“Philippine literature has always been marked by a multiplicity of voices. This is to be expected; ours is a highly diverse society, polylingual, multi-ethnic, and with a physical, economic and historical landscape so varied, the voices of the land cannot be otherwise but a rich and strange mixture.
There have been times when literature was sos defined as to exclude other voices. The variety, however, has endured. And then there have been times–and such times include now–when the dream was for the shaping of a more single voice. Such shaping, however, cannot be forced, it can only find itself in the motions of history and time. For now, we must allow for the many voices to sound.
The prsent volume focuses on current Cebuano writing in English. The hope is that this volume will, in the future, become the first of a series that will include not only present but also past works in Cebuano.
As this volume stands, however, there is already a feast for readers, offering not only works by writers whose names are familiar to readers of Philippine literature, but also pieces by some of the best young Cebuano writers in English in the contemporary scene. This is therefore, a book to be welcomed.
The end on a person note. Two ladies stand behind the present work: the writer Linda Espina-Moore, a gifted fictionist in English and Cebuano, who gently steered this work toward publication, and the woman to whom this book is dedicated, the late Concepcion G. Briones, writer and writer’s mother, sister, friend. It is a pleasure to write the introduction to a book that carries the names of two persons whose spirit and grace are gentle reminders, for all of us who know the, of what writing means and what it means beyond writing itself.”
Resil B. Mojares

If you are learning Cebuano, this book was not created for you, and you should not purchase it. It was created for completely fluent mother-tongue speakers of Cebuano who already know the full meaning of Cebuano words, but who need to learn how a single English translation of a Cebuano word may have ambiguous meanings in the English language. It is designed for bi-lingual education for the non-English reader who wants to improve English-language test scores covering English synonyms. Synonyms may bear no relationship to a translation word (e.g. “love” can signify both an emotion and a score of zero in tennis; zero, while being a synonym of love, is likely to be a bad translation to the original Cebuano headword). This is a regular English thesaurus, like Roget’s, but the entries are sorted alphabetically using headwords from Cebuano. It cannot be used to translate between the two languages, but may help a fluent speaker of Cebuano who is learning basic English, to learn the ambiguities of the English language and its vocabulary. The synonyms for each headword are not translations; Cebuano words are used to facilitate “looking up” English synonyms. Prior to purchase, educators and students should review the contents of this unique form of thesaurus which is free to view on Google books, or using Amazon’s “look inside” function. Public domain translations used were contributed to Webster’s Online Dictionary and have originated from uncited volunteers, native speakers, professional translators, field linguists and academics (not by the editor of the thesaurus). If you would like citation for any translations, make suggestions, note errors, or contribute in any other way, please email Philip M. Parker at INSEAD, who will periodically update this series. Reproduction rights are granted to educators.

A handbook of the Cebuano language spoken in the Visayas region of the Philippines, containing a glossary of essential words, a practical grammar, and common everyday phrases.

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