By Peter La. Julian
Northern Luzon Bureau
BATAC, Ilocos Norte–Instead of focusing solely on the national language, Filipino, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF or Commission on the Filipino Language) has revised its vision toward the development, propagation, and preservation of the country’s more than 179 dialects and regional languages.
“The KWF leadership has agreed to establish a center for information, documentation, and research on the languages and various literatures of the Philippines,” said Dr. Ricardo Ma. Nolasco, KWF chairman.
Nolasco, a Bicolano who spoke in Filipino, delivered the keynote address in a recent international gathering here of 182 Filipino educators, scholars, and writers from the Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera, the United States, and Japan.
Called “Nakem” (consciousness or maturity in Iloko), the three-day affair tackled, beside the Ilocano diaspora, the state of Philippine dialects and languages, and was held at the Mariano Marcos Memorial State University here.
Nolasco said the center, to be established within three years, will create original and model dictionary, grammar, and orthography (spelling), scholarly journals and literacy materials and references for teaching various disciplines.
He said the center will be a storehouse of data on various dialects and languages, equipped with audio and video recording of communicative events, including annotations and commentaries.
The project is in line with the policy, “Isang Bansa, Maraming Wika” (One Nation, Many Languages), which is the basis for this year’s language theme, “Many Languages, Strong Country,” Nolasco said.
He said English, as one of the country’s official languages, would also be enhanced.
He said the policy has been formulated in keeping with the fact that the Filipino is multi-lingual and multi-cultural and that the country’s having more than 170 dialects and regional languages is not a handicap but a big advantage.
“It is ordinary for a Filipino to know how to speak two or more languages,” Nolasco said, citing the case of President Macapagal-Arroyo who can speak Kapampangan, Sinebwano, Iloko, Tagalog, English, and Spanish.
He said, however, that the country has a national language, Filipino, that has become a common language for various ethno-linguistic groups.
He nevertheless admitted that Filipino is simply Tagalog in syntax and grammar, with no grammatical element or lexicon coming from Iloko, Sinebwuano, Ilonggo, and other major Philippine languages.
This is contrary to the intention, he said, of Republic Act 7104 that requires that the national language should be developed and enriched by the lexicon of the country’s other dialects and languages.
The KWF is working toward that direction and would conduct research and studies not only on the national language but also on the country’s dialects and languages, Nolasco said.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
My friend said she read an article attacking the Pilipino language as “NOT a legitimate language” (as if there is an illegitimate one???) the reason being, it only borrows from other languages.
I hope your endeavors will prove to the world that we are a people with unique “tongues” that we can be proud of.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:49 am
please show me the list of languages used by the filpino.
September 9th, 2007 at 7:50 am
The Philippine educational system should include in their curriculum the different dialects as offered subjects. Hence there could be subjects for dialects like Ilocano, variants of Tagalog, the different Bicolano dialects, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Waray, Maguindanaon, Tausug, and if possible cultural minority language like Bagobo, Manobo etc.
We have put the different languages of the world in our curriculum and that is good. What is even more better is to incorporate the dialects in our college (or even high school) curriculum as a viable subject for study and even mastery.
If properly done, this may serve as a vital link for better understanding among the citizens of the Philippines.
September 5th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
Language is one of the tools who made us unique as people in the Philippines.The preservation of RP’s other language is a great move.As though our official language must be English that made Filipinos well verse,well adjusted,well known,language gifted.
Go on!We are proud being Filipino here in China……….
And along with their knowledge, the Filipino children will learn about the ways, the cultural heritage of all Filipinos…their songs, their tulaan or poetry, their customs and traditions that have been burried under the onslought of spanish culture that Spain brought to the Philippines. I like to see how different ethnic groups way of naming or callling one another, formally and informally. I like to know if they can trace their ancestors through their names and what other racial lines do they have, malay, chinese, hindus, or what not. It is nice to see how their songs sounds so that our youth can hear them, listen to them, and from them, create their own unique songs, the blending of different tribes’ music, which they can then call their own, as Filipinos. To this day I marble at how some Filipinos can speak multilanguages, the northern dialects and mixes them up with the Tagalog. Preserving them, indexing them in the historical records of the Philippines will provide reach resources for cultural enlightenment of the next generations of Filipinos. Who knows, we may turn out to be a strong people who although many of our young girls marry foreigners, their children will know their mother’s heritage and will be proud of it. Out of this chaos, of allegations of corruptions and moral degradation of present day Filipino societies a renessaince will emerge as the result of our willingness to reflect and discuss as to who we are as a people. There are some pain along the way for many us have been children of mixed marriages between the subjugated and the subjugating colonizer. But I think that make us more unique among the peoples of the world because we are free to gather and glean for what’s beautiful from among the arays of cultural influences our diverse ancestors left us.
