Language

So here I am deliberately deciding to allot time for writing an entry into my blog.  I am laying tummy down on my bed and staring at the laptop screen with nothing to write about in particular.  I decided to type away anyway.  Random things, random thoughts, random people.

I read this from the net this afternoon. http://ph.news.yahoo.com/yes--some-pinoy-%E2%80%98languages%E2%80%99-are-on-the-brink-of-extinction.html

Many people I met here in the US wonder if Gemma, my friend and housemate, are related.  We tell them we are not and they would then ask from which country we came from.  When we tell them we are from the Philippines, many of them would ask as what part.  That is sorta hard to answer.  I am surprised many of the Americans actually know where the Philippines is.  When they do, it is usually because of WWII or the former US military bases here in the country.  Few of them know of our beautiful beaches and culture, fewer still know that we were once an American colony.

I have to tell them that Gemma comes from the northern island, where Manila, the capital, is located.  She is from Isabela, an 8-hour bus trip from the megacity but I don't give them the details anymore.  I also tell them I come from the middle islands.  I was even pleasantly surprised when two of my patients were able to know where Iloilo is: one used to be a navigator during the WWII and the other married an Ilongga who died from breast cancer some 30 years ago. I am amazed that my seemingly insignificant hometown is known to some people halfway across the world.

Some are taken aback if they learned that Gemma and I have been here in the US less than a year.  I personally think I speak good English.  God did not give me good skin, towering height, broad shoulders, athleticism, musical ability, a long penis, a penchant for numbers or business.  But He gave me a gift for languages.  So I would like to say that given time and adequate training I can learn a language and speak it well, at least to a level deemed acceptable with true speakers of the language.  When I tell my patients, " Pacencia, no comprende, me no habla Espanyol", some of the bilingual nurses would tell me I sounded like I did.  I wish I truly did.  I wanted to be fluent at least in these four languages: Spanish (spoken by everybody from Mexico to the entire South America except Brazil), Niponggo, Korean and Chinese.  That will be for another lifetime, though.

When I tell people that Gemma and I don't speak the same language, they are curious how we communicate with each other.  I tell them we speak the common language which is Tagalog so we can understand each other.  With more than seven thousand islands in the country, we have amazingly have developed many languages and many more dialects.  Hiligaynon, for example, is a language and Karay-a and Akeanon are dialects or sub-languages.  Karay-a is spoken by people from the western to the northwestern part of Iloilo and Antique.  Since Karay-a is mostly spoken by people from the fields and mountains, it is considered by the city-dwellers somewhat inferior compared to regular Ilonggo.  Therefore, although fiercely defending their heritage, the Karay-a speakers eventually transition to speaking the more conventional, more acceptable Ilonggo.  They would still speak Karay-a when speaking to family and friends from their hometown, but their intonation and diction transform to the more fluid and somewhat musical way of speaking Ilonggo.  That, I believe eventually leads to the death of a language/dialect.  People become socially intermingled and start losing some of their individualism.

I speak Ilonggo myself, but I can't stand listening to a Mass in vernacular.  I couldn't understand the words that the priests use.  Not being able to use many words in daily conversation eventually erode you ability to comprehend even your own language.  The loss of vocabulary will eventually be replaced by typical common words that does not reflect the distinction of your language.  I hope these endangered languages could be saved, if only for purely academic purposes.  They surely would bring light to our past as a people, united by a country of many islands and a horde  of wonderful, wonderful languages.