The Use of Pinoy Slang in the Philippines

The Philippine language Tagalog is declared and proclaimed by President Quezon in Executive Order No. 134, s 1937 that is based on the Tagalog dialect. Overtime, due to the vast number of immigrants that has brought great influence in different aspects of Filipino living, the national language transformed. The jumbling of letters in a word called slang that is very informal language which is now trending in the 21st century. While the Filipino language is already becoming an “auxiliary language” because of colonization and the uproar of slang words, it is already in danger of disappearing or at the very least falling into obscurity. Dating back to the 70’s, inverted Pinoy slang was already used up until now when it was then again revived. Since the sudden revival of slang, younger generations who grows up during this time will be knowledgeable of this instead of the original national language itself. They then use these in writing which is not appropriate especially in writing formal letters. The lack of solid foundation and disunity of the people in preserving the national language is one of the problems faced by a colonized country like the Philippines. It dies because of the lack of application due to the colonial mentality and globalization. Filipinos use slang for this is their way of showing their creativity otherwise from thinking this is cool and for using it as secret codes.

Filipinos are a creative bunch. Being creative is not an exclusive characteristic possessed only by Filipinos, what makes them distinct is the artistry, expressiveness, spontaneity, and humor that define Filipino creativity in its entirety (Wong, 2012). The pinoy slang is a proof of how Filipinos show their creativity. They never run out of ideas to think of unique and creative words or terms merely to entertain. In an article of Rene Astudillo, he discussed the meaning and origin of some of the famous Filipino slang which just shows how creative Filipino’s are. One of these is the word epal that has been derived from the word ‘pumapapel’ or ‘mapapel’ which means someone who intervenes with the affairs of others. That is just one of the slang words that Filipinos are fond to say. The trendy way of reversing words is most popularly used in all over the Philippines.

Codes is not new to us. The use of codes is common in groups, organizations, government and even the military. This is used to keep confidential information from unauthorized people. Using of slang words as codes is unarguably a brilliant idea, for slang words are already hard to understand much more pinoy slang. There are several things that separates Filipinos from the rest of the world. These may be in terms of food, traditions, literature or culture. However, nothing quite compares to the language of the Pinoy’s. Tagalog is considered to be one of the top 25 hardest language to learn in the world because of its grammar and uncommon sentence structure that makes it pretty hard to master. Moreover, Filipinos have their own dictionary and chock-full of Pinoy slang that makes it even harder to understand and it is what sets it apart from the rest of the world’s population. According to Roy Cagalingan of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, minting words such as “tadbalik” is a method used by the revolutionaries to hide their identities. For example, Marcelo H. del Pilar used the pseudonym “Plaridel” which is a jumbled version of his surname way back in the 70’s.

References

1. De Guszman, N. (2017) “The Fascinating History Behind Pinoy Slang” Retrieved from https://www.esquire.ph/culture/the-fascinating-history-behind-pinoy-slang--a1729-20171107-lfrm
2. Contreras, A. (2014) “Betraying the Filipino Language” Retrieved from https://gmanetwork.com/news/opinion/content/366049/betraying-the-filipino-language/story/
3. Montemayor, T., (2018) “Filipino: A dynamic evolving language” Retrieved from https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1046382
4. Castillo, J., (2017) “25 of the Most Difficult Languages to Learn In The World” Retrieved from https://list25.com/25-of-the-most-difficult-languages-to-learn-in-the-world/