Being a Bisaya

Cebuano, as a language, doesn’t have the same level of sophistication as that of Tagalog. People are amused with our corruption of the Tagalog vowels. We would effortlessly change the ‘e’s to ‘i’s, and the ‘o’s to ‘u’s. Whenever we say ‘‘aku’’ instead of ‘‘ako’’ or ‘‘lalaki’’ instead of ‘‘lalake’’, they were quick to point out, "Ka-Bisaya ba gyod nimo!" (You’re so hopelessly Bisaya!)

Is it such a bad thing to be Bisaya? According to José Nilo Binongo , he said, "Cebuano is not a dialect. Linguists have repeatedly told us that Cebuano is a bona fide language on its own. As languages, both Cebuano and Tagalog have a written form, and, to my knowledge, many literary works of quality have been written in both languages. Moreover, if we accept that Philippine languages belong to the Malayo-Polynesian family, then, surely, ‘‘aku’’ or ‘‘lalaki’’ is more faithful to the original pronunciation. Malaysians and Indonesians alike say ‘‘aku’’, not ‘‘ako’’, when referring to the first person singular; similarly, Malaysians say ‘‘lelaki’’ (or ‘‘laki laki’’ in Indonesian) when they refer to the male sex."

Now take a look at the pictures below. My friend Dondon sent me these pics in my email entitled "Mas maayo binisaya or iningles?". Even if the words are mispelled, I'm sure we still understand what it means. Right?

Therefore, we shouldn’t worry about matters of no importance.

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