ALDERSGATE COLLEGE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES IN MULTILINGUAL SOCITIES

COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION EROLLE TOLENTINO CARIÑO

LESSON 2: LINGUISTIC RIGTHS AND THE PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES SITUATION

LEARNING GOALS:
At the end of the lesson, you should be able to:

1. Explain the concept of linguistic rights and its significance to society and individual;
2. Familiarize yourself with the language situation in the Philippines; and
3. Rationalize the preferred languages in the different domains of the country.

LINGUISTIC RIGHTS AND THE PHILIPPINE LANGUAGES SITUATION

In the Philippines, nearly 200 languages and dialects are spoken by estimate of 100
million Filipinos. The language map taken from Greenberg’s Linguistic Diversity
Index shows the 10 languages that are commonly used in various provinces.

LINGUISTIC RIGHTS are the human and civil rights concerning the individual and
collective right to choose the language or languages for communication in a private
or public atmosphere.

Some international covenants that cover one’s linguistic rights:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 2. “Everyone is entitled to all

the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any
kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national
or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

Article 27 of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights is the most widely accepted legally binding provision on
minorities and provides the basis and inspiration for the UN Declaration on Minorities. Article 27 reads:
“In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be
denied the right in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their
own religion, or to use their own language.”
Article 30 of CRC provides a similar standard for minority children:
“In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities or persons of indigenous origin exist, a child belonging to
such a minority or who is indigenous shall not be denied the right, in community with other members of his or her group, to
enjoy his or her own culture, to profess and practice his or her own religion, or to use his or her own language.”

DEFINING LANGUAGE VARIATIONS

There are a handful of ways linguists categorize varieties of language; some definitions refer to word usage and rules, or merely
to vocabulary, while others refer to the way language adapts culturally, in broader strokes. All of these terms, however, can
cover variations in grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

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ALDERSGATE COLLEGE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES IN MULTILINGUAL SOCITIES

COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION EROLLE TOLENTINO CARIÑO

STANDARD / POLITE / FORMAL

We use the terms standard, polite and formal to refer to language that sticks to the rules and is essentially presented as the
‘proper’ form of English. In practice, this is not necessarily practical English, but rather the sort of English we’d expect to see in
formal writing or polite situations. Standard English is what is generally taught where possible, but alternative forms may be
taught in communities with developed variations.

COLLOQUIAL / INFORMAL
Colloquial language is effectively anything that is not formal, often described as ‘spoken’ language. It is informal as the aim is
to communicate rather than stick rigidly to rules, so it is where we see contractions and idiomatic language being used. There
are countless varieties of this, and it is a blanket term that really covers all of the other terms below.

REGIONAL DIALECT
Regional dialects are varieties of language that emerge based on regionally specific use. There are many examples within the
UK alone, from the broad differences between the English spoken in the North and South to the more specific, localised dialects,
such as those spoken in certain cities, some of which have their own names

SOCIAL DIALECT
Social dialects emerge like dialects, but within a specific class or culture, instead of a region (though they can be further
developed to fit certain regions). This may also be referred to as a minority dialect, highlighting the variation is not the
predominant use. A major example of this is African American Vernacular English.

LINGUA FRANCA
A lingua franca is a common language used between people who speak different languages. As the full purpose is bridging
gaps in communication, this can be very adaptable and therefore will not necessarily stick to traditional language rules. English
is used as a lingua franca all over the world, more commonly in fact than it is used by native speakers, and in some cases may
even be taught in a specific form to fit these needs, rather than as standard English.

PIDGIN
A pidgin is a simplified version of a lingua franca, where people trying to communicate across different languages develop their
own form of communication. Though this technically makes it a lingua franca, it often some from merging two or more languages
together rather than as something true to one common language. Pidgins can therefore develop their own vocabulary and rules
that can be very independent of the original source languages.

CREOLE
A creole is an established form of pidgin, where a language developed from communicating over two or more languages is
taken up by a culture as a native language. Aspects that make a creole different to pidgin or dialects is that it has it will have
unique rules with a full range of functions, and may be taught as a mother tongue.

VERNACULAR
Vernacular is the term used to describe language as it is used naturally by a specific people. What it describes can therefore
vary depending on what we wish to specify: we could speak about the vernacular of a country or a smaller community within a
city, or of a certain time and place (for example, we have a modern vernacular which would include vocabulary that would not
be part of the vernacular of, for example, fifty years ago).

PATOIS
Patois is a term used to refer to minority, non-standard use of a language, so this could cover all dialects, creoles and pidgins,
but this carries somewhat negative connotations as it implies an inferiority.

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ALDERSGATE COLLEGE LANGUAGE PROGRAMS AND POLICIES IN MULTILINGUAL SOCITIES

COLLEGE OF ARTS, SCIENCES AND EDUCATION EROLLE TOLENTINO CARIÑO

LINGO
Lingo is a term used to refer to any wording or phrasing that is specific to a certain group, including jargon or slang (see below).
Lingo is roughly synonymous with argot and can’t, both also referring to the language of specific groups.

JARGON
Jargon is the words and phrases that emerge to cover ideas with in a specific community, often when specialist terminology is
required (for example technical terms in a profession or sport). In some cases, this is necessary, where specialist activities
require new terminology, but jargon can also be seen as negative, where it is used to separate others from a conversation or to
create a superior appearance.

SLANG
Similar to jargon, slang is the language that emerges within a subgroup to describe new ideas, or to assign new words to existing
ideas to develop a sense of identity. As with jargon, this can be exclusionary, though while jargon typically refers to specialisms,
slang is more typically associated with social groups, for example the language of a younger generation.

- Primary language is the language that someone uses most frequently to communicate with. It is the language a person
uses in most situations.
- Secondary language is a language that is learned in addition to the language a person first learned as a young child.

https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/different-language-varieties/

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