A Twist in My Indonesian Trip: Tracing the Malay Roots of Philippines

How can I thank "words" for giving our minds and hearts the expression of thoughts and emotions? And for reconnecting our heritage?

I must confess though that I am a Hispanist. I have leaning on associating Filipino towards Spanish - architecture, language, music, fashion, cuisine. When it comes to language, just think about Filipino words related to kitchen items, clothing articles, school materials, family names, technical jargons, and even curses! Chance would be they are mostly Spanish loan words. 

But my recent trip mainly to Indonesia with side stop in Malaysia and another sojourn in Brunei illuminated my cultural understanding. It was a trip not only to the ancient Borobudur Temple or the majestic Sultan Hassanil Bolkiah Mosque but to the distant and almost forgotten connection between Philippines and the Malay world.

A Malay commoner :)

I disclaim to be a linguist as I have long abandoned my undergraduate discipline, but my personal observations of languages - Filipino and Bahasa Indonesia - led this reflection that Spanish may have clothed us or named us, but the Filipino soul will always be Malay in core.

One would feel at least at home in Indonesia reading and hearing familiar words virtually in every nook and cranny of Indonesia. A friend later informed me that a study did identify at least 300 related Filipino and Indonesian words. This statistics, I believe, could be higher. Based on my personal encounters, here are some of those words I amusingly discovered.

Filipino and Indonesian words with the same words and meanings:

right - Fil. kanan; Indo. kanan    child - Fil. anak; Indo. anak
sky - Fil. langit; Indo. langit        white - Fil. puti; Indo. puti
cheap - Fil. mura; Indo. mura    sickness - Fil. sakit; Indo. sakit
eye - Fil. mata; Indo. mata

Filipino and Indonesian words with slight variations but with the same meanings:

push - Fil. tulak; Indo. tolak        open - Fil. bukas; Indo. buka
stone - Fil. bato; Indo. batu        kitten - Fil. kuting; Indo. kuching
year - Fil. taon; Indo. tahun        enter - Fil. pasok; Indo. masuk
door - Fil. pinto; Indo. pintu

Filipino and Indonesian words that are false friends, the same words but different meanings:

bunga - Fil. fruit; Indo. flower
manok - Fil. chicken; Indo. bird
halaman - Fil. plants; Indo. park

Because I also speak Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Ilocano, I discovered these some interesting words same or similar to Indonesian:

street - Ceb. dalan; Indo. jalan
wall - Hil. dingding; Indo. dingding
food - Iloc. makan; Indo. makan

I recall there were instances when we proudly counted in Filipino much to the delight of our Indonesian friends! They told us that we could learn Indonesian in a month and survive in Indonesia!

On a more retrospective side, I wonder how Philippines has grown apart and differently in many aspects with its cousins from the rest of Malay archipelago. But thanks to these wonderful words as they serve as immortal evidences to our Malay heritage connection.

Terima kasih, Indonesia!

Spasibo, Daddy Vygotsky!

I am sure that such terms as Scaffolding, and of course, the Zone of Proximal Development, will not be missed in discussions of contributions of Lev Vygotsky in educational psychology. But other than those widely popular concepts attributed to him, how much do we know his concepts further?

I was mystified - and am still mystified until today - with the enduring concepts of brilliant psychologists in history like Lev Vygotsky. I used to teach a topic of him a few years back, but my past knowledge about his ideas pale in shame this time as I digested these books for my course requirements:

Vygotsky and more, anyone?

For that shameful reason, allow my notes get into this online space as I share to you some, just some, of the extended concepts I learned. Take note of the capitalized words as I am either introducing them or discussing them with some twist as Lev Vygotsky was "weird" indeed in his ideas.

One of the most quoted statement of Vygotsky has been the GENERAL GENETIC LAW OF CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT which states that “any function in the child’s cultural development appears twice or on two planes… it appears first between people as an intermental category, and then within the child as an intramental category.” Though this statement appears to be simple, it actually opens a can of worms I need to tediously study. It elaborates the social and individual planes where cognitive development occurs. It touches the two major concepts of internalization process and appropriation process.

