The case of the eight telltale letters in the new Filipino ‘alpabeto’
(Last of a series)
If we may take liberties with our analogies, imagine a scene from the popular film “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” where a posse of “faceless” men (always seen from afar, thus the faces are vague) pursues the two escaping criminals to the soundtrack of “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head.”
Now we come face to face with the eight-member hunting party and they are revealed to be the additional letters in the “new” alpabetong Filipino. The alpabeto has replaced the Tagalog abakada that Lope K. Santos, in his “Balarila” published in 1940, derived from Rizal’s “Estudios sobre la Lengua Tagala” (1898).
The Tagalog abakada had only 20 letters, while the Filipino alpabeto has 28. As research and experience have shown, there are many sounds in the other native languages of the Philippines that couldn’t be represented or written in the abakada.
At the same time, both for purposes of borrowing from foreign sources and for writing and expressing modern ideas and experience, the 20-letter abakada was way, way inadequate.
Accordingly, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) adopted the Filipino alpabeto with 28 letters, already trimmed down from the 31 letters in the 1973 Constitution, which was considered “too much.”
These eight “telltale” letters are C, F, J, Ñ, Q, V, X and Z. The letters F, J, V and Z specifically honor and recognize some naturally-occurring sounds in our other Philippine languages that, intentionally or not, the Tagalog abakada could not accommodate.
Inclusion demanded
For example, we have safot (spider web) in Ibaloy, masjid and jambangan (mosque and plant respectively) in Tausug and Mëranaw, vakul (grass headdress) in Ivatan and zigattu (east) in Ibanag. In fact, the names of some of the languages and places (Ifugao, Ivatan) demand the inclusion of such letters.
This was definitely an evolutionary leap in Filipino orthography—with a vision for the national language to develop from Tagalog by enrichment with entries from the country’s other native languages.
The rest of the additional letters are meant to enable the language to grow and modernize faster by reflecting modern experience, either by borrowing from English and other international languages, or adopting technical words from science and technology (oxygen, intergalactic, algorithm); also just to acknowledge that some of our proper nouns, e.g., our family names, actually exist in our language: Zuñiga, Gonzalez, Villar, Salazar, Filipinas, Vasquez.
Three objectives
Our eight-letter “posse,” now revealed, is actually in pursuit of three objectives: modernize and expand the experience conveyed by the language; include all other native languages in the development and enrichment process; and unify, starting with a standardized orthography for Filipino and native Philippine languages.
And so we hope to avoid being like the guy in the song “whose feet are too big for his head” for whom “nothing seems to fit” because he’ll “never gonna stop the rain by complaining.”
The KWF, on whose invaluable primer, “Madalas Itanong Hinggil sa Wikang Pambansa” (Frequently Asked Questions about the National Language) this series is based, acknowledges that the concerns and problems of language cannot be addressed overnight or by one publication alone.
That is why the KWF’s full-packed celebration of the Buwan ng Wika kicked off with a series of seminars called Korespondensiya Opisyal (official correspondence in Filipino for government offices); and included a three-day National Translation Congress held in the University of the Philippines (UP) Visayas, the launching of 18 scholarly or literary titles in and about the Filipino language under its Aklat ng Bayan library of knowledge program and concluded with its sponsorship of the annual UMPIL Writers’ Congress with the theme “Ang Rehiyonal na Panitikan bilang Pambansang Panitikan” held on the last weekend of August.
Beyond the National Language Month, the KWF will cosponsor in September the annual Sawikaan: Pagpili ng Salita ng Taon (Word of the Year). The Sawikaan process of choosing the Word of the Year consists of nominations of the most important, current, fashionable, or popular words that have surfaced or become dominant in Filipino discourse in the last year.
The nominated words are presented and defended before a panel and are voted upon by both the general audience and the nominators. Among Word of the Year “awardees” since Sawikaan started in 2004 are canvass, jueteng, lobat, miskol, jejemon and wangwang. For 2014, some of the nominees are bossing, hashtag, Filipinas, selfie, PDAF, whistle-blower and storm surge.
In tandem with Sawikaan is the Pambansang Kumperensiya sa Pagpapayaman ng Wika (National Conference on Language Enrichment), with the theme “Wika ng Kahandaan, Kahandaan sa Wika” (Language of Preparedness, Preparedness in Language).
Both the Sawikaan and the Language Enrichment Conference will be held on Sept. 25-27 at Recto Hall, Faculty Center, UP Diliman, Quezon City. Cosponsors with the KWF are the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, UP Kolehiyo ng Arte at Literatura, the Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education.
Registration must be before Sept. 14, or must be coordinated with Dr. Edgar Samar at 5471860, or 0925-7102481 or by e-mail: fitsawikaan2012
@gmail.com.
