PSN continues the Interview that sheds light to the language revolution he masterminded in 2014.
The revolution is a response to the evolving Hiligaynon language, and its position in the New Literature of Western Visayas.
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What do you hope to gain with this revolution?
Just for the Hiligaynon language to advance with dignity.
I want our writers to accommodate global and modern ideas without dumbing down the spelling and concepts for our readers because I think that that is very insulting to Hiligaynon users.
Why do you want to spell “seaman” as “siman”, or “autograph” as “awtograp”?
Why do you want to perpetuate the joke that Visayans cannot distinguish V’s and B’s, P’s and F’s so the Hiligaynon word for “fairy” is “peyri”?
Why do you want to say, “pagpadala sang trabaho sa iban” for “outsourcing”, or “pagpakig-angut paagi sa mga plataporma sang pagtililipon” for “social networking”?
I refuse to be insulted anymore.
Hiligaynon users are smart people.
They can spell correctly, and they can understand foreign words and technical jargons.
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What are your credentials for starting this language revolution?
Do I really need a credential to start a revolution?
Admittedly, I do not have a degree in Linguistics.
But what I have is something greater, and that is the love for Hiligaynon language, and my devotion to it.
Just because I am not in the academe doesn’t mean that I can just be ignored.
I speak, write, read, edit, publish, and disseminate Hiligaynon.
I operate a Foundation dedicated to Hiligaynon literature.
I am a Hiligaynon specialist certified by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.
I am working on a Hiligaynon dictionary project, which I foresee as my legacy.
Even if anybody questions my “right” to start this revolution, it will not mean anything to me.
I will prevail.
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Why do you want to start a revolution now?
Because no one did it before I did!
The Filipino alphabet was expanded to 28 letters in 1987—that’s 32 years ago!
For whatever reason, Hiligaynon remained forgotten or neglected.
It remained stagnant and muddled with slang.
The new writers are confused; the veteran writers, quiet or unconcerned.
So, let it be put on record that before the Peter Solis Nery’s Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014, the language has suffered a poverty of words and concepts with its 20 letters, and parochial diacritics.
After Peter Solis Nery, the language is now fortified to include “coiffeur” properly pronounced as /kwafer/, “immigrants,” “DH,” “OFW,” “calle real,” “años tiempos,” “cellphone,” “same-sex marriage,” “cafe” to mean coffeehouse, “cute,” “like,” “condom,” “eyeball,” “Facebook” not “pisbuk,” among others.
Let it also be said that after Peter Solis Nery, Hiligaynon just became a world-class language, not just a regional language or dialect.
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What triggered your Hiligaynon Revolution of 2014?
Basically just my desire to produce the work of others in Hiligaynon.
In the first year of my Foundation, I helped propagate the language by giving an incentive for others to write in Hiligaynon.
My Peter’s Prize contests generated a huge literary output from other writers.
So my next logical step was to preserve what was collected.
Since I am a one-man production company, I had to edit the works for publication.
It is while editing the work of the newer writers that I realized that most people have no clue about the orthography of Hiligaynon.
So, right there and then, I decided that I should do something about it.
I saw the need to revolutionize Hiligaynon as we know it.
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Do you like editing?
Very honestly, no.
To edit means to polish what other writers cannot write very well.
To spell what they can’t, and to clarify in better sentences what muddled ideas they have originally written.
Then, also to feel guilty about mangling their original vision.
I know that I can do much, much better, if I were just writing my own stories and poems.
Given a choice, I would rather just write than edit.
But if I were to be an editor, I would like to be the best editor there is.
I want the final work to sound intelligent, and to sparkle like diamonds.
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That’s when you decided to revolutionize the language?
As a writer, I can only be most responsible for my work.
But once I graduated from mere writer to editor and publisher of other people’s work, I also gained additional responsibilities.
It was like I earned the right and became entitled to initiate the standardization of Hiligaynon spelling.
I mean, if I use my own money to publish the work of other people in books, I better believe in them.
I better have faith in the writers and their stories, in their spelling and grammar.
I better have faith in my readers’ knowledge and intelligence.
I don’t believe in dumbing down the spelling and concept for readers.
I believe that the new Hiligaynon readers and writers know very well how to read and spell “coiffeur” properly.
And to spell “coiffeur” they would need a ‘c’ and an ‘f’.
That’s why I advocate for the 28-letter alphabet that has been adopted by the Filipino language in 1987, some 32 years ago. (To be continued) (500tinaga@gmail.com/PN)
