THE Center for Kapampangan Studies announces rare document discovery in Augustinian archives of Valladolid, Spain, which can shed more light on state of Kapampangan language in early days of colonization.

The document is a 1702 Kapampangan dictionary written by Fray Alvaro de Benavente, an Augustinian missionary whose first assignment in the Philippines was the parish of Mexico, Pampanga in 1671.

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He was transferred to Bacolor in 1675 and then given various assignments in Manila, Spain and China, until he was reassigned to Bacolor and then back to China where he eventually became the mission's first bishop.

Fray de Benavente wrote a Kapampangan arte (grammar) in 1699, which contains illustrations of the prehistoric Kapampangan script called kulitan.

According to Lord Francis Musni, a historian of the Center for Kapampangan Studies, it was Fr. Policarpo Hernandez, OSA, former head of the Augustinian mother house in Intramuros, now retired in Spain, who discovered the centuries-old document in Valladolid and facilitated its shipment to Holy Angel University's Center for Kapampangan Studies for its reproduction, transcription and translation.

Musni says that Benavente's dictionary is now the oldest Kapampangan dictionary available.

"But the holy grail of Kapampangan lexicography is Fray Diego Ochoa's arte and vocabulario, which were written in 1578, or about seven years after the Spaniards landed in Pampanga," says Musni.

The oldest translated work on the Kapampangan language by a Spanish missionary is Fray Francisco Coronel's arte (grammar), written in 1617. It was transcribed and translated by Fr. Edilberto Santos and published by the Center for Kapampangan Studies in 2005. It won the Manila Critics Circle's National Book Award that year.

In addition, the Center has also published Fray de Benavente's arte (written in 1699) and Fray Diego Bergaño's arte (written in 1729), both translated by Fr. Santos, as well as Bergaño's dictionary (written in 1732), translated by Fr. Venancio Samson, which won a special citation from the Manila Critics Circle.

The recently discovered dictionary by Fray de Benavente antedates Bergaño's dictionary by 30 years.

Robby Tantingco, Director of the Center, says the discovery is significant because "this dictionary reveals an even earlier state of the Kapampangan language, and we will get to see words not contained in Bergaño's dictionary and therefore new insight into ancient Kapampangan culture and society."

"Benavente's word entries and definitions will either confirm or contradict Bergaño's, and that's the most exciting part," Tantingco says.