Why jejemon was chosen as Word of the Year

[xtremerider]

Ito ba ay dapat suportahan...Nakakatuwa talaga ang pinoy!

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/198212/w...rd-of-the-year

[SIZE=3]Why jejemon was chosen as Word of the Year[/SIZE]...
By JOHN IREMIL E. TEODORO
08/10/2010 | 02:03 PM


MY teacher in Literary History of the Philippines, the novelist B.S. Medina, Jr., once told our class that the history of Philippine writing is a history of subversion. It is a history of writers fighting the control and influence of the colonizers—the Spaniards and the Americans. This “fighting" may be figurative, as in the case of Francisco Balagtas and Jose Rizal, or literal, as in the case of Andres Bonifacio and Emilio Jacinto. In general, it is also a history of class struggle, of writing the stories of the poor who are oppressed by the rich and the powerful.

Language is the foundation of literature. There is a lot of struggle in language politics in our country, where American English is the language of choice in education and government. Thank God for President Noynoy Aquino or PNoy, we have the highest leader of the land now using the national language, Filipino, in his important speeches like his inauguration and State of the Nation Address.

Today, scholars and writers writing in Filipino are working triple time in forming the truly representative and “standardized" national language. I’m putting “standardized" in quotation marks here because Filipino is in the process of evolution and any rules in grammar and spelling are still tentative and subject to changes from time to time.
These changes were discussed during the Sawikaan 2010 Salita ng Taon, a national conference on the enrichment of the Filipino language last July 29-30 at the University of the Philippines-Diliman.

In his opening remarks, conference director and Filipino language expert Roberto T. Añonuevo underscored the importance of the gathering to the participants consisting of around 200 language and literature scholars.

“Mahalaga ito para sa ating guni-guni at alaala," said Añonuevo, a Palanca Hall of Famer.

Lectures on how to enrich the Filipino language were delivered at the conference:

• Historian and promoter of “pantayong pananaw" Zeus Salazar talked about “Ang Paghihiram sa mga Wikang Kamag-anak at Banyaga at ang Paglikha ng Neolohismo; Pagtatakda Nito"
• Jimmy Caro, chair of UP Diliman’s Department of Computer Science, discussed “Wika at Informatika" on how the language in informatics helps develop the Filipino language
• Jesus Federico Hernandez, the former chair of UP Diliman’s Department of Linguistics, explored the structure of gay-speak which he called “bekimon," a play on the words “beki" meaning “bakla o bading" and the now famous word, “jejemon," in his lecture “Pasok sa Banga (Wika ng mga Bakla)"

From jologs to jejemon?

One of the highlights of the conference is the annual selection of the Word of the Year. Four new words emerged as winners: jejemon took first prize, ondoy second prize, while tarpo and korkor tied for the third prize.

No less than the dean of UP Diliman’s College of Mass Communications, Rolando B. Tolentino, nominated and defended the word jejemon. In his presentation, Tolentino said jejemon is part of the evolution of the language of the jologs, or people belonging to the lower economic class that the elite and social climbers would call “baduy."

Tolentino, who has produced more than a dozen books on popular culture and literature, said when we look closely at the word jejemon, it will tell us something about economic stratification and class struggle in the country.

“Ang jejemon ay sintomas ng bagong pagsa-sub-uri sa bansa. Umalagwa na mga pasosyal (matatagpuan sila sa call centers), at ang tunay na sosyal, nakakabili ng latest na gadget o ang aproximasyon nito. May entitlement sa teknolohiya dahil ito ang pangako ng mamahaling gadget na binili mo. At dahil nga mahal ito, exclusibo ang turing sa karanasang inaakalang magpapabukod-tangi sa nakararami," he explained.

Jejemon is definitely part of our popular culture, and when we look closely at its specific manifestations, it is telling us something ugly about us. Due to our short basic education program and the diploma mill mentality of many schools, having a college diploma does not automatically make a Pinoy graduate functionally literate. This explains the baseless comments about the jejemon phenomenon from self-styled techies who cannot fathom the concepts of hyperbole and tongue-in-cheek in a piece of writing, much more the theory of the “multiplicity of meanings."

