Abstract:

The terms that encode body parts are often revisited in the field of diachronic linguistics for these words are considered as parts of the core vocabulary of languages, that is, these words are less likely to change or be replaced by non-cognate forms compared to other lexical items. However, little research has been done on the terms that concern human senses. It is in this light that this paper seeks to provide a preliminary survey of the terms connected to one of the five human senses–olfaction. This study primarily focuses on looking at how the odor lexica of 25 Philippine languages developed through time. The data show that in the course of the development of the odor lexica of Philippine languages, several semantic changes have taken place. Furthermore, these olfactory terms offer a glimpse of the rich indigenous concepts of various ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines.