Some Remarks on Language Rites/Rights - Korakora

<strong>Some</strong> remarks on
Language Rites/Rights
by Fatima Lasay
A concept of language in Filipino is expressed in the words "wika" and "salita" - and
both words roughly translate to the English word language. Wika is traceable to
sanskrit meaning family, home, or clan. Salita has more complicated (but less fluid)
morphological etymon that translate roughly to word, expression, speech, narration,
language, dialect, manner of speaking. In use, salita means bukal ng tunog, ritmo,
lirisismo, imahe, taling-haga (bukal=natural, inherent) (ng=of) (tunog=sound)
(ritmo=rhythm) (lirismo=lyricism, song) (imahe=image) (talin-haga=allegory,
metaphor, misteryo).
My definition of thought (and thinking) in Filipino is expressed as "diwa" and "isip."
Diwa roughly translate to thought and isip roughly translate to thinking. Both diwa
and isip have multiple meanings.
Diwa is sense (bait, sintido, isip), consciousness (pamatyag = tool for observation)
(kalibutan, sankalibutan = universe; Malay/Indonesian kesadaran), gist (buod,
sumaryo, kahulugan (meaning) (Malay/Indonesian = pokok), meaning, substance
contained (laman, isi), spirit (espirituwal, hilagyo, kalag) (Ind/Malay=djiwa, budi),
soul, life or vital principal (kaluluwa), idea (haka; Ind/Malay=faham/Filipino-paham).
Isip is related to a process of thought (pag-iisip, kaisipan), understanding (unawa),
sense, judgment (bait, sintido), criterion, opinion (palagay, opinyon), discernment
(tingin, paningin), idea (hinagap, hagap, wari), ingenuity (alam, kapamaaranan), talent
(talino, dunong), intention (tangka, balak), surmise (akala, haka), viewpoint
(pananaw), and mind (which has an even more multiple meanings). Isip also is used in
the word "isipan" which means "counting sticks" (noun) or palilyong pamilang.
Mind is "loob", "pagkaloob", "kalooban" roughly translating to: interior
(Ind/Malay=dalam), courage, valor (Ind=keberanian, Malay = berani), will, volition,
state of mind (Ind/Malay = kehendak).
Loob also has a morphological etymon which roughly translates to robbery,
brigandage, a piece of fenced land, orchard, granary.
Language as Rite of the Babaylan
The complex relationships between diwa, wika and isip may be found in the ritual and
philosophy of the babaylan/katalonan (whose role in Philippine society dates from
pre-colonial period). All the babaylan are interconnected in a country itself and in the
entirety of a region where a particular mythology is salient.
This interconnection is seen in the ritual of the babaylan, and there are many types of
rituals, but central in all these is the relationship of the babaylan to the sun. The sun is
central to mythologies (of god (Bathala), anito and diwata) and ethnolinguistic beliefs,
and mythologies have a practical aspect as they are expressed into what is called a