The most important and perhaps the most popular of his psychological discovery is the ZONE OF PROXIMAL DEVELOPMENT. Instead of discussing it, I focused mainly on what people do not usually know. While recognizing that a child can accomplish more with scaffold, it was claimed that the potential of the child – even with help – is limited. This makes sense though. I believe ZPD is one of the most misunderstood concept of Vygotsky. Many parents believe that children can do so much with ZPD to the point that they push children to learn what is beyond their range or level. I pity these children who had to suffer the pressure early. We must educate parents.

The analysis of Vygotsky about PLAY is also interesting than most common that we know about it. Though he wrote so little on the topic, it is more evocative than definitive. My interest in this portion was piqued around the paradoxes about play. I am taking liberty to quote him once from the books about these paradoxes: “In one sense a child at play is free to determine his own actions. But in another sense this is an illusory freedom, for his actions are in fact subordinated to meanings of things, and he acts accordingly.” Alright, freedom but no freedom! 

We can merrily express "spasibo" or thanks the Russian way to Lev Vygotsky for the concepts of Scaffolding and of course, the Zone of Proximal Development, and all the rest. It is good to explore farther than the horizon our eyes can view although a synthesis like this post would not be enough capture the entirety of his bright ideas. And other than that, synthesizing bright ideas is never an easy task. 

For now, going back to the reality of life, wish me the best of luck on my oral report on this topic. This is funny but I feel nervous just thinking about it.

My 4th Regional Research Congress Experience

I was fortunate enough to be hand picked as representative of our division to the 4th Regional Research Congress which was simultaneously celebrated with the SBM Congress and Communication Festival at The Farm, Carpenter Hills, Koronadal City last February 10.

As I have said, I was happy to be part of the congress because it is really an avenue to express my passion for research. But what came as a more pleasant surprise was the 3rd place finish that I can't just help but beam with pride and humility.

I did not expect much - that is an honest confession because there were other stellar presentations. My research was a simple classroom based assessment on relationship between attitudes toward mother tongue and academic performance of my pupils. 

As panelist Lynou Zacal, Dean of College of Education, Notre Dame of Marbel University, commented: It is a timely research midst debates on whether mother tongue should be a part of the curriculum.

Guro Ka Ba?

Do you know that the very Filipino word GURO is not originally Tagalog at all? As a matter of fact, it came a long, long way - geographically and historically. Thus, to describe the origin of this term is a long path to traverse.

The common term guro is used in Filipino as a noun to mean a teacher, who celebrate their special month this moment. For example, a punong guro of a school is a head teacher.

This may have origin form the word "guru" that means a teacher, master or mentor in Sanskrit and other borrowing languages like Tamil, Hindi, Bengali and Nepali. 

Greza (2004) elaborates that the word has roots in the term gri that denotes action of invoking or to praising, and may have a relation to the word gur, that refers to the act of  raising up or lifting up.

The Indian and Filipino connection is not surprising though. The Indians traded with the Filipinos through some indirect proximal empires and consequently influenced the local culture. Its influence to the Filipino language found its way to terms in folk heroes, social strata, religious faith, moral operations, and even traditional attire.

I found this fitting explanation of our term GURO from a collection of philosophical text of Hindu religion:

The syllable gu means shadows
The syllable ru, he who disperses them.
Because of the power to disperse darkness
The guru is thus named.

So, I am saying that we must live to the very mold of the word we are called and may we continue to be instrument of enlightenment to the lives of the young ones. Guro, we are.

Heal, Ciudad de Zamboanga

As a language enthusiast, I have high fascination about Zamboanga City, which is still in the remnants of war today. It is home to Chabacano - the only Spanish creole language of its kind in Asia that had developed and survived for over four hundred years of trades and conquests, migrations and policies.

