kulintang

noun

ku·​lin·​tang ˈkü-lin-ˌtäŋ 

plural kulintangs

: a gong chime of the Philippines

also : a musical ensemble made up of kulintangs

In the 1950s, an awakening interest in indigenous music and dance led to a diffusion of the kulintang throughout the Philippines.

—John Shepherd et al., Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, 2003

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from a word in languages of the southern Philippines and adjacent parts of Sabah and Indonesia, as Magindanao kulintang “row of horizontal gongs, ensemble using such gongs,” Maranao kolintang, Central Sinama (Sama-Bajau language of the Sulu Archipelago) kulintangan, Manobo of Bukidnon (northern Mindanao) kulingtang (phonetically kuliŋtaŋ), all going back to a common Western Malayo-Polynesian onomatopoeic base, whence also Malay kelentang, kelentong “repeated banging or booming sounds”

Note: For further data, see entry *kulintaŋ in Robert Blust, Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (online at www.trussel2.com/acd/).

First Known Use

1960, in the meaning defined above

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