The Role of Media and Government in Language Marginalization - Languages

--- In DILA-philippines@yahoogroups.com, "coo1_vic"
wrote:
> I think this forum may have been giving too much credit (or blame)
to
> the Philippine government for the widespread adoption of Tagalog-
> based Filipino. I think the credit for this result belongs more to
> the media, especially television.

That's a very interesting point Vic. I agree with you on the key
role of media. OTOH, IMHO, while media is an important, nay, a very
important factor, it is not the deciding one. Even if the media were
to broadcast in the subdialect as much they wished, no one would
listen to them if no one understood "Filipino". They would simply
have no market. But the government-sponsored imposition of the
imperial tongue, to the exclusion of all other Philippine languages,
ensures that "Filipino," and only "Filipino," has a ready market.
And media eagerly caters to that market, reinforcing the use of the
subdialect, which in turn strengthens the government line that the
use of "Filipino" in the schools is logical because it is "widely
understood". In the process, the increasing prestige of the
subdialect, and the corresponding decline in status of the regional
languages, is a foregone conclusion, which leads to situations like
that narrated by Lynn, about the two Ilonggos conversing in Tagalog.
Why would they speak Ilonggo when government policy holds up the
subdialect as both prestigious and nationalistic, and completely
ignores regional languages like Ilonggo, in many cases even
prohibiting their use within school premises. Often, there is the
added insult, explicit or implicit, that the regional languages (and
by extension, their speakers) are inferior. Can we blame them if
they decide to speak in the "superior," more prestigious language?
It is a vicious, endless circle whose inevitable destination is the
death of our indigenous languages.

If you wish to test the hypothesis as to whether it is media or the
schools which is the more important factor contributing to the
domination of the subdialect, try broadcasting "Filipino"-dubbed
chinovelas or telenovelas, have been the rage in Manila in recent
years, in their original Mandarin, Korean or Spanish. They would not
have a viable market, because the educational system did not require
schoolchildren from Batanes to Tawi-Tawi to learn the Mandarin,
Korean or Spanish, but rather the subdialect, in which they are in
fact dubbed. While it is media which eventually carries the "burden"
of Filipinization/Tagalization, it is the initial government input
(enforcement of the subdialect in schools and government) which
ensures that it is successful.

There are those of the opinion that imposing the "national language"
in schools and government to the exclusion of our other languages is
not harmful to the indigenous languages, since the latter are "not
prohibited" anyway [I would dispute the one about their "not being
prohibited," BTW, since many schools in non-Tagalog regions ban the
regional language within school premises, a violation of human rights
blithely ignored by the school and other authorities, who only care
for the propagation of "Filipino"]. But the exclusion of these
languages from more and more areas atrophies them, renders powerless
and inutile, while continuously reinforcing and rewarding the use of
the subdialect in non-Tagalogs. Should we be surprised then if the
indigenous languages, having been stripped of prestige and rendered
useless, die out?

One example of the insidious effect of the government's Tagalista
language policy was driven home by the observation of an Ilonggo
classmate in college. He observed that he remembers a time when
there were comic books in Ilonggo, but that these were discontinued
because they lost to the economics of scale. It was infinitely more
profitable to produce and market komiks in the prestigious
subdialect, which is understood throughout the archipelago, rather
than cater to a limited regional market. It was government policy
enforcing the subdialect which created such a guaranteed market
for "Filipino" (note that elementary education is compulsory), and it
is the same policy, which, by prohibiting schools from teaching
schoolchildren in their own languages, which ensures that our other
languages do not develop markets of their own.

Edwin Camaya

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Page Updated Fri Oct 8, 2004 11:21pm EDT