A creole language, like Chabacano, is a conglomeration of different languages that have evolved into a native tongue of a new generation of speaker. On the case of Chabacano, it is 75% Spanish morphology with grammar and structure from local languages. Linguists continue to be mystified and baffled with the presence of Portuguese, Italian and Mexican lexical terms in this creole language.

In the past decade, language purists of Zamboanga were worried with the continuing borrowing of their language from Cebuano and Tagalog, leaning away from its Spanish superstrate. However, linguists defend and consider this phenomenon as rather dynamism which is natural to all languages. 

Recent incorporations of modern Spanish words are mainly attributed to the Spanish standardization efforts of media, establishment of Spanish call centers in the region, and the reintroduction of Spanish subject in selected schools.

There are over two million Spanish speakers in the country, large bulk of which comes form the Latin City of Asia - a sobriquet given to Zamboanga City due to the fact that it is the only Spanish speaking city in the continent. 

Among the six Chabacano dialects in the country, it is in Zamboanga City that has remained alive and kicking, so it is my opinion that this unique language should be preserved, and there is no other best way than to take care its speakers and the environment where they speak it.

What Is Pork Barrel?

I know that this recent public washing of linen all boils down into a thing called PORK BARREL, but I really wonder about the literal reference of this phrase. I asked a few people around who might be able to suffice my nosiness before it all became a dirty slogan among the protesters and a sickening headline among the news. While I scratched my head hard, they neither really know the answer.

The recently scandalized term pork barrel is also known as Priority Development Assistance Fund or PDAF in our country. It is a monetary budget allocated for each congressman to spend on projects or any matter where it is due without going through budgetary process. If you are a teacher, you would surely relate it to Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses or MOOE of a school.

I browsed some articles and here are some highlights of the things that I learned with regard to the origin of the term. They are really eye opener.

The term originated from the time when refrigeration was not yet a household thing for keeping pork and it was preserved in big wooden barrel of brine. The political usage may have been taken from the distribution of ration of salt pork to slaves in the plantation.  

A journalist C. C. Maxey commented that oftentimes the eagerness of slaves would result to rush upon pork barrel in which every slave would strive to grab for himself. Our modern day politicians, in their eagerness to take their local appropriation items, behaved so much the same as the slaves would for pork in the barrel.

Moreover, a barrel of pork is also used in the olden times as a measure of social status of a family. An eighteen hundreds literary document, for example, J. S. Cooper once wrote "I hold a family to be in a desperate way, when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel."

As I write and read this post, the picture that came in my mind from the metaphor above is that of a bunch of greedy politicians wearing a decent barong but in the middle of a stampede in the court with the others who are equally hungry, although not every one, to take the money of the people into their own pockets and cases.

I wonder how these same money we pay as our taxes could have helped so many needy people in our country if our politicians were just honest at all times. It's really a dirty business in a race of dogs, and a really dirty picture I can visualize.

How about you?

Sipat and Other Glimpses

SIPAT, from which the seminar was key worded, is a Filipino word that means "a glimpse into something".

Between the days of my shameful hiatus from this blog, I was tasked to attend a seminar glimpsing into our local culture and literature in relation to our teaching craft. At first, I was a little negative about going to the event because of the weekend hassle it would entail. But in the end, I realized that the experiences I gained from the said seminar exceeded my expectations. 

It went like a group of old friends getting so engrossed in an interesting conversation, not minding the time. It was the first time in ages that I attended a seminar that didn't feel like a seminar at all because the speakers were really entertaining and their presentations were just awesome. I felt fortunate to be a part of the group that is genuinely passionate about the development of our own literature.

The first topic was about the situation of children's literature in our country. One thing I've learned is the "pandesal" mentality when it comes to the production of literary pieces. If we are going to evaluate the story books for children in the shelves, we would notice the gross imitation of plots and styles currently trending in the literary market. Hence, we have the same old stories told and our literature is becoming so commercialized.

