Philippine E-Journals

Writing Ethnicity – In English

Antonio R. Enriquez

Discipline: Literature

 

Abstract:

I used to go hunting in my youth on that now besieged island of Basilan (called Taquima by my ancestors). There we shot at wild boar, deer, monkey; they were everywhere then. And so, now, after we’ve decided which hunting area we’d go to and the pre-dawn hour we’d meet at a friend’s place and this is how our conversation and the end of our meeting would go.

“Sigui, ‘pareng; we’ll all meet here, here at Jun’s place, tomorrow about two, buntag, morning, ha, hindi afternoon: rain or shine – basta hindi u-ulan!”

Obviously a contradiction in terms, but we can even say, in all humility, that without the local words and phrase we couldn’t have got the same stylish and farcical effect.