Learning With The Mother Tongue (Part 2)
By DR. FLORANGEL ROSARIO BRAID
July 29, 2011, 10:58pm
MANILA, Philippines — Let me now share some developments in reviving my mother tongue, Pangasinan, which is perceived as a “dying language.” “We are a dying tribe on the verge of extinction,” notes Santiago Villafania, the province’s leading poet.
This lament is shared by some local writers and researchers who explain it as a consequence of factors such as migration of skilled and unskilled workers to other parts of the country or abroad, inter-ethnic marriages, changing language use, and what is described as “relative cultural prestige” of the language.
Pangasinenses have the tendency to use Iloko or Pilipino during conversations, notes writer A.R. Ravanzo who thinks this could be due to “penchant or uncanny ability for assimilation – to absorb oneself into the cultural tradition of another place, and the proclivity to belong, to survive against all odds.”
Many Pangasinenses are multilingual and proficient in English, Tagalog, and Ilokano. The continuing influx of immigrants to central Pangasinan may have also contributed to its erosion as they speak a different dialect.
Melchor Orpilla, poet and broadcaster, further notes that many young people in the province think that speaking Pangasinan is “bakya” (pedestrian). He advocates the use of media to counteract this existing mindset. But we need a regular publication like those in the other languages, he says. There are about 1.8 to 2 million people who speak the language but they are scattered outside the province or abroad.
To date, Pangasinan has yet to be introduced in the school curriculum despite availability of literary materials. These include works by two eminent zarzuela writers – Catalino Palisoc and Pablo Mejia, renowned educator and suffragist Maria Magsano who published the Silew magazine, and fiction writer Juan Villamil, according to Erwin Fernandez.
Advocates in the use of the mother tongue like myself see the move to revive an endangered language as a much bigger cause than the loss of technical knowledge. Victoria and James Anderson aptly describe it as much more “threatening,” as “losing one’s first language means forfeiting much of one’s social and cultural identity.”
A challenge, therefore, for local literati and cultural organizations (among others, Pangasinan Writers Association, Pangasinan Council for Culture and the Arts), and lately, the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission (PHCC), is that of mobilizing resources for publications, advocacy, and similar projects.
The online e-group of PHCC has generated considerable interest and serves as a discussion venue for its members. An idea that drew enthusiastic response is the conduct of an Urduja Festival next year.
The creation of a Pangasinan Wikipedia has been approved. A radio program, Pinablin Taoir (treasured heritage) geared saving the language is now broadcast in Dagupan City. After learning that most Pangasinenses do not speak the language anymore, Archbishop Socrates Villegas initiated a choral competition called Project Sanengseng which gets additional support from local schools and city government.
Villafania, author of a poetry collection called Diurnal, hosts a website devoted to Pangasinan poetry (http://dalityapi.com). As studies show, languages have a better chance of surviving if standard written forms exist and if the speakers are literate and if literature and the media continue to be produced in the local language.
But there are periods in our history (such as the Japanese occupation) which yielded almost nothing in terms of documentary heritage. In fact, a group in Dagupan had taken the initiative to produce an adaptation of the zarzuela as there was then no other source of entertainment.
There could have been at least a dozen of scripts written as the show went on for some two years. My sister was with the regular cast and I, a fifth grader, already enamored with theater, would often join the production crew during performances. I am not aware of whether we still have access to what I consider a valuable cultural heritage.
It is for reasons such as these that our local UNESCO Committee on the Memory of the World had been pushing for the preservation of the Jawi alphabet. Jawi is one of the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia and our Moslem brothers in Mindanao. And like Pangasinan, it is also facing the threat of extinction.
We need further research on the impact of the first language on learning as most of the local studies are anecdotal. Perhaps later, a more systematic and controlled field study can be undertaken together with project implementation.
Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/328821/learning-with-the-mother-tongue-part-2
July 29, 2011, 10:58pm
MANILA, Philippines — Let me now share some developments in reviving my mother tongue, Pangasinan, which is perceived as a “dying language.” “We are a dying tribe on the verge of extinction,” notes Santiago Villafania, the province’s leading poet.
This lament is shared by some local writers and researchers who explain it as a consequence of factors such as migration of skilled and unskilled workers to other parts of the country or abroad, inter-ethnic marriages, changing language use, and what is described as “relative cultural prestige” of the language.
Pangasinenses have the tendency to use Iloko or Pilipino during conversations, notes writer A.R. Ravanzo who thinks this could be due to “penchant or uncanny ability for assimilation – to absorb oneself into the cultural tradition of another place, and the proclivity to belong, to survive against all odds.”
Many Pangasinenses are multilingual and proficient in English, Tagalog, and Ilokano. The continuing influx of immigrants to central Pangasinan may have also contributed to its erosion as they speak a different dialect.
Melchor Orpilla, poet and broadcaster, further notes that many young people in the province think that speaking Pangasinan is “bakya” (pedestrian). He advocates the use of media to counteract this existing mindset. But we need a regular publication like those in the other languages, he says. There are about 1.8 to 2 million people who speak the language but they are scattered outside the province or abroad.
To date, Pangasinan has yet to be introduced in the school curriculum despite availability of literary materials. These include works by two eminent zarzuela writers – Catalino Palisoc and Pablo Mejia, renowned educator and suffragist Maria Magsano who published the Silew magazine, and fiction writer Juan Villamil, according to Erwin Fernandez.
Advocates in the use of the mother tongue like myself see the move to revive an endangered language as a much bigger cause than the loss of technical knowledge. Victoria and James Anderson aptly describe it as much more “threatening,” as “losing one’s first language means forfeiting much of one’s social and cultural identity.”
A challenge, therefore, for local literati and cultural organizations (among others, Pangasinan Writers Association, Pangasinan Council for Culture and the Arts), and lately, the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission (PHCC), is that of mobilizing resources for publications, advocacy, and similar projects.
The online e-group of PHCC has generated considerable interest and serves as a discussion venue for its members. An idea that drew enthusiastic response is the conduct of an Urduja Festival next year.
The creation of a Pangasinan Wikipedia has been approved. A radio program, Pinablin Taoir (treasured heritage) geared saving the language is now broadcast in Dagupan City. After learning that most Pangasinenses do not speak the language anymore, Archbishop Socrates Villegas initiated a choral competition called Project Sanengseng which gets additional support from local schools and city government.
Villafania, author of a poetry collection called Diurnal, hosts a website devoted to Pangasinan poetry (http://dalityapi.com). As studies show, languages have a better chance of surviving if standard written forms exist and if the speakers are literate and if literature and the media continue to be produced in the local language.
But there are periods in our history (such as the Japanese occupation) which yielded almost nothing in terms of documentary heritage. In fact, a group in Dagupan had taken the initiative to produce an adaptation of the zarzuela as there was then no other source of entertainment.
There could have been at least a dozen of scripts written as the show went on for some two years. My sister was with the regular cast and I, a fifth grader, already enamored with theater, would often join the production crew during performances. I am not aware of whether we still have access to what I consider a valuable cultural heritage.
It is for reasons such as these that our local UNESCO Committee on the Memory of the World had been pushing for the preservation of the Jawi alphabet. Jawi is one of the languages of Indonesia and Malaysia and our Moslem brothers in Mindanao. And like Pangasinan, it is also facing the threat of extinction.
We need further research on the impact of the first language on learning as most of the local studies are anecdotal. Perhaps later, a more systematic and controlled field study can be undertaken together with project implementation.
Source: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/328821/learning-with-the-mother-tongue-part-2
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