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| DEFENDERS OF INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES of the ARCHIPELAGO |
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| BY ERNIE C. TURLA |
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The shift from one's own language to Tagalog in the provinces is very evident. It's been rearing its ugly head since the Constitution was written over half a century ago. It can be observed on among students returning home from college in the city, who start speaking in Tagalog either intentionally or sub-consciously. There have been reports of pupils in the elementary who are sometimes punished by their school for speaking their own language and are rewarded when they speak Tagalog or English. As if it is not enough yet that every morning, Tagalog is already the first thing they hear on the radio or television when they wake up! This is, of course, in addition to the fact that Tagalog is the medium of instruction throughout grade school. All these are exacting a toll on the health and well-being of our local languages. Clearly, the tagalization of all Filipinos is wrecking our cultural diversity. It is a dragon that must be destroyed. There must be a way by which we can rescue our languages from their impending total eclipse that is looming in the horizon. We must save each and every one of them. For they are the nuclei of our various cultures.
With the exception of the national language, all 160 languages in the Philippines, may face eventual extinction and may be among the 3,000 or so languages predicted to die during this century by an international language organization. Endangered cultural structures as they are, they have been on the verge of deterioration during the past half a century or so. Such languages have been relegated to the background in line with the country's vision to have a united people speaking a national language based on just one of them. As expected, through such marginalization, their decadence is in the cards. Many of their speakers have lost the love and pride they used to carry in their hearts for their languages, redounding to their frequent use of the national language among themselves in their own households!
What has happened is that, instead of uniting the peoples, this particular phase of the Constitution created division on among the many ethno-linguistic groups that rightly realized that their indigenous languages were being unduly dumped into the garbage bin and on their way into becoming history. The only ones who seem to feel at home with the unification process are those belonging to the new generation who have been, according to reliable sources, programmed to be that way and with but little hope for a reversal in attitude.
For the various vernaculars are now like the proverbial lemmings impulsively marching into the sea of death, and if their fatal journey is not averted on time, the next century would find all the progeny of their speakers devoid of their native languages, as well as of the culture such languages are embedded in. Then there wouldn't be a Kapampangan language anymore. (see The Last Kapampangans On Earth - http://maxpages.com/rizal ) Nor would there be a Cebuano, Ilonggo, Karay-a, Aklanon, Waray, Bikolano, Pangasinan and Ilokano language either. All that would be left gloriously standing like Prince Valiant in the middle of the field would be the national language, Tagalog.
With the advent of modern technology and sophisticated communication systems, the time frame for their demise could even be shorter. Of course, by that time, who among the people then would still care for such languages, given what is being taught to our youth these days by our great educational institutions, starting from kindergarten through graduate school? Their feelings won't for sure be the same as ours, the flame of our present pride for such languages having withered in their hearts completely in the years before that. As planned and designed as such, they would be using only one language - a language not inherited from their parents or from the region where they are born, but obtained from the schools that inculcated it in them.
"The others" as I refer to the seven other major languages, don't get promoted by the National Language Commission, and so don't get equal chance and equal footing with Tagalog in the competitive field of language propagation. Their speakers are denied the right to learn them even on their own turf. As early as the tender age of 6, when the child has not even developed a full vocabulary of his own native language, much less developed any love or loyalty to it, he is already formally exposed to other languages, Tagalog in particular. This redounds to his ability to write in Tagalog and in English, but not in his own language.
And then to cap the wanton mockery, it is in college where he is given the option to take Cebuano, Ilocano or Kapampangan as a course along with Spanish as though it is also a foreign language like it. Darn it! At that late stage in life the student already probably can deliver an eloquent speech in Tagalog, while he is just starting in the study of his own language! How pathetic! I can just imagine the Kapampangan adult learner committing errors upon errors in spelling and in grammar, and the classroom becoming a theater on something like Shakespeare's Comedy Of Errors! And the comic characters providing the "funny" scenes are our indigenous minorities who must feel embarrassed for learning their own language so late in life!
"The others", have fallen from grace with their indigenous speakers. They have been virtually sentenced to death by oxidation. Neglected, theirs is but to do and die. Right in their own indigenous regions or territory they lose credibility and respect. Right in their own domains they are shoved, degraded and made to look out of place and treated like outcasts! From the thrones of their kingdoms, they are forced to step down and abdicate, while an usurper takes their places. Not the proper way at all to treat a host if you ask me!
This language policy is repugnant to justice, and is an insult to the pride of the minority peoples. We need "die-hards" - those with fiery determination to help check this injustice subjected upon the entire non-Tagalog regions of the Philippines. We need legislators who believe in maintaining language diversity and equality, those who think that one language should not be enhanced and promoted at the expense of "the others". We can not just sit back idly and watch our languages go closer and closer to the brink of extinction. In the meantime non-Tagalogs continue to lose their self-respect or self-esteem. They continue to lose the burning fervor they used to have for their ethnic identity. Some even foolishly feel ashamed to be overheard speaking their language in public! This is all because their language is unrecognized even within their supposedlly own domain. The message they get when they see their language not being taught at all in their local schools is pretty obvious. They start looking down on it and treating it like garbage. They no longer realize that such a language is the soul and nucleus of their ethnic identity. This is absurd, because one has got to be Kapampangan, Bisaya or Ilocano first before being a Filipino. I've always said that true nationalism starts at the bottom, at the foundation, at the roots! Which means, in the barrio or barangay - the most intimate political unit since it is where one lives or was born in. It then starts to encompass higher levels but still on a step-by-step degree on matters of love and pride: the town, the province and finally, the country. And since we are discussing languages, we may add that we find no other language that is closer to our hearts and sweeter to our ears and tongues than the very language spoken in our local village and which we learned as a first language.
