A timely work

GRAMMAR was never one of my strong points in school. Fortunately, some teachers were sympathetic and allowed me to keep on writing even if I didn't know what a gerund was. I could never explain a sentence construction, punctuate correctly or put a stop on run-on sentences and dangling modifiers because I never understood what they were. The point was being able to capture thought on paper and communicate, more or less, clearly. I found it easy to correct mistakes in a given text, but being asked to justify the corrections by citing grammatical rules gave me cold sweat.

Grammar was the stumbling block to my appreciation of Pilipino and Spanish. For example, if the fun method of Spain's cultural center in Manila, the Instituto Cervantes, were in use when we were in college, maybe more Filipinos would be fluent in Spanish and now we could be paid earning double the salaries of those who use English in call centers.

Looking back on my Spanish, Latin and German classes I can still recall enduring long hours of mindless conjugation.

Thus, writing history in Filipino has always been one of my unrealized projects. It is one thing to speak Filipino, another to write in the language. Perhaps practice makes perfect, and now I have a very useful tool in the recently published "Gabay sa Editing sa Wikang Filipino (Tuon sa Pagbaybay)" published by the University of the Philippines Sentro ng Wikang Filipino [Filipino Language Center]. Browsing through this slim volume made me realize that our language has undergone quite a lot revision and thought over the years.

Who would have known that in 1976 the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa [National Language Institute] increased the 20 letters in the Tagalog alphabet to 31 letters by adding: c, ch, f, j, ll, ñ, q, rr, v, x, and z? This expanded alphabet was then called "pinagyamang alpabeto" [enriched alphabet].

Then in 1987 the 31 letters were reduced to 28 by dropping ch, ll, and rr, and it was then called "pinasimpleng alpabeto" [simplified alphabet].

It would be very interesting to study the different sides in the debates on the development of the national language. The alphabet alone must have generated more than debate. Knowing how seriously some people take language -- or themselves -- I wouldn't be surprised if the debate later deteriorated into personal animosities, but that is material for another column.

Of course, there will be others who will disagree with this stylebook, but for the moment it is the only handy reference available. It is hoped that by sheer usage, the rules the authors have set down on written Filipino will become standard form. At least we now know when to use "din" and "rin," "daw" and "raw," "nang" and "ng," which are a source of so much confusion. How do we deal with numbers, foreign words, long words or words with repeating letters, syllables or plurals. What about reduplicated words that are common in our language? For example, Kataastaasan Kagalanggalang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan [Highest and Most Respectable Association of the Sons of the People], which was abbreviated into K.K.K.N.A.N.B. and further into K.K.K. which now means either the Katipunan of the 1896 Revolution, the racist American group Ku Klux Klan or a popular Filipino restaurant along West Avenue in Quezon City. This slim volume of rules hides all the debate and discussion that went into it.

As early as 1935, the anthropologist E. Arsenio Manuel compiled abbreviations in written Tagalog from various sources, mostly books, periodicals and newspapers. The list is now historical because many of the abbreviations are extinct but they still make interesting reading.

Today the Republic of the Philippines is simply RP, but it used to be IF (for Islas Filipinas) or PI (Philippine Islands), which today is better known as a cuss word. There was a time when the Philippines was KP (Kapuluang Pilipinas) or SP (Sangkapuluang Pilipinas). Today the province Batangas is Bats., whereas it was formerly Bat., which made me wonder if this was confused with Bataan. Bdo. is not Banco de Oro, it used to be the abbreviation for Binondo, which Manuel suggests should be Bdk. because the place name is short for Binundok.

In English, we blur the difference between a married woman (Mrs.) and a single one (Miss) by using Ms. In Tagalog we cannot switch a Ginang (Gng. or Gg.) into a Binibini (Bb. or Bbg.). The male form Ginoo is normally shortened into a simple G. or sometimes Gg. or rarely GG, which today can mean "galunggong" or "gago."

Time is simple in English, which follows two 12-hour cycles so that morning is a.m. and the afternoon and evening are p.m. In Tagalog we have four, more exact divisions of time: "ng umaga" or n.u. [in the morning], "ng tanghali" or n.t. [noon], "ng hapon" or n.h. [in the afternoon], "ng gabi" or n.g. [in the evening].

The Latin et cetera or etc. is rendered as ibp. ["at iba pa"] but today we use atbp.

Since the media play a great role in the development and usage of Filipino, our language both spoken and written will continue to be enriched by change. As they say, dictionaries, encyclopedias and stylebooks are actually obsolete as soon as they come off the press.

"Gabay sa Editing sa Wikang Filipino" does not have the usage and abbreviations currently in use in texts on our cell phones. That is worth another book all by itself. But then the journey of a thousand miles begins with the proverbial first step and the Sentro ng Wikang Filipino should be congratulated for a timely work well done.

Comments are welcome at aocampo@ateneo.edu