Pampanga - Languages - http://maxpages.com/pampanga/erniet7

bj: a tale of two provinces / Kapampangan authors
Date: 4/8/2005 12:45:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: EITURLA
To: AkademyangKapampangan@yahoogroups.com

It can not be gainsaid nor denied that Tagalog is the most useful among all languages in the Philippines today. But was it always so? No, not always. Not so before the coming of the Spaniards. And not so either during the Spanish times. All major languages then were equal to one another. Pampangans especially, on account of their military service to the King of Spain (or viceroy of Mexico before 1821), were well known throughout the islands, and their language rang a familiar sound to people from Aparri to Jolo, although not learned. It was only during the American occupation and after our independence that Tagalog flourished nationwide.

And the main reasons are:
(1.) it was made our national language, (2.) it was made the language of instruction in schools, and (3.) it was made even more well-known by the media, especially television. The first two set the trend, and the last one popularized it.

Why does Tagalog continue to grow while Kapampangan and the other native languages lag behind and continue to shrink right in their own regions? To understand this, let's take a closer look at the schools of two provinces that are contiguous to each other and only separated by a river that flows into Manila Bay. These are Pampanga and Bulacan - two rich provinces located in the central plain of Luzon.

As everyone knows, the indigenous people of Pampanga speak Kapampangan while those of Bulacan speak Tagalog. Let me ask you.... What language do the schoolchildren in Bulacan use and learn? Their own language, Tagalog. Do they ever study Kapampangan? No, not at all. They have to learn only Tagalog. Why? Because Tagalog is the national language. Tagalog? I thought it is Pilipino, or Filipino? The same banana. Tagalog and Filipino are one and the same. The latter is just sugar-coated to make it acceptable nationally. The term is what makes many get endeared to it.
What about in Pampanga, what language do the schoolchildren there use and learn?
Tagalog also. Do they ever study their own language, Kapampangan? No, not at all. Some idiots say that they already know their own language anyway, so why still learn it in school? Then, why do the pupils in Bulacan still study Tagalog which they already know anyway also? Well, I don't know!

Now let us summarize this:
In Bulacan, the indigenous language is Tagalog. And their children use Tagalog in school.
In Pampanga, the indigenous language is Kapampangan. But their children do not use Kapampangan in school. They learn and use Tagalog instead.
Do you notice the disparity? If you do, then which of the two would flourish and which one would die eventually? And whom are we to blame for the failure of one
to get intellectualized? Is it not yet possible for Tagalog to now just get developed on its own without such government help? How long shall it be pushed up at the expense of its sister-languages?

Let me continue:
As a result of such a repugnant language policy, the two languages don't have equal footing in their development. While one continues to get intellectualized, the other stagnates in its development, if not rust. While one is promoted, the other is neglected. Not only in the other province, but also in the very province where it is indigenous, yes in its supposedly own territory.

I'll just have to end the comparisons here, and you be the judge in determining if we, Pampanguenos, are getting a fair deal.

Ernie Turla
author, Classic Kapampangan Dictionary

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