The leader’s language

By Al S. Mendoza

WHAT is a good leader?

One sage says a good leader is not what to do but how to be.

Does that apply to our beloved Guv Spines?

I think so. 

Guv Spines says he is a full-bloodied Pangasinense and, to prove that, he wants to be one among his people always in word and in deed. 

I’ve had dealings with Guv Spines on many occasions and I found him to be truly a Pangasinense.

He loves to speak our language (yes, Pangasinense is a language and not a dialect) and I raise a glass to that. 

His favorite word when articulating a point is, “Duga,” which he loves to use by way of ending a sentence. 

“Duga,” of course, is the politically correct Pangasinan word for “right” and not “usto” or “susto.”

You don’t say, “duga latan” when ordering some wayward wag to stop his foolishness. The appropriate command should be, “usto latan.”

I call Pangasinense a language and not a dialect because a language is applied to the general pattern of a people or race, while a dialect is applied to certain forms or varieties of a language.

As Pangasinenses, we are a people, race, as we have, among other pertinent things, our own culture and literature, just like the Pampangos, or Capampangans of Pampanga if you will.

We could have dialects in our province like the Bolinao, which is certainly a variety of our language (Pangasinense), if not Ilocano. 

The dialect that I love to call “Ilo-Pang” (Ilocano-Pangasinense) is a mix of Ilocano and Pangasinense languages (yes, I also consider Ilocano a language for its distinctive and absolute character as truly binding to a people or race the Ilocano race). 

Aren’t the Ilocanos proud to call themselves citizens of the Ilocos Republic, if not Ilocoslovakia?

We speak “Ilo-Pang” in Mangatarem with pride as my hometown is peopled by Ilocanos and Pangasinenses. 

My own father (bless his soul) camefrom Ilocandia’s Abra, in a small town called Pidigan.  In our own house, we speak two languages (Ilocano and Pangasinense) and one dialect (“Ilo-Pang”).

I spoke with my father in Ilocano, and with my mother (bless her soul) Pangasinense.

I speak Ilocano with two of my seven brothers, “Ilo-Pang” with two others and the rest, in Pangasinense.  But with my two sisters, we speak pure Pangasinense.

My eight siblings? They speak among themselves either in Pangasinense or Ilocano, or “Ilo-Pang” – depending really on one’s moods.  Because of this, we all love to call our family “international,” if not United Nations.

But back to Guv Spines.

I say he is a Pangasinense at heart because, hasn’t he ordered that every employee at the capitol must speak Pangasinense at all times?

Not only that.  Guv Spines has also admonished everybody to kill the word “Panggalatok” in their vocabulary.

Again, I raise a glass to that as, indeed, “Panggalatok” is considered a derogatory word and hurtful to the identity of the Pangasinense.  It is a corrupted, if not bastardized, word referring to our Pangasinense race.

I remember those days when I saw fistfights erupting between a Pangasinense and a non-Pangasinense simply because a fellow Pangasinense was called “Panggalatok.”

So, let’s all rally behind Guv Spines. Let’s all be Pangasinenses again, in word and in deed. 

If we could all sing our National Anthem in Pangasinense (I could provide the lyrics in Pangasinense) every Monday morning before the start of office hours, so much the better.

Duga, Guv?

(Readers may reach columnist at also147@yahoo.com. For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/general-admission/ For reactions to this column, click “Send MESSAGES, OPINIONS, COMMENTS” on default page.)

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