Death Literature

Language carries a culture and a social knowledge about its community; the words, the definitions, the pronunciation and the methods of combining them as used and understood by a community. Enriched by culture, traditions and idiosyncrasies. A conglomeration of a hundreds of ethnicities. And a believer of different religion and sects yet bears a single identity and nationality- Filipino.
The Philippines is a multilingual country. A country having more than a hundred of spoken language and ethnicities. Multilingualism is a complex phenomenon and sometimes considered as a problem to national unity and ultimately, political control. We are all taught of varying literatures around the world. The point is, if ethnicity does not hinder the progression of such works, then why must language diversity do so? A question that stirred the thoughts in my mind leaving me with an idea of oneness.
Way back in 1972, the imposition of Martial Law generated public fear, silencing the more restive areas in the country and in the year that followed, the former president Ferdinand Marcos called for the ratification of a constitution that would on him enormous political power. One provision of that constitution was the adoption of a national language called Filipino. The Filipino language was envisioned as a universal language that would grow out of the mix of several Philippine languages. Since the general perception was that the national language did not yet exist, the government declared English and Filipino actually Tagalog- the official and de facto national language.
Having an official de facto language is huge step to promote unity. For us to be able to understand each other, we must eliminate the barriers by having an official de facto language. But expressing your self doesn’t require anything. It doesn’t have any criteria to be followed. You don’t need to learn Visayan language for the Bisaya to understand. You don’t have to learn Mandayan language for the Mandayas to understand. You don’t have to learn all the language just to express yourself. Why not be simple. Do it on your own language. Why not use the language that everybody understands. The language that is being prescribed for us to use. You don’t have to fancy at other peoples’ expense. Ethnicity and language does not hinder everything. The only limits and hindrances are the ones we’ve created for ourselves.
We may speak different languages, believes in different Gods, came from different ethnicity and belonged in different races, we have the same thing in common- literature.