ORTHOGRAPHY STIRS CONTROVERSY

ILOKANO ORTHOGRAPHY STIRS CONTROVERSY

BY PETER LA. JULIAN

        LAOAG CITY--An Ilokano orthography or how to spell words in the language, which is being used by school children in Ilocos Norte, has raised a storm of protest from Ilokano academicians, scholars, writers, teachers and other stakeholders.
     The said orthography is said to have been crafted by the education department of Ilocos Norte in accordance to the Ortograpiang Pambansa or national orthography designed by the Komisyon nga Wikang Filipino for the country's various languages now being used as mediums of instruction under the Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education program.
     In a statement, the Joint National and International Committee for the Protection of the Ilokano Language, said that the KWF-endorsed Ilokano orthography and the spelling proposal violated the implementing guidelines of the MTB-MLE with respect to the role of "stakeholder participation" in the drawing up of the orthography.
     The JNICPIL is composed of various groups and organizations of academicians, scholars and writers based in the Philippines and abroad.
     The organizational stakeholders include Nakem Conferences Philippines, Guild Of Ilokano Writers Philippines, Guild Of Ilokano Writers America including the Chavacano Ethnolinguist Group.
     Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, coordinator of the Ilokano program in the University of Hawaii at Manoa, claimed that JNICPIL was never consulted in the drawing up of the Ilokano orthography, the proposals and guidelines of which were contained in an 8-page booklet circulated among teachers in Ilocos Norte.
     Dr. Agcaoili, author of Ilokano books and Ilokano-English dictionaries, claimed that scholars who read the booklet said that it "is not productive, or will not fulfill its role as better alternative to existing Ilokano orthography, with its overly popular form and not being able to articulate a more intellectualized discourse needed in knowledge productio.
     The JNICPIL Statement urged the KWF to make public the process involved in coming out with the KWF-endorsed Ilokano Orthography that has been patterned after the Tagalog Orthography.
     The idea of making all Philippine languages conform to the orthography of one dominant language is an outdated practice, reminiscent of language planning done by fascit governments in the past, according to the Statement.
     According to the booklet, the letter F has been replaced by the letter P in the spelling of ordinary Ilokano words and the pronoun or its derivative has been separated and stands alone in sentences (example, makasurat ak instead of makasuratak as used in Bannawag, the Iluko weekly magazine, and other Ilokano journals and newspapers.)
    Earlier, Dr. Agcaoili said that his Timpuyog dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano Global Hawaii, the Hawaii-based writers guild, protested, "but all we got is a lame letter from the Department of Education, saying that the KWF Ilokano Orthgraphy went through a consultation process."
     The booklet was authored by a certain Joel Bagain Lopez, an official of the Deped in Ilocos Norte
     Dr. Agcaoili did not say what groups or government agency were involved in the consultation process
but the MTB-MLE guidelines specifically name agencies like the Department of Labor and Employment, public and private schools teacher organizations, national student organizations, among others.
     The signatories of the Statement are all stakeholders of the Ilokano language, according to Dr. Agcaoili, and  "we wish to participate in all aspects of htis MTB-MLE and not to be used as pawns at the service of some narrow views or agenda."
    A copy of the Statement was personally given to Dr. Virgilio Almario, KWF chair, during a literary seminar at the Dep-ed auditorium in Laoag last Saturday by Prof. Herdy La Yumul of the Mariano Marcos State University.
     During the open forum, Almario said that KWF was not endorsing the Ilokano Orthography and that the issue should be resolved by Lopez and the stakeholders, according to Yumul.
     In attendance was Lopez who told Yumul, one of the country's top bloggers, and other participants that he was only following  Deped order, and that he was willing to sit down and discuss the matter with stakeholders of the Ilokano language.