On the other side of things, it is still a surprise though to rediscover a few brilliant pieces of literary works that we just don't take pride or simply take for granted. Of these were the local films that has proved their worth in the international scene. We were treated to some previews but the funny thing though is I've never seen any of them in full. Talk about guilt and my movie civilian life.

Another topic was about the folk stories of the City of Koronadal. As reiterated by the speaker in the lecture, one would wonder how we can find a bulk of Greek literature, American literature, Egyptian literature, Indian literature, Japanese literature, but never the literature of our own country. We have the same old stories told and the foreign ones are headway compared to our own.

We realized that nobody dares and initiates to write about the rich heritage of our own city. The songs, poems, legends and myths of our countrysides remain as murky as the water of the river. The fairies, witches, vampires and spirits of our imaginations are still undocumented testaments of our unique culture. The large difference is the fact that nobody puts them into writing and permanently etch them in our material culture.

After each lecture, we had workshops on writing the folk stories of our respective stations and applying it as a spring board of our lesson planning. The hours of brainstorming was worth the squeeze because we were able to produce a legendary tale that we can call original and authentic. I believe that nobody could write the first hand story of our community better than we the people of our community.

We are a country of gregarious people who love to listen and tell stories, but these stories have remained traditionally in our mouths. The challenge now is how to preserve these stories in written form to be passed on the next generation. This kind of passion should be instilled in our hearts.

The Stinky Fish And Others That Stink

I organize my thoughts in English. I love to read literary pieces in English. I prefer to write this blog in English.

As a puzzled person for having been raised in a diverse linguistic community, I have always believed that English is the superior language. This must be the most reason why, no matter how patriotic I am supposed to be as a Filipino citizen, I choose not to use the Filipino language in many instances.

For the most part, Filipino is not considered as the language of prestige in this country. It is not always the language spoken in the court rooms, medical fields, print labels. It is not also the language written in most of our legal documents. Our constitution, which is the very soul of our government system, is the big proof of this. 

Filipino is not considered as the language of the learned. Many of the affluent families in our social strata prefer to speak to their children in the considered international language. As such, we are raising a generation who are speaking of the foreign tongue and in the process marginalizing our own language in the street and market.

Filipino is also not the language of national consensus. While the declaration is in the law, there are still bitter traces of antagonism among our elder and purist brothers in the region. As such, not so many regional morphological items were successfully integrated in our national language to promote national unity and corporate ownership of it.

I remember back during my junior year in college, I studied on language attitudes for my thesis. Results showed that English is considered as superior language compared to our national language. As I also qualitatively observed through the years, English is also the language more preferred in many formal situations.

But, any language, including our very own Filipino language, is a language equal to any language in the world like English. It has its own phonology, morphology, grammar and syntax to suffice our various purposes to communicate. Would have it fallen short for our needs for us to largely fail in the daily affairs of our living, it should have been extinct and buried forever to oblivion.

Filipino language by "default" is still the spoken language in the most part of our life. Those who have marginalized Filipino by speaking the foreign tongues, by no means, still think and speak the soul of Filipino language whether they like it or not. As such, we have developed and even invented local meanings to foreign vocabularies like "salvage", "back to back", "blow out", "comfort room", "peg" and many others.

I appreciate the developing class of new parents in our social strata that communicates in Filipino to their children, making it their mother tongue. For example, the tenants of my flat who are both Cebuano but consider Filipino as the formal language. When I converse with our learned Muslim brothers, the lingua franca that connects our minds together is nothing less than the Filipino language.

So, unless we do not swallow our pride whole and lift our national language to the pedestal of intellectualism like what other nations did to their respective national languages, we will never stop degrading our own linguistic heritage as we have actually crushed our national identity consciously or unconsciously. 

I don't know how much spartan determination or unselfish time it would take for a change in our attitudes toward our own language, but these I hope to have in myself, too.

