The short answer to the
above question is obviously a “NO”, but there are definitely some
uses for the word “Yung”
which it is preferred over the word “Ang”
I made the observation that
Tagalog natives prefer to use the word “'Yung” (or sometimes even “yuung”) instead of
“Ang”. I've always thought that this was crass and
vulgar, having learned Filipino (the official version of Tagalog) in
school in a Visayan speaking province through DECS (Now DepEd)
approved grammars and readers. Imagine my surprise when I first
noticed the ubiquity of “Yung” as a replacement for
“Ang” when I first moved in to Metro Manila and started using
the language everyday.
To illustrate:
Huminto ang sasakyan
versus
Huminto yung sasakyan
They mean the same thing
right? Which is gramatically correct? As far as I know, Balagtas
and Lope K. Santos would turning in their graves if they read it.
As late as around 2008 or
2009 when I was still in college, I had the chance to go over the
write up of an underclassman and noticed that he replaced “Ang”
with “'Yung” or used them interchangeably in a formal
paper!
I pointed it out to him and
told him that “Ang” is
the only acceptable article in Filipino. that he should be
using “Ang” only as that is the only acceptable article,
definite or indefinite and for referntial and non-referential uses.
All this was rather
confusing for me.
Then I came across this academic paper written by one Naonori Nagaya. He made the
distinction between “Yung”
and “Ang” very
clear. According to him, “Yung”
is an emerging form of article for Filipino and is competing with
“Ang” for
non-referential uses.
The prototypical function of
nominals, namely nouns and nominalized elements, is to refer to an
entity, and that of articles is to ground nominals into a discourse,
specifying a type of reference such as definiteness or specificity
[Citations Omitted]. However, it often happens that the function of
nominals goes beyond reference and expands to non-referential
functions, and that articles also accommodate the functional change
of nominals. For instance, the English indefinite article a/an was
once employed only for already identified particulars, as in a
(certain) man, but later comes
to indicate non-specific, unidentified entities, as in we
called a taxi.
In other words, “Ang”
is used to refer to specific and “known” things or [possibly] for
Proper nouns. “Yung”
on the other hand is used for generic or “unknown” things or
[possibly] common knowns.
Now all these changes in
language are inevitable. They are merely the result of the speakers
of a language adopting innovations in the way the language is used
everyday and then perpetuating it such that the innovation becomes a
part of the grammar or vocabulary of the subject.
When I came accross Nagaya's
article, I felt better. I felt vindicated in the knowledge that yes,
my knowledge of Tagalog “Book Grammar” is indeed correct. “Yung”
has no place in a formal essay. At the same time, I realized that
use of “Yung”
should actually be allowed due course in establishing itself as the
“second” article of Tagalog/Filipino.
Why is all this
important?
This
observation is simply of interest to historians, linguists and
grammarians. Languages change over time. Simple as that. But here
is a significant grammatical change occurring before our very eyes
and the average Tagalog-speaker will never notice.
This
is the same way that the Iberian Latin Speaker never noticed the
Latin Phrase “ILLE” and “IPSA" become their articles “El”, “La”, “Las”, “Los” and “Lo” which is now so much a part of their language and culture. The
emergence of “Yung”
as a non-referential article followed the same process as the
emergence of the Romance articles only that we have the chance to
observe this first hand. Nagaya writes:
[Y]ung
is emerging as an article for referential nominals. The article yung
is grammaticalized from the distal demonstrative iyon
and is often considered as a replacement for ang
in conversations (Citations Ommitted). However, ... the difference in
style is not the end of the story: yung
does not have all of the non-referential functions that ang has, but
displays nominalizing functions that ang
does not demonstrate. Yung
is not just a simple renewal form of the functions of ang,
but also an addition to the article system in Tagalog.
[Emphasis mine]
According to the National Science Foundation:
Frequently,
the needs of speakers drive language change. New technologies,
industries, products and experiences simply require new words.
Plastic, cell phones and the Internet didn’t exist in Shakespeare’s
time, for example. By using new and emerging terms, we all drive
language change. But the unique way that individuals speak also fuels
language change. That’s because no two individuals use a language
in exactly the same way. The vocabulary and phrases people use depend
on where they live, their age, education level, social status and
other factors. Through our interactions, we pick up new words and
sayings and integrate them into our speech. Teens and young adults
for example, often use different words and phrases from their
parents. Some of them spread through the population and slowly change
the language.
It
is simply very poignant to see the grammatical system of a language
become richer in one's own time.
How
to approach the change
There
are actually two ways with which to approach this phenomenon of
language change. We could either: (a) Embrace the change and
incorporate the “Yung”
article in the grammar books or; (b) Frown down upon it as a mere basilectal form and to discourage its use in formal (i.e. written)
situations.
I
would prefer the first option, to embrace the change and to
incorporate it in grammar books. One can go on and talk about proper
speech and proper writing, but small, incremental changes in language
are simply inevitable. The Ancient Romans would never today
understand Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian but
these languages, far from being the vulgar basilects they once were,
but are now languages of prestige, influence and a medium of high
culture and knowledge, just as Latin once was for the Romans.
Paging the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino... Peace :-)
This
article was supposed to be a mere Facebook post, but I decided to
expand my thoughts on the subject since I've really given this a lot
of thought.
