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“ THE ” Filipino Language: WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS MEAN???

August 18, 2007

What’s ironic about this official entry is that I’ll critique the contest itself. Don’t worry, in spite of the apparent negative fuss this will end on positive note in line with the theme. Promise!

Ano ba talagang gusto ng contest na ‘to?

First of all, the contest is described to have this aim:

The Wika2007 Blog Writing Contest is a group writing effort aiming to trumpet the beauty and strength of the Filipino Language

As a student of linguistics, the first question that entered my mind was: which Filipino language do the organizers want to strengthen? Because “the Filipino Language” is singular and not plural, I thought that this referred to ONE language.

Since there’s a difference between a Filipino Language and the Filipino Language, I thought that they referred to the Pambansang Wika institutionalized by Manuel L. Quezon. Perhaps “the Filipino language” the contest refers to is standardized Tagalog, which is also known as “Filipino.”

Then I read the theme:

… this year’s Buwan ng Wika theme: “Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa” (Free translation: “A gift of tongues for a strong nation”).

Oh, I was mistaken! I guess the organizers referred to the MANY languages spoken by Filipinos. Uh, doesn’t this theme somehow conflict with the aim? Ano ba talaga—one or many?

Then I read further:

… blogging about the Language will not only enforce the online Filipinos’ love for their native tongue, but also promote it to bloggers around the world.

The next question is what exactly do they mean by native tongue? According to linguist Howard Stern, native language is equated to “national.” Now, this points to two things:

  1. The official status— One might easily say that the native tongue is indeed standardized Tagalog. Currently, the 1987 Constitution states that “Filipino” and English are both official languages of the Philippines.
  2. The geographic boundary—it is the language spoken within a community. Now this is a problem, given that standardized Tagalog is the Pambansang Wika, what about people from the north who have Ilocano as their native tongue?

Yet Stern concludes, “it would be best to reserve the term ‘native language’ for the language of early childhood” meaning it’s the language learned first. Given this definition, my friend’s son has standardized Tagalog as the official language of his country, has Waray as the language in his hometown, and has English as his native tongue.

Ladies and gentlemen of the organizing body, what exactly does this contest want to promote? ;)

Ambot ah!

Ano ba talagang problema?

A problem with the term “the Filipino Language” is that it can downplay other languages spoken by Filipinos.

Is a devoted public preschool teacher who teaches in Hiligaynon, knowing neither Philippine English nor standardized Tagalog, less Filipino? Does this mean that Filipino ladies of Spanish descent who, within their families that have called this land “home” for centuries, have been conversing in Español are not speaking a Filipino language?

It is buwan ng Wika. In many places Jose Rizal’s words echo, “Ang taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay daig pa ang mabaho at malansang isda.” Forgive the apparent lack of reverence towards our national hero,

• but a Cebuano might retort, “Ngano man nga gipugos man ako nimo managalog. Cebuano lagi ako.”
• a Kapampangan might dissent, “Eh nanung pakialam mu kung kapampangan ing sarili kung salita.”
• a Filipino great grandson of a native Chinese, who lived here for 50 years to embrace Philippine citizenship, might say, “bo huat lo la, gua kha i fokien.”
• a gay person might assert, “ang jubingbungbang mo! gay lingo luv ko!”
• and a pilosopong estudyante might say, “Eh bakit niyo po sinulat yung Noli at El Fili sa Español at hindi sa Tagalog?”

Hey, I’m not saying that “the Filipino Language” is bad, I’m just saying that standardized Tagalog is not the only Filipino language.

Sociolinguist Michael Halliday wrote:

As long as we keep [the study of language] at bay we can go on believing what we want to believe about language, both our own and everybody else’s.

…More than any other human phenomenon, language reflects and reveals the inequalities enshrined in the social process.

Ano ba talagang gusto kong sabihin?

The business of languages can be confusing, eh? But what I would like to point out in that entire discourse is that we have to recognize that we are indeed a multilingual community.

With interaction with other nations, especially through globalization, foreign languages found their way in the local scene as some are nativized. World Englishes pioneer Braj Kachru defined nativization as the complete embedding of a foreign language in local contexts.

