A. Multilingual Kalangoyans
The Philippine government policy on education ensures that all Kalangoyans who has experienced going to school even at the primary level will become multilingual, what with the Filipino and English mode of instruction. In all the years that I have lived in my local community, I have not heard anyone who cannot speak at least two languages other than my grandmother (and her 'batch'). She understands the regional trade language but I have never heard her talked using the trade language other than when she sings. I guessed this fact even disqualify her as a monolingual. My grandparents are among the small remnant of WW II survivors among the Kalangoya tribe and there are not many who are left. They make up approximately 1% of the Kalangoya population, and are the ones who are mostly monolingual. Clan reunions that are held annually give evidence that the oldest living Kalangoya is an old lady (approximately) 95 years of age, and to the best of my knowledge, she is the only one who cannot understand Ilocano in the whole province of Nueva Vizcaya. My village and other Kalanguya villages which I have gone to are among the most far-flung, meaning, the nearer the village to the lowlands, the most likely the people are multilingual. It is quite impossible nowadays to find a Kalangoya who only knows his own Kalanguya. I therefore take a guess from these grounds that 98% of my mother tongue community is multilingual.
B. Kalanguya is strongly maintained...
The Kalanguya language is definitely being maintained very strongly today, though not without borrowings. There are a number of factors that lend to the maintenance of the Kalanguya language. First, the Kalangoya people hold their language very close to their hearts as the only determinant of their identity as a distinct tribe. They were branded and counted to be among the Igorot tribespeople of Northern Luzon. They have embraced this ‘Igorot’ mark (defying the fact that lowlanders use this term to degrade mountain people/highlanders), but the Kalanguya tribe has the drive to preserve its identity in the midst of the multicultural Philippine society. This preservation of language (at least the oral tradition) is accomplished by the creation of a Kalanguya Tribal Organization, which hosts a Kalanguya Congress every three years. The organization is spearheaded by Kalanguya leaders from all over the Luzon provinces (Benguet, Ifugao, Pangasinan, Nueva Ecija, and Nueva Vizcaya) where communities of Kalangoya are living. In this congress, the preservation of the language, artifacts, and culture is among its primary purposes.
Secondly, the geographical location of my people lends a strong influence in the maintenance of the language. Kalangoya villages are located high up in the mountains that people who speaks other language who might possibly bring in a new language seldom stay long enough to make a lasting change. The multilingualism is mostly a result of the educational system of the Philippines, mass media and trade. Kalangoyans learn English and Tagalog to pass each level of schooling, and they learn Ilocano to be able to trade with the lowlanders and to listen to the radio. After school, after business, after listening to the Ilocano news or soap opera on the radio, the Kalangoya shifts back to his mother tongue.
Thirdly, the shame factor also plays a huge role in the maintenance of Kalanguya. This shame factor, in my personal observation, has a very strong grip on the Kalangoya attitude that it is almost a sickness. Shame is manifested by Kalangoya individuals through what I would call ‘near-pathologic shyness,’ and I think, this attitude indirectly helps in the preservation of the language. I call it ‘near pathologic shyness’ because oftentimes it yields a negative result on the part of the Kalangoya. You will seldom find a Kalangoya who is assertive and vocal in front of other people who are not one of his own. In my theory, this is a result of the low-esteem of the early Kalangoya that they grant to themselves due to their ‘so-called lack of knowledge’ (which is actually lack of ‘formal education’). Therefore, most of the Kalangoya people do not feel confident to speak other language especially the national languages, Filipino and English, and this lack of confidence is passed on to their children almost as a norm.
The fourth factor, which is somewhat related to or a by-product of the third is the negative reaction that a person gets when he/she speaks Filipino, much more English. Personally, I have experienced being shamed for practicing my English in front of many Kalangoya. There is a stigma that comes in not using your own language among the Kalanguya. And this factor is what I blame for my inability to speak English fluently in spite of the fact that I have been exposed to the language since first grade, J but this factor, I believe, subtly contributes a large chunk of preservative for the Kalanguya language. The trade language Ilocano is a different story because they use it as a second language every week when they go to the lowlands for trade. The use of it is born out of necessity and therefore its pervasive use is not perceived as a threat to Kalanguya.
In spite of the above, I can predict foreseeable crises in the future of the Kalanguya language. First is intermarriage. Kalangoyans who married non-Kalangoyans mostly do not teach Kalanguya to their children. Second is dilution. ‘Borrowing’ is a prevalent practice of the new generation Kalangoya that I almost can predict an Ilocanized Kalanguya in ten to twenty years. Multilingualism among the Kalangoya children make them susceptible to combining languages. When talking, a Kalanguya tends to use the first lexicon that comes to mind not putting the effort to think of the Kalanguya word first. For instance, when a child is relating an ‘outside’ story and he cannot come up with an exact word in Kalanguya, he would take a word from another language and affix Kalanguya affixes to it. Example, {[guinessko/ginesko] ‘I guessed’ the word ‘guess’ and the Kalanguya infix -in- for past tense, plus first person pronoun}. This is one among quite a number of expressions that I hear so often among elementary school children. I believe that if any of the factors mentioned above, which help preserve Kalanguya will diminish in strength, and effort from other sides will not be exerted, these foreseeable crises will become real and take its toll, but if the Kalanguya people will continue to have the qualities or characteristics I have mentioned earlier, I could see a strengthened and enriched Kalanguya.
