Words Hidden In Plain Sight

When things are put in the spotlight, it casts a shadow on the rest.

The month of August holds prominence in Filipino culture. A celebration called “Buwan ng Wika” is held every year in hopes of promoting Filipino language and culture, and is characterized by Filipinos of all ages dressing in traditional clothes and speaking in Filipino.

This celebration first came to happen when President Manuel L. Quezon decided that the Philippines should have a uniting language to use officially and to use in formal education. The chosen language was Filipino, a simplified version of Tagalog. It was first decreed by President Sergio Osmena that this announcement has a celebration that occurs from March to April (Reynaldo Santos Jr., 2014). However, in 1955, President Ramon Magsaysay moved the date to a weeklong celebration in August to have schools participate in the celebration of Linggo ng Wika. This was ratified by President Corazon Aquino in 1988 and was finally extended to a month-long event in 1997 by President Fidel V. Ramos.

This event has kept the appreciation for the Filipino language alive, however, it is important to acknowledge that despite Filipino being the national language, it is not everyone’s first language and is not spoken regularly by all Filipinos.

So, shouldn’t it be better to celebrate Buwan ng MGA Wika?

There are about 120 different languages that are spoken in the Philippines alone, a few of which are considered “dying” languages. With the popularization of a single wika and the mass usage of English also being used as a first language, other languages in the Philippines are either diluted or outright extinguished due to the diminishing number of people who can speak it. Some examples of nearly extinct languages are Isarog Agta, Ata, Arta, and Sorsogon Ayta, all of which have only three to fifteen existing speakers (Reysio-Cruz, 2019).

We’ve known that these languages have existed right before our eyes, so why have we not done anything to alleviate the problem?

The emergence of this prevalent problem has authorities taking action to preserve our native cultures and languages by enacting protection laws for natives, as well as slowly acknowledging their cultures by exposing them to popular Filipino media. Government organizations such as the Department of Education (DepEd) have made efforts in preserving indigenous languages by promoting them in an effort to lessen the effects of decolonization.

However, it still is difficult to preserve these due to the long-term problems — militarization, infrastructure projects, and intrusion in indigenous lands displace linguistic communities. Alongside these problems, poverty also plays a big part due to the failure of authorities to develop areas where indigenous tribes reside, and forcing people to learn a more “dominant language” for better economic prospects.

“Ang taong hindi marunong magmahal sa sariling wika ay higit pa sa hayop at malansang isda.”

These words spoken by Jose Rizal hold more gravity with the knowledge that decades of favoritism towards English and Filipino — languages that are considered dominant — contribute directly to the endangerment of our other native languages. Language is the soul of a culture, and letting it die off means losing an overall body of knowledge and records of the lives our ancestors lived.

We must unlearn the mentality that proficiency in prominent languages makes us better people; pry our eyes from the big and the bold, and set them on what has kept our identity as a people alive — our own languages.

They have always been there, hidden in plain sight. Undervalued and unrecognized.

It’s high time we do.

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