ILOKANO: A MAJOR FILIPINO
LANGUAGE
by Precy Espiritu
Coordinator
Ilokano Program
The Ilocos Region is a narrow coastal plain on
the northwestern tip of the Philippine archipelago. It is a land often described
by geographers as harsh and forbidding, but it is home to the Ilokanos,
one of the major ethno-linguistic groups of the Philippines.
Ilokano is the chief regional language of northern Luzon in the Philippines
spoken by over ten million native speakers. It ranks third (after Cebuano
and Tagalog, respectively) in the number of native speakers. It is the language
of the group of provinces originally referred to as the Ilocos Region: Ilocos
Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union, and Abra. It is also widely spoken in the provinces
of Isabela, Tarlac, Zambales, Nueva Vizcaya, and Nueva Ecija. In addition,
it is the lingua franca of all the mountain provinces of Luzon. Ilokano
speakers are numerous in the towns of Occidental Mindoro and Oriental Mindoro,
and in the southern island of Mindanao, large enclaves of Ilokano speakers
are found in Cotabato and Davao, created by continuous Ilokano migration
to this region. In the United States, Ilokano is the native and ancestral
language of the majority of Filipinos, including approximately 85% of the
Filipino population in Hawaii.
As an Austronesian language, Ilokano is closely related to other Philippine
languages, such as Tagalog and to the many languages of Indonesia and Malaysia.
It is less closely related to such Polynesian languages as Hawaiian, Samoan,
and Tahitian, and Micronesian languages, such as Chamorro, and Palauan,
as well as the language of Madagascar, Malagasy. Written in the Roman alphabet,
it has a fairly complicated and sophisticated grammatical structure.
In recognition of the large Ilokano population in the State of Hawaii, the
University of Hawaii (UH) has supported the establishment of a full Ilokano
Program -the only one of its kind in the world - and because trained professionals
are needed to respond to language demands in the community in the areas
of health, social, and legal services, as well as in education, commerce,
and the workplace. This need could not be more apparent than in the more
than 99% of interpreting and translation services requested for Ilokano.
Ilokano has been, from its inception, the second largest language program
in the UH Department of Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages. According to
a University of Hawaii study, Ilokano has grown 380% in two years within
the last five years to an enrollment of nearly 200 students, and growing.
Apart from the students' felt need to maintain their linguistic heritage,
the two-year language requirement at the University has helped to boost
the enrollment in Ilokano.
The UH has consistently been cited as having one of the best and most extensive
language programs in the United States, and Ilokano is one of the language
programs that has given it prominence in national program assessments. Ilokano
has given the University of Hawaii the unique position of being the main
resource for Ilokano studies, and the only institution in the world having
a program of such nature.
Most of the materials for teaching Ilokano are produced by Ilokano faculty
here at the UH, and are set up at our Language Telecommunications, Resource
and Learning Center. The Hawaii branch of Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano
(GUMIL), the Ilokano writers society, actively produces Ilokano literature,
which serves the contemporary literature component of the Ilokano literature
course offered on a variable-credit basis. Our museums and archives are
replete with historical documents on Filipinos (mostly Ilokanos), which
provide a rich research resource for students and scholars anywhere.