A perfect example would be Philippine English. Bro. Andrew Gonzales reported that English was first used as the medium of instruction through the First Philippine Commission in 1901. But by the end of 1921, almost all teachers under the Department of Education were Filipino. Thus, from the beginning Filipinos learned English from Filipinos, and this fact marks the origin of what is now known as Philippine English.

In light of nativization, Filipino poet Gemino Abad reiterated in a writers’ forum: “English is now ours. We have colonized it too.”

There’s a hypothesis that Chavacano is also nativized (or colonized!) Español.

There are over 170 languages spoken by our countrymen and this does not make us, as a people, less Filipino.

Ano ba talagang koneksyon nito sa tema?

Being a multilingual community indeed proves that we are a strong people. We are a people with over 170 dialects with Philippine English and standardized Tagalog and English (and even Cebuano!) to serve as languages of wider communication yet we are one Filipino people.

The language barrier does not hinder us from feeling proud to be Pinoy when we see Manny Pacquiao triumph in the boxing ring or hear Efren “Bata” Reyes’ post-victory interview in translations from Tagalog to English. No language barrier hinders us from sympathizing with our Bicolano countrymen who had suffered miserably from typhoon Reming.

Let us take a look at the tower of Babel myth. Would we be more Filipino if we had one language to unite all ethnicities in our country? Perhaps. Perhaps not.* Yet look at the reality: we live with the shattered tower and many languages, yet we are proudly Pinoy. We can transcend differences and co-exist as a people. There may be no uniformity, but there is unity. We are strong, not in spite of the many languages, we are strong because of the many languages. This is where our strength lies: we find unity in diversity.

Whether we like it or not, the standardized Tagalog did help establish a greater sense of national identity. Our Wikang Pambansa has served as source of unity, as a language we shift to when we want to be understood by our fellow Filipinos from across the nation. It may not be the most loved language but it is definitely a language close to heart.

Others may ridicule pop icon Sam Milby for publicly humiliating himself on national television with his Filipino-language-under-construction. But the language is another point of Filipino connection. Others appreciate this effort of Mr. Milby to learn the language and greater assert his Filipino identity.

Back in college I attended a work camp with volunteers from all over the Philippines. Our outreach consisted of repairing a town school in Benguet. Because of the ethnic diversity of volunteers and the desire to accommodate to the beneficiaries, we spoke in our Wikang Pambansa. On the last day, we gathered our tired selves in the quadrangle together with the community. Our hearts were filled with pride as together we sang the national anthem whose official lyrics are expressed in the beautiful 1966 translation in our Wikang Pambansa. These haunting lines articulated our utmost desire:

…Lupa ng araw, ng luwalhati’t pagsinta,
Buhay ay langit sa piling mo;

Sa bayan natin meron tayong Pambansang Wika at mga Wika ng bansa. May pagkakaisa sa gitna ng pagkakaiba-iba. Ito tunay na ang galing ng Pilipino.

Pagdating sa wika para tayong halo-halo. Maraming recado: yung iba mas malaki, yung iba mas kaunti. Pwede natin ihambing ang Wikang Pambansa sa gatas. Ngunit bawat isang sangkap sa halo halo ay importante. Lahat sila ay bumubuo sa iisang lasa ng paborito nating halo-halo. Mmm, ang sarap!

Kay sarap maging Pinoy. :)

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* Sociolinguist John Gumperz wrote that “not all problems of interethnic contact are communicative in nature. Economic factors, differences in goals and aspirations, as well as other historical and cultural factors, may be at issue.”

Notes:
1. I have not italicized any of the non-English languages to assert that all the languages used in the entry above are Filipino languages.

2. Readers, forgive me for not meeting common expectations of formalities from contest entries. This is a blog writing contest, not an essay writing contest. ;)

3. I have written this entry mainly in the language I first acquired: Philippine English. However, I have no reservations in translating it later.

4. I also used the term “standardized Tagalog” to refer to Filipino, the Wikang Pambansa institutionalized by Manuel L. Quezon in 1937. I’ve used the term “standardized” to imply that it went though the process of language standardization identified by Haugen (selection of the norm→codification of the form→elaboration of function→acceptance by the community). I’ve used the term “Tagalog” to identify the root language of Filipino, and to distinguish it from the term I scrutinize, “the Filipino language.”

