Digital Photography: "Amanung Sisuan"

This piece of digital photography is by Pampanga Arts Guild member Dennis Borja Meneses.

Its title is Amanung Sisuan, and as a Kapampangan, one should know that Amanung Sisuan is how we figuratively call our mother language Kapampangan.

Among the terms used to describe mother languages, the Kapampangan has so far been the most figurative. Amanung Sisuan literally means "the language/word from which one suckled," which is not the traditional "mother language" (Inang Wika in Tagalog). In fact, Kapampangans never used Indung Amanu to refer to the Kapampangan language.

It is interesting to note that what Kapampangans treat as mother is their homeland and nature herself, as show in the following terms: Indung Kapampangan (Mother Kapampangan), Indung Balayan (Mother Land), and Indung Tibuan (Mother of Origin). The language then serves as the milk that the mother land feeds her children, Amanung Sisuan.