On the Lighter Side
6.29.2004
After wearing a thinking hat, I thought a small list of Filipino coined terms would be great. Just how many moments are there when we wished to utter a word that can describe or at least name an event? We Filipinos have been good at this, having coined dedma for instance. It is said that mastery of any craft comes when one is free to break the rules and understand why one has done so. Filipinos have done that already, all because English is too slow to evolving for our needs as a culture.
Consider the following examples among many others:
1. Deadma - or alternately written as dedma, from dead malice, to ignore one's existence, apt when one says 'talk to the hand'
2. Trying hard - means to be overly labouring to be excellent in any particular action, that it comes across as just not enough, and quite distasteful.
3. Feeling - what we call somebody who 'feels' or thinks too highly of oneself, or has a illusion to this effect
4. Hello/ or Hellurr (with the twang) - synonymous to 'duh!?'
On the other end, our very own language Filipino is evolving just as fast. Here though, are some very Filipino rare moments that I wish we had names for:
1. That static on your phone or speakers caused by interference from the Mobile Pone signal. We also need a word that names that brief moment of discomfort. My girlfriend calls it tokotok. (As opposed to tokatok, i.e., when one is getting a drowsy spell while seated or standing that for a moment you lose balance in your head. (versus a myoclonic jerk) I hope that would catch on. To those unfamiliar with Filipino, it's onomatopeic by the way.
2. That brief moment of silence in between a chorale of laughter, when suddenly people look at each other and was so amazed at the fact that it happened at all... and thereby laughing about the fact that it happened. I don't know what to call that any suggestions?
3. A similar rarity is when one laughs so hard that it becomes unstoppable. And that in the end you are laughing because of the fact that you are laughing that hard. Pinoys call that "tuwang tuwa sa galak" or something similarly coined.
4. What would you call 'the acceptance of something despite it being very obscure and repugnant because it was the polite thing to do at the moment'? I thought this is quite common among Filipinos. It's not Hiya, but a perhaps a derivative. I don't even know if there's a term for one in English.
5. "Tasyô" or "Polosopo" from Jose Rizal's local pundit in Noli Me Tangere, Pilosopong Tasyo, is already acceptable to mean a smart-sleck, smart-ass, or assholic(?) creative but fuzzy illogical reasoning. How about a living oxymoron? Translate oxymoron in Filipino. Anyone?
Try that!
Labels: Culture, Philippines
posted by Jdavies @ 6/29/2004,
0 Comments:
The Author
J.Davies
Jdavies lives in Quezon City, Philippines and has been blogging since 2002. A brand manager in a leading technology company and a freelance new media/web strategy consultant, he has refocused his blogging from personal, political & sociological observations, to marketing-related efforts and Internet trends that are relevant to his career and branding advocacies.
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This blog is a depot of thoughts and observations on marketing trends which remain personally relevant to the Author as far as his marketing career is concerned. Having evolved from the personal blog of Jdavies, much of the earlier work contained herein are laced with personal speculation, political views, and similar advocacies. These posts are being kept for posterity's sake and for no other reason. No effort is being made to claim that the author will not contradict himself from his previous positions or that such advocacies are absolute.
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