5. If you still feel upset because I critiqued the nature of the contest through this entry (should I have sent a private email instead?), at this point of the blog post, you should know that the critique was part and parcel of expounding on the theme. With the confusion in the nature of this contest, I wrote this entry in light of the theme. After all, the Wika 2007 site states:

…Pano ba sumali?
Madali lang.1.) magsulat ng isang blog post. Your post can be about your life, someone you know, a past experience, or whatever else, as long as your post is related to the theme.

…Judging shall be based on creativity and relevance to the theme.

References:
Bautista, L. (2000). Defining standard Philippine English: Its status and grammatical features. Manila: De La Salle University Press.
Gonzalez, A. (1997) The history of English in the Philippines. In Bautista, L. (Ed.) English is an Asian language: the Philippine context (25-40). Australia: The Macquarie Library.
Gumperz, J. (1981) Communicative competence. In Coupland, N. and Jaworski, A. (Eds.) Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
Halliday, M. (1979) Linguistics in teacher education. In Carter, R. (Ed.) Linguistics and the teacher. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Haugen, E. (1972) Language standardization. In Coupland, N. and Jaworski, A. (Eds.) Sociolinguistics: A reader and coursebook. London: Macmillan Press Ltd.
Kachru, B.. (2005). Asian Englishes: Beyond the canon. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental concepts in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

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Wika2007 Blog Writing Contest
Theme: “Maraming Wika, Matatag na Bansa”

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Written by Frances · Filed Under Wika2007 

Comments


6 Responses to ““ THE ” Filipino Language: WHAT THE HECK DOES THIS MEAN???”

  1. jason on August 19th, 2007 5:32 pm

    you failed to mention one thing that the standardized Tagalog has made: CLASS. Tagalogs have actually raised themselves higher compared to their fellow Filipinos.

    They monopolize literature, they imperialize, and it’s all about them them them with national support, while other languages are left to fend for themselves. Have you noticed this is the first BUWAN NG WIKA to recognize “other” Philippine languages?

    Very colonial in nature.

    To say that Tagalog has unified our country is just getting away from the reality that Tagalogs have colonized the Philippines now. Will Tagalog radio stations play a Kapampangan song? No, but otherwise, yes. That means Tagalogs have a nation-wide market to any linguistic product, and therefore, they have more sources of income, that would boost their money.

    It will attract non-Tagalogs to shift to Tagalog because that’s where the gold is.

    That’s why whenever a Tagalog tells me that we need one language for unity, i’d say let’s just be an English country to unify with the world.

    If you notice, Tagalogs are battling English, but for non-Tagalogs, they’d be battling two imperializers: English and Tagalog.

    This is the other half of the reality you did not mention.

    But I applaud your article. Other articles are traditional.

  2. therese on August 22nd, 2007 2:00 am

    this site really helps me about our debate on our school it gave me lots of ideas

  3. Frances on August 23rd, 2007 12:57 pm

    Jason: Thanks. Sorry ngayon lang ako napadaan dito.

    As for the point you raised, I did mention something about that:

    “Sociolinguist Michael Halliday wrote:

    As long as we keep [the study of language] at bay we can go on believing what we want to believe about language, both our own and everybody else’s.

    …More than any other human phenomenon, language reflects and reveals the inequalities enshrined in the social process.”

    Precisely, the dynamics of language use is also a dynamics of politics.
    That’s why there’s inequality, it’s inevitable. Those who use the prestige language has more power and those who have power can create a prestige language. But, I did not expound on that as well as you did in your comment (thanks for this :) ) because I focused on the theme.

    Perhaps, it was wrong for for me to write that standardized Tagalog is a source of unity. Maybe I should have used the term “point of unity” instead.

    It’s not that we intentionally use a certain a language to impose dominance over others all the time. Many times, it’s just a matter of finding common ground.

    Like our use of English in this comment section. You might be a native Kapampangan and I’m a bilingual English & Tagalog speaker but we chose to communicate in English to accomodate each other.

