Philippine languages

Conversation conservation: Preserving the Philippines’ various languages

Gaby Flores

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Conversation conservation: Preserving the Philippines’ various languages
From codifying language in a dictionary to regional cinema and writing workshops, we take a look at the people who’ve made language preservation their advocacy

Constitutionally-speaking, Filipino and English are the Philippines’ official languages. However, The Summer Institute of Linguistics points out that the Philippines has 183 living languages. Furthermore, within each language can lie various dialects and variations in the form.

Of these 183 languages, 96 percent are indigenous, 11 languages are considered to be “dying,” while 28 are “in trouble.” 

Behind these statistics, certain people are doing the necessary work of ensuring that local languages continue to thrive and be passed down from generation to generation. To them, language gives life to culture, making linguistic preservation crucial to preserving the rich heritage of our ancestors. (READ MORE: Pagsulyap sa Buwan ng Wikâ at kasaysayan

Working with local communities

Professor Elsie Or is part of UP Diliman’s Linguistics department and is familiar with the pressing need to preserve indigenous languages. She notes that projects often come about through connections. 

While documenting the Iraya Mangyan people for her Master’s thesis, she was asked to collect data from other Mangyan languages. From there, she got in contact with teachers from another group, the Buhid Mangyan, who asked for help in constructing a dictionary for their language. 

CLASS SHARING. Professor Or discusses with her class the experience of documenting the Iraya Mangyan language. Photo from UP Department of Linguistics Facebook Page.

“The people who connect us are usually people who are engaged in work where they directly engage with the community on a regular basis,” she said. “Often these are teachers because they see the importance of language documentation.” 

She pointed out that teachers and educators are often the drivers behind such projects because community leaders are often busy dealing with socioeconomic concerns like protecting ancestral land. 

However, permission from the communities themselves is crucial for any cultural preservation project to succeed. 

Film director and writer Teng Mangansakan shares the same opinion. He is currently working on a project documenting the kapagipat (or ipat) ritual of Maguindanao. He highlighted that he had to first gain permission from ancient spiritual gods as the community’s shamans were initially fearful of angering the spirits. 

Language is a deeply personal matter. Those who work to preserve it must be able to show deep respect for the culture and communities that these languages live in. 

When asked about how she wants to further her work within language preservation, Or said she hopes to start more projects that get communities involved. She says this will help strengthen ties with the community to show her respect for them. Furthermore, working together may also lead to alternative livelihood sources for these indigenous groups. 

Gauging public interest 

Of course, the other side to the heavy work of language preservation lies in getting the public to be interested in such work. 

In his post “why there are no writers in the Maguindanaon language,” Mangansakan speaks on the pressure of finding a publisher and the need to cater to the reading public. 

Such concessions are part and parcel of language preservation and showcase the need to tackle this problem from a holistic perspective. Literature has long been considered the default way of keeping a language alive, but the market realities show that it can’t be the only way.  

When it comes to language preservation, artists need to explore various genres and forms.

Still from the film ‘Lumbunan.’ Photo courtesy of Teng Mangansakan.

Cinema is a way to showcase a language’s intricacies through live images, narratives and experiences put to film. It’s also worth pointing out that oral tradition via sharing stories is, for many indigenous communities, the primary way of preserving their language.

Mangansakan served as a consultant for the Bangsamoro Short Film Peacetival – which was supposed to be held earlier this year during the first anniversary of the BARMM region. They were, however, forced to hold it online due to the pandemic.

TENG MANGANSAKAN. Photo from Teng Mangansakan’s official Facebook page

Mangansakan pointed out that getting the Bangsamoro audience to appreciate more diverse kinds of cinema was a huge challenge. However, the silver lining is that initiatives like these expose audiences to more Moro films. And, on the other end, more Moro filmmakers get to hone their craft and continue learning.

He hopes that one day, the market becomes cultivated enough that the audience becomes more discerning, “able to accept or argue what is given to them.”

In Manila, Mini Gavino and Leah Tolentino have been organizing Ginhawa’s Baybayin workshops for years now, intending to incorporate Baybayin into people’s everyday lives. 

To them, each workshop becomes a transformative experience when the participants get to imbibe the cultural importance of Baybayin– when they begin to see it as more than just a system of writing. 

BAYBAYIN ZOOM WORKSHOP. Photo courtesy of Ginhawa.

Tolentino, who is Ginhawa’s director, says that the organization takes its name from “ginhawa” as a Filipino concept, rooted in an emphasis on self-work and well-being. 

She stated that learned experience is an entryway into understanding your culture. All classes are “places of space and connection that define our cultural heritage based on our own terms.” 

In practice, this means that participants gain an understanding of how Baybayin is, at its root, a communal experience. For instance, the reason why words were syllabicated (such as writing “bu do” instead of “bundok”) was that pre-colonial communities naturally understood the shorthand. 

The context of such writings was enough because of the amount of communicating with one another. (Think the intertextuality required in understanding emojis, memes, and acronyms.)

Each Ginhawa workshop also features a meditation section, which Gavino notes is crucial in helping people draw inspiration from themselves and their culture. She explained the necessity of nonverbal literature as an essential part of any language. 

Just the beginning

According to Professor Or, it would be good for people in Manila to become more aware of the linguistic diversity that is already before them, especially as English is fast becoming the first language of many Filipinos. 

Mangansakan’s focus on nurturing Moro artists highlights how language preservation requires intergenerational work: younger generations need to be able to take up the mantle and find ways to push for language diversity in their own work. 

For those inspired by Ginhawa’s Baybayin workshops, the organization conducts teacher training sessions, with the aim to get more people to participate and communicate these cultural practices to more communities.

Indeed, codifying languages is just one part of language preservation and awareness is only the beginning. Preserving our regional and indigenous languages requires a lot of structural fixes and institutional support. 

It also does not rely solely on cultural workers and researchers who engage in our indigenous languages. As an “audience,” we do things that help perpetuate our indigenous languages – whether we are aware of them or not. 

Consuming literature, cinema, and participating in workshops are a step in the right direction because languages survive by living through people. – Rappler.com

Gaby Flores is a full-time writer and part-time graduate student based in Manila. Her work can be seen in Esquire, Mabuhay Magazine, and Cha Literary Journal. She’s into all things culture, dairy included.

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