FEOLINO, KRISTEL F.

BSED 2ND YEAR

EL 104-1 Language Programs & Policies in Multilingual Societie
Current issues plaguing language in the Philippines.

The Philippines is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in the world. With 175 native
languages (wrongly called “dialects”), it has about 3% of the world’s languages, yet only 0.2%
of Earth’s land area. In other words, the Philippines is about 15 times more diverse than average.
Ethnologue, a compendium of world languages, states that 28 Philippine languages are in
trouble, up from 13 in 2016. Eleven languages are dying, and several are already extinct. The
Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages has identified the Philippines as being one
of the top 10 “language hotspots” of the world, which means that the Philippines has a wealth of
languages but they are being lost at a rate faster than we can adequately document them. This is
quite concerning because linguistic diversity is an essential component of Filipino culture and of
humanity as a whole. As we covered in our previous two pieces, linguistic diversity benefits
both individuals and society as a whole. Ethnologue’s estimates are conservative. In reality,
more of our languages are in trouble. All 32 Negrito languages are endangered (Headland,
2003), and the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino has identified approximately 50 endangered
languages.
UNESCO notes that any language where there is a break in intergenerational transfer is
endangered. That means if parents are not passing their mother tongue to their child, then the
language is endangered. Other signs of endangerment are when people develop a negative
attitude toward their language, use their language in fewer and fewer aspects of their lives, or the
proportion of speakers declines. Considering these signs, there are actually many more
vulnerable Philippine languages than the officially published numbers. When we take a look at
the evidence from news reports, online forums, language studies, and personal observations, it is
clear that even large Philippine languages – like Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Bikol, and Ilokano
– are dying, some faster than others. The same is happening with medium-sized languages, like
Ibanag, Itawis, and Sambal. These languages are decreasing in terms of number of speakers and
in terms of the frequency and contexts in which they are use. For example, while local
languages are still used in family gatherings, sari-sari stores, and barangay halls, they are not
widely used in certain public places, like parks, banks, food chains, and schools. There are
anecdotes that passengers would speak in their local languages, but once the bus enters the big
city, they would shift to Tagalog.
Why is this happening? There are a number of factors, such as migration and media. It can also
be a residual effect of our colonial experience when Americans branded English as the language
of civilization, while they dismissed native tongues as mere dialects. This hierarchical view of
languages has stayed on. For example, Filipinos would describe people speaking their mother
tongue as “parang ibon magsalita” (speak like bird) and having “matigas ang dila” (stiff tongue).
Instead of affecting social change to address inequity and poor sense of identity, the education
system is sustaining such conditions. It has reinforced the narrow definition of success in terms
of proficiency in two dominant languages: English and Tagalog-based Filipino. While mother
tongues have been included in the early grades, this move was expediently rationalized to
improve acquisition of the dominant languages. Evaluation studies on basic education tend to
measure only what was learned in the two dominant languages, as if developing one’s mother
tongue is not a legitimate goal in its own right. They do not highlight the knowledge that
children have gained on various subjects using their mother tongue, nor do they holistically
address benefits to participation, culture, community, and identity. As a result of such a deficient
and materialist view of education, teachers are inclined to quickly shift to using dominant
languages even if the children have not developed foundational skills in their mother tongue.
Meanwhile, parents are pressured to speak to their children in these dominant languages,
knowing that the mother tongue will be discarded after Grade 3. In a more equitable system
which supports diversity at all levels and does not perpetuate rigid language hierarchies, parents
would not have to give up their heritage for the sake of their children’s academic success.
While supporters of Tagalog and English battle each other for relative influence, let us not
exclude the other 174 Filipino languages from the conversation. For many of our endangered
languages, it’s not just about influence – it’s about survival. Their decline is a threat to our
cultural democracy.
Extinction. With fewer native speakers, some Filipino languages are in danger of dying out. The
younger generations speak Taglish (a combination of English and Tagalog terms) among the
upper middle class and Filipino (Tagalog as it is taught in schools) among the higher classes.
International films broadcast on TV are now dubbed in Tagalog rather than English as they were
previously. We must re-evaluate our policies and come up with sustainable solutions now. We
owe this commitment to every Filipino. To apologize after it’s too late will not bring back our
languages. As warned in a Unesco Atlas on endangered languages (2001), “With the death and
disappearance of a language, an irreplaceable unit in our knowledge and understanding of
human thought and world-view is lost forever.” –