Clash of local tongues | Freeman Opinion, The Freeman Sections, The Freeman | philstar The issues surrounding language development are myriad and complicated as we deal with its varieties and dynamics. View on philstar Preview by Yahoo Hi Ligaya, You will recall that in February, 2010, a Cebuano Language Congress was held in Sudlon, Cebu City. It was sponsored by DepEd 7 and Akademiyang Bisaya Foundation, Inc. The language congress was held to meet a requirement of DO 74 s 2009 that the orthography to be used in the mother tongue - based multi lingual education (MTB MLE) program be acceptable to stakeholders. For a whole year prior to the language congress the Akademiyang Bisaya, whose members include the DepEd 7 Director and Deputy Director, met every month to thresh out Cebuano orthography. The orthography was approved by the language congress for use in MTB MLE In region 7. Other Cebuano speaking regions used that orthography that orthography rather than have congresses of their own. The problem is, sometime last year, some Cebuano writers and language experts who were not involved in the congress returned to the country with a lot of enthusiasm. They wanted they wanted to reopen the debate and have their orthography views adopted. They were told, appropriately enough, that the matter had been decided at the congress. Also, someone from DepEd 7 rightly pointed out that to change the orthography again will lead to confusion. The orthography had already been used for instructional materials in grades and two. Orthography is now a closed matter. There are complaints coming from people in Cebu City and some teachers in Cebu City about allegedly old words not used and the children do not use them in their mother tongue. They seem to have forgotten that there is such a thing vocabulary formation in language learning. The child speaks as a child with the vocabulary of a child . As the child grows older and develops his knowledge of the language must also grow and develop. Vocabulary formation is where the child is taught new words in his language. It would be very silly if the child learns the Tagalog (aka Pilipino/Filipino) words for a thing or concept but does not know or does not learn the native Cebuano equivalent. The problems of teachers and many people in Cebu City are (1) they are so Anglicized they have replaced native words with English (or worse, with Tagalog) words; (2) they are so insular , they forget Cebuano is the mother tongue on southern Masbate, half of Biliran, eastern Leyte, Southern Leyte, Siquijor, Negros Oriental, eastern parts of Negros Occidental, Bohol, Misamis provinces, Agusan provinces, Bukidnon, Zamboanga provinces, Davao provinces. While there are dialectical differences (as in any language), the Cebuano spoken in many of these.placed retain a purity not found in the Cebuano in Cebu City. In many of these places they have not replaced native words with English. The language used in MTB MLE must be uniform for all. If teachers and people in Cebu City speak bad Cebuano, they have to relearn the language. Paradoxically the best Cebuano in Cebu City is spoken by the less educated - maids. drivers, houseboys , yayas, gardeners, carpenters. The best Cebuano in Davao City is spoken by market vendors, cargadors, market collectors. Teachers and the college educated in Cebu City would find the vocabulary of these people very old, very deep.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 09:53:16 +0000
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