Ilocano writers ask DepEd secretary to stop controversial Iluko orthography

By Reynaldo E. Andres

Contributor

Ilocano writers in Ilocos Norte and Cagayan Valley have asked Department of Education Sec. Armin Luistro to stop the teaching in the elementary grades of the questionable Ilocano Orthography written by Dr. Joel Lopez, a DepEd official in Ilocos Norte.

In an emergency meeting held February 8 at the Cagayan State University (CSU) in Gonzaga, Cagayan, officers and members of the Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas (Ilocano Writers’ Association of the Philippines), or GUMIL Filipinas, assailed the issuance of the Kautusang Pangkagawaran Blg. 34, Serye 2013 which is the Ortograpiyang Pambansa by the DepEd.

The Order gave Lopez the excuse to change some portions of the Ilokano orthography already on file with the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (KWF), specifically on the way Ilocano writers write diphthongs and pronominal adjective. Lopez is in charge of the DepEd’s MTB-MLE program in Ilocos Norte.

GUMIL Filipinas is an institution of well-respected Ilocano writers which has chapters in Ilocano speaking provinces in the country and abroad such as in Hawaii, Hong Kong, Guam and Greece.

The writers’ group expressed dismay of the stir in the Ilokano language landscape in Regions 1 and 2 created by the issuance of the DepEd order and the Lopez flawed orthography.

“Such Order does not clothe the Ortograpiyang Pambansa with power to dictate on the orthographies of other languages. However, it did create an impression to some people in the DepEd that it is already the be-all and end-all of all indigenous language orthographies,” the letter said.

It is recalled that Lopez was the same DepEd official in Ilocos Norte who tried to change the Ilokano orthographic rule on the use of determiners “a” and “nga” some months ago, which drew protests from Ilocano writers who felt betrayed by the total absence of consultation with them who are long-time Ilokano language users and who had not found any problem on that portion of our orthography.

Just recently, Lopez had published and distributed his pamphlets which contains his flawed use of the Ilocano grammar and outlined the changes to the way the Ilocano writers write pronominal adjectives and diphthongs, without the benefit of a widespread consultation and language summit, as a sound and mandated way of language planning and development.

The Ilokano writers of Regions 1 and 2 said they felt a “stab wound on their backs”, thus, they ask the secretary if this is “the way our linguistic heritage be dealt with by a lone DepEd official”.

“Should the Ortograpiyang Pambansa has the force of a mandate to be followed, we believe it has no moral force to make other languages subservient to its rules, more so if the language is already a working, tried and tested orthography descriptive of how the language operates,” the letter said.

History proves that that the Ilokano Orthography had developed side by side with Tagalog/Filipino orthography and, surprisingly, the Ilokano orthography is similar in most respect to the Filipino Orthography with the exception on the way Ilocano writers write diphthongs and pronominal adjectives which they attach to the verb.

The group clarified that the Ilocano Orthography was based on the Ilokano Bible and the internationally-circulated magazine, Bannawag, which was founded in November 3, 1934.

“In other words, the body of written works in Ilokano from 1934 up to the present now follows this working orthography of the Ilocano language. Thus, changing any portion of it would make our authentic body of works irrelevant and immaterial in the academic sense,” the group said.

The writers lament the wanton disregard by Lopez of a public consultation on the right usage of Ilocano grammar. They, too, have asked Luistro that the Ilocano Orthography be left as is, and the way it had developed for years.

“The changes made by the DepEd official is only based on the Ortograpiyang Pambansa with no other linguistic reason to back it off,” they said adding that any other changes such as the one imposed by Lopez  could be warranted in the light of linguistic research.”

“In this case, the change is purely to conform to what we perceive as language hegemony with the Filipino language which would in effect erase the nuances of other languages, a thing we believe is unhealthy in a multilingual perspective in education,” they stressed.

The writers’ group further petitioned the DepEd Secretary to issue an order stating that the Ortograpiyang Pambansa may be used as basis for other languages but is not a mandatory basis for languages, specially the big Philippine languages who have publications and bodies of writing already and have already a working orthography with wide and long history of use.

“If ever language stakeholders would decide to adopt the Ortograpiyang Pambansa, it must be done so with a widespread and thorough consensus among language stakeholders such as writers, translators, linguists, and members of the academe with the DepEd,” the letter said.