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With this MLE turn, now we make the road while walking: our task at Nakem and at the UH Ilokano Program until 2015 »

With this MLE turn, now we make the road while walking: our task at Nakem and at the UH Ilokano Program until 2015

Introduction: We Make the Road
The poet Antonio Machado the liberation educationist Paulo Freire loves to quote talks of the road we must make, one that does not exist prior to our journey. “Caminante,” he admonishes the traveler, “son tus hellas el camino, y nada mas; caminante, no hay camino, se hay camino al andar.” (“Wanderer, [...]

Celebrating Cultural Pluralism, Welcoming 2008 as the International Year of Languages (Second part) »

Celebrating Cultural Pluralism, Welcoming 2008 as the International Year of Languages (Second part)

Following the Napoleonic idealization of French as a national language for France by that conqueror of the same name who had to forgo his being Corsican, and thus, Italian, in order to assume a new identity, that of being French, and following the template for nation building put together by three other countries, to wit, [...]

Celebrating Cultural Pluralism, Welcoming 2008 as the International Year of Languages (First part) »

Celebrating Cultural Pluralism, Welcoming 2008 as the International Year of Languages (First part)

The continuing practice of cultural tyranny and linguistic injustice of many countries around the world has remained unabated.
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The Ilokano Language: History, Culture and Structure: From Language to Philosophy (Last Part) »

The Ilokano Language: History, Culture and Structure: From Language to Philosophy (Last Part)

What we see in language in the synthesized thought of a community thinking, and thinking so hard for centuries. We are all inheritors of this kind of thinking, the thinking that has something to do with how we understand ourselves, how we understand others, and how we understand the universe.
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The Ilokano Language: History, Culture and Structure: From Language to Philosophy »

The Ilokano Language: History, Culture and Structure: From Language to Philosophy

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, an agency within the United Nations, has declared this year the International Year of Languages.
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THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History »

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History

The same manual, as in the “Letters” of Valdez, contains templates of letters, and ‘Surat 21’ dated ‘Octubre 1, 1928’ will be useful for understanding the history of the Ilokano language. For this reason, I cite this letter verbatim: “Ay-ayatek a Rosita:/Diak magibusan nga isarita ti naiduma a ragsak ko idi innak naawat toy patgek [...]

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History »

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History

We see this same mistake in the 1980 “Dagiti Letra Iti Ilokano/The Ilokano Alphabet” written by Fe Albano MacLean for the Hawai’i Bilingual/Bicultural Education Project of  the State of Hawai’i Department of Education. In the “Pakauna” is the following: “Daytoy ti Libro ‘Dagiti Letra iti Ilokano’ nga inaramid ti Hawaii Bilingual/Bicultural Education Project. /Ti wagas [...]

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History »

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: From Alphabet to History

Like many languages that have stood the test of time even if, from a diachronic sense, so many changes have happened, that, as was shown in the fragments of the Catholic prayers we quoted from the Doctrina Christiana of Belarmino we could hardly recognize what the words mean, Ilokano, even until now, continues to be [...]

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: Modernizing the Ilokano Alphabet »

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: Modernizing the Ilokano Alphabet

For many years, Laconsay served as editor of Bannawag, and later on editorial director of the weeklies and tabloids published by the Liwayway Publishing Incorporated. Certainly, before he became editor, he already inherited the innovations done by a number of the editors who were aware and adept at the issues of economy, fluency, and uniformity. [...]

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: Transcending the Ilokano Syllabary »

THE ILOKANO LANGUAGE: HISTORY, CULTURE AND STRUCTURE: Transcending the Ilokano Syllabary

There is one thing that the Ilokano must remember in the attempt to modernize his language, and by ‘modernization’, I refer to that act, willful and committed, to make his language speak him, speak about him, and open a whole new world for him even if at the same time, the same language preserves and [...]

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