Our Mother

Tongue
By: Jose Rizal
ALIMOT AGAPITO CORREA SANTOSIDAD
VALENZUELA
 Historical
Background

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Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" (English: Our Mother
Tongue)

▧ is a poem about the love of one's native language written in

Tagalog. It is widely attributed to the Filipino national hero
José Rizal, who supposedly wrote it in 1869 at the age of
eight.
▧ The poem was widely taught in Philippine schools to point out
Rizal's precociousness and early development of his 
nationalistic ideals.

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▧ A passage of the poem often paraphrased as Ang Hindi marunong
magmahal sa sariling wika, masahol pa sa hayop at malansang
isda is widely quoted to promote the use of Tagalog among
Filipinos.
▧ No manuscript for "Sa Aking Mga Kabatà" written in Rizal's
handwriting exists. The poem was first published in 1906, a decade
after his death, in a book authored by the poet Hermenigildo Cruz.
Cruz claimed that he received the poem from another poet, Gabriel
Beato Francisco, who in turn received it in 1884 from an alleged
close friend of Rizal, Saturnino Raselis.

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Historian Ambeth Ocampo, National Artist of the Philippines
 and writer Virgilio S. Almario and others have debunked
Rizal's traditional authorship of the poem based on the
following

▧ The poem uses the Tagalog ▧ The fluency and sophistication

word kalayaan (liberty/freedom
). However, Rizal first
encountered the word at least
by 1882, when he was 25 years
old – 17 years after he
supposedly wrote the poem.
of the Tagalog used in the
poem also do not match
Rizal's grasp of the language.
Although Rizal's native
tongue was Tagalog, his early
education was all in Spanish.

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MAIN IDEA
OF THE POEM

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 The poem’s main idea explains that a language is more
than just a group of words people use to communicate to
each other, Moreover accepting and loving our own
language and where we came from gives us a sense of
identity.

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POEM

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 1ST STANZA
TAGALOG ENGLISH
Kapagka ang baya'y sadyáng IF truly a people dearly love
umiibig The tongue to them by Heaven
Sa kanyáng salitáng kaloob ng sent,
langit, They'll surely yearn for liberty
Sanlang kalayaan nasa ring Like a bird above in the
masapit firmament.
Katulad ng ibong nasa
himpapawid.

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 2ND STANZA
TAGALOG ENGLISH
Pagka't ang salita'y isang BECAUSE by its language one
kahatulan can judge
Sa bayan, sa nayo't mga A town, a barrio, and
kaharián, kingdom;
At ang isáng tao'y katulad, And like any other created
kabagay thing
Ng alin mang likha noong Every human being loves his
kalayaán. freedom

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 3RD STANZA
TAGALOG ENGLISH
Ang hindi magmahal sa ONE who doesn't love his
kanyang salitâ native tongue,
Mahigit sa hayop at malansáng Is worse than putrid fish and
isdâ, beast;
Kayâ ang marapat AND like a truly precious
pagyamaning kusà thing
Na tulad sa ináng tunay na It therefore deserves to be
nagpalà. cherished.

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 4TH STANZA
TAGALOG ENGLISH
Ang wikang Tagalog tulad din THE Tagalog language's akin
sa Latin to Latin,
Sa Inglés, Kastilà at salitang To English, Spanish, angelical
anghel, tongue;
Sapagka't ang Poong maalam For God who knows how to
tumingín look after us
Ang siyang naggawad, This language He bestowed us
nagbigay sa atin. upon.

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 5TH STANZA
TAGALOG ENGLISH
Ang salita nati'y huwad din sa AS others, our language is the
iba same
Na may alfabeto at sariling With alphabet and letters of its
letra, own,
Na kaya nawalá'y dinatnan ng It was lost because a storm did
sigwâ destroy
Ang lunday sa lawà noóng On the lake the bangka in
dakong una. years bygone.

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 VALUES AND ATTITUDES FOUND IN THE
POEM THAT ARE STILL VALID AND
USABLE FOR OUR SOCIETY TODAY

Awareness of
Sense of freedom Nationalism
extinction

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Elements of nation building in the poem: Our
Mother Tongue:

Freedom
a l
Lib
it on age er
Na ngu ty
La

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 End!
Reference:
http://thelifeandworksofrizal.blogspot.com/2016/07/interpretation
-our-mother-tongue.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_Aking_Mga_Kabata

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