Words are all we have

Declared "Word of the Year" at the annual language conference Sawikaan 2006 sponsored last month by the Filipinas Institute of Translation (FIT), Blas F. Ople Foundation and the NCCA was "lobat." It won over four other finalists chosen by the conferees: "botox," "toxic," "spa," and "orocan."

Ateneo professor Jelson Capilos presented the case for "lobat" – Pinoyese for "low battery (charge)" – while Dr. Luis Gatmaitan championed "botox" and UP instructor Michael Andrada held out for "toxic."

In a fascinating report, Romulo P. Baquiran Jr. of FIT wrote:

"Sawikaan 2006 looked at the development of Filipino as a national language and focused on new words or phrases that were popular in the local socio-cultural scene in the preceding year.

"‘Lobat’ made it as top choice because of its interesting and relevant review of literature, clear presentation, and the startling conclusion that Filipinos nowadays are much like cellular phones – the ubiquitous machines that symbolize modernity – that rely so much on the mini-batteries that discharge energy in no time. Filipinos go ‘lobat’ because of personal, social, and global pressure.

"‘Botox,’ a brand name of a toxin injected into faces to erase wrinkles, easily made it as second choice, being popular among many beauty-conscious Filipinos who can afford the expensive treatment.

"‘Toxic’ refers to periods when operators in call centers receive an excessive number of calls. Or it can be used as a tag for any irksome person, thing, or experience.

"‘Spa’ of course is what you need when things go ‘lobat’ or ‘toxic’ ‘Orocan,’ a plastic product brand, refers to hypocrites and liars. The lone entry from Mindanao, ‘kudkod’ refers to Internet chatting, particularly the kind that aims to find a potential mate.

Other word-of-the-year entries included ‘cha-cha,’ ‘bird flu,’ ‘meningococemia,’ ‘karir,’ and ‘payreted.’

"Now on its third year, Sawikaan is held at the University of the Philippines and attended by teachers, linguists, and students who come from all over the country. It aptly celebrates the "Buwan ng Wika."

Last year’s winner was poet Bobby Añonuevo’s proferred "jueteng," while in 2004, the vote went to Prof. Randy David’s "canvass."

The yearly Sawikaan is as good an enterprise as any to accentuate the bilingualism, even multi-lingualism, that we Filipinos enjoy. All the entries cited above, except for "kudkod," aren’t native terms, but rather highlight the appropriation process we often revel in – the same that has given the nationalistic Japanese the word "beseboru" for baseball, and the language-purist French "le weekend."

Words are a funny lot. It is languages that often take themselves seriously, or rather, that are taken much too seriously.

A week ago I perorated in a writing class on how a seemingly picayune alteration can dramatically transform a word or phrase, so that we have to be very careful in dotting our i’s and crossing our t’s. To say, for instance, "I’ll have a word with him," means somethingy very different from "I had words with him." The pluralization raised the bar from civil counsel to an exchange of angry barbs.

Some of us may have read Lynne Truss’ now-classic little book, Eats, Shoots and Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation, where the crucial importance of punctuation marks is played up so wittily. I’d recommend it as a study manual to an in-flight magazine editor who nonchalantly splays out his commas to function as breath breaks.

Maybe he should also get a copy, the second edition, of Jose A. Carillo’s English Plain and Simple: The No-Nonsense Guide to Learn Today’s Global Language, which received a National Book Award last year. Since government has mandated a U-turn towards English-language proficiency, we might as well not only get good or better at it, but also experience the joy and wonder the global lingua franca can offer.

But it doesn’t really matter which language we take to heart or master. Words from any language become fascinating in context with one another and the rest of worldspeak.

Running into a young Filipina poet, Beverly Sy, recently while waiting for my daughter to come out of UP’s Palma Hall, I asked if she knew of any rationalization for the Pinoy idiom "naghalo ang balat sa tinalupan." How did it become "sa" instead of "at"? She stared at the sky over Diliman while knitting her brows, before saying, "Oo nga, ano."

