Lazy Sunday afternoon, 71°F , New York City Even when I was still full from lunch, I couldn’t help but salivate when I saw the...
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Language Notes
Firth McEchern’s Language Policy, Rights and Diversity Updates
Naimbag a malemyo apo! Magandang hapon po! Good afternoon! Thank you for your interest in and dedication to language revitalization, rights, cultural democracy, diversity, mother tongue education, minority engagement, the Iloko language, other Philippine languages, or all of the above. As an important member...
Multilingualism
“Never make fun of someone who speaks broken English. It means they know another language.” Whenever speaking in English, many times my closest friends would catch me mispronounce a lot of words. They would laugh heartily as they constantly ask me questions leading to...
Ilocano 101: Superficial Anatomy
Superficial anatomy or surface anatomy is the study of anatomical landmarks that can be readily seen from the contours or the surface of the body. Ilocano 101: Superficial Anatomy is the study of these parts in its Ilocano term. To complete this list, I...
The American ‘How are you.’ versus the Pinoy ‘How are you?’
This afternoon I saw a familiar face in the neighborhood and greeted, “How are you.” While saying it I kept on walking and by the time I was done, the guy was no longer in sight. That was the end of it. An initiation...
Counting One to Ten in Ilocano
Have you ever wondered how it would be if Transylvanian Count von Count, or simply The Count of Sesame Street, were Ilocano? AH AH AH AH AH! (Thunder!) Picture him counting Ilocano girls (ba-la-sang). Maysa nga balasang! (May-sa is One.) Duwa nga balasang! (Du-wa is two.) Tallo...
Ilocano Adjectives
Ilocano adjectives, in its most basic form, usually starts with the prefix na- or nag- with the former used for emphasis or simply euphonic purposes. Prefix nag- is mostly used in interjections. Examples: Ilocano ==>Syllabic parsing ==>Tagalog ==> English ==> Emphasis Napintas ==> /na-pin-tas/...
