Beyond Urbanization: Language Transcendence of Manobo- Agusanon Language Through Multilingualism in Agusan Del Sur, Philippines

Febb Brix G. Onarse¹ , Rene M. Bonifacio²

1. Dept. of Languages and Literature, Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, Philippines.
2. Dept. of Languages and Literature, Central Mindanao University, Bukidnon, Philippines.

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.10 , Issue.7 , pp.11-28, Jul-2024

Online published on Jul 31, 2024

Copyright © Febb Brix G. Onarse, Rene M. Bonifacio . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
Language urbanization creates an image of the minority language as broken, and minority languages lose their original characteristics. This study aims to analyze how multilingualism safeguards the Manobo-Agusanon language despite the language urbanization of the Manobo people in Tagmanuro, Barangay Sayon, Agusan Del Sur, Philippines. This study considered 15 fluent Manobo-Agusanon speakers as the respondents employing purposive sampling. The study employed ethnography, in-depth sociolinguistics interviews, and focus group discussion. The study used the Fishman`s Theory of Reversing Language Shift, Bourdieusian’s Theory of Multilingualism, and Paulston`s Theory of Language Maintenance in the analysis of data. The study shows that the drive changes to the Manobo-Agusanon practices are social, intermarriage, education, cultural, physical/demographic dislocation, human intervention, religion, and migration. The effects of language urbanization are social, physical/demographic dislocation, and education. It exposes that the linguistic circumstance to the indigenous cultural community is a linguistic market of the home and from home to school. Furthermore, multilingualism fosters the Manobo-Agusanon language, such as self-imposed boundary maintenance, language adjustments, education, loyalty, and diglossia-like-situation. The study concludes that multilingualism safeguards the Manobo-Agusanon language, notwithstanding language urbanization, which plays a vital role in transcending the language. Multilingualism and its practices, such as MTB-MLE in the educational setting, help provide the opportunity for languages to be used and language development to be enriched by its speakers in the community for language development for future generations.

Key-Words / Index Term :
language transcendence, Manobo-Agusanon language, multilingualism, vitality, sociolinguistics, Philippines

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