This comparative word-list was started before the war when I was Secretary and Executive Officer of the Institute of National Language under the Commonwealth of the Philippines. There were, then, in the Institute assistants who spoke Ivatan, Ibanag, Iloko, Panggasinan, Pampangan, Tagalog, Bikol, Sebu, Hiligaynon and Sulu, and these assistants together with the Director of the Institute who spoke Leyte-Samar were only too glad to extend to me their whole-hearted cooperation. Unfortunately, the materials were lost in the Battle of Manila. When the University of the Philippines reopened in 1945 and I was recalled to teach again, the opportunity came for me to get in contact with students from the different parts of the country, particularly in my class in comparative Philippine phonology, a course offered every other semester. I started the project all over again, this time with the added advantage that many more languages became available to me.