Para king Bulan ning Amanu, yayampang ke ining makuyad kung kauatasan e pemagatan kung MÁNUKLUAN. Para ya ini karing anggang Kapampangan a kayanakan a mengaparusan king iskuela iniang gagamitan de ing sarili rang Amanu king kilub ning silid-aralan.
For the Language Month, I present this short poem the title of which is SQUATTER. This I dedicate to all the Kapampangan children who got punished at school for speaking their own language inside the classroom.
Kailangan da nang abalu ring anggang Pilipinu king meto yatu na e kailangan ing paten ta ra ring aliuang amanu keti Pilipinas ban mung mikamasikan a bangsa.
It's high time that all Filipinos around the world know that we don't have to kill our linguistic diversity in the Philippines just to uphold a strong nation.
Misasanmetung king pamimialiua!
Unity in diversity!
MÁNUKLUAN
[Squatter]
neng Jason Paul Laxamana
Oyta i Ginang Nacionalista
Ngana king ulaga ning salita
"Ang `di ma-al ang sariling wika
Masa-ol pa sa malansang isda"
Ita kanu'ng amanu nang Pepe
Inia mag-Filipinu king bale
Sibuknan, oneng dipan-ning-alti!
E pa rin asalikut ing gege
[There goes Mrs. Nacionalista
She stated regarding the importance of language,
"Ang `di ma-al ang sariling wika
Masa-ol pa sa malansang isda"
That's what Rizal said, she asserted
So we should speak Filipino (Tagalog) at home
I tried, but God-damn-it!
I can't hide my native accent]
Misan a aldo merakap kami
Rugu ning kasiping kung kaklasi
Kákanta keng `Atin Ku Pung Singsing'
`Nia balugbug mi tinakam pitik
Di Bokbok at Ketuy naman gulut
Pepamayaran dong limang pesus
`Tse e la kanu mig-Filipinu
Ing magdusa ing karelang gradu
[One day I was caught
Along with my seatmate
We were singing 'Atin Ku Pung Singsing'
So our ears got some striking
Then Bokbok and Ketoy at the back
Were made to pay five esos
If they wouldn't start speaking Filipino (Tagalog)
Their grades would suffer]
"Painuman na," ngaku king kakasi
"Mauo ku't dila ku asne langi"
Kabirabira itang mestra mi
Ing patilya ku kayang penabit
Uling pane kung mángapampangan
"Sa labas ka ng silid-aralan!"
Ala ku kanung lugal king "bayan"
Metung ku mu yatang mánukluan
Kapilan na ku kaya paluban?
["Can I have a drink," I told a friend
"I'm thirsty and my tongue's all dried up"
Suddenly, our teacher
Pulled my hair hard
Because I often used Kapampangan
"Sa labas ka ng silid-aralan!"
She said I have no place in the "bayan"
I'm just a squatter after all
I wonder when she'd let me in]
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6 comments:
kasanting na! :)
Hey, nice entry! It's always good to read something different so I voted for this.
I just replied to your comment on my Wika2007 entry. Anyway, I'll just spare you the hassle and repost it here.
Good luck to us!
---
Jason: Thanks. Sorry ngayon lang ako napadaan dito.
As for the point you raised, I did mention something about that:
“Sociolinguist Michael Halliday wrote:
As long as we keep [the study of language] at bay we can go on believing what we want to believe about language, both our own and everybody else’s.
…More than any other human phenomenon, language reflects and reveals the inequalities enshrined in the social process.”
Precisely, the dynamics of language use is also a dynamics of politics.
That’s why there’s inequality, it’s inevitable. Those who use the prestige language has more power and those who have power can create a prestige language. But, I did not expound on that as well as you did in your comment (thanks for this :) ) because I focused on the theme.
Perhaps, it was wrong for for me to write that standardized Tagalog is a source of unity. Maybe I should have used the term “point of unity” instead.
It’s not that we intentionally use a certain a language to impose dominance over others all the time. Many times, it’s just a matter of finding common ground.
Like our use of English in this comment section. You might be a native Kapampangan and I’m a bilingual English & Tagalog speaker but we chose to communicate in English to accommodate each other.
Kahit na hindi ginawang national at isa sa mga official language ang Filipino na based sa Tagalog, Tagalog ang magiging lingua franca ng mga Filipino.
Parang sa isang pamilya. Pumili ang magulang sa napakaraming magkakapatid ng isang pag-aaralin. Pinili nila ang pinaka may potensyal. Paano naman yung iba?
filipinayzd: who said that Tagalog has the most potential? the Japanese government of Quezon. The Japanese know nothing about our individual cultural heritage; all they wanted was to oust English from our school system, so they rushed the puppet government into selecting one.
Are you trying to say that your dear Tagalog is automatically "holding more potential" than other languages?
This "we're supreme than any other ethnicity" thought of most Manila-based Tagalogs is what sucks. These are the myths they're trying to propagate to brainwash non-Tagalogs into being converted to their language - and it all boils down to power and economy. They monopolize literary power, imperialize RP in such a way that Tagalog has nationwide market, not to mention the taxes non-Tagalogs pay, percent of which goes to "national language development," which is Tagalog.
Tagalog was only 24% then of the Philippines. It's not even 50%+1 of the Philippine population, so to say it was destined to be the lingua franca is too simplistic.
I, a non-Tagalog, has no say in National Literature because anything I write will be branded as Regional Literature, as if I don't belong to this nation.
Then, when you start loving your own mother language, they'd brand you "regionalist," but when they love their own dear Tagalog, it's nationalistic.
Double standards.
I admit that if it wasn't for the English translation of the entry, I wouldn't have understood a word here. But I really like this because it holds so much truth in what's happening in most schools. Why do you have be fined just for speaking your own language? Why do people put so much importance in one (well, in our case, two: English & Tagalog) language and say that it's the key to success of the country?
I remember one of your posts after you moved here from your own domain. You reposted an article from a Visayan, if I remember correctl (and after doing a quick search, yeah, yun nga). I showed it to some friends just because of one simple reason: it makes sense.
I'm guilty of speaking and understanding only two languages. Even during my one-year stay in Baguio where people have, as you say, linguistic diversity, I only got as far as saying the most basic words, and that's it! The notion that Filipinos are being a squatter in their own country is clearly manifested not only in poverty, but also in language.
Great work!
Noong bata pa ako, may katumbas ring kabayaran ang mga mahuhuling nagsasalita ng wikang hindi napili ng aming academe. Sa kaso ko iyon ay ang Filipino. Bayad bayad ka kung hindi ka mag-Iingles.
Nagulat lang ako dahil nangyayari pala iyon sa lokal na lebel. Tagalog naman ang napili at sa kaso mo, Kapampangan naman ang hindi.
Nalalakungkot naman.
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