I am very much in favor of this move. And some of their vocabulary words and expression can be incorporated to what we consider as the Filipino language. Language is dynamic and fluid. It is continuously growing according to the needs of the people to communicate. This move should make us better communicate with one another as a people…..
Stop these voodoo rituals about languages, history, and current events.
Language is a tool: don’t idolize it, erect an altar for it, dress it up like a doll, etc. Use it. That’s what tools are for or they become impedementas rather than useful achievements of generationss past for the present generations as they add on its efficacious role in uniting peoples.
Languages are tools for remembrance too. They carry evocations of events, definition of beings and values and perspectives in life. Like the blood that flows ceaselessly bringing sustenance to biological body, languages energize the body politic of nations. As blood too, they could carry detritus, venom, and such as would weaken–and even kill–bodies, so too languages can suffocate the will and vigor of nations.
Ultimately, of course, it is the universal experiences of the nation that determines what the language will be to its people. What can persons communicate–but what happens to them including what they are induced to think about such events?
In short, we can not be a proud people, unless we have much to be proud of; a shamed one, if we experience too much shame in our national life. And our languages (and dialects) can only be a source of spreading and perpetuating such shame (or such pride). Languages are tools; peoples make them, turning them to be to them what they decide, in many and various ways, to be.
Already too many Filipinos see Pilipino (language) more as an impediment than otherwise, hence the call for “enhancing” the teaching of English (and then Chinese?) so our people (notably the youth) can “be competetive, viable, proud in the world! The appropriate respond to that is not to “preserve” our languages and dialects but to develop the economic sinews of our country, cleanse our political and judicial instruments, let Justice, Freedom, Creativity and Peace reign supreme in our national life. Then we will have–not “preserved” local languages–but dynamic, vibrant, ennobling ones!
Let’s stop being idiotic: the horse comes before the cart, OK?……..
Many languages are even virtually unknown or wrongly classified. Ilonggo is not a language , it refers to a group of people who lives in Iloilo. Their language is Hiligaynon, a child language of Kinaray-a.
This endeavor will not only preserve our languages but will also highlight and enhance the cultural diversity we have in the Philippines.
August 27th, 2007 at 2:09 am
Stop these voodoo rituals about languages, history, and current events.
Language is a tool: don’t idolize it, erect an altar for it, dress it up like a doll, etc. Use it. That’s what tools are for or they become impedementas rather than useful achievements of generationss past for the present generations as they add on its efficacious role in uniting peoples.
Languages are tools for remembrance too. They carry evocations of events, definition of beings and values and perspectives in life. Like the blood that flows ceaselessly bringing sustenance to biological body, languages energize the body politic of nations. As blood too, they could carry detritus, venom, and such as would weaken–and even kill–bodies, so too languages can suffocate the will and vigor of nations.
Ultimately, of course, it is the universal experiences of the nation that determines what the language will be to its people. What can persons communicate–but what happens to them including what they are induced to think about such events?
In short, we can not be a proud people, unless we have much to be proud of; a shamed one, if we experience too much shame in our national life. And our languages (and dialects) can only be a source of spreading and perpetuating such shame (or such pride). Languages are tools; peoples make them, turning them to be to them what they decide, in many and various ways, to be.
Already too many Filipinos see Pilipino (language) more as an impediment than otherwise, hence the call for “enhancing” the teaching of English (and then Chinese?) so our people (notably the youth) can “be competetive, viable, proud in the world! The appropriate respond to that is not to “preserve” our languages and dialects but to develop the economic sinews of our country, cleanse our political and judicial instruments, let Justice, Freedom, Creativity and Peace reign supreme in our national life. Then we will have–not “preserved” local languages–but dynamic, vibrant, ennobling ones!
Let’s stop being idiotic: the horse comes before the cart, OK?