Predicting the ethnolinguistic vitality of an endangered Philippine language: The case of three batak communities in Palawan

• Main Author: Tajolosa, Teresita D.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2012
• Subjects: Anthropological linguistics; Philippine languages; Batak (Philippine people) > Palawan; Linguistics
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_doctoral/336
• Institution: De La Salle University

The aim of the study was to examine the ethnolinguistic vitality of three Batak communities in Palawan and predict whether language maintenance or shift will prevail, drawing on the social identity theory by Tajfel and Turner (1986), Giles, Bourhis, and Rosenthals (1977) theory of ethnolinguistic vitality, Bourhis (1979) ethnolinguistic vitality model, and Allard and Landrys (1987) macroscopic model of bilingualism. The study employed four research tools: (1) observations of ingroups language behavior (2)guided interviews for personal profiles, reported language use and reported language ability, (3) the use of Allard and Landrys (1992) Interpersonal Network of Linguistic Contacts (INLC), and the Beliefs in Ethnolinguistic Vitality Questionnaire (BEVQ) to determine the speakers beliefs in ethnolinguistic vitality and (4) the lexical ability test, and the actual language proficiency test adapted from Quakenbush (1989) to analyze possible lexical and morphological changes in the speakers language. . Findings on the study confirm the idea that the Batak language is endangered. Stepwise Regression analyses were conducted with language use and language attitude as dependent variables employing zero-order and partial order correlations. Findings revealed ethnic identity, age and language attitude as predictors of language use while the first language, actual language proficiency, sex and interpersonal network of linguistic contacts as predictors of language attitude. The absence of significant relationship between language use and beliefs in ethnolinguistic vitality in general may be attributed to homogeneity of participants responses. Another possible plausible explanation could be that the beliefs in ethnolinguistic vitality may be indirectly related to language use. Only the last section, of the BEVQ, Belongingness, which examines respondents ethnic identity significantly correlated with language use. Structural analysis of data revealed that the Batak language is undergoing change as indicated by replacement of Batak lexicons by Tagbanua and Cuyonon counterparts. The pervasive lexical influence of dominant language (i.e. Tagbanua and Cuyonon language) is attributed to migration and intermarriages and interactions with speakers outside the nexus. However, examination of the sentence translation data for grammatical morphemes revealed a relatively intact set of Batak grammatical morphemes. Language change is a natural occurrence in a multilingual context and does not necessarily equate language death. However, the rate at which the Batak language is changing could not yet be identified owing to limited test items and the lack of baseline data for comparison. Although some sociological factors do not seem to work favorably on the side of Batak communities in Kalakuasan, Riyandakan and Mangapin, the speakers stable Batak network, strong ethnic identity and positive language attitude are strong psychological factors toward language maintenance. Overall, the speakers in all areas have generally demonstrated in varying degrees, additive bilingualism in that the learning of Tagalog, Tagbanua and Cuyonon do not entail the loss of the Batak language. And while Tagalog is indisputably dominant in the domains of school, church, politics, media and public interactions, it is not embraced as a Batak identity marker, hence the Batak language continually occupies the domains of the home, neighborhood and work in all three areas. With these, the Batak language in the three areas is predicted to exist in the many years and even decades to come. However, replacements of Batak lexicons should be taken seriously. The Batak speakers should be made aware of the language situation of their respective communities. For if this trend (lexical substitutions) continues, the Batak speech some decades from now might be heavily mixed with Tagalog, Tagbanua and Cuyonon and similar to Headlands (2003) forecasting of the Casiguran Agta case, the Batak language might become a creolized daughter dialect of the Agta language, Batak language being one of the many varieties of Negrito language in the Philippines, along with the Casiguran Agta. The present study was delimited by time. A longitudinal study with the employment of morphophonemic, morphologic, syntactic and an extensive semantic analysis with sociolinguistics of lexical borrowability involving all the other Batak communities in Puerto Princesa will reveal a more comprehensive situation of the Batak language. Finally, the study further invokes on the applicability of the BEVQ and the INLC Questionnaire in predicting language shift and maintenance situations of minority languages in the Philippines.