A day later she e-mailed a report on how she had asked a UP prof about the matter. He said that "sa" was correct because "sequential ang pangyayari, binalatan muna ang isang bagay bago nagkaroon ng balat at tinalupan. Isa pa, sabi rin niya, kaya ginamit ang ‘naghalo’ kasi may force. Hindi raw pwede ang ‘humalo’ kasi parang natural ang dating. Walang puwersa, kumbaga sa pagkain, bland ang lasa."

Hmm. But I wasn’t saying it was incorrect, since I’ve heard and used that Pinoy idiom all my life. There must be something more to it. As for any force majeure, methought the prof was talking through his hat.

Beverly or "Bebang" saved me from any further irritation by disclosing how she had also serendipitously discovered that among the books she was carrying the day before was Mga Kinamihasnang Salitang Tagalog by Rosendo Ignacio, a 1963 edition, which stated:

"Kinamihasnang salita o idiom – yaong salita o pamamaraan ng pagsasalitang mali sa mga tuntunin ng gramatika o balarila ngunit kinagawian na kaya’t ang paggamit ay tinutulutan na rin sa larangan ng panitikan o kung hindi man mali ay ginagamit lang sa isang tiyak na kahulugang malayo sa dapat mangyari gaya halimbawa ng ‘nagkahalo ang balat sa tinalupan.’ Ang pagkakayari ng pananalitang ito, mali sa gramatika at balarila, ngunit kinagawian na kaya’t tinutulutan nang gamitin. Ang wasto ay ganito: ‘nangagkahalo ang balat at tinalupan’ na dahil naman sa pagkakawasto ay nawawala ang uri ng pagiging kinamihasnang salita o idiom."

O, eh di tama ang sapantaha ko. Nakagawian lang.

Idioms, in particular, are so subject to common usage that like a lie, fallacy, or urban legend, they get a life of their own and make pasintabi the usual requisites of grammar.

Strange and enchanting are languages, but much more so the words that compose them.

Nights I have the time for leisure and trivia appreciation, I turn to a bookmarked site, http://languagehat.com – which I can’t begin to rave about as a source of stimulation. Let’s settle for someone else’s blurb:

"Evidence that the Internet is not as idiotic as it often looks. This site is called Language Hat and it deals with many issues of a linguistic flavor. It’s a beacon of attentiveness and crisp thinking, and an excellent substitute for the daily news."

One of its links recently led me to "A Collection of Word Oddities and Trivia," which constantly gets revised and expanded. Here I share as much of the bounty as space will allow, for now:

"ADCOMSUBORDCOMPHIBSPAC is the longest acronym in the 1965 edition of the Acronyms, Initialisms, and Abbreviations Dictionary. It is a Navy term standing for Administrative Command, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet Subordinate Command...

"However, the world’s longest acronym according to the Guinness Book of Words is NIIOMTPLABOPARMBETZHELBETRABSB OMONIMONKONOTDTEKHSTROMONT (56 letters, 54 in Cyrillic). Found in the Concise Dictionary of Soviet Terminology, it means: The laboratory for shuttering, reinforcement, concrete and ferroconcrete operations for composite-monolithic and monolithic constructions of the Department of the Technology of Building-assembly operations of the Scientific Research Institute of the Organization for building mechanization and technical aid of the Academy of Building and Architecture of the USSR.

"DREAMT is the only common word in English ending in MT. Others are the obscure adreamt, redreamt, undreamt, or daydreamt.

"EARTHLING is first found in print in 1593. Other surprisingly old words are SPACESHIP (1894), ACID RAIN (1858), ANTACID (1753), HAS-BEEN (1606), HAIRDRESSER (1771), MOLE (in connection with espionage, 1622, by Sir Francis Bacon), FUNK (a strong smell, 1623; a state of panic, 1743), MILKY WAY (ca. 1384, but earlier in Latin), COCKTAIL (1803), and MS. (used instead of Miss or Mrs., 1949)...

