Question of the month: Do we really know Filipino?

Illustration by steph bravo

Is there a written history of the Filipino language? Is it separate from the history of the Filipino nation, however one may define such a nation? Do teachers know how to teach Filipino? Do teachers, in fact, know what the Filipino language is?

Sadly, according to Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) Chair Virgilio S.  Almario, the answer to all these questions is a simple “No.”

In his long essay “Bakit Filipino ang Filipino?” (Why Filipino is Filipino), Almario explains in part that (1) there is no written history of the development of the Filipino language; (2) it is not really separate from the history of our people and our quest for “identity;” (3) our schoolteachers really do not know how to teach it; and (4)  teachers do not really know what “Filipino” is.

The essay is the first portion of the two-part bilingual monograph or detailed study “Pagpaplanong Wika at Filipino” (Language Planning and Filipino). It was part of the seminar kit distributed to participants of the Pambansang Kongreso sa Pagpaplanong Wika (National Congress on Language Planning) held recently at Sison Auditorium, Capitol Compound, Lingayen, Pangasinan province.

The congress was one of the opening activities of the monthlong and nationwide series of events during the National Language Month.

“Filipino,” the language, is becoming more defined through KWF’s extensive and multidimensional implementation of its mandate of establishing, developing and enriching the national language by promoting its use in various fields of knowledge and in the various domains of power such as government and commerce, apart from the academe and literature.

Even when teachers do not know how to describe accurately what “Filipino” is,  Almario says KWF, the sole government language agency, is hard at work demonstrating its capabilities as a “living” language that is “ready to use” as outlined in “Ortograpiyang Pambansa,” or a standard national orthography with an accompanying volume of “Manual sa Masinop na Pagsulat” (a stylebook) and another manual of government correspondence, “Korespondensiya Opisyal.”

These main reference texts used by the KWF in its ongoing series of language reform seminars, “Uswag: Dangal ng Filipino,” and lectures in government correspondence are based on the definition of the Filipino national language specified in the KWF Resolution Nos.  13-19 of 2013, which is as follows:

“Filipino is the native language being used all over the Philippines as the language of communication, orally as well as written, by native groups from all over the islands. Because it is a living language, it is rapidly being enriched through daily use and through other manners of usage in different places and situations and developed in different levels of research and academic discourse but in an integrative process that gives importance to entries bearing the creative qualities and necessary knowledge from the country’s native languages.”

Apart from these programs that bring Almario and his staff almost weekly to various language centers of the Philippines, including universities, local governments and language and writers organizations, the KWF is into a long-running publishing program, Aklat ng Bayan or  Library of Knowledge, putting out yearly batches of titles on current researches, studies and other books using the Filipino language, or about the Filipino language, in literature, social sciences, the sciences and other disciplines.

Part of the program is the translation of world classics into Filipino.

Right into the celebrations of Buwan ng Wika, the KWF will launch on Aug. 24 at the National Museum 26 new titles, bringing the total of the Aklat ng Bayan books to 42 since the publishing program started in 2013.

“We have to catch up with the komisyon’s backlogs and inadequacies in the implementation of its mandate of standardization, enrichment, nationalization and modernization before we came in,” Almario says.

“All these stages of language development have to be implemented simultaneously even if it takes our superhuman efforts, if we really have to catch up with the real job of KWF,” the KWF chair and national artist adds.