During the voting for the “People’s Choice" for Word of the Year, only 10 voted for jejemon. I told Tolentino that this is expected, as most of the voters are “jejebusters" who are language and literature teachers. He smiled and agreed with me.

Tolentino managed to win the nod of the board of judges though. “How can the jury disagree [with Tolentino’s argument]?" said Prof. Vim Nadera, one of the judges, when asked why the panel chose the entry.

He quotes from Tolentino’s paper: “Sa aking palagay, ang jejemon ay ... ipinataw lamang mula sa penomenong global, galing ng Latin Amerika, gamit ng naghihikahos doon at mga bakla ... Alam ng mga sub-uring ito ang kanilang pagka-etsapwera, at ang kapangyarihan ng pag-etsapwera ay ang kawalang-magagawa hinggil dito kundi ilantad ang laban sa larangan ng kultural."

In his acceptance speech, Tolentino described the victory of jejemon and other new words joining the ever-expanding vocabulary of Filipino as “patunay na buhay na buhay ang wikang Filipino."

Jejemon will enter the third edition of UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino, gliding elegantly into the modern Filipino alphabet with other words beginning with “j" including jaket, jam, jihad, Juan dela Cruz, Juan Tamad, and yes, jologs.

Ondoy, Tarpo, Ampatuan

Nominated words have to attain popular usage and emerge only recently to qualify for the contest. If it is an old word, it must have taken on a new meaning due to a significant event.

The word "ondoy" was the sentimental choice for many participants, especially those coming from Metro Manila. The word was presented by Jayson Petras, a young writer and Filipino teacher from Marikina City and certified Typhoon Ondoy survivor.

I voted for “tarpo" for the People’s Choice award after listening to the convincing defense from Jelson Estrella Capilos The word comes from tarpaulin, a popular material for posters, streamers, and billboards. In place of the word “trapo" to refer to traditional politicians, Capilos said “tarpo" could be used instead to describe a political system “na nakabatay sa imahen at porma sa halip na tiyak na aksiyon, kakayahan, at palataporma, o ang tinaguriang tarpolitika."

“Tarpo" got the People’s Choice award with 55 votes followed by “load" with 42 votes and “unli" with 28 votes.

One word that created intensive discussion was “ampatuan," taken from the family name of the clan implicated in the grisly massacre of more than 50 people in Maguindanao province last November.

Minang Dirampatan-Sharief, an English professor from Mindanao State University in Marawi City, told the conference that ampatuan is a beautiful and culturally loaded word in Maranao. It is rooted in the words “tua" which means the “essence of power, strength, and dignity" and “tuan" which refers to a “high Muslim priest."

She acknowledged that “ampatuan" has imbibed a negative meaning after the shocking massacre, but added that if “ampatuan" is included in the Filipino dictionary, the original meaning of the word in the Maranao context has to be included to as a paradoxical note.

In the end “ampatuan" got zero votes, perhaps indicating the sentiments of the participants that it is not yet time for this word to become part of Filipino vocabulary. – YA, GMANews.TV

[kinyo]

meron na palang "J" sa Filipino alphabet? kelan pa?

[CVT]

IMO, a sign of decadence in our society...

10.6K:horse:

[vito corleone]

IMO, a sign of decadence in our society...

10.6K:horse:

my thoughts, too

i can't believe the attention this jejemon thing is getting from a lot of people. . .the media people (esp. channels 2 , 7,and 5) are to blame for this--they sensationalize a lot of things kahit wala namang kakwenta-kwentang issue. . .gagawa ng headline para lang mapuno ng pag-uusapan ang time slots nila. . .i still cannot accept the showbiz news portion of the current news programs . . .naasar ako kada papasok sa segment na yun

[Starex_Gold]

Dahil ba kay "Jeje"mar Binay?

Seriously, nakakahiya yang mga Jejemon na yan.

Hindi na ako nagtataka kung bakit sinampal ng tsinelas nung friend ko yung dalawang Jejemon na nakita nya :hysterical:

[CoDer]

Kakatawa yan mga scholars pa daw kuno, and then at the end of the day they voted for jejemon.

Wow!

[ess]

Kaya pala meron na ring www.jejecom.ph....