"ESCALATOR is one of many words that were originally trademarks but have become ordinary words found in dictionaries. Some other words which were originally trademarks (or still are) are AQUA-LUNG, ASPIRIN, AUTOHARP, BAKELITE, BAND-AID, BREATHALYZER, BVD, CELLOPHANE, CELLULOID, CORNFLAKES, CUBE STEAK, DACRON, DEEPFREEZE, DICTAPHONE, DITTO, DRY ICE, DUMPSTER, FORMICA, FRISBEE, GRANOLA, GUNK, HEROIN, JACUZZI, JEEP, JELL-O, KEROSENE, KLEENEX, LANOLIN, MACE, MIMEOGRAPH, MOXIE, NOVOCAIN, PABLUM, PHILLIPS SCREW, PING-PONG, PLEXIGLAS, POGO STICK, POPSICLE, PYREX, Q-TIP, ROLLERBLADE, SCOTCH TAPE, SHEETROCK, STETSON HAT, STYROFOAM, TABLOID, TARMAC, THERMOS, TRAMPOLINE, VASELINE, VELCRO, WINDBREAKER, YO-YO, ZIPPER... In addition, NYLON was coined by DuPont, although the term was never trademarked...

"The longest ‘repeaters’ are BUMPETY-BUMPETY, BUMPITY-BUMPITY, POCKETA-POCKETA (an engine sound, OED).

"Some 12-letter ‘repeaters’ are ANGANG-ANGANG (a type of Javanese gong), ANTING-ANTING (a Philippine charm or amulet), CADANG-CADANG (blight of coconut trees), DOUBLE-DOUBLE (MWCD11), KILLEEKILLEE (W2), TANGANTANGAN (the castor oil plant)...

"Some 10-letter ‘repeaters’ are BELLABELLA (a native of western Canada), BLING BLING (used to describe diamonds, jewelry and all forms of showy style), BUDDY-BUDDY, FIFTY-FIFTY, GIRLY-GIRLY, GOODY-GOODY, HUBBA-HUBBA, ILANG-ILANG (var. spelling of YLANG-YLANG)...

Some eight-letter ‘repeaters’ are AGAR AGAR, BANG-BANG, BERIBERI, BLAH-BLAH, CHIN-CHIN, CHOP-CHOP, CHOWCHOW, COUSCOUS, HULA-HULA, HUSH-HUSH, IPIL-IPIL, LAPULAPU, LOMILOMI (Hawaiian massage), MAHIMAHI (Hawaiian fish)... TIKITIKI (used to treat beriberi)...

"Place names with this property include: BADEN-BADEN (in Germany), BORA BORA (an island in French Polynesia), FOFO FOFO (a town in Papua), GRONG GRONG (a town in Australia), ILOILO (city in Philippines), PAGO PAGO (Am. Samoa)...

"Roger Fenton writes, ‘As you know, this is common means of word formation in Polynesian languages, as an intensifier, pluraliser, or to create related words... According to Oscar van Vlijmen, repetition is the normal procedure to form plurals of substantives in the Indonesian language. For example, orang = man, orang orang = men.

"Craig Kasper says GORAN IVANESEVIC (a top tennis player) may be the longest name of a relatively famous person that alternates consonants and vowels.

"IMPETICOS is an example of a nonce word (a word which has been found to have been used only once). The word is spoken by the clown in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. W2 says perhaps it means ‘impocket.’"

Hmm. Let’s argue against all that. Baka naman ‘impakto’?

YO-YO was a brand name? So what did Rizal call his shipboard plaything? And why is KILIKILI misspelled, TANGANTANGAN confined to just one meaning? We’re familiar with CADANG-CADANG, YLANG-YLANG, AGAR AGAR, IPIL-IPIL, LAPULAPU, and TIKITIKI for BERIBERI. But they’re obviously not with the longest repetitive syllabic dialogue that makes sense: "BABABA BA?" "BABABA."