ISINAY: A Language at Risk (Part 3)

Tips for Isinay Language Activists

The “handicap” (if we may call it that) of Ms. Cruz’s review of Related Literature is nevertheless compensated for by her citing three references on language vitality and endangerment.

One is the book “Language of Death” (published in 2000 by Cambridge University Press) whose author, David Crystal,  proposes prestige, wealth, power, presence in the education system, written form, and electronic technology as key themes in the revitalization of languages, and emphasizes the need for a strong “revitalization team” made up of community leaders, teachers and other specialists.

The second is a report by the UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages which identifies six factors that evaluate a language’s vitality and state of endangerment, two factors to assess language attitudes, and one additional factor to evaluate the urgency of documentation. Entitled “Language Vitality and Endangerment” (Brenzinger et al., 2003), the report describes how the scale can be useful in evaluating the type of support needed for the protection, revitalization, continuance and documentation of the language.

Third is a book “Reversing Language Shift: Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Assistance to Threatened Languages” by J. Fishman (1991) which offers a scale that would address the vitality and endangerment of a language.

 

The proceedings that includes Ms. Cruz’ Isinai paper itself contains a formidable array of papers written by Filipino linguists and education specialists where one could glean a tip here or a strategy there on how to revitalize a language. Unfortunately, only their abstracts are available in the internet. 

I myself would like to contact the authors of the following papers soon so I could sit down and read them for my further education and possibly generate ideas on how to energize my advocacy for Isinay:

• The Making of an English-Cebuano Visayan Dictionary
• Using Ilocano in Teaching Basic Number Concepts and Operations in Arithmetic
• Teaching Sinugbuanong Binisaya to Pupils in Grades 1, 2 & 3
• In Science Learning: Two Languages are Better Than One
• Building Oral Competency in the Mother Tongue as a Foundation for School Based and Second Language Learning
• The Role of Religious Educational Institutions in Revitalizing Endangered Languages.

Aside from the fact that the author is from Nueva Vizcaya, I would very much like to get hold of the paper whose abstract is printed below, because it specifically mentions Isinay as one of the languages being “silenced”:

The Role of Religious Educational Institutions in Revitalizing Endangered Languages in Northern Luzon in Support of MLE

Bonifacio Ramos

St. Mary’s University

bonifacioramos50@yahoo.com

Taking a cue from the strong exhortation of the Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, during the celebration of the 2008 International Year of Languages, where he underscored that “within the space of a few generations, more than 50% of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world may disappear,” this paper looks into the silencing of certain languages in Northern Luzon (Amianan). Many Ilokanos, Ifugaos, Bugkalots, Isinays, Iwaks, Ibanags, Gaddangs, Yogads, Kalingas, Isnags, and other Amianan peoples prefer to communicate in their L2 (Tagalog/Filipino or English) than in their regional and minority languages (L1) – which could spell out the demise of their first languages. This paper also looks into the present and recommended roles of religious educational institutions, particularly those of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (CICM), in the preservation, promotion, and revitalization of indigenous languages in support of the present thrust on mother tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) and indigenized curriculum and instruction.

In the meantime that one has yet to get hold of the three references cited by Ms. Cruz, her paper itself is an enlightening material to hand-hold Isinays or Isinay friends on how to grab the Isinay language from the jaws of death -- or what we Isinays call mansu^su^put di long-aj nar -- and resuscitate it to a state of health that should ensure we would be hearing Isinay commonly spoken again for many more years to come.

(DIOY TAY SI OSAN ATUPTUPNA)