One of the aims of the Seminar in Philippine linguistics being to record through annotated texts the smaller units of Philippine speech, such work must obviously occupy itself preferentially with those dialects which are on the point of being wiped out by neighboring stronger languages, in order that their structure may be preserved for future studies.

From this point of view no little interest attaches to that group closely related and as yet very little studied dialects which are spoken by the Spaniards “Zambales” (presumably from a native *sambalí, comprehension of groups of houses1). This province, which forms the westernmost part of the island of Luzon (see sketch map following) was constituted in early Spanish times by a southern portion called “Tuguí,” and a northern part which was Zambales proper. Of this latter an important town was Bolinao, originally located on the island of Binabalyan which marks the southern entrance to the Gulf of Lingayen and is now called Santiago Island. Bolinao was later transferred to the mainland of Luzon, just opposite to the island mentioned, where it became more widely known through being made the landing place of the cable from Hongkong to Manila.