"Marunong Ka Bang Mag-Filipino?"

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March 18, 2006
Saturday

Finally I got myself a copy of the March 1–15 issue of The Filipino Journal, which features another article of mine, "Marunong Ka Bang Mag-Filipino?", which I wrote especially for the newspaper. This is my second time to be published in the said newspaper.

Marunong Ka Bang Mag-Filipino?
by aLfie vera mella

Mangilan-ngilan pa lang ang kinariringgan ko ng tanong na ’yan. Kadalasan, ang bukambibig ng marami ay, “Marunong ka bang mag-Tagalog?”

Oo, maraming Filipino rito sa Canada na, hanggang ngayon, Tagalog pa rin—imbes na Filipino—ang term na gámit kahit na ang tinutukoy nila ay ang pambansang wika ng bansang kanilang pinanggalingan.

Sabagay, hindi rin naman sila masisisi dahil ang karamihan sa kanila ay sa Canada na ipinanganak o nagkaisip; o di kaya nama’y nandirito na nuong dekada otsenta pa, kaya mistula nang nakalimutan na ang pambansang wika ng Pilipinas ay Filipino—na ipinatupad sa ilalim ng 1987 Saligang Batas ng Pilipinas.

Ang wikang Filipino ay itinuturing na first language ng halos 30% ng 84 million na populasyon ng Pilipinas, at bilang second language naman ng humigit-kumulang na 80% ng populasyon na ’yan.

Mahalaga pa nga bang malaman ang pagkakaiba ng Tagalog sa Filipino?

Oo naman, napakahalaga n’yang malaman ng bawat edukadong Filipino. Karapatan at obligasyon ng isang tao—Filipino man o hindi—na makilala ang sariling kultura, kasama na r’yan ang mga pagbabagong pinagdaraanan nito. At hindi lang naman wika at kultura ng Pilipinas ang nagbabago; bawat bansa ay patuloy na dumaranas ng tinatawag na linguistic development at cultural evolution. Patuloy ang inog ng mundo, patuloy ang pagbabago, tuluy-tuloy ang buhay ng tao.

Bakit nga ba? Sa simpleng kadahilanang, “Language—as well as culture—is a living thing.” At kung hindi mo aalamin ang mga pagbabagong nangyayari, malamáng mapag-iwanán ka. Magpapahulí ka ba? Hahayaan mo bang maturingang laós na ang iyong kaalamán?

In the World Map
One of the largest archipelagos in the world, the Philippines is an independent republic in the southeast rim of Asia. It is composed of over 7,100 islands that are bounded in the east and northeast by the Philippine Sea and on the south by the Celebes Sea. On its southwest border lies Borneo; and to its north, Taiwan. Geographers divide the Philippines into three major groups of islands: Luzon in the north, Visayas in the middle, and Mindanao in the south; then they further group these islands into 17 regions, among which Metro Manila, in Luzon, is the National Capital Region—the country’s center of commerce and most urbanized area.

In Linguistics
Although the culturally diverse Philippines is the largest English-speaking country in Asia, the native tongue in Metro Manila and in many other urbanized areas in Luzon is Filipino, making this the country’s national language.

Filipino is an augmented version of Tagalog, another Philippine language spoken by many people from the main islands of Luzon. Its spelling used to be Pilipino, but a Philippine Congress act in 1989 changed its name to Filipino. This move sought to adapt the name of the language to the new and modified 28-letter Philippine alphabet, which Department Order no. 81 mandated in 1987.

Filipino is a conglomeration of legitimate, homegrown Tagalog words, like pakikipagtalastasan (communication), panitikan (literature), paaralan (school), and úpuan (chair); words from other Philippine languages that have become widely used, like cabalén (from Kapampangan, meaning “compatriot”), guráng (from Bikol, meaning “old person”); and pilandók (from Maranaw, meaning “mouse deer”); and many foreign derivative words, like komunikasyon (from English, meaning “communication”), silya (from the Spanish silla, meaning “chair”), and túlong (from the Malay tolong, meaning “help”).

The current 28-letter Philippine alphabet consists of the original Filipino letters
A, B, K, D, E, G, H, I, L, M, N, NG, O, P, R, S, T, W, Y
plus the adopted English letters C, F, J, Q, V, X, Z
and the Spanish Ñ.

The Philippine alphabet originated from the Latin alphabet, which the Spaniards, through their own language, brought to the Philippines during the Spanish colonial period, which began in the 1500s and ended in the late 1800s.

Sa Madaling Salita
Ang Tagalog ay isang bahagi lang ng wikang Filipino, na sumasaklaw rin sa mga salitang hiram o hangò sa banyagang wika at sa ibang lokál na dayalekto. At hindi na rin naman nakapagtataka ’yan, dahil walang anumang lenggwahe na hindi nanghiram ng salita sa ibang wika.

No Language Is Pure
"English spelling is hybrid—the product of Anglo-Saxon, French and classical traditions, with many outside influences.”—Steven Roger Fischer, A History of Writing (2004, Reaktion Books Ltd.)

Oo, ultimo ang wikang Ingles ay hindi na rin puro. Gaya ng Filipino, ito ay mayaman din sa mga hiram-na-salita (loanwords)—haiku, yurta, skáld, avant-garde, cañon—mga salitang bagama't nasa diksiyonaryong Ingles ay orihinál na galing sa Japanese, Russian, Icelandic, French, at Spanish. Kahit sa Filipino nga ay nanghiram na rin ang English: boondocks – “a remote and undeveloped area.”

Ngayong alam mo na ang pagkakaiba ng Filipino sa Tagalog, at alam mo na rin na wala naman palang pagkakaiba ang lahat ng lenggwahe sa larangan ng panghihiram, e siguro naman hindi ka na mahihiyang Mag-Filipino?

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Below is my first article to be published in The Filipino Journal.