I first encountered this obsolete Pangasinan word for pilgrim in the Diccionario Pangasinan-Español by Lorenzo Fernandez Cosgaya. The original entry is as follows:
Mananguíli.—El peregrino.
But it is also in a rogue coverless PDF of a latter dictionary I found online (possibly by Mel Jovellanos) where it had two versions:
manañgali n. pilgrim
manañgili n. pilgrim
It isn’t in the Pangasinan–English dictionary by Benton.
If “mana” is also “manag” by elision, a prefix meaning “someone who,” the root word of “manañgali” or “manañgili” had to be “ñgili” or “ñgali.” However, neither Cosgaya nor Jovellanos provide definitions for both words.
Since “manañgili” appears in Cosgaya but not “manañgali,” the former might be the older word. Without an obvious root word, however, I could only speculate on its etymology. “Ñgili” seems aurally close to “ñgilin,” which also has religious overtones. In both Pangasinan and Tagalog, the word means abstinence from work or food during a religious observance. Since a pilgrimage often involves sacrifice, I see the possible relationship.
But “manañgili” also reminds me of two other Pangasinan words: “manañgi” and “manañgkaili.” “Manañgi” is the Pangasinan equivalent of the Tagalog “pamamanhikan”—the custom of seeking parental blessing for marriage, which often involves the would-be groom traveling with his own family to the house of his betrothed. Meanwhile, “manañgkaili” means to welcome and host strangers or visitors (“sankaili”) inside one’s abode.
Cosgaya adds “nañguili” (perhaps a shorter version of mananguíli) in his definition of “ili.” In other Filipino languages, “ili” could mean town or village, but in Pangasinan, it is meaningless as a standalone root, requiring an affix to form a usable word (e.g., “sanka” + “ili” = “sankaili”). By adding “nañguili” is his list of examples of Pangasinan words using the root word “ili,” Cosgaya suggests that “nañguili” or “manañguili” is tightly connected to the the meanings entailed by “ili” in other Filipino languages. The “manañguili” is someone who moves from one “ili” to another. Since Pangasinan at the time of Cosgaya lacks a direct translation to the word travel or traveller, “manañguili” could’ve been the language’s catch-all word for all forms of travel, whether religious or not.
However, I find the more recent word “manañgali” more semantically interesting to play with. “Ñgali” is closest in sound to “ñgalñgali,” which means “almost, nearly, or just about” and, therefore, triggers thoughts of an unfinished pilgrimage perhaps due to a storm, a robbery on the road, or being struck down by an illness. But “manañgali” also sounds like “managsali,” where sali means “to try”—i.e., the pilgrim as someone who tries, the pilgrim as essayist. And here’s another turn in the road: “sali”, pronounced with the accent on the last syllable, also means “feet,” and for obvious reasons I love this semantic coincidence.