Looking into the future in a crystal ball, we see our own native languages in museums and in historical archives, well preserved in electronic files -- no doubt about that, like the works of taxidermists displayed for all the world to see. Still living and breathing the fresh air in their native regions? No, they are now dead languages preserved like prize souvenirs by the same hunters that had killed them with no mercy! As dead as the head trophy of a deer nailed on the wall above your fireplace! They used to be vibrant and brimming with life and enjoying their proud existence in the tongues of their speakers. But now they're gone and are now just relics showcased in an exposition center - a despicable proof of just how society in its ambitious effort to promote one language, could be so insensitive in its ways!
And would linguists try to revive them like what they have done recently to Hebrew and Latin? With not as much historical and biblical significance as those two, our languages, once lost, will forever be lost. They won't ever be revived. And their story would end with the line. "And so it came to pass....that out of more than a hundred languages in the Philippine archipelago, one has heroically survived, thanks to the noble efforts of the National Language Commission and the Department of Education."
Now let's go back to the present time and give this issue much thought. Do you want to save that language inherent in you, or don't you ever care if it's going to slip away? Are you the type of person who would lionize it and champion the cause for its survival? If you want it to become immortal like the ever-continuing existence of humanity on earth, be a part of DILA (Defenders of Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago) and participate in its discussions, conferences and workshops. Be one of its knights in shining armor. You'll be equipped with a shield and a sword and trained to fight like Sir Lancelot or Ivanhoe. Language renaissance will take the place of the Holy Grail as the main quest. You will be a Dagohoy, a Sumuroy, a Lapu-lapu, a Maniago, a Tarik Soliman, a Malong, a Gabriela - but championing another cause. DILA needs your unwavering support in its strife to accomplish a monumental aspiration only regional nationalists like us can initiate.
As the DILA founder, I can assure you with pride and candor that you will be amidst a gathering of intellectual giants and luminaries, many of whom are pillars in their own fields. We have noted linguists and historians, professors and educators, computer experts and webmasters! We have vernacular poets, newspaper columnists, as well as authors of dictionaries, of a Philippine history book, of a Palanca-winning novel, of a book containing thought-provoking essays such as Ethnic Cleansing and Manila Colonialism, and of a soon-to-come-out book entitled, A Country of Our Own. We have an illustrious painter who is also a host of a local radio program, an English literature professor, a promising student in linguistics, a retired lawyer, a mathematics teacher, a former school district supervisor, a Philippine News columnist, a former PNB manager, a former education secretary, and even a brain surgeon. And what's more, we also have Americans (Tim Harvey, the chairman of our umbrella organization is one) and a host of other knowledgeable foreigners (e.g. Jason Lovell, another American) who have joined our bandwagon to help fight for our cause.
These people, despite their differences in background and life endeavor, all share a common characteristic: a passion for languages, and specifically a strong commitment and sterling dedication to help protect such languages from decadence and eventual extinction. And our indomitable spirit, along with our pride, our hopes and sense of loyalty, is what holds us together and is the mainstay that unites us in this dream.
Now going back to the main topic, let me emphasize that the crying need of the hour, as members of this elite group, is to pool all our resources together and surge onward in our relentless struggles for reforms in language policy. It's now or never. If nothing is done during this century, the winds of change will blow all our languages away, and the castles of our cultures too will be blown to kingdom come! That's how doomed our indigenous languages are in the present situation they are in.
While our fellow native speakers are either being happy-go-lucky in their attitude or are busy with their daily chores or just leisurely basking in the sun obviously oblivious of what is going on, and our own provincial boards and congressmen concentrate on other matters, maybe economic or political, the health and lives of our minority languages hang in the balance and are at stake. We just can't wait for them to reach a moribund state like the indigenous languages in other parts of the world especially in North America where there are now only a handful of speakers left to perpetuate the existence of their languages.
To many, the scenario looks like the last picture show for their dying languages -- and their culture. Of the 6,000 languages now still spoken worldwide, more than half are predicted to sing their swan songs during this century. And with technology in communication advancing by leaps and bounds, the time frame for their demise would be even shorter. While the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slow, the wheels of language replacement do grind rapidly. It's so deplorable, we could cry! We must stand together and do our utmost to prevent our precious Philippine languages from being subjected to the same fate. Let's deliver them from the dungeon of subjugation. Let's unbind them from the shackles of neglect and get the martial law imposed on them lifted. Let's not wait for tomorrow, let's do it now. For tomorrow could be too late!
( DILA has a forum. Go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DILA-philippines )
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