‘Selfie’ is the 2014 Salita ng Taon

Filipinas Institute of Translation, Inc. (FIT) declared "selfie" as this year’s Salita ng Taon on Friday.

 

‘Selfie,’ nominated by talent manager Noel Ferrer and director Jose Javier Reyes, outshone 12 other words that entered the corpus of Filipino culture in 2013 and 2014.

 

The second and third prizes went to "endo," nominated and presented by De La Salle University professor Dr. David Michael San Juan and Bulacan State University professor John Kelvin Briones, and "Filipinas" by Miriam College professor Dr. Rebecca Anoñuevo.

 

The nominated words were presented on Friday, the second day of the three-day Sawikaan Pambansang Kumperensiya sa Wika organized by the FIT.

 

The winners were chosen through a meticulous deliberation by FIT members and honored guests, according to Dr. Edgar Samar, Sawikaan conference director.

 

Sawikaan through the years

 

Sawikaan began in 2004 as a language competition. The concept of Salita ng Taon was the brainchild of P.T. Martin, an active member of FIT, who patterned it after the Word of the Year by the American Dialect Society.

 

According to FIT member Dr. Galileo Zafra, Sawikaan is a relevant language strategy, owing to the fact that in 2004, then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the official use of English as the medium of instruction and communicaiton.

Also during that time, the Department of Education issued an order titled “Establishing the Policy to Strengthen the Use of English as a Second Language in the Educational System,” which aimed to add up the number of hours in teaching English.

 

Beginning from 2010, the Salita ng Taon is conducted every other two years.

Problems of relevance

 

During the open forum, some of the delegates raised questions on the relevance of Salita ng Taon as a part of the conference, as most of them were teachers coming from different parts of the country. They also asked about how they can convince their students on how to appreciate our own culture.

 

Questions were also raised on why the country's name should be changed to "Filipinas."

 

One elementary teacher shared that some of her elementary students don’t attend their classes because they have to collect “kalakal” (one of the nominated words). Another teacher revealed that, back in her school, “pangangalakal” has an entire new meaning. It means finally collecting their salary, because they have long been buried in debt.

 

This year’s Salita ng Taon highlighted other socially relevant words including "PDAF," "whistle blower," and "riding-in-tandem."

 

"Selfie" was added to the list of Salita ng Taon which included "wangwang" (2012), "jejemon" (2010), "miskol" (2007), "lobat" (2006), "huweteng" (2005), and "canvass" (2004). — VC, GMA News