By Philip M. Lustre Jr.
Several scholars have noted that the ongoing process of globalization has led to an emerging global culture. To a large extent, this is true, as indicated by an emerging global English, or "Globlish,"which seems to be present in every culture that acknowledges English as an international language.
But just as the emerging global English takes root in every culture, the Philippines seems to have developed its own brand of English, which is distinct from the mainstream English.
The Filipino English is indeed having a life of its own, as it evolves to reflect a very different Filipino culture.
The Philippines is probably the most different country in Southeast Asia.
Except East Timor, ours is the only Christian nation in this part of the world. Physically, a Filipino is essentially Malay in looks, but his temperament is very Latino. And he speaks English very well unlike other Southeast Asians.
The Filipino English is quite different from the English spoken by the Americans or the British. It has its own phonetics and set of idioms. An average American or Briton may find difficulties understanding some English words, which a Filipino uses in daily social intercourse.
In politics, an American refers to a presidential candidate as a standard bearer, but a Filipino prefers to call him a "presidentiable," a term which has yet to find its place in the Webster's standard dictionary. We've terms like "vice presidentiable" and "senatoriable" to refer to those running for other posts.
(Lately, the term "presidentiable" has been officially accepted by the Webster's dictionary and is now considered part of the English lexicon.)
An American calls it a political party, and a British, political aggroupement, to refer to groups of individuals with the same set of political beliefs and objectives. But a Filipino may call it a "political aggrupation," which is another term that could not be found in the dictionary.
In business, anything that is bought on staggered payment basis will always be referred as a good or service acquired on installment. While a Filipino may occasionally use it, he prefers to call it as a thing bought on "tears." Hence, every installment is a "give," a term which is not easily discernible by other English-speaking people
Police works could be messy, but Filipinos have specific terms, whose differing usage could hardly be explained. The dictionary says salvage means to save or help. But in Filipino parlance, "salvage" means summary execution, which is the exact opposite of its actual meaning. It probably has evolved from the Spanish word "salvaje," which means bad.
This term has surfaced in the 1970s, when the dreaded Marcos police and military operatives kidnapped political activists, who later surfaced as victims of rubouts.
The wireless telephony boom of the early 2000s has led to the emergence of new words that are essentially Filipino. A tryst or rendezvous among cellphone users is an "eyeball," which has a different connotation for the Americans and British.
Other English words that have Filipino meanings: a refrigerator is a "frigidaire"; a pack of toothpaste is "colgate"; while a traditional camera is "kodak." Going to SM or Robinson is "malling," while, in other cultures, it is shopping. Hotels in other countries have no equivalent for our "short time."
When going to a restaurant, a food server will call the bill a "chit," which is almost identical with the word "check." I was told that local food servers had a hard time pronouncing check; chit is easier.
In other countries, the lavatory is called toilet, but in the Philippines, they euphemistically call it comfort room or rest room.
Scholars have no explanation for this Filipino English, but I always believe in the Filipino sense of individualism. A Pinoy always wants to be different from the rest of the world.
I remember Fr. T. LLamzon of the Ateneo's scholarly study of the linguistic characteristics of what he called Standard Filipino English, which studied not just the vocabulary but also the phonology and morphology of the dialectal variation. For example in vocabulary, the drug store is sometimes called a pharmacy, and in the area of pronunciation, category is pronounced with accent on the second rather than the first syllable, among other findings. The phonology is simplified with the complex combination of vowels generally reduced to the a-e-i-o-u's of Filipino and Spanish, but despite everything, there is mutual intelligibility of this dialect to British and American English users. I continue to doubt that second language speakers have a right to claim equal status with native speakers of English. I continue to believe that ours is a world-acceptable variation of the language, but it cannot be standard; the standard will always be that spoken in London or New york. Filipinos will be best to master Filipino whatever region they are from, because Filipino is the language which they can really call their own. The Philippiines is not the 3rd largest English speaking country in the world; it is the largest Filipino speaking community in the world.
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