Five affixes, a chapter each, and the sub-senses no modern source lists
Bergaño gives each of these a chapter, subdivided by sense. Forman mentions most of them in passing.
| Ch. | Particle | His sub-sections |
|---|---|---|
| VI | mag- | conjugation and uses; "ficción" |
| VII | mi- | transitive; neutral; neutral with an; active and frequentatives; reciprocal and correlative |
| VIII | maqui- | introducing oneself; informing; having |
| IX | ma- | neutral verbs; abundance; adjectives and their abstracts |
| X | ca- | companion and co-equal; promptness and verbals in -bilis; individual with and without an |
That is fifteen named senses across five affixes. The B1 tier gave you perhaps five. This lesson takes the three richest.
Bergaño's description is memorable: this particle expresses action "tan codiciosa, que a cuanto se llega, del modo que puede, se lo apropia" — so greedy that whatever it reaches, it appropriates however it can.
Joined to a verb that could be done either to another or to oneself, it keeps the action on the agent, making it reflexive or reciprocal.
| Root | Means | With mi- | Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| ulo | to cure another | miyulo | to cure oneself |
| sampat | to beautify | misampat | to beautify oneself |
| urod | to shave | miurod | to shave oneself |
He glosses miyulo with the Latin tag medice, cura teipsum — physician, heal thyself — which tells you something about his intended reader.
Of miurod he notes it means shaving oneself "aunque sea por mano ajena", even if by another's hand. The reflexive is about whose benefit, not whose hand.
Among the roots taking this mi- are asin (salt) and aslam (vinegar). Bergaño warns: "no pienses que con mi son salarse o avinagrarse" — do not think that with mi these mean to become salted or soured.
They mean to take salt or vinegar for one's food. The reflexive is "for oneself," not "to oneself."
All of these, Bergaño says, take the first passive with pi-. The result names the thing used.
Piurod ke ini. — This is the razor I shave with.
Piulo mu ini. — Cure yourself with this.
Piasin mu ining asin. — Take this salt with your food.
Mipingan ka. — Use a plate.
Pipingan me ining pingan ku. — Use this plate of mine.
That last pair is a small domestic scene: Bergaño sets it up with "if you eat without a plate, I will say to you…" — and it shows the reflexive mi- and the instrumental pi- in the same breath.
You met pi- in B1 lesson 3 as a place-form that Forman could not fully classify. Here is one of its other jobs, described cleanly.
Bergaño on maqui- (modern maki-):
"No me parece que se dará cosa más entrometida que este magui: hállase donde quiera que pueda participar algo, aunque sea metafóricamente, y lo que es más, aunque se repartan cachetes y palos."
Nothing could be more meddlesome. It turns up wherever it can share in something, even metaphorically — and what is more, even when what is being shared out is cuffs and blows.
Its function: to express the part of an action that falls to one participant among several. It attaches where a mi- of company, alternation or competition is already implied.
The root gaga means to scold. Bergaño is explicit that admitting mi- is not enough on its own:
| To say | Use | Not |
|---|---|---|
| "scold him" | gagan mu ya | makigaga ka geya |
| "quarrel with him" | makigaga ka geya |
The difference is reciprocation. Scolding goes one way; quarrelling goes both. Maki- can only enter where migaga — mutual scolding — is presupposed, and the speaker is taking his half of it.
Migaga ta, i Pedro at i Juan. — We quarrelled, Pedro and Juan.
Pedro mekigaga ya kang Juan. — Pedro took his part in quarrelling with Juan.
B2 lesson 16 gave you ing makisese kaku, "the one who takes care of me." On Bergaño's account that is maki- doing exactly this: taking a share in the caring.
Beyond the ordinary descriptive ma-, Bergaño identifies a ma- of abundance, which attaches to roots concerning place and means "very" or "much."
Mayanam la ding Judios.
The Jews are much spread through the world.
Mayagtang ing kuyupaya ning aring kasilla.
The king's power embraces a great distance.
The third passives keep the sense — ing kayanaman ding Judios — and the forms work well in comparisons of excess, especially with lalo:
Lalo ing katalukutuka ning isip ning banal king ketalukutuka ning isip
ning magkakalakal.
The depth of a holy man's thought exceeds that of a trader's.
Lalo is a comparative word neither Forman nor the B1 tier gave you, and it is worth adding to the mas … king … kesa set from B1 lesson 12.
His chapter on ca- divides it three ways:
| Sense | What it forms | You have met |
|---|---|---|
| del compañero y conigual | the co-participant, the equal | kapate, kapatad (B1 lesson 6) |
| de prontitud | readiness; verbals in -bilis | — |
| individual, con an y sin él | the individual instance | the ka-…-an abstracts |
The "companion and co-equal" sense is the one that explains the kinship vocabulary: a kapatad is a co-something, a kapate is the one you fight with, a kaluguran is a co-lover.
Put beside the ka- statives, the recent-completion ka-, the quality-noun ka- and the emphatic ka- you already know, this makes seven jobs for one syllable.
Are all fifteen senses still current? Unknown. Forman documents some and is silent on others, which is not the same as their being gone.
Is lalo still used? It is widespread across Philippine languages, so very likely. Listen for it.
Why is Bergaño so vivid? He is writing to be remembered by students. "Nothing more meddlesome" is a teaching device, and a good one — you will not forget what maki- does.
These sub-senses are where the difference between reading Kapampangan and reading about Kapampangan lies. A text will use the reflexive mi- or the abundance ma- without announcing it, and no B-level account prepares you.
Next: maca in Full — the prefix that cost Bergaño ten years and cost this course two corrections.