Proem

The month of August is designed as the "Month of the Filipino language." It used to be Araw (Day), then became Linggo (Week), and now Buwan (Month).

The trouble is, we do not know what we are celebrating because at present nobody knows what is the FILIPINO language. The Filipino language, with an "F" spelling is no longer the Tagalog base Pilipino, with a "P" spelling. The Filipino is an invented language and therefore it is artificial!

Constitutional Provision

Art. XIV, Sec. 6, of the 1987 Constitution provides, "The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages."

It is very clear that nobody knows what is the Filipino language. It is a mishmash of all languages and would still "evolve." To evolve means to develop gradually. At present, all existing languages in the Philippines can claim to be the Filipino language. This includes English, Spanish, Arabic, and what have you.

The Confusion

Since the Filipino language is still evolving and developing, any Tom, Dick, and Harry can introduce his "enhancement," and indeed it is happening. At present, the school children are told that the English letters C, F, J, Q, V, X, Z, and the Spanish letters C, CH, F, LL, Ñ, Q, RR, V, X, and Z are part of the Filipino alphabet. But what is strange is that the letter MG of "Mga" is not considered an independent letter.

If this is the case, then who will determine the proper spelling of words? The English word "education" is usually spelled in Filipino as "edukasyon." It is derived from the Spanish word "educacion". Since the Spanish letters are now accepted, then EDUKASYON and EDUCATION are both correct spellings in Filipino. If the derived edukasyon is correct, why would the original educacion be wrong since the Spanish letters are now accepted?

If this is so, then we will have a whole range of confusion in spelling and meanings. You can just imagine the confused situation of the present schoolchildren when they grow up. If the powers that be have to invent a language, they should invent to clarify matters and not to sow confusion.

The Constitution says, "enrich on the basis of existing Philippines…languages."

Sugboanon Bisaya has the word kabangkaágan that is equivalent to the English "education," why is kabangkaágan not used in Filipino?

Celebrating Credulity

So now, what are we celebrating in the Buwan ng Wika? If we are celebrating the bastardized English now labeled as Filipino, then we are celebrating our credulity. As defined in the Constitution, the real Filipino language is not yet in existence. What is being taught now in our schools as "Filipino" is an invented language with undefined grammar and word meanings. It no longer uses the old Tagalog-based balarila grammar, and Filipino is mixing the grammatical rules of the inflectional English language and the agglutinative Tagalog language. That is why "Mag-eeating time na" is already considered valid Filipino. In linguistic studies, if the jargon has no defined grammar, then it is not considered a language.

If the Boholanos must celebrate a language, they should celebrate the Sugboanon Bisaya. It is a language with well-defined grammar, which you do not know because you do not study it. So study it during the Buwan sa Pinulongan. Our vocabulary is about twice the Tagalog vocabulary. We have almost 4,000 affixes compared to the Tagalog of about 250 affixes. (Ex: mokaon, nikaon, gikaon, nagkaón, kan-on, kan-onón; kinán-an, etc.)

By Constitutional definition Sugboanon Bisaya is a Filipino language. It is spoken by majority of the Filipino population (28% compared to 21% Tagalog).