The Cuyonon Language and Culture Project, Inc.
(CLCP) is a small non-profit corporation dedicated to
documenting Cuyonon, an endangered language
spoken in Palawan Province, the Philippines.
Ester Timbancaya Elphick, the CLCP’s president and
chief lexicographer, is a native Cuyonon speaker, with
an advanced degree in descriptive linguistics (UCLA),
research experience in Austronesian languages, and a
long career in language teaching--a combination highly
unusual among students of endangered languages.
She speaks four Philippine languages.
Elphick's associate and co-lexicographer, Virginia
Howard Sohn, is the secretary of CLCP. Sohn devoted
sixteen years, with Filipino colleagues, to translating the
New Testament into Cuyonon. She retains remarkable
fluency in the language. Elphick and Sohn have been
aided throughout by expert linguists, lexicographers,
and translators of Philippine languages.
CLCP has established a small network of researchers
in the Philippines, along with an indigenous advisory
panel. While CLCP’s principal objective is to save
Cuyonon from extinction and stimulate its written and
oral use among the young, it has already accumulated
extensive data of great potential value to linguists and
other scholars.
(CLCP) is a small non-profit corporation dedicated to
documenting Cuyonon, an endangered language
spoken in Palawan Province, the Philippines.
Ester Timbancaya Elphick, the CLCP’s president and
chief lexicographer, is a native Cuyonon speaker, with
an advanced degree in descriptive linguistics (UCLA),
research experience in Austronesian languages, and a
long career in language teaching--a combination highly
unusual among students of endangered languages.
She speaks four Philippine languages.
Elphick's associate and co-lexicographer, Virginia
Howard Sohn, is the secretary of CLCP. Sohn devoted
sixteen years, with Filipino colleagues, to translating the
New Testament into Cuyonon. She retains remarkable
fluency in the language. Elphick and Sohn have been
aided throughout by expert linguists, lexicographers,
and translators of Philippine languages.
CLCP has established a small network of researchers
in the Philippines, along with an indigenous advisory
panel. While CLCP’s principal objective is to save
Cuyonon from extinction and stimulate its written and
oral use among the young, it has already accumulated
extensive data of great potential value to linguists and
other scholars.
THE CUYONON LANGUAGE
AND THE DANGERS IT FACES
Cuyonon, a member of the West Visayan group of Central Philippine
languages, is the principal language spoken by the 29,142 inhabitants of
the island of Cuyo (according to the Philippine census of 2000). Apart from
the 1982 edition of the Cuyonon New Testament, only minor and
ephemeral works have been published in Cuyonon, and only
two scholarly articles have been devoted to its study.
Difficult to reach until recently and only 57 square kilometers in size, Cuyo
has received few immigrants over the twentieth century. It is the home of a
remarkably pristine lowland Filipino culture, with religious and agricultural
practices that are dying elsewhere; its language, though still spoken in
households on Cuyo, is feeling pressure from Tagalog (the basis of
Filipino, the national language) and from English through the medium of
schools and television.
Early in the twentieth century, pushed by overpopulation, Cuyonon
speakers began to migrate in large numbers from Cuyo to the large,
sparsely settled island of Palawan. By mid-century they dominated much of
the island, including the provincial capital, Puerto Princesa, which is 289
kilometers southwest of Cuyo. This migration made Cuyonon a regional
language more widely used in Palawan than in Cuyo itself.
More recently, however, the fortunes of Cuyonon have been dramatically
reversed. Attracted by economic opportunities unusual in the Philippines,
non-Cuyonon speakers have flooded into Palawan, reducing the
approximately 100,000 persons claiming Cuyonon ancestry to 15-20 per
cent of the population.
Television, the schools, rapid economic development, and frequent
marriages between speakers of different languages have favored the use
of Tagalog and English, and eroded the use of Cuyonon to an astounding
degree among those of Cuyonon ancestry.
The anthropologist James Eder estimates that children speak Cuyonon in
as few as 10 per cent of Cuyonon households in Palawan (personal
communication)—an ominous observation that is confirmed by CLCP data
collectors. Even those who try to speak Cuyonon incorporate so much
Tagalog unconsciously (and English more consciously) into their speech
that they are inventing creoles that can hardly be called Cuyonon at all.
Insofar as Cuyonon is to be valued as the repository of a formerly isolated,
rural, Hispano-Philippine culture, massive culture loss is imminent. Cuyonon
will not die out tomorrow, at least in its home-base on Cuyo. Yet its survival
as a distinctive language is in question for the coming decades. As David
Crystal has observed of African regions where creoles are rapidly growing,
“many local languages are felt to be endangered—even though they are
currently spoken by several hundred thousand people.”
AND THE DANGERS IT FACES
Cuyonon, a member of the West Visayan group of Central Philippine
languages, is the principal language spoken by the 29,142 inhabitants of
the island of Cuyo (according to the Philippine census of 2000). Apart from
the 1982 edition of the Cuyonon New Testament, only minor and
ephemeral works have been published in Cuyonon, and only
two scholarly articles have been devoted to its study.
