Predicting the Ethnolinguistic Vtality of an Endangered Philippine Language: The Case of Three Batak Communities in Palawan (original) (raw)

Predicting the Ethnolinguistic Vitality of an Endangered Philippine Language: The Case of Three Batak Communities in Palawan Teresita D. Tajolosa Palawan State University published in Asia-Pacific Linguistics, 2015 released under Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) teestajolosa@gmail.com 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 by Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) Social Identity Theory , Giles, Bourhis, and Taylor’s (1977) theory of ethnolinguistic vitality, Bourhis’ (1979) ethnolinguistic vitality model, and Allard and Landry’s (1987) macroscopic model of bilingualism. Batak, Kalakuasan and Mangapin demonstrated positive language attitude and very high ethnic identity, reported high Batak language ability which correlated with actual language proficiency, reported more domains of language use and exhibited medium to strong beliefs in ethnolinguistic vitality. Structural analysis of data from the objective language test revealed replacements of Batak lexicon by Tagbanua and Cuyonon counterparts. However, examination of sentence translation data for grammatical morphemes revealed a relatively intact set of Batak grammatical morphemes. Findings in the present study have established the following variables– (1) age, (2) actual language proficiency, (3) language attitude, (4) ethnic identity and interpersonal network of linguistic contacts as predictors of language contact, shows clearly that despite individuals’ own set of which shows clearly that despite individuals’ own set of language habits, it is the behavior of the majority that distinguishes a certain language group. Overall, the speakers in all three areas have generally demonstrated in varying degrees, additive bilingualism/multilingualism in that the learning of Tagalog, Tagbanua and Cuyonon did not entail the loss of the Batak language. While Tagalog is indisputably dominant in the domains of school, church, politics, media and public interactions, and while Tagbanua and Cuyonon have shown influence in Batak language, none of these three languages is embraced as a Batak identity marker, hence the Batak language continually occupies the domains of home, neighborhood and work in all three areas. Keywords: sociological factors, ethnolinguistic vitality, ethnic identity, language attitude, language loss