Filipinos, this is the time to realize how worse we smell than a stinky fish.

Photo credit: www.thisisdevon.co.uk.

Of Letters F's and P's

The end of the PHILIPPINES?

One of the current bones of contention in the cultural and political aspect of our country is the urge of the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino to replace the country's name from Philippines or Pilipinas to Filipinas.

If "Philippines" is a vestige of continuing American imperialism, then logically "Filipinas" is a symbol of Spanish colonialism. Truth be told in the first place that it was a Spanish conqueror who named our islands as "Filipinas" in honor for their king.

For me, with so many fuss surrounding this issue, the three names - Philippines, Filipinas, and Pilipinas - are as valid as anyone's opinion. We just have to use them in the proper context - Philippines in English; Filipinas in Spanish; Pilipinas in our own.

By still using "Pilipinas" and not "Filipinas" in our local parlance, we indiginized the original Spanish name by writing and uttering it in the comfort of our native tongue, that is by using P instead of F - a letter that did not exist in our original alphabet and does not exist so much in our present manner of speaking.

We adopted "Pilipinas" from the original spelling because we wanted an identity that is uniquely our own - a sign that though we cannot deny a colonial past, we still embrace an independent present. Nothing has to be changed at all - nothing really in the stamps, documents, universities.

Photo credit: www.gmanetwork.com.

As a conclusion, I stick to this rule:

Say PHILIPPINES in the international usage. Say FILIPINAS if you are in the Spanish world. Say PILIPINAS when you are speaking in the native tongue.

And by stating that rule, I may just declare: Longlive Philippines! Viva Filipinas! Mabuhay Pilipinas!

Annoying Epals

I am awakened every morning by these loud campaign jingles and I can see posters of politicians virtually in every nook and cranny around the village. It seems that the politicians are going crazier as the "judgement day" is lurking around.

On the other side of things, I would like to feature another infamous slang in politics - EPAL. According to Jocelyn R. Uy of Philippine Daily Inquirer, the term is a play on the words "mapapel" which is a Filipino slang for a scene stealer, and "kapal" or someone who is thick skinned.

How EPAL these attention seeking politicians can get? Let me count the ways...

Pictures in giveaways like bags and shirts, and even relief good packages, subliminally telling that they personally provide... So epal.

Appearances and suggestive speeches in public events like school graduation and barangay programs now more often than the usual... So epal.

Names affixed in signages to claim credit on government projects and accomplishments that are otherwise bankrolled by taxpayer money... So epal.

Documentary shows televised specifically this period to portray the drama of their biographies and draw the emotions of the public... So epal.

Premature advertisements as early as three months before the campaign period, reminding the public of what they have done for... So epal.

Epal - remember their faces and forget their names.

Unfortunately, there is no law at the present that prohibits these ugly practices, and these epals are just so annoying they offend and hurt my taste!

COMELEC Chairman Sixto Brilliantes advised: “The best way to deal with these epals is to remember their faces now and forget their names come election day.”

Take Your Pick - Trapo or Bimpo

Since election day is just around the corner, two of the popular hashtags trending in some microblogging sites are the "trapo" and the "bimpo".

If we analyze the profile of political candidates running for certain positions in any level, there seem to be a nominal variable, if you want it the statistical way, that divides them between two: the trapo and the bimpo.

Trapo literally means a filthy rag, but it is actually a clipping of the phrase "traditional politician" or those old time candidates who rather look candidates for retirement but still fishing for another chance in the politics.

Trapos are candidates who are experienced enough as they have been in the politics for long. They have learned the ropes of politics so well that they know what stratagem and tactic - usually dirty - to use in every circumstance they might encounter while in the course of courting the voters.

Bimpo explicitly refers to a wet towel, but is actually an acronym of "batang isinubo ng magulang sa politika" which roughly means a child pushed or forced, whether they like it or not, by a politician parent to follow the world of politics. 

