Our convoluted road designations

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I’ve been wondering lately what the difference is between an AVENUE like Taft and a BOULEVARD like Aurora when they basically look the same: buildings on either side, a few trees here and there, two-way lanes, and with elevated rail systems each.

We have very few BOULEVARDs, but Shaw doesn’t even look like that more famous BOULEVARD by the bay — Roxas.

Curiously, Boni AVENUE is not as large and as long as EDSA. Neither is it as short as Doña Julia Vargas AVENUE.

And while we’re at it, busy Pioneer STREET is not as small as the quiet STREETs of gated communities.

And why is Kamias ROAD not called a STREET, an AVENUE, or a BOULEVARD?

Ayala AVENUE is of course longer and wider than Amorsolo STREET. But why is it that 32nd STREET in BGC is longer and wider than Emerald AVENUE? 😡

I really don’t understand what made people categorize Balete and Eugenio López as DRIVEs instead of STREETs, AVENUEs, etc. Weirder still, when you reach the western end of Ortigas AVENUE (where it crosses paths with Bonny Serrano AVENUE), it becomes Granada STREET. 🤦

Several years ago, South SUPERHIGHWAY was not found to be super anymore, so it was renamed to South Luzón EXPRESSWAY. 🤷

And what’s up with PASEO de Roxas? It sounds so out of time when you look at the AVENUEs, STREETs, and ROADs surrounding it. 🤔

The only thing we got consistent are the CIRCLEs (Maysilo, Quezon Memorial, etc.).

Truly, our thoroughfares are weird af.

Corazón nómada

Mucha gente se equivoca de que soy de Biñán. Sólo trabajo allí a tiempo parcial como consultor de historia. Aunque nací en Lucena, mis raíces son de Unisán y Tondo. Pero gran parte de mi niñez la pasé en Parañaque y Las Piñas. Estudié en una universidad en Ermita. Trabajé durante años en Muntinlupà. Ahora vivo en San Pedro Tunasán y trabajo tiempo completo en Pásig. Mi mente está siempre en Intramuros (de la era española). Y todavía extraño las maravillas naturales de Abra de Ilog. Pero mi ❤ pertenece a las regiones frías: Tagaytay, Majayjay, Lago Sebú, y las Cordilleras. No sé por qué.

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Tagálog is not a dialect

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One of my pet peeves: that our languages such as Tagálog, Cebuano, Capampañgan, Ilocano, Hiligaynón, etc. are all DIALECTS.

FACT: They are not dialects. They are LANGUAGES. Each language has several dialects. Case in point: the Tagálog language alone has eight dialects. These are:

1. Bataán
2. Batangas
3. Bulacán
4. Lúbang
5. Manila
6. Marinduque
7. Tanay–Paeté (Rizal-La Laguna)
8. Tayabas (Quezon).

Of all the abovementioned Tagálog dialects, Batangas is the most well-known (famous for its “ala eh” interjection). In fact, many linguists and historians say that the Batangas dialect is the provenance of the Tagálog language. On the other hand, the Tagálog spoken in Metro Manila (Manila dialect) is already considered standard by many for the reason that it is spoken in the capital/metropolis. That, I think, is also the reason why residents of Metro Manila tend to look down on their “provinciano” counterparts. Isn’t it common knowledge that Manileños find it funny how their Tagálog brethren from the countryside speak?

I grew up in Metro Manila (Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Tondo), so my dialect is Manila. But my father’s side of the family all speak the Tayabas dialect (they’re from Unisán and Lucena). And since my wife and kids have been living in San Pedro Tunasán for close to two decades, we have somehow imbibed the Tanay–Paeté dialect (most especially my wife and three boys). I remember one interesting incident when my family was in Calatagán, Batangas. We were then visiting the parish church of Santo Domingo de Silos when a man heard my wife speak. He easily guessed that she’s from La Laguna!

Whenever I go to my wife’s hometown of Abra de Ilog, Mindoro Occidental, I sometimes find it difficult to converse with her relatives because their Tagálog is somewhat different. I recently found out that the dialect spoken there is Lúbang.

Another case: if you observe places where the Cebuano language is spoken, you will notice that this language alone has six dialects. Ilocano has two. Bícol has several languages with each having several dialects of their own. And so on and so forth.

But why the misconception? This all began when our US-sponsored government installed Tagálog as a “national language”. They then tinkered with it, changing its alphabet into Abakada (effectively destroying the Abecedario Filipino), then started calling it “Pilipino”, rendering all the other languages in the archipelago as secondary. 🤦 This is the long-lasting curse of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino and its predecessors, all beholden to their US WASP colonial masters.

Stop downgrading our languages by calling them “dialects”. They are not.

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