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)

ISINAY: A Language at Risk (Part 2)

THE PAPER of Ms. Celina Marie E. Cruz ably dissects what is happening to the Isinay language. It was one of the four papers discussed in the Endangered Languages and their Revitalization panel of the 1st Philippine Conference-Workshop on Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education [Theme: "Reclaiming the right to learn in one's own language"] held Feb. 18-20, 2010 at Capitol University, Cagayan de Oro City.

I don't know about my fellow Isinays, but I strongly suggest that the paper should be a must read for Isinays (or friends of Isinays) who wish to do something to save a small but beautiful language from becoming merely a footnote to the history of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax -- or of Nueva Vizcaya for that matter.

There are at least two ways on how to get hold of a copy. One is to pay a visit to the office of Ms. Cruz at  the Department of Linguistics, UP Diliman,  Quezon City. Another is to navigate the internet -- just type "Celina Cruz, Isinai" on your search engine and you can download a copy from any of the sites you find.


Lack of Literature on Isinay

I find the following note by Ms. Cruz' in the Related Literature section of her paper quite disturbing:

Little has been written on the subject of the Isinai – its people, culture and language. Reliable sources are hard to find and get. Some information on them are only mentioned in a paragraph or two of an article, or a page or more in some book, like in the documented history of Nueva Vizcaya. Recorded accounts of their cultural practices aren't well documented and passed down only through oral tradition.

The veteran editor of master's degree and doctoral dissertations in UP Los Baños in me would normally dismiss such a paragraph as the excuse of one who didn't cast his search net far and wide enough. 

But having done some literature search on Isinay (or Isinai to some, like Ms. Cruz) in connection with my dream to produce an Isinay dictionary, I can vouch for this finding by the UP linguistics lady. 

In fact, before I hit on her paper in the internet, I only knew four major publications on Isinay. One was the Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana en Isinay & Inmeas (1876), the second was the Introduccion al Estudio de la Lengua Castellana en Isinay printed in 1889 by the University of Santo Tomas when it was still a colegio, another was the Particles of Relation of the Isinai Language (1918), then there is the Isinay Texts and Translations (1986).

The lack of literature on Isinay is therefore one probable reason why the language has slipped into an endangered status.

And while we're at it, I think that addressing such lack of literature on Isinay is one possible way to help save the Isinay language from going extinct.

(DIOY SI ATUPTUPNA)

  

ISINAY: A Language at Risk (Part 1)

IF THIS PIECE sounds formal, I'm sorry.

It's not really my style as a writer and as an occasional speaker to be insipid and humorless if I can help it.

Yet I hope you agree that the topic about the Isinay language under threat of extinction is not a laughing matter. Or, as we say it in Isinay, marin pantatawan.

The topic is a serious one because if language is the soul of a people's culture, then the loss of Isinay as a language would also mean losing the Isinay soul.

But that's putting the gariton (cart) before the nuwang (carabao).

Let me tell how I came to know that there is a problem, a life-and-death matter, with the Isinay language.

In one of my rare visits back home in Isinay land in the 1990s, I observed that this one of my native tongues was no longer being prevalently used especially by kids even in the heart of my hometown Dupax del Sur.

What you would hear is Tagalog. With typical Ilocano or Isinay accent, of course.

It was only the dara-uway (older folks) who spoke Isinay. If you would ask kids with familiar eyes "Siran si de^deem?" (Who are your parents?), you would only get shy smiles or puzzled eyes. So you would have to shift your lines to Tagalog.
 
If the children of Dupax and other parts of the Isinay world today are no longer well versed in Isinay like we used to when we were small, that would have been fine with me. In Isinay, that would translate to: "Nayyi masait an tajeng u." In Iluko: "Awan nasakit a bakrangko."

To be sure, it's not totally an Isinay concern. In fact, I also noted that even my other native language, Iluko (or Ilocano to the uninitiated), is also no longer as popular nowadays among kids today -- be it in Isinay country or in the Cordillera and, I guess, even in the so-called Ilocos Republic.

But I didn't know that was a big problem then.

Perhaps I was busy with other concerns. Perhaps, too, I just didn't ponder on the matter on Isinay deep enough.

I only got to know there was a case one time I saw a new item on Isinay in the internet.

You see, since I got into this idea of compiling rare and even moribund words in Isinay, I was keeping my radars busy so I won't miss a possible source of such words to include in my list.

Here's the picture: There's not much material on Isinay available in the internet or even in libraries.

And so, when I hit on "The Revitalization Challenge for Small Languages: The Case of Isinai," mabilis pa sa alas-kuatro (quicker than four o' clock), I immediately downloaded it so I could read it line by line even when our internet connection in the house would go off-line.

(DIOY SI ATUPTUPNA)

ISINAY Me and the WORLD of Isinays

I AM A kalangakang-aged and Baguio-based nature-lover/forester/writer&editor who has recently found joy and excitement in using Isinay words whenever and wherever I could in my cellphone texts, Facebook posts, emails, essays, conversations, and even soliloquies. 

Though not formally trained for the job, I have also taken on a mission to take a leadership role in the production of possibly the first dictionary of the Isinay language -- with only my love for my hometown, my little knowledge on research and publications, and my social skills at knocking on the doors of friends, relatives, significant authorities, and fellow Isinays as wings beneath my wings, so to speak.

It may not go fully viral in my time, but putting into motion little acts of using Isinay in social networks and in oral and written communication would, I believe, one way or another help generate interest in sustaining the health (for at least a century or even more) of the beautiful Isinay language of the towns of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax del Sur, in the southern part of the Province of Nueva Vizcaya, Northern Luzon, the Philippines.

This blogsite -- probably the only one fully dedicated to the world (including the language, the land, and what remains of the culture of the Isinays) -- is a spin-off of that dream. I-ilang na otya ta bendisionan di Apu Tauwar Manarawum tiyen Isinay World ta uria nan tun-uran di aptiyoar lojom pelaovos an peyar di naun-unar darin Isinay-Bird on Isinay Tumblr ot mannannar si deen taw-on.

Atdi pay an ajo^gosan ditau otyat Apu Tauwar ta satyen Isinay World ya mambaliw an maabbirang boon ila ya masne, on matamtam on mampagayjayam podda, an pansasavayatan, panlingalingan, on pan-os-oseyan taun tataju an dioy si bona^ o mu puli na an Isinay -- ampaylamu Irupaj, Ibambang,  I-Aritao.

Avoleyan tau mot mu ampaylamu dattun beveyoy si ittuan tau -- situ Pilipinas o mu siri America, Africa, Australia, Belgium, Canada, España, Hawaii, Hongkong, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, London, Malaysia, Holland, Germany, Qatar, Canada, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, on urum tay an nabobov-on an lugar.

War mavvesar bayaw ya dioy mot tiyen Isinay World an salinuwan on pandaramuwan tau. 

UMALI AYU! Welcome to visit this site anytime. We also appreciate if you could send in your views and suggestions on how to make our Isinay World a better world. E-mail us at isinaybird@gmail.com

Man-oj lojom tiyen suung si internet. Bayaw ot amplamu atdi ya marawum dioy rat ira^da na on how we could inspire other Isinays and other Isinay language advocates to also heed Dylan Thomas' line:  "Do not go gently into that good night... rage, rage against the dying of the light!"

To paraphrase that as a way to ventilate the case for Isinay:

"Urian tau otyan i-avoloy an malaviyan on mirumo^ ri in-a-Isinay on ba^ba^ tauwar an Isinay... tuma^doj on lumavan tau ta marin masambut si sorom ri apuy tauwar!"