Highlights
- Speech communities share the same language and agree on meaning.
- Certain Filipino words like kilig and balikbayan are now part of the English language.
- A lot of Filipino words and phrases are derived from Spanish words and have evolved in spelling and meaning, such as 'leche' and 'susmaryosep'.
"Words are not just arbitrary or random descriptions of words around us," socio-linguist Loy Lising explains, adding, "They are often formed in a way that capture best the values, ideas, life experiences, relationships, attitudes and world views of particular speech communities."
Speech communities
There are certain words, expressions and phrases from one community that are not translatable to another. Source: Sam Lion from Pexels
"Because a speech community agrees on meaning, it makes sense that words, expressions and phrases from one community may not be translatable to another.
"Plus we need to take into consideration the social context of the community - its geography, history, religion, gastronomic experiences and economic status."
These differences can make direct translation difficult or nearly impossible.
"There's this term in liguistics called linguistic relativity. In simple terms, this deals with the way language and culture influence each other. That's the shortest explanation I can give of it.
"Each speech community expresses itself not just differently in terms of words, but also sounds.
"In the Philippines, we have languages that sound different from each other. People, let's say, from Pangasinan would sound different from people in Cebu. Each language will vary on how sounds are formed, how vowels and consonants are combined and how sentences are structured; so it's not just the words that are different - the accent and the tone can be as well."
Aside from accent and tone, how words are used vary from one community to another. Loy shares that while 'How are you?' is a ritual greeting in Australia, 'Have you eaten?' is a common way people greet and check up on each other some parts of the Philippines.
"Food is important in the Filipino culture, so asking if one has eaten is a way of showing care. This exemplifies how certain words were formed in a specific social context shared by the speakers of that community to reflect their values and experiences."
Multiples of one
Because of rice's role in Philippine culture, there are several names for it depending on its usage. Source: Pixabay
"If you think about what rice is to us, we think of it in various words and contexts because of how often we use it. It's like how bread has so many terms in the European context," Loy says, adding, "It's about the richness of the experience we have with it as a speech community that makes the word salient to us, and so we have many variations to what we call it."
While the crop is just 'rice' in English, there are different names given to it in Filipino: 'palay' or unmilled rice; 'bigas' or milled rice; 'kanin' or cooked rice; 'lugaw' or rice porridge; 'tutong' or burnt rice; 'bahaw' or leftover rice; and 'sinangag' or garlic/fried rice.
In Bikol, for instance, Professor Tuting Hernandez from the Department of Linguistics at the Univesity of the Philippines, Diliman, says that words also exist to distinguish the texture of rice cooked with too much water ('marugi') and the texture of rice cooked with not enough water ('malagtok').
Curse words, curses and religious beliefs
Many of the curse words and curses in Filipino are derived from Spanish words and religious beliefs. Source: Budgeron Bach from Pexels
"The word 'leche' [or 'letse'] isn't just milk in Filipino. It's also a swear word [which can connote idiocy]."
Swear words derived from Spanish words and phrases abound in languages in the Philippines.
"There's 'susmaryosep' which is actually derived from 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph'. It's a religious or superstitious invocation.
Loy shares that another religious invocation is 'Diyos ko!' ('Oh my God!'), which is playfully spelled at times as 'Jusko!'
"There's also this common Cebuano expression - 'simabako'. It's a compounding word derived from 'simba' and 'ko'. You transliterate it to "I'm going to church, but it's actually an expression that means 'God forbid!' It's like the speaker is invoking God, asking his help that something will not happen."
Aside from Catholicism, expressions have also been influeced by animistic beliefs and folkore.
"There's the phrase 'tao po' when you knock on the door of someone's house. The whole phrase is actually 'Tao po, hindi aswang', which means 'I'm a person, not a ghost/monster.' Belief in animism was prevalent - in dwende (dwarf), kapres (tree giant) and other beings that can cause you harm.
"There's also this Tagalog expression 'pwera usog'. In Cebuano, it's 'pwera buyag'. Both expressions are used after someone praises a baby because it is believed that it attracts beings not of this world. These expressions are used to dispel evil spirits."
Something borrowed
Kilig is now part of the Oxford dictionary. Source: Anna Tarazevich from Pexels
"Kilig is an English word because it doesn't have a direct equivalent in English. The way the Oxford Dictionary defines it is 'exhilarated by an exciting or romantic experience'.
Baon (food you bring to work or school), barkada (close group of friends), barong (a national costume in the Philippines), despedida (a party thrown for someone who is leaving), halo-halo (a Filipino dessert), kuya (older brother) and pasalubong are also part of the English language now.
"Pasalubong comes from 'salubong', meaning to welcome someone. The closest english translation to this is 'gift' or 'present', but that's not exactly correct. The whole explanation of the word has a cultural and emotional meaning. It is a present bought not for a celebration, but simply because someone travels somewhere and wants to bring back something for loved ones."
Creativity
Filipino words and expressions tend to be playful and creative, with Loy sharing, "a lot of the really creative words are also gay-speak".
"In general, Filipinos are fond of coining words for playful effect.
"Dr. Aurelio Vibar, a professor from the University of the Philippines in Cebu, shares that the word 'kandingon' is used to refer to someone who is afraid of taking regular showers. This is derived from the name of the local livestock 'kanding' (a goat who is believed to shun getting wet) with the suffix “on” added to form a new word, an adjective."
Other creative and playful words include 'Taglish' (Tagalog ang English); 'epal', which is short for 'pumapel' (meaning, trying to grab the spotlight); 'astig' (tough guy); and 'resbak' (to support or to avenge someone), which is the inversion of 'backrest'.
Nuances
There are also certain nuances in the language that are untranslatable to English.
"Our pronouns don't signal gender. We use 'ako' (me), 'ikaw' (you), 'siya' (he/she) unlike in English or Spanish; however, some of our words are gendered such as in Spanish, such as 'chismoso/chismosa' (gossip).
"We have the word 'naman', an expression used to intensify a message or meaning. It's also an expression of exasperation. This word has a lot of meanings actually, such as 'also', 'again' and 'really'.
"The interjection 'basta' is also an expression used in Spanish and Italian to mean 'enough'. We use it in the same way to stop things from further argument."
