An unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates

Martes, Hulyo 23, 2013

SONA 2013: The Linguistic Perspective

Watching yesterday's SONA was a treat to the ears, at least from a linguistic perspective. I have always liked to listen to President PNOY's SONA speeches, strange as it may seem since very few politicians' speaking skills are even remotely delivered interestingly - at least for me.

For the first time in Philippine Presidential history, a Filipino president delivers his annual speeches almost entirely in flawless, fluent, simple, understandable and very accessible Filipino. Truly a first, and truly very Filipino. I have never in my wildest imagination considered even by any degree of interest that President PNOY can capture his audience in such ear soothing manner a speech delivered in conversational Filipino. Not only is President PNOY adept at using the Filipino language, he has made it also modern, simple yet comprehensive, devoid of superflousity common among presidential speeches delivered in English (and all previous presidents delivered their SONA almost entirely in English or a combination thereof with Filipino), as if by using English the speech itself attains a certain degree of integrity and professionalism.

Kudos to President PNOY for promoting the Filipino language, for empowering a language derided by some Filipinos and for communicating directly with the Filipino people in a language truly by the Filipino!


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