BY DR. JOSE PALU-AY DACUDAO
THE CRITERIA
One, it should be a minority language. This is the most important criterion. As explained above, a minority language used as lingua franca in a multilinguistic country also acts as a leveling tongue, since so few people speak it as a native language.
This is the case in Indonesia. In Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia is NOT based on Javanese, the language of the majority of Indonesians with at least 80 million speakers, since Java has such a huge population.
But why not choose Javanese? Because if the lingua franca is already spoken by a huge proportion of the population of a country, the minority languages will quickly be driven to extinction, as they are being spoken by only a small proportion of people.
In case of the Philippines, this would theoretically rule out Tagalog and Cebuano, since a huge number of people already speak them as their native tongue. Each of them is spoken by more than 20% of the total Philippine population as native tongue. If used as mandatory lingua franca for all, they would tend to drive neighboring ethnolinguistic peoples to extinction.
However, by this criterion, the rest of the Philippine languages would be eligible. Each of them is spoken by less than 10% of the total Philippine population as native tongue.
Two, it should be intrinsically easy to learn.
Ever wondered why foreigners seem to adapt to speaking the Visayan languages Cebuano and Hiligaynon more easily than Tagalog?
It’s because Tagalog frequently conjugates or inflects by placing affixes inside a stem word as infixes. (An infix is an affix inserted inside a stem word.)
This can be a real tongue twister for a non-native speaker. For example, using the stem word kuha (get), Tagalog would conjugate it into ‘kinuha and kinukuha’ or ’kumuha and kumukuha’.
The affix –in– or –um– becomes an infix placed inside the ‘kuha’ stem word, consequently separating it into two. This is a must in Tagalog grammar. However, it is more difficult to learn for an outsider, or even elementary students.
Why does Tagalog have to use infixes? The reason is that the Tagalog language lacks the Visayan prefix ‘gi(n)-‘ and ‘gina-‘, and also ‘naga-‘.
Most Visayan languages on the other hand rarely use infixes. The affixes above take the form of prefixes. (A prefix is an affix placed before a stem word. The stem word remains intact.)
Therefore, we have the simpler to learn gikuha in Cebuano; and ginkuha and ginakuha and nagakuha in Hiligaynon. One places the affixes gi-, gin-, gina-, naga– before an intact stem word kuha. For a foreigner or school child, affixing an intact stem word with a prefix is easier to learn than dividing a stem word into two by placing an infix inside it.
The learning problem for foreigners and children is worsened by the fact that Tagalog grammar requires the doubling of syllables in conjugating for present and future tense (or Action-Begun-in-the-Future from an Aspect point of view).
Ask a foreigner to pronounce the tongue-twisting, double syllabic, ‘kukuha(n)in’ (will get something), and it’s a cinch that he or she would sputter something funnily incomprehensible the first time around.
(Note also that Tagalog often contracts ‘kukuha(n)in’ to ‘kunin’, in which case the form of the stem word kuha completely disappears, resulting in more confusion.)
The Visayan ‘kuhaon’ is much easier to learn and pronounce, since the affix -on takes the form of a suffix ‘-on’, coming right after an intact stem word. In addition, most Visayan languages do not double syllables in conjugation. (A suffix is an affix added at the end of a stem word. The stem word remains intact.) (To be continued)/PN
