BY DR. JOSE PALU-AY DACUDAO
In brief, the difficulty in learning Tagalog by foreigners (and outsiders such as Visayan children) is intrinsic to Tagalog’s grammar. The ease in learning Hiligaynon language by foreigners and children is intrinsic to Hiligaynon’s grammar.
What have we further learned? If the present ‘Filipino’ (a honey-coated Tagalog dialect that frequently uses infixes) if adopted exclusively would annihilate the simplicity and ease of predominantly conjugating stem words by prefixes and suffixes. And it’s quite apparent that there are non-Tagalog Philippine languages that are far easier for a non-native speaker to learn than Tagalog, Hiligaynon being the easiest.
ADDED BONUSES FOR HILIGAYNON
Hiligaynon is an excellent bridge between the two biggest languages in the Philippines, Tagalog and Cebuano; and is easily learned by both Tagalogs and Cebuanos.
Why? Because Hiligaynon’s vocabulary and grammar have close similarities to both Tagalog and Cebuano. (That’s probably because the indigenous Hiligaynon linguistic area is located right in the middle of the Tagalog and Cebuano speaking regions.)
Related to the above, Hiligaynon actually has an affixing system that can be regarded as eclectic between Tagalog and Cebuano. For past tense, Hiligaynon can choose to use both the Cebuano way of affixing with prefixes and the Tagalog way of affixing with infixes. This is best illustrated by examples.
Back to the Tagalog ‘kinuha’. In Cebuano this would be ‘gikuha’. Surprisingly and conveniently, Hiligaynon can use both ‘kinuha’ (infixing like Tagalog) or ‘ginkuha’ (prefixing like Cebuano.) Or take the Tagalog ‘kumuha’. In Cebuano this would be ‘nagkuha’. Surprisingly and conveniently, Hiligaynon has the option to use both ‘kumuha’ (infixing like Tagalog) or ‘nagkuha’ (prefixing like Cebuano.) For foreigners, outsiders, and schoolchildren, the prefixing method is much simpler to learn of course, because as explained above, it preserves an intact stem word, and it’s expected that the prefixing system is what they will use instead of the infixing system. However, a native Tagalog speaker can also choose to use the infixing system intrinsic to the Tagalog Language when speaking in Hiligaynon.
Talking about a language to be developed from all Philippine languages, it seems that the eclectic nature of Hiligaynon grammar already partially qualifies it into that category, even in its natural state.
The fact that Hiligaynon is the language linguistically most closely related to Tagalog among major Philippine languages, with almost the same fundamental grammatical rules, explains why Tagalogs that are willing to learn have few real problems in learning Hiligaynon. As far as I know, ALL Tagalogs that have married into Ilonggo families and settled in Iloilo and Negros Occidental have learned to speak Hiligaynon quite easily. As a matter of fact, these include ALL my Tagalog relatives by affiliation who have married into my family and settled in Hiligaynon-speaking areas.
In addition, the same is true for Cebuanos; they easily learn Hiligaynon because of the similarity in vocabulary and affixes. As far as I know, ALL Cebuanos that have married into Ilonggo families and settled in Iloilo and Negros Occidental have learned to speak Hiligaynon quite easily. As a matter of fact, these include ALL my Cebuano relatives by affiliation who have married into my family and settled in Hiligaynon-speaking areas.
As an added bonus, Hiligaynon is the only Philippine language that foreigners and outsiders (and in fact other ethnolinguistic peoples of the Philippines) have remarked upon as pleasing to the ear. That’s because of all Philippine languages, spoken Hiligaynon has a unique sweet-sounding singsong quality. The only other language I know of that has such a pleasing-to-hear singsong quality is Italian. This quality of Hiligaynon often makes outsiders to actually want to learn the language, even if it provides them with no social benefits.
If one would teach say Hiligaynon (probably the easiest Philippine language to learn for reasons discussed above, and with the added advantage as the only Philippine language that has a sweet singsong accent that outsiders love to hear) as a lingua franca for the Philippines, we can bet on every elementary kid learning it within a few weeks; and far easier and quicker than Tagalog.
Hiligaynon should be (by the criteria above), the lingua franca of the Philippines, not Tagalog./PN
