08/08/2020
THE PLACE NAMED "CAGAYAN"
The Philippine map shows, at least to my count, four places with the name Cagayan, and that they are located distant from each other across the country. These are: the Cagayan Valley Province at the northernmost part of Luzon, where Ilokano, Ibanag and Ivatan are predominantly spoken; the municipality of Cagayan, now known as Cagayancillo where Kagayanen and Palawano are spoken; the municipality of Cagayan de Sulu, where Bajau Kagayan is spoken; and Cagayan de Oro, which was also known as Cagayan de Misamis, where Bisaya is largely spoken.
There are other names that are likewise shared all over the archipelago. Camiguin de Babuyanes, Camiguin Island province; and, there are many other names like Agusan, Bugo, Carmen, Kauswagan, Lanao, Tubod, and more, that are replicated all over, for various many reasons.
Such names of places never cease to fascinate me, more so with the myriad of reasons.
The name "Cagayan” is special perhaps because, firstly, I am a Kagay-anon; and, secondly, because I learned of some of the reasons why, apart from very recent conjectures — folkloric, academic or otherwise.
The name Cagayan, regardless of various peculiar spellings, could denote that this is an old name that was preferred in ancient times. It could be a variant from a proto-Austronesian word "Carayan" which means river. This is still widely used by the people of northern Luzon. Through one given eon, big rivers have been found geomorphically in the landscapes of Cagayan Valley and Cagayan de Oro .
One may ask how did the place name Carayan evolved to Cagayan? Spanish phoenetics is different from the proto- Austronesian sound, thus Spanish colonizers transposed it conveniently as they best knew. Note that in my previous write up, the 1622 spelling of Cagaiang was changed to Cagain in 1739.
What we also have to take into consideration is that the people groups in Palawan and Tawi-Tawi are also very familiar with the word Cagayan and this is a prominent part of their history. That which deserves another thread.
Lastly, we come from the proto-Austronesian family of languages and race that includes the peoples of Taiwan, Island Southeast Asia, Micronesia, Polynesia stretching as far as Madagascar.
Surmise it to say, then, that names of places all over the archipelago can possibly be similarly named, with or without sharing a common geologic feature that may still be observable to this day.
After all, rivers can dry up; islands, wash off; and minds change.
Photo of Cagayan River by Enrico Ramon Lluch. Shared with permission