itual. The ritual of the babaylan consists of observing the sun and movement - a ritual
that is the source of dance, teatro, and all the artistic and literary forms.
Each babaylan holds together the physical, social, spiritual and psychological ties of
each community, and the babaylan's the babaylan's inter-relating of soul and
body/sensory within human - of being human) is important in this role and status in
the community. Within the babaylan's concept of being (of being human) are the dual
concepts of the "intellectual" and the "sensorial" and both concepts further present
dualisms as such:
1. Within kaluluwa=diwa (soul=consciousness): konseptong intelektuwal - isip/akala
(thought/belief or presumption); dunong/alam (knowledge/sense or wisdom);
talino/talisik (intellgience/erudition or deep learning); hulo/hula (deduction arrived
through raciocination/prediction or conjecture).
2. Within ginhawa=damdam (spirit or freedom from want=feeling or sensing):
Konseptong sensoryal - lasa/tikim (taste/to taste); kita/tingin (vision/to see);
ulinig/dinig (something heard in passing/to listen).
In this complex, being is maintained or being is whole if the soul is attached to the
body, but soul can be untied from the body. In Bisaya and Bikulano language, soul
(kaluluwa) and untie (kalag) are synonymous. Soul (diwa) can be untied from body
(ginhawa) when (From Z.A. Salazar, Ang Babaylan sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas
(Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press, 1999):
1. The person is asleep and dreaming
2. When the person is unconscious
3. When an infant or child is "having a tantrum"
4. When a person is sick In instances
1-4, the person, though dismembered of the soul, remains alive.
5. When a person dies - in this case the soul (diwa) becomes an anito (from animism,
diwa becomes diwata), and spirit (ginhawa) is lost with the destruction of the body.
In this underlying complex of culture, language is at best manifested in ritual, and it is
from ritual that all the arts are derived.
Language and Thought
Multiple perspectives may be crucial and "subversive". I'd like to speculate that this
may be called "doublethink" in Orwell's '1984', and in the context of "the great power
in legal writing at the bar and bench" (from one of my old Anglo-Saxon law books),
was used by the author to demonize "the enemy" (i.e. Communism). The author
wrote: "But "political regeneration" for Orwell related to those who have been
seduced by the Communist mythology and thus placed in danger of being
encompassed by the life lived today by millions of our fellow human beings in Russia
and China. Those were the issues before the (UN) General Assembly and, so far as
can be observed, we in this country (America) were not divided about them."

The author defined "doublethink" as the mental process by which a person could hold
simultaneously in his mind two flat contradictions and believe both of them. And the
author goes on to exemplify: "Mr. Khrushchev repeatedly exhibited his mastery of
both of these arts (doublethink and newspeak); and Premier Castro showed a flair for
them which, with a little hard work, could become a fully developed talent. When the
latter talked of the American preference for "German warmongering" and "Japanese
militarism" as against the wholly peaceful pre-occupation of East Germany and
Communist China, he was double-thinking with a vengeance. And Mr. Khrushchev
was projecting duality of thought into Newspeak when he said that NATO "has
assumed the thankless mission of exercising the spirit of freedom wherever it appears
on the globe."
Then the author proceeds to demonstrate how a "focus upon facts and superior
abilities for clarity and forcefulness of expression are required" to combat these
("doublethink" and "newspeak") "methods of misrepresentation." The author refers to
Churchill and to Prime Minister Macmillan as “that highly literate man” who spoke to
the (UN) General Assembly pitching before Communism "a formidable tradition of
the effective use of the English tongue" in these words:
"For more than a century, it has been our purpose to guide out dependent
territories toward freedom and independence. Since the Second World War,
India, Pakistan, Ceylon, Ghana, Malaya, comprising over 510,000,000 of
peoples have, with our help, reached the goal of independent life and strength
..."

FATIMA LASAY
Fatima Lasay (b. 1969) is an artist, writer/researcher
and independent curator working in digital media.
She is interested in articulations of aesthetic
equilibrium in kaluluwa (knowledge), wika
(language) and ginhawa (body). Lasay was artist-inresidence
in Yangon, Myanmar (2004) and Sierre,
Switzerland (2004), and has worked with artists and
presented her work in Denmark, India, New Zealand,
the Netherlands, Taiwan and the Philippines. Lasay is
author of “Tanaw: Seeing and Shaping the World in
the Philippine Landscape” for the book “Tanaw:
Perspectives on the BSP Painting Collection”
published by the Central Bank of the Philippines (2005), and “No Carrier and
Other Stories from Philippine BBS Culture” for the book “Read_Me: Software Art
and Cultures” published by the Aarhus University Press, Aarhus, Denmark (2004).
Lasay was professor of industrial design, computer art and art theory (1996-2004) at
the University of the Philippines where she developed its first computer art elective
courses and organized the Digital Media Festivals (2000-2003). Lasay also serves as
member of the editorial advisory board of the Leonardo Electronic Almanac (MIT
Press).
(Photo courtesy of the NCCA/Metropolitan Museum of Manila)
Email: fats@korakora.org / digiteer@ispx.com.ph / fats@up.edu.ph
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