Bimpos are trained by their parents who wanted to pass on their helm to them. Sadly, although not all, the bimpos usually serve as puppets of their parents. In other words, there are those bimpos who do not have backbone to make decisions based on their own judgement and tend to side to the ideals of their families.

These candidates trying to win our hearts are equally hungry to take their seats in the government - for good and evil motives - which is why we need a wise evaluation of our vote list come May 13 Election Day.

Our politics is dirty enough. Every wise vote counts.

Who are the trapos and bimpos you know?

Of Letters W's and J's

I grew up and I identify myself to a small nucleus of Leyteño speaking relatives. And though we can claim a true blue Leyteño identity because our grandparents are pure Leyteño by blood, we are slowly missing a distinct mark of our Leyteño language into homogeneity. We should know that we are distinct from that of another regional variation called Cebuano.

One might say that the difference between Cebuano and Leyteño is not that striking that both languages can be mutually intelligible. True, but there is something distinct about Leyteño that sets it apart from Cebuano.

The differences lie mostly in phonology. One is, when speaking, a pure Leyteño tends to replace the Cebuano letters L with W; and Y with J. Although there are many exceptions to it, this usually happens when letters L or Y is between two vowels.

For example, the Cebuano "bulak" becomes Leyteño "buwak" which both refers the same as flower. Another is the Cebuano "sulayi" turns Leyteño "sulaji" which both means to try. Here some other examples to the best of my knowledge:

pula - puwa (red in color)
ulan - uwan (rain)
bulad - buwad (to dry)
ilalom - ilawom (under or beneath)
bola - bowa (a ball)
sulat - suwat (a letter)
kalot - kawot (to scratch)
tigulang - tiguwang (old)
bulag - buwag (blind)
dula - duwa (to play)

maayo - maajo (good)
buyog - bujog (a bee)
kuyaw - kujaw (amazing)
gayud - gajud (an intensifier)
bayad - bajad (payment)
kuyap - kujap (to faint)
bayi - baji ( a woman)
bayaan - bajaan (to leave)
siya - sija (pronoun he or she)
kabayo - kabajo (a horse)

Fourth or fifth generations like mine would struggle to find these Leyteño words either by natural inability or sheer laziness. Nowadays when I hear people speaking with W's and J's between vowels, I seem to feel nostalgic. I can hear the voices of my grandparents back the old days talking to me. Yet, nobody, if not a few like me, cares that much to preserve these words.

Leyteño, anyone still speaking?

'Nosebleed' is Out, 'Epistaxis' is In

Actually, my nose is not dripping with bloody red this moment. This post is about the origin and evolution of two popular Filipino expressions - the "nosebleed" and, if in case you don't know yet, the "epistaxis".

About five years ago, a television advertisement of a sitcom was once a talk in town. The trailer showed Pokwang, a local comedian, having the literal dripping of blood from her nose because she was talking to a guest who was an affectedly genteel person speaking in pure English.

Since then social life was never the same and it abuzzed everywhere with the "nosebleed" expression. The expression became an instant part of the daily parlance of this nation of ingenious people although nobody might remember today how the expression started in that television program.

The expression "nosebleed" in the Filipino context is not a medical condition in itself. The expression is an informal term uttered in response to instances encountering hifalutin words in conversations, usually in English. In campus life, the expression is usually the reaction of most students after a difficult examination. It is also widely used to describe reactions to encounters of complex problems, formal interviews and technical reports.

On the other side of things, two years ago, I was chatting online to a distant relative who is a registered nurse. Our conversation went on something about my work that is associated with etiology of developmental disabilities of the children that I handle. My relative reacted: epistaxis!

The expression "epistaxis" is the exact medical term for the same condition as nosebleed. The expression originated most probably from the realm of nurses and doctors as it is obviously a medical terminology . Although the expression is more known in the medical world, I believe it is slowly creeping  into our daily parlance at present.

