Filipino LT 1

Coverage:
1. Jeepney as the Metaphor of Filipino Identity (focus on the images/features of
the jeepney and its representation of the Filipino identity)
2. Brief Development of the Filipino Language (historical events and figures
involving the establishment of Filipino national language)
3. Accent Markers: Acute, Grave, Circumflex
4. Sound Changes in Affixation

1. Jeepney as the Metaphor of Filipino Identity

 (Sakay na) From Willys Jeep to Pinoy Dyip

> Willys Jeep came as a visitor around 50 years ago
o Durable short vehicle that could accommodate around 6 people
> Filipino got hold of this raw material and reinvented it
o Can load up to 36 people
o Dashboard carries portable altar – mobile chapel
o Windshield has become a billboard of funny stickers and
political/religious statements
 (Bayad po) Seeing Oneself in Others
> Design of seats is not for convenience, comfort, or security of passengers
> Number of passengers is the driver’s calculation of how many can fit for
him to get the most money
> On the hood, metallic roosters represent a rural cockfight
o Similarly, a racehorse on a spring is a metaphor for the driver’s
race for their living
> Before the law prohibited radios, the jeepney was a mobile jukebox
o Antennae tall enough to serve as transmitting towers
> Jeepneys can act as cargo trucks
o Load rice, crates of fruit, and even passengers on the jeep’s roof
> Jeepneys answer a different kind of need
o More people to be transported in a shorter time
o No time for social conversation
- But there is pakikipagkapwa-tao (getting along with the
group/treating others as friends) in passing fares to the driver.
- Simple way of bayanihan (collective spirit)
> The driver makes an ambiance for social & familial functions
> What are these features?
o Wife’s embroidery and tasseled drapery
 o Icons of favorite religious patrons are enthroned on dashboard
o His drinking partners and their punny jokes are there too:
- “Basta driver, sweet driver.”
- “God knows Hudas not pay.”
- “Kats ng Saudi.”
- “Ipitin po lamang nang magkasya.” (Sit with your things closed)
 (Para po) The Filipino Identity in a Nutshell
> Jeepney represents the Filipino, our contribution, and our identifier.
> Filipino addition to jeep is an identity, a habitation, and a name.
o The Filipino has been receiving foreign goods (jeeps) and needs
(mobility and convienence)
> The Filipino identity is ‘a today’s native of yesterday’s visitor’.

2. Brief Development of the Filipino Language

 The Establishment of the First Philippine Republic in 1899

> Philippines had no linguistic symbol and the national identity was not
focused on language issues
 Manuel Roxas signed the ‘Constitution of the Philippines’ (Feb 19, 1935)
 In the 1934-1935 Constitutional Convention, under President Manuel L.
Quezon, there came about the official recognition and desire to have a
national language to stand as a symbol of national unity of the Filipinos.
 “For the first time in Philippine legislative history, a national language of its
own was explicitly stipulated.” – Gonzales (1980)
 When the national language was taught in schools in the 1950’s as Pilipino,
the Pilipino was the same as Tagalog
> “[This] psychological opposition developed a sense of alienation among
the people”
 Article XIV, Section 3 of the 1935 Constitution:
> “The Congress shall take steps toward the development and adoption
of a common national language based on one of the existing native
languages.”
 Why Tagalog?
> Widely Spoken
> Not divided into smaller, separate languages
> Literary tradition is the richest
> The language of Manila (the political and economic capital)
> The language of the revolution