TABUK CITY, Kalinga (PIA) – The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) conducted data gathering on several dialects of the Kalinga language to learn the current state of use of these dialects and to update the information on the places where these dialects are mainly spoken.
“Gagamitin ang datos na ito sa pagsasapanahon ng mapa ng wika,” the KWF said.
The KWF’s Mapa ng mga Wika ng Pilipinas (Linguistic Atlas of the Philippines) contains information on all the languages in the country, including the places where they are spoken, who are speaking them, their classification, and other details.
During the data gathering of dialects in Tabuk City particularly the Linubuagen, Linimos, and Minajukayong ,researchers also collected the equivalent of almost 400 base words to use as data in analyzing the lexical similarity of the dialects of Kalinga with other languages spoken in neighboring areas.
A Recorded Text Testing was also conducted to examine mutual intelligibility.
“Ang ibig sabihin po ng lexical similarity ay ang degree ng pagkakapareho ng mga salita o leksikon ng isang wika. Ang mutual intelligibility naman po ay ang kakayahan na magkaunawaan ng dalawang tao na may magkaiba o magkaugnay na wika. Ang mga test po na ito ay ginagamit para malaman ang ugnayan ng iba’t ibang wika at diyalekto,” the KWF said.
The data gathering was spearheaded by researchers from the KWF’s Sangay ng Lingguwistika at Aplikadong Lingguwistika including Lourdes Z. Hinampas, Florencio M. Rabina, at Christian D.S Nayles.
The KWF said it targets to gather data on other dialects of the Kalinga language this April. (JDP/IOS-PIA CAR, Kalinga)