For this post, I googled images for "nosebleed" and it showed noses dripping with blood while for "epistaxis" showed the internal causation of such condition. In my own point of view, "epistaxis" is a more technical word and therefore it further intensifies the context of usage.

One time, I was departing from a friend's place and as a twist I used my little knowledge on French language to say goodbye. He replied with the "epistaxis" instead of the "nosebleed" expression. I laughed because I knew it. I replied: You might want to help yourself with some coagulants!

Black Valentine's Day, Anyone?

Have you heard of a movement to paint the whole town black as a way of dealing the coming love day? I googled about this so-called Black Valentine's Day, but failed to find a good read regarding this queer celebration as a popular culture, hence this attempt.

Black.

I had a professor way back in college whose son was reportedly killed with no due justice. As her own way of dealing such loss, she wore all black dress for a year. I wonder now how much her mourning fashion cost her and how her wardrobe looked like.

For most of us, black is the color associated with death. It is usually the symbol for emptiness, absence, negative, pain, end, misfortune, sorrow, and tragedy. White reflects lights and is a presence of all colors, but black absorbs light and is an absence of color.

Many of the expressions in any language associated with black seem to connote negative meanings such as black sheep, black mark, black propaganda, black mood, black heart, black eye, black out, and black market.

Valentine's Day.

I remember my high school days when everybody seemed busy making love letters with drawings of hearts and Cupid as the so called love season approached. I remember giving cards to some distant cousins, childhood classmates, and special friends.

The heart and Cupid are the most common symbol for Valentine's Day. According to this site, the heart may be linked with romantic love because the ancient Greeks believed it was the goal of Eros, known as Cupid to the Romans. Anyone shot in the heart by one of Cupid's arrows would fall hopelessly in love.

Our present Valentine's Day is commonly celebrated through exchanging of letters, chocolates, and flowers. It is a special opportunity to express one's love in a romantic way. The day is more special among couples and lovers who go out for a romantic dinner of two.

Black Valentine's Day?

Death and heart? Sadness and romance? Grief and passion? Emptiness and affection? Tragedy and love? Black and Valentine's Day are opposite words with different meanings. Combined as one phrase, it brings out an antithesis of feelings with a renewed meaning.

There is a growing popular culture, if it is, of Black Valentine's Day mostly among the uncommitted species. In common social networking sites, informal movements like wearing black clothes on the very love day is common. People usually show disdain by posting break up letters, venting their sad stories or sharing links of sentimental songs.

For me, a black Valentine's Day simply means loveless. I will probably just look around, head to the bank, eat outside for a treat, go home a bit late and light a mosquito coil before going to sleep!

Sabe!

I really had a good laugh last night while watching a rewind edition of Gandang Gabi Vice, of which one of the guests was the Thai superstar Mario Maurer. It was part of promotion of the movie that the Thai actor did with Erich Gonzales under Star Cinema and ABSCBN.

The Thai actor was as much fun trying to imitate the perfect utterance of popular Filipino expressionss that Vice Ganda introduced to him. One is the famous 'sabe' which is queerly pronounced by using a falsetto voice with stress on the final syllable.

One more time with more feelings. Mario Maurer uttering
"sabe" in his guesting at GGV. Click the picture to view video.

But how do we really know our colloquial expression 'sabe' as far as its origin is concerned? In the Filipino context, we know that the expression roughly means 'What can you say' or 'What do you think' or 'How do you find it'. It is, however, an informal expression that is used only in conversational speech.

The informal Filipino expression 'sabe' may have long roots to trace. Although debatable, my own gut and Spanish background tell me that it may have evolved from the Spanish verb 'sabe' which, in conjugated form, means 'to know' or 'to tell' or 'to find out' depending on the context of usage.

Thoughts on this? Sabe?

Imbyerna

When somebody declares that he is feeling imbyerna, we instinctively understand that the person is annoyed. In informal conversations, the word has popularly come to express a person’s annoyance towards another person, thing or situation.

