YEARENDER: Our language matters

Without our language, we have no culture; we have no identity, therefore we are nothing.

As languages matter, them being central to UNESCO’s mandate in education, social and human sciences, and culture; and communication and information, these inspire the declaration of 2008 as the International Year of Languages by the United Nations General Assembly.

Such move is meant to increase projects and fields of action to promote and protect all languages, particularly endangered ones, in all individual and collective contexts or within the framework of the 2008 IYL.

But how could our language – the Sinugbuano - be of value to strengthen our culture and give us an identity if it is nothing of importance to us? If we give a smirk at endeavors promoting the mother tongue or shy away from active participation in pursuits nourishing its existence?

Bisaya, for one, is a term used to refer to Sinugbuano (which by the way is a language, not a dialect).

Says Manuel Lino Faelnar, director of the Defenders of the Indigenous Languages of the Archipelago (DILA) Philippines Foundation Inc., that in everyday parlance, Bisaya is used to refer to Sinugbuano. Whenever a person or a language is called Bisaya, it is a common notion or would immediately refer to Sinugbuano despite the fact that there are many languages in the Visayas which in general are called Visayan or Bisaya.

This has given birth to more questions – is Bisaya any different from Sinugbuano? How do they differ?

Faelnar, who is also the chairman for language and culture of the Federalist Forum of the Philippines, answered that the impression probably came about because in 1948, one-fourth of the population of the country spoke Sinugbuano, which had gone down to 22 percent in the 1995 census.

“Cebuano (Sinugbuano), Ilonggo (Hiniligaynon), Waray, Kinaray-a, Aklanon, Surigaonon, Asi, Butuanon, Cuyonon, Inunhan, Romblonanon are separate languages in their own right,” he explained. “These are not mutually intelligible and they each have a different syntax and morphology. All these languages are

Categorized as Visayan (Binisaya), and their speakers also Visayan (Bisaya),” he added.

Further, Faelnar said that the closest comparator in the country is Bicol; that there are four main Bicol groupings and that each grouping has several languages. Each grouping and each language in the grouping calls itself Bicolano.

”The closest foreign comparator I can give are the Rhaeto-Romance or Romansch languages of a part of Switzerland,” he continued. “The 90,000 or so inhabitants speak three different languages - Engadino, Ladino and Friuliano, and two dialects - Sursilvano and Sutsilvano. The people call themselves Romansch and their languages and dialects also Romansch.”

Faelnar further said that “Bisaya, therefore, is a generic word” just as Bicol or Bicolano and Romansch are generic words. As used by the Visayan people, the term Bisaya is used in the same way. To a Cebuano, Bisaya is interchangeable with Sinugbuano. To someone in Bacolod, Bisaya is interchangeable with Ilonggo. To someone in Tacloban or Samar, Bisaya is interchangeable with Waray but Sinugbuano, Ilonggo and Waray are not interchangeable.

The word Bisaya is used like the word Filipino. Cebuanos are Filipino, Tagalogs are Filipino, Ilocanos are Filipino, but not all Filipinos are Cebuano, not all Filipinos are Tagalog, not all Filipinos are Ilocano. Similarly, not all Bisaya are Cebuano, not all Bisaya are Ilonggo, not all Bisaya are Waray. But the Cebuanos, Ilonggos, and Warays are Bisaya.

To summarize, he said, the word Bisaya is a “category” just like Bicol/Bicolano and Romansch. Also Visayan is not a native word; it is English. The Spanish equivalent is Visaya. Like the word Bisaya, Visayans understand the words Visayan and Visaya as categories.

When asked in terms of varieties, on which among these is considered as the standard variety, Faelnar clarified that for over 300 years now the Catholic Church has been using and continues to use the Sialo vernacular (a.k.a. Carcar-Dalaguet or southeastern Sinugbuano as the standard for translations of the Bible, printed prayers and novenas, as well as other religious publications such as on the lives of the saints and instructional materials, Catholic periodicals, and the Mass which is now in the vernacular because of Vatican II. It may therefore be said that for written Sinugbuano, the de facto standard is the Sialo or Carcar-Dalaguet vernacular.

But, Faelnar said, that with the switch from Spanish orthography to a new system, there is now a lack of standardization in spelling. Various publications like BANAT News - the Sinugbuano publication of the Star Group of Publications – have their own guidelines on spelling, syntax, morphology, style and usage. This is akin to the English-speaking countries where style and usage is determined by the large publishing houses and universities rather than by a government’s language academy. Also, writers here in Cebu City have started a trend of writing Sinugbuano as it is spoken here. (THE FREEMAN)