You Cannot Write In Your Mother Tongue?

Aside from extreme poverty caused by massive graft and corruption, the Philippines is also known to have several dozens of languages. With the exception of Chinese and Arabic, Filipinos use the Latin alphabet. Thanks for the influence of the Spanish alphabet which trashed the original Filipino way of writing known as “baybayin”.

All Philippine languages are similarly written and pronounced  like Spanish, Classical Latin, Italian   (but Agno is still AG-NO and not AN-YO) and some  languages from the Malay family. The sound of each letter in words is heard but depending on the region there is no distinction between “f” and “p”, “e” and “i”, “b” and “v”.  Exceptions are "mga"  (indicates plurality) and "ng" (denotes possession).

There are a number of Filipinos who foolishly say that they are fluent in speaking their mother tongue,  say Ilocano,  but they claim that they cannot write it.

I don’t believe so.

People from South and Central America including Spain  and Italy who have zero Ilocano knowledge can write it if the words are dictated slowly and pronounced properly.  If alive, Cevantes, Cicero and Dante Alighieri can write Ilocano or any Philippine language from dictation.

“Innakto agarado inton bigat.” (I will go and plow the field tomorrow.)  That sentence could be written by one from Buenos Aires  or Milan as “Y(I)nnactó agarado intón vigát.” 

An Argentine or an Italian can read that sentence perfectly like Ilocanos do.

It is in Spanish orthography but when an Ilocano reads it, he can perfectly understand and pronounce the sentence correctly.  Kapampangan, Cebuano, Ilonggo, Tausug, Bicolano or Maranaw can also read the sample sentence but they cannot understand it.

How much more to a native of the Ilocos Region or Ilocanos in diaspora whose first language is Ilocano?

One’s inability to speak and write his mother tongue even for decades does not make him (totally) forget  his first language.  It is understandable that decades of not using the language prompts the speaker to search for the right word for the thought he wants to express.

My granddad lived in Manila for 60  straight years and never came back to Vigan.  Tagalog has been his lingua franca but during reunions,  his Ilocano was perfect and so with his Vigan accent.

It is impossible that a German who learned Tagalog living in Manila for 25 years will forget  to write in  German when he goes back to Hamburg.

As Filipinos, we have our fancies if not stupidities. Jose Rizal said before that anyone who does not love his native language is just like a stinking fish.

Well, that’s what we are!   We are good in putting masks on our faces.  Masks that mud or bastardize our identity. -30-