  4. Anne on June 12th, 2008 7:18 pm

    Natuwa akong basahin ang inyong blog. I admire you po for having noticed whatever you wrote in your blog and I wish I can someday write as well as you do - clear and fun to read.

  5. Jose Perez on August 28th, 2008 5:47 pm

    It’s not that we intentionally use a certain a language to impose dominance over others all the time. Many times, it’s just a matter of finding common ground.

    Oh its intentional. Thanks to Tagalog our languages are dying. The government doesn’t support ilonggo, bisaya or kapampangan the way it does Tagalog. Do you know its even ILLEGAL TO SING the national anthem in other Filipino languages? You are naive Frances. I’m glad many people are waking up to this reality including me!!!!

    SHOOTING STRAIGHT By Valeriano Avila
    Wednesday, July 16, 2008

    A week ago today, the session at the Cebu City Council started as usual by singing the National Anthem in the Cebuano language or “Nasudnong Awit or Yutang Tabunon” despite the fact that there is a national law that penalizes anyone singing the national anthem in their own native tongues except in Filipino, which as we all know is a not-so-cleverly- disguised Tagalog. But after the National Anthem and the prayer in Cebuano, Presiding Officer Vice-Mayor Michael Rama suggested continuing the session using the Cebuano language in order to clarify all matters.

    Thus it was a sort of unique, albeit historic day last week because Cebu City Councilors were speaking their own native tongue in their official session. That the City Council of Cebu defied that law against singing the National Anthem in another tongue other than Tagalog proves our point that that law has become inutile, especially when faced with our Constitutional realities where one of the most basic freedoms our people enjoy is the Freedom of Speech, which means the freedom to speak our native language.

    How many times have we said it here before that we Filipinos are very good in making great laws, but we’re the worst in implementing such laws? Year 2008 has been declared the International Year of Languages, which was proclaimed by the 61st General Plenary Assembly of the United Nations in their effort to promote “Unity in Diversity and Global Understanding. ” This year, the UN is pursuing multilingualism as a means of promoting, protecting and preserving diversity of languages and cultures globally. I have been advocating our right to speak and be educated in our Cebuano language from the first day I became a columnist. Now something like this finally happens, almost like a dream come true!

    The Philippines is also a signatory of this UN declaration, hence for a nation of more than a hundred spoken languages, we should be the first to understand the realities that we are a nation of diverse cultures and languages and that one of the most basic of human rights is the Right to Free Speech! Yet our educational policy is killing other Filipino languages.

    We Cebuanos have long been proud of our cultural heritage and language; after all, the first people in this archipelago that the Europeans knew were Cebuanos. Oh yes, the Spaniards didn’t forget Cebu, as this is where the leader of the Armada de Moluccas Ferdinand Magellan met his death in the hands of Chieftain Lapu-Lapu.

    We are also known as the First Christians in this part of Asia. While we embraced Christianity, I would like to believe it was due to the Sto. NiÒo, the statue of the Holy Child Jesus that is so richly decorated and dressed up. Back then, Rajah Humabon and his Queen Juana had their Anitos small wooden idols, hence when Magellan presented them with the Sto. NiÒo, they immediately embraced it.

    Back on our advocacy on language. I won’t forget that 22 years ago when President Corazon “Tita” Cory Aquino issued a directive ordering all government offices that official communication in her administration was through the use of the Filipino language. The Province of Cebu then under Gov. Emilio “Lito” OsmeÒa defied that Presidential Directive and filed a case in court to stop that Presidential directive and won.

    I remembered Gov. OsmeÒa asking the question, “What is really the Filipino Language, when the reality is, it is 99.9% taken from the Tagalog language?” Since that time, despite a law ordering the singing of the Philippine National Anthem in Filipino, the City of Cebu, the Cebu Provincial Board starts its sessions with the singing of the National Anthem in Cebuano. This includes the Rotary Club of Cebu (Mother). Let’s hope that in today’s session in the City Council, they would continue holding it in Cebuano, today and in the next sessions to come! Mabuhi ang Sugbuanon!

  6. Patrizia Anne Feliciano on October 21st, 2008 5:45 pm

    So.. is it futile to be on the affirmative side of a debate class for the topic: “FIlipino as the lingua franca in the Philippines” ? Hope to hear from you soonest.

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