Comfort room, Xerox, USB ,and topnotcher.
The given words are just some examples of words that are either not present in the dictionary or we, Filipinos, use them differently from their denotative meaning but we actually use them in our everyday informal conversations. They are examples of words present in the context of our Philippine English.
Philippine English is one of the distinct varieties of English present in the term “World Englishes”. Starting from the origin of the English language, we always knew that there was two major English present, the American English and the British English. Linguists in the olden times kept on arguing on which is the standard English? Is it the American English? Or is it the British English?
This debate did not ended even in the 20th century and is still actually preexisting until today, the 21st century. However, nowadays, the concept of “World Englishes” surfaced. According to linguists who advocate this type of English, this is the different distinct English that exist in different countries or places (i.e. SingLish for Singaporean English). These also states that neither American English nor British English can be considered as the standard because no single country or continent owns the English language. Moreover, non-native speakers of English have actually outnumbered the native speakers when it comes to number.
Going back, Philippine English is one of the examples of World Englishes. Philippine English is affected by many factors; adaptation of new words(sometimes wrong connotation of words), using brands to represent the whole, word associations, or sometimes, misspellings and wrong pronunciations.
“Let us salvage that man”
In the Philippine setting, when we say “let us salvage that man”, it would actually mean, “let us kill that guy” because of the wrong connotation of the word salvage. Whereas, the actual meaning of the word salvage is to save, not to kill or murder.
If language speakers would be looking on the communication purpose of English, the latter statement is actually acceptable, because the speaker actually gave his meaning and he will most be probably understood by most Filipinos. However, if he will try to speak to a native speaker of English or an English speaker from another country, they will surely have conflict in interpreting the meaning of the statement.
As language learners and speakers, we should always be aware of the words that we use and where we use it to avoid communication mismatches and language barriers.
We cannot deny the fact that the English spoken by Filipinos has certain distinctions if compared to that spoken of the British or American, and it often times lead to language discrimination. However, if we are only trying to communicate within the Philippine setting, using our Philippine English is fine as long as we are understood when we are conversing with one another. Especially because English is not all about accent and bragging how close you are to native speakers, it’s primary focus is to communicate.
By: JETHRO M. NOCOM | Teacher I | Hermosa National High School
