BY DR. JOSE MA. EDUARDO P. DACUDAO
YESTERDAY as I went about my daily rounds in a Butuan City hospital, I asked a nurse where a patient of mine got admitted.
“Didto siya sa second floor po,” was her answer.
Although she meant to be polite, she sounded utterly ridiculous to me. The word “po” (or “ho”) does not exist in Visayan languages. Instead we Visayans naturally use subtle tonal inflections to denote respect and politeness.
I have noticed that many Visayans below the age of 40 now add this article in their sentences. Frankly, appended to a sentence in Binisaya, I find “po” CONDESCENDING, and I never fail to get offended by it. For me, the speaker seems to be saying that “I am from Manila and somehow am superior to you people who do not use the word ‘PO’”.
Sometimes it gets to be such an irritation that I tell the Visayan speaker who ostensibly wants to be polite:
“Why are you murdering our language? The word ‘po’ does not exist in the Visayan languages. If you are using the Tagalog or Kapampangan language, then it is perfectly alright, but you are not. You are Bisaya, and using ‘po’ in our languages is wrong grammar.”
Interestingly, the original Tagalog language probably did not have the “po” article, as Tagalog is more closely related to the Visayan languages than to Kapampangan. The ancient Tagalogs could have borrowed it from their Kapampangan neighbors.
(Having said this, I would like to add that the Kapampangans themselves are going through a severe cultural crisis at present, with the imposition of Tagalog on them. Many of their youth have shifted to Tagalog because of its imposition by the Department of Education curriculum in the schools of Pampanga and Tarlac. Since Pampanga is adjacent to Tagalog-speaking areas, they are in more danger of extinction than us Visayans. Let us hope that our Kapampangan brethren will survive the Tagalization that the Unitarian Manila-based Government is imposing on them.)
Now pray how did this happen, that murdering the grammar of Binisaya is now being regarded as polite and respectful by unthinking people?
Answer: School teachers are told to teach to all Filipino children, even if they are not from the Tagalog or Kapampangan culture, that you have to use “po” to be polite and respectful.
The corollary is also implied: That if you are a “Filipino” and do not use “po”, you are being impolite and disrespectful. This is utterly ridiculous, because the logical consequence would be that ALL Visayans (and other peoples of the Philippines whose languages do not have the “po” article and who denote politeness and respect by other means) are impolite and disrespectful.
In brief, the logical corollary is that the Visayan languages are, by inherent nature, impolite and disrespectful because they do not use the article “po”.
Such absurdity! What an insult to our beautiful Visayan languages!
Tagalistas might say: What’s wrong with making non-Tagalog Filipinos use “po”? They would learn to be more polite that way.
Such is the typical cultural chauvinism of Tagalistas. Consider that Ilonggo Binisaya naturally exaggerates its sing-song accent in order to denote respect and politeness, instead of adding the article “po”. Using the same logic of the Tagalista, we could very well say:
“The Tagalog language sounds flat and thus permanently disrespectful. What’s wrong with making Tagalogs learn the Ilonggo accent? They would learn to be more polite that way.”
Mga kasimanwa, remember that each language has the potential to describe the world in its unique manner. Let us preserve our beautiful Binisaya languages and always lobby to have them officially taught in the schools of traditionally Visayan areas./PN
