turning out to be larger than the gloss you were given.

5. Adverbs or particles?

Much of what Bergaño files as adverbs, Forman files as lexical particles. His "doubting and affirming" section covers the same ground as B2 lesson 14's pin, yata, kanu and sana.

Bergaño's category	Forman's
adverbs of doubting and affirming	lexical particles
adverbs of supposing	lexical particles; conditional relators
adverbs of contrasting	relator-introducer particles
interjections and ironies	— not covered

The disagreement is about word classes, not about facts. But the last row matters: interjections and irony have no equivalent section in Forman, so for that material Bergaño is the only source available.

6. Practice

Exercise 1: The categories

Bergaño organises adverbs by ___ rather than form (Answer: function)
His last section covers interjections and ___ (Answer: ironies|irony)
He says these are difficult if not impossible to ___ (Answer: translate)

Exercise 2: Which interjection?

The contrary of what is sought is the case: ___ (Answer: auo)
Said with a sneer, ironically: ___ (Answer: acaya)
Greeting someone long unseen: ___ (Answer: ba)

Exercise 3: salamat

Bergaño files salamat among the ___ (Answer: interjections)
Besides thanking, it serves for ___ (Answer: congratulating)
"Thank you for your love." → "Salamat pu king ___ mu." (Answer: lugud)

Exercise 4: Two frameworks

What Bergaño calls adverbs of doubting, Forman calls lexical ___ (Answer: particles)
Which category has no equivalent in Forman? ___ (Answer: irony|ironies|interjections)

❓ Common Questions at This Stage

Are these interjections still used? Aray and aru certainly, since Forman records them too. Auo and acaya are unverified — a good thing to ask about.

Should I try being ironic in Kapampangan? Not until you have heard it done. Irony misfires in a second language more easily than anything else.

Why does Bergaño translate so bluntly? He is writing for adult missionaries and wants the force conveyed. It is one of the places his book stops sounding like a grammar and starts sounding like a person.