BY DR. JOSE MA. EDUARDO P. DACUDAO
EVER wondered why foreigners seem to adapt to speaking the Visayan languages Cebuano and Ilonggo more easily than Tagalog?
It’s because Tagalog frequently conjugates or inflects by placing affixes inside a stem word as infixes. This can be real tongue twisters for a non-native speaker.
Again, using the stem word ‘kain’ (eat), Tagalog would conjugate it into ‘kinain’ (ate) and ‘kinakain’ (eating). The affix -in- becomes an infix placed inside the ‘kain’ stem word. This is a must in Tagalog grammar, but is more difficult to learn for an outsider.
Visayan languages, on the other hand, rarely use infixes. The affixes above take the form of prefixes, and so we have the simpler to learn ‘gi-kaon’ in Cebuano; and ‘gin-kaon’ and ‘gina-kaon’ in Ilonggo. One places the affixes gi-, gin-, gina- before an intact stem word ‘kaon’ (eat). ‘I already ate the fish’ translates to ‘Gi-kaon ko na ang isda’ in Cebuano, and ‘Gin-kaon ko na ang isda’ in Ilonggo. ‘I am still eating the fish’ translates to ‘Gi-kaon ko pa ang isda’ in Cebuano, and ‘Gina-kaon ko pa and isda’ in Ilonggo. Prefix plus an intact stem word is much easier to learn and pronounce for non-native outsiders and foreigners.
For future tense (or Action-Begun-in-the-Future from an Aspect point of view), the discrepancy in terms of what’s-easier-to-learn is even worse. Ask a foreigner to pronounce the tongue-twisting, double syllabic, circumfixed ‘Kakainin’ (will eat something), and it’s a cinch that he or she would sputter something funnily incomprehensible the first time around. The Visayan ‘kaonon’ is much easier to learn and pronounce, since the affix -on takes the form of a suffix, coming right after an intact stem word.
Moreover, Visayan languages do not double syllables in conjugation, which Tagalog frequently does in its present and future tense verbs. Imagine a non-native trying to translate the statements ‘I am cooking’ (present), and ‘I will cook’ (future). The Tagalog tendency to double syllables entails some tongue twisting – ‘Nagluluto ako’ (present), and ‘Magluluto ako’ (future). Compare to the easier-to-pronounce-and-remember Ilonggo ‘Naga-luto ako’ (present), and ‘Mag-luto ako’ (future). All the outsider has to do is to remember a stem word (in this case ‘luto’, but it can nearly be any other word), and add the constant prefixes ‘naga-‘ (present) and ‘mag-’ (future), or ‘nag’ (past); and wow, he’s already learned to use Ilonggo action focus affixes in everyday conversation.
What have we further learned? The present ‘Filipino’ (a honey-coated Tagalog dialect that frequently uses infixes and circumfixes and doubles syllables in conjugation) annihilates the beauty and simplicity of predominantly conjugating stem words by prefixes and suffixes while avoiding the unnecessary doubling of syllables.
What else? Heretically enough, it’s quite apparent that a Visayan language is far easier for a non-native speaker to learn than Tagalog. If one would teach, say Hiligaynon, as a national language, we can bet on every elementary kid learning it within a few weeks and far easier than Tagalog.
And so it becomes clearer that in reality the provision of creating a ‘Filipino’ language that is to be ‘developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages’ is technically impossible to fulfill.
What other country in the world has made a provision such as this? As far as I know, none. No other country on Earth is stupid enough to do so. (To be continued)/PN
