Taglish, or the Phantom Power of the Lingua Franca (Vicente L. Rafael)

In Taglish, or the Phantom Power of the Lingua Franca, Vicente L. Rafael proposes that Taglish as a lingua franca is a driving force in Philippine history and identity. Taglish is a form of code switching in which English, Spanish, and Tagalog are freely interchanged. Rafael guides the reader through Philippine history with an eye towards the interactions between language, popular media, and the privileged mestizo class. Rafael introduces the social hierarchy by analyzing a scene from Jessica Hagedorn’s Dogeaters set in the 1950s. In the scene, two sisters display differential reactions to a Hollywood film, attributed to differing degrees of mestiza appearance. Rafael analyzes mestizo envy as a mode of identification with colonial powers, nationalist Filipino intellectuals, and modernity. According to Rafael, the mestizo bridges the gap between the competing desires for colonial legitimacy and nationist identity. Rafael also sees this dual nature as a defining feature of Taglish. English connects to the legacy of United States colonialism, Spanish connects to the intellectual elite with access to a European education, and Tagalog connects to the nationalist identity through its ubiquity in popular media. Rafael complicates this picture by recounting the intertwined history of all three languages and its manifestation in Tagalog’s orthography and honorifics. In the 1960s and 70s, Taglish emerged as the language of the lower-class masses and was subsequently looked down upon by the urban elite, especially the old guard nationalists. The elite dubbed Taglish speakers “the bayka crowd.” Taglish gave its speakers the freedom to move “between languages without surrendering to any one of them” (112), a freedom which the elite could only replicate through mockery. In the 1980s, publishing and broadcasting resources came under direct control of the Marcos dictatorship. As the language of popular media, Taglish became the preferred idiom of middle class dissent, exemplified by Nonoy Marcelo’s popular comic strip Ikabod. After the fall of the Marcos regime, Taglish has become a representation of both the commodity and allure of mestizoness. This is particularly evident in Filipino films where Rafael contrasts Taglish with the figure of the bakla, a working-class male transvestite. Ironically, both the bakla and Taglish play off the same desire to adopt a different identity.

Rafael’s chronological argument form and use of popular media present a compelling argument for the power of Taglish as a lingua franca. However, there are several points that warrant a more nuanced discussion. First, Taglish is not the only form of code switching in the Philippines. In Taglish, Tagalog acts as the substratum over which speakers insert English. However, some speakers use Conyo English, in which English acts as the substratum. The speakers of Conyo English are primarily wealthy members of the mestizo class who grew up with limited knowledge of Tagalog. I would be interested to see how Rafael fits Coño English into the relationship he establishes between language and mestizoness. Second, Rafael’s characterization of swardspeak as the “bakla’s version of Taglish”’ (125) may give the bakla too much credit in ownership of the dialect. By Rafael’s own words, the bakla is often “articulated in homophobic terms” (122) and thus is not a proper representation of LGBTQ identities in the Phillipines, whereas Swardspeak is widely used among the LGBTQ population. The relationship between the LGBTQ identity and linguistic qualities of Swardspeak warrants a similar level of analysis to the relationship between the mestiza identity and standard Taglish. For example, we could explore why Swardspeak incorporates Cebuano and Hiligaynon, regional Austronesian languages, and several asiatic languages which do not appear in standard Taglish. Third, Taglish also shapes the identity of the Philippine diaspora. Rafael points out that Filipino films are directed towards an indigenous mass audience and an immigrant video market, but does not elaborate any further. The proliferation of Filipino films among immigrant populations may strengthen cultural ties to the Philippines. Since the popularity of these films is wrapped up in mestizo envy, this begs the question of if and how mestizo envy manifests itself among immigrant populations. As a lingua franca, Taglish may help immigrant communities forge a sense of identity even in cases where the immigrant population speak an assortment of autochthonous languages.

Questions

1. In what sense is the power of Taglish as a lingua franca a “phantom power”?

2. How do the linguistic characteristics of Taglish, such as the optional use of Tagalog honorifics, contribute to its connection to the mestizo class?

Quotes

1. “Mestizoness thus connotes a surplus of meanings as that which conjures the transition from the colonial to the national, indeed, as the recurring embodiment of that transition” (105).

2. “The pleasures of overhearing reproduce the effects of Taglish: that of moving between languages and identities without fully surrendering to any one of them” (112).