Difficult to reach until recently and only 57 square kilometers in size, Cuyo
has received few immigrants over the twentieth century. It is the home of a
remarkably pristine lowland Filipino culture, with religious and agricultural
practices that are dying elsewhere; its language, though still spoken in
households on Cuyo, is feeling pressure from Tagalog (the basis of
Filipino, the national language) and from English through the medium of
schools and television.
Early in the twentieth century, pushed by overpopulation, Cuyonon
speakers began to migrate in large numbers from Cuyo to the large,
sparsely settled island of Palawan. By mid-century they dominated much of
the island, including the provincial capital, Puerto Princesa, which is 289
kilometers southwest of Cuyo. This migration made Cuyonon a regional
language more widely used in Palawan than in Cuyo itself.
More recently, however, the fortunes of Cuyonon have been dramatically
reversed. Attracted by economic opportunities unusual in the Philippines,
non-Cuyonon speakers have flooded into Palawan, reducing the
approximately 100,000 persons claiming Cuyonon ancestry to 15-20 per
cent of the population.
Television, the schools, rapid economic development, and frequent
marriages between speakers of different languages have favored the use
of Tagalog and English, and eroded the use of Cuyonon to an astounding
degree among those of Cuyonon ancestry.
The anthropologist James Eder estimates that children speak Cuyonon in
as few as 10 per cent of Cuyonon households in Palawan (personal
communication)—an ominous observation that is confirmed by CLCP data
collectors. Even those who try to speak Cuyonon incorporate so much
Tagalog unconsciously (and English more consciously) into their speech
that they are inventing creoles that can hardly be called Cuyonon at all.
Insofar as Cuyonon is to be valued as the repository of a formerly isolated,
rural, Hispano-Philippine culture, massive culture loss is imminent. Cuyonon
will not die out tomorrow, at least in its home-base on Cuyo. Yet its survival
as a distinctive language is in question for the coming decades. As David
Crystal has observed of African regions where creoles are rapidly growing,
“many local languages are felt to be endangered—even though they are
currently spoken by several hundred thousand people.”
THE CLCP MISSION:
To establish a standard writing system for Cuyonon, a
language of Palawan province in the Philippines;
To create the first comprehensive
bilingual dictionary of the Cuyonon language;
To foster an awareness of the Cuyonon cultural heritage
among Cuyonons, other Filipinos, and scholars generally.
THE CUYONON LANGUAGE AND CULTURE PROJECT, INC.
Cuyonon women in Puerto Princesa were leaders in restoring normalcy in the
Palawan capital of Puerto Princesa after World War II and the granting of
independence from the United States on July 4, 1946.
Palawan capital of Puerto Princesa after World War II and the granting of
independence from the United States on July 4, 1946.
Original main entrance of the Cuyo fort, which
incorporates the Cuyo Catholic Church. Built in
the first half of the 17th century, the structure
has been designated by the Philippine
Historical Commission as a historical
monument.
incorporates the Cuyo Catholic Church. Built in
the first half of the 17th century, the structure
has been designated by the Philippine
Historical Commission as a historical
monument.
Pamonpon I' Ang Kinalkag Nga Paray
Collecting the unhusked rice after drying in the sun
and before milling.
Collecting the unhusked rice after drying in the sun
and before milling.
There was a time when the kimona and patadiong were the garments of
choice for women's ordinary attire, as seen in the clothing of the woman
on the right.
choice for women's ordinary attire, as seen in the clothing of the woman
on the right.
| PAKINAS |
Low tide fishing for clams, seaweed, sea
urchins, crustaceans and other shellfish is an
important part of life in Cuyo.
urchins, crustaceans and other shellfish is an
important part of life in Cuyo.
Elphick and Sohn began their documentation of Cuyonon
in 1997 with a workshop presented by Leonard Newell,
the project’s principal linguistic consultant. In 1999 the
first audio tapings of Cuyonon were made in the
Philippines. In October 2002 the Cuyonon Language and
Culture Project, Inc. (CLCP) was incorporated in
Connecticut, and in July 2003 granted provisional
exemption from income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of
the Internal Revenue Code. Ester Elphick is the president,
and Virginia Sohn the secretary, of the corporation.
In the words of its bylaws, the CLCP aims:
The project has an advisory panel in the Philippines
consisting of scholars, teachers, and educational officers
who are native speakers of Cuyonon. READ MORE
in 1997 with a workshop presented by Leonard Newell,
the project’s principal linguistic consultant. In 1999 the
first audio tapings of Cuyonon were made in the
Philippines. In October 2002 the Cuyonon Language and
Culture Project, Inc. (CLCP) was incorporated in
Connecticut, and in July 2003 granted provisional
exemption from income tax under section 501 (c) (3) of
the Internal Revenue Code. Ester Elphick is the president,
and Virginia Sohn the secretary, of the corporation.
In the words of its bylaws, the CLCP aims:
- (a) to establish a standard writing system for
Cuyonon, a language of Palawan Province in
the Philippines;
(b) to create the first comprehensive bilingual
dictionary of the Cuyonon language; and
(c) to foster an awareness of the Cuyonon
cultural heritage among Cuyonons, other
Filipinos, and scholars generally.
The project has an advisory panel in the Philippines
consisting of scholars, teachers, and educational officers
who are native speakers of Cuyonon. READ MORE
