The collaboration of different faculty members and students of De La Salle University (DLSU) has resulted in the development of a mobile app and a website that features the first Hanunoo Mangyan mobile application and online dictionary.
Hanunoo is one of the eight ethnolinguistic groups (named and classified under the specific language they use) from Mindoro along with the Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Tau-buid, Bangon, Buhid and Ratagnon groups.
The specific need for higher education institutions to contribute to the preservation of cultural elements was brought to light by former Department of Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro. The project was reportedly done “to respond to the threat of language endangerment and consequently, to support language maintenance of a minority language.”
The first-of-its-kind e-dictionary is an overarching collaboration across multiple disciplines and generations within the university, one of our government’s departments and of course, the Hanunoo ethnic group.Needless to say, the process it went through was equally fascinating as the product.
The project funded by the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines was carried out by faculty members of DLSU’s Department of English and Applied Linguistics, College of Computer Studies, and Behavioral Sciences Department.
It was conducted in the villages of Umabang and Bailan of Barangay Benli, which is the only Mangyan settlement in Bulalacao, Oriental Mindoro. The documentation involved both the community’s elders and youth with research training being done with Mangyan youth to equip them with skills for data collection. Community elders will serve as sources of data.
The study was then successfully integrated and developed into an e-dictionary by students from the College of Computer Studies, namely Beatris Mariell Choo, Robee Khyra Mae Te, and Jan Kristoffer Cheng.
According to an Inquirer report, the university is also eyeing similar dictionaries for the rest of Mangyan languages to pave the way for their languages and group to flourish in the future.
Header photo courtesy of Inquirer.net
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