Anyone looking for a term to call the dialect spoken in Quezon Province, a professor, historian, anthropologist, Father of Philippine Folklore and National Social Scientist of the Philippines named Dr. Esperidion Arsenio Manuel, popularly known as E. Arsenio Manuel, has an answer.
It is Tayabas Tagalog for the whole of Quezon. Tayabas, referring to the old name of the province, and Tagalog being the language generally used in the area.
The Diliman Review Vol. XIX Numbers 1-4 of the University of the Philippines published his work on January-October 1971 issue. Today, Manuel’s manuscript, “A Lexicographic Study of Tayabas Tagalog of Quezon Province,” turns 70 years old as the author completed it in 1953.
I had my share of Lopenze Tagalog. I began collecting the words as soon as I became a cultural worker and published it in 2015. Other local cultural workers have a collection of their respective towns’ words because even if all Quezon towns speak Tagalog, there are still variations.
No one has completely followed what Manuel has done. There have been talks and plans of doing collaborations to compile our works into one publication but it has not been realized yet.
Tayabas Tagalog is so rich. We have specific words for a lot of things and living beings.
When we say bakwit, it means one cannot speak the language correctly as a foreigner speaking Tagalog or a Filipino who cannot speak the language as it should be spoken. Quezonins or the people of Quezon Province do not mean evacuees with bakwit as it meant to other places.
We say landi or naglalandi when one is playing with water like nagtatampisaw. It doesn’t mean "to flirt" as it means in other places.
Hukay means deep well where we fetch water for dagsawin (not for drinking). We don’t just mean to dig. Yes, tumatabo kami sa hukay means "we fetch water from the well" as tabo means igib.
We can go on and on, since Tayabas Tagalog is such an interesting subject. It is something to be proud of, because it is part of our identity. We don’t hide it even when we go to the city. We speak our language with those who can understand it, but we also share it to those who can’t.
This column’s title walang guri actually means "no erasure" or "written carefully and clean". Guri means scribbles or illegible doodles, or erasures.
New year, new learning!
Talk to a Quezonin and be amazed, entertained, and informed with Tagalog not heard in other parts of Tagalog-speaking provinces. Kata na sa Quezon! (Let’s go to Quezon!)