Before I decided to write down this post, I have always thought at the back of my mind, if my trying hard Spanish would allow me, that the expression comes from the Spanish word '"invierno" or "invierna" which means winter.

In the novel entitled Nothing Lasts Forever written by the master storyteller Sidney Sheldon, when Ken Mallory was naked and hard, and Kate Hunter just stared and left him all alone, Ken Mallory must have felt imbyerna - literally for feeling wintry with nothing on the body and figuratively for getting angry being toyed by a woman.

But what probable connection is with the annoyed feeling and winter season that they seem to have the same vein in our parlance?

In my own putting of one and one together, probably our ancestors back then were so pissed towards the injustices of Spanish conquistadores that they exaggerated their cold feelings to a complete icy season. Instead of just describing the feeling as cold, they overstated by illustrating it as something winter.

In a short piece in Wikipedia discussing about Tagalog loanwords from the Spanish language, it mentions that some words have acquired an entirely new meaning, such as imbyerna (invierna) once meant 'winter' but is now a word for 'bummer'.

Some time during the course of my thesis writing, I asked a close friend to enlist his cooperation in the data gathering since he is working in a SpEd school. After a month, we planned to meet up so I can personally retrieve the questionnaires, which were actually the last batch, as the deadline is lurking horribly on the calendar.

"And the accomplished questionnaires?" I asked with a final sigh of relief.

"Oh, I forgot them in town!" he answered in a totally stunned fashion.

 "Imbyerna!" I cried before he could explain in front of my wintry look.

Nostalgia for Words

Can you believe this? That sometimes I am just way nostalgic for some odd things in life, for reasons unknown to my consciousness, like nostalgic about words...

The shameless sun was nowhere yesterday noon as I ferried for a ride going home. The tricycle which picked me up had one passenger already at the backseat, an old lady. I was able to look a bit of her as I took the front seat, an ocular habit that I must admit I have developed for the many years now of commuting in this bumpy world. The wrinkles in her face betrayed her age, but she was a well coiffed woman. Just as when the tricycle drove off, the old lady resumed talking to the driver with her rants of words, so I surmised that they already had conversations before I aboarded. 

She was complaining about how her hometown Ciudad de Zamboanga has become messy nowadays because of the various whys and wherefores she explained. Piqued by the topic, I turned back to the her.

In turn to Chabacano.

"Chabacano tu, hermana?" I asked curiously. I saw an immediate surprise in her face, but she was more delighted, probably at how I spoke the language.

"Si," she confirmed cheerily with a bright face. "Chabacano tu tambien?" she queried.

"Un, un" I stuttered as I tried my best while the old lady nodded her head to and fro as if helping me to express what I wanted to say. "Un Chabacano el abuelo de mio," I finally uttered, groping for the right words to answer.

"Ah. Chabacano man yo pero ya vive yo aqui," she said.

We felt at ease with each other in an instant like we're a glove and a hand for she kept talking to me, too. She pointed out how her pueblo have become ugly because, for one, of the influx of migrants who are naturally not Chabacanos. I understand that she is a purist person who belong to the former generation and wanted to preserve what is distinct her culture - its colorful language. Okay, but who cares about preserving language nowadays?

Yet listening in her creole language brought a frisson of nostalgia in me for reasons that I can't fathom for myself. Am I hearing my granny back? Am I one with the thoughts of this lady in my past life? Or am I just in a poignant mood at the moment? This woman is having a nostalgia of her old things, of her old hometown, of her old language, just like me.

As the tricycle stopped in front the church, the old lady gave her fare to the driver and went off the tricycle. She still seemed to have a lot to talk about but she just looked at me and exclaimed with a wide smile: "Adios, guapito!"

Some people are nostalgic about childhoods, about countrysides, about traditions. Other people are nostalgic about other people. Are few people, like me and that old lady, nostalgic about words?