Can modern technology keep an indigenous language and culture alive?

De La Salle University Associate Professor and Department of English and Applied Languages Chair Dr. Rochelle Irene Lucas says: “If you allow a language to die, a culture and its traditional beliefs and indigenous knowledge go with it.”

For the Mangyans—a community living in Mindoro, which is located off the southwestern coast

of Luzon and northeast of Palawan—avoiding this outcome is paramount. Fortunately, there is a broader effort in the preservation of indigenous languages, with a multi-disciplinary team from DLSU having developed a mobile application and an online site that contain the first Hanunoo Mangyan e-dictionary in the country.

A promise to preserve

In April 2016, during the National Language Summit held at DLSU, then-Secretary of the Department of Education Br. Armin Luistro FSC called for higher education institutions to each adopt an indigenous Philippine language to preserve and revitalize.

Responding to Br. Armin’s challenge, Lucas led a team of DLSU faculty members that included Dr. Joel Ilao of the Computer Technology Department, Dr. Ethel Ong of the Software Technology Department, and Dr. Melvin Jabar of the Behavioral Sciences Department to embark on the Hanunoo project. Hanunoo is one of the languages of the Mangyan population, which currently number around 13,000 speakers, with less than 1,000 residing in the area of study.

The team had a ready candidate for community and language in the form of DLSU-supervised schools located in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro: one in Umabang and the other in Bailan. In 1982, DLSU’s Social Development Research Center, with then project director and now Chancellor Emeritus Dr. Carmelita Quebengco AFSC, established the Pundasyon Hanunoo Mangyan School (PHMS) with the specific goals of designing an educational program that would meet the needs of the indigenous Mangyans as well as empower and involve the members of the community. Additionally, the project was also intended to train individuals from the community to become para-teachers, and to establish an agricultural-based school.

Another factor that was advantageous for Hanunoo-Mangyan being chosen was that it has an orthography or formalized, written component. In fact, hundreds of inscribed bamboos have been discovered over the decades, attesting to the richness of the language.

Vetting the words

Ilao shares that they considered the Mangyans as project co-owners who actively took part in the research process, from collection to validation. The data gathering was a meticulous one that needed frequent visits to the community by the research team. Lucas was also able to encourage its village resource persons to be trained at the Summer Institute of Linguistics.

The research team made use of a methodology known as “Rapid Word Collection.” This involved 25 participants, divided into five groups. Each group was then assigned semantic domains—groups of words categorized by theme or usage, such as references to body parts, the weather, or everyday objects and places—which they collated and discussed.

Unlike in simple crowdsourcing of dictionary entries, the process entailed the vetting of the words. While seemingly an innocuous detail, the community’s use of loan words from other languages such as Tagalog, Hiligaynon, Kuyonon, and even English led to some confusion and debate as to which words were strictly Hanunoo-Mangyan.

On the language’s orthography, the team followed the older, classical version which did not make use of accents. After the process of vetting that was mediated by the community village resource persons, the team arrived at 967 active words.

From bamboo to bytes

The team got support from College of Computer Studies students Beatris Mariell Choo (MSCS), Robee Khyra Mae Te, (MSCS ’19), and Jan Kristoffer Cheng, (MSCS ’18), who spearheaded the initial software development.

Ong says the students designed their software to adhere to the format set by Merriam-Webster dictionary, including the language’s orthography. The software is modular, easily scalable to other languages, and easily maintained for other students or interested parties. It also includes the language’s written orthography.

DLSU provided 10 tablets to the teachers, the community, and the Department of Education with the app preloaded. The website version possesses the same format as the app version, save for the orthography which is reserved for the app, which is in respect to the wishes of the Mangyan community.

In the future, the team would also like to develop similar dictionaries for the other Mangyan languages. As the platform is modular and extensive enough, it can be adapted towards any language. Ong points out that it can help other communities in their language preservation as well.

Lucas adds that the University has two Mangyan scholars from the community who are currently taking up early childhood education, and that the pair intends to return to their community and teach as they seek new ways to help their own people.

Of their experience with the Mangyans, Ilao says: “Knowing that you have helped a people preserve their cultural identity and heritage is something that cannot be quantified.”

Contact: Dr. Rochelle Irene Lucas | [email protected]