Kapampangan Folk Music, Games, and Theater
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2021-4192-AJHA – 18 APR 2021 1 Kapampangan Folk Music, Games, and Theater: 2 An Endangered Oral Traditions 3 4 The culture of the Kapampangan people in the province of Pampanga, 5 Philippines is so diverse that even its name Pampang is rooted on the word 6 which means shore or the loading and unloading point of all transactions 7 that are foreign, starting from the time of the early Chinese down to the 8 Spaniards and so on. Among these diversities are the oral traditions found 9 in the province which they learned true word of mouth. The researcher used 10 2 folk songs, 2 games, and 1 local theatre in the study: The Atin Ku Pung 11 Sing-Sing and Inyang Malati Ku folk songs which tell how the common 12 Kapampangan live, love, and laugh; The ancient structured poetic game 13 bulaklakan, which is usually performed during funeral wakes to mitigate the 14 pain experienced by the bereaved family, and the salikutan (hide and seek) 15 game where the starter needs to utter a chant before the game will start; 16 And lastly, the re-enactment of Joseph and pregnant Mary looking for 17 shelter held only during the night of Christmas using the native language 18 traversing in the streets of the village which they called layunan. This study 19 covered history, tradition, and ceremonies observed in Pampanga; its results 20 included interviews with 22 elder informants and 88 young respondents. The 21 main results were (1) the established oral traditions of the Kapampangans 22 clashed with westernized trends and modern society, it is pushing out slowly 23 by technology, globalisation, modernisation, mass movements, political, 24 economic and natural calamities; (2) the attitude of using and choosing 25 English and Tagalog as the language/s at home instead of the Kapampangan 26 significantly contributed to the weakening Kapampangan oral tradition; (3) 27 Kapampangan oral traditions are slowly dying because of lack of exposure 28 and familiarity to it by the young Kapampangans. 29 30 Keywords: Kapampangan, Folk Songs, games, theatre, oral traditions. 31 32 33 Introduction 34 35 How many mothers sing native lullabies for their babies? How many 36 fathers played indigenous games with their wards? And, how many families 37 witnessed cultural arts live performances? ―The oral traditions and expressions 38 domain encompasses an enormous variety of spoken forms including proverbs, 39 riddles, tales, nursery rhymes, legends, myths, epic songs and poems, charms, 40 prayers, chants, songs, dramatic performances and more. Oral traditions and 41 expressions are used to pass on knowledge, cultural and social values and 42 collective memory. They play a crucial part in keeping cultures alive‖ 43 (UNESCO: Intangible Cultural Heriage, n.d). 44 Oral tradition is the collection of information through the word of mouth 45 from generation to generation. This has been the main vehicle for transmitting 46 information in preliterate societies (Fathu & Prihe Slamatin , 2018). Folk arts 47 and music, indigenous games, folk tales, and prayers are some of the oral 48 traditions of the Kapampangan that are dynamic and highly diverse for 49 evolving, string, and transmitting knowledge, arts, and ideas (Foley, 2020). 1 2021-4192-AJHA – 16 APR 2021 1 ―Pampanga‖ originated from the word ―pampang‖ which means riverbank 2 both in Pampango, when early Spanish missionaries referred to the natives as 3 people by the river (Dizon D. H., 1981; Henson, 1965; Castro R. I., 1981), and 4 it was the very first province created on the island of Luzon (Henares, 2001; 5 Camaya, n.d.). Kapampangan belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian family of 6 languages (Larkin, 1993; Manlapaz, 1981) prevalent in the islands and is 7 closely related to both Tagalog (speakers from Manila, Cavite, Nueva Ecija, 8 Bulacan and Bataan), and Sambal (speakers from Zambales), the Pampangans 9 could not readily communicate in that dialect with the people nearby Zambales 10 Province or the adjacent Tagalog region. So in spite of broad cultural 11 similarities, the Kampangans could be identified by their language (Larkin, 12 1993). The language is spoken in the province of Pampanga, in the southern 13 half of Tarlac, northern portion of Bataan and Bulacan. It is also understood in 14 some villages of Nueva Ecija, and by the Aetas of Tarlac, Pampanga, and 15 Zambalez. 16 Kapampangan is one of the major languages of the Philippines spoken 17 mainly in the province of Pampanga, including some other towns along its 18 boundaries (Del Corro , n.d.; Manlapaz, 1981). It is in fact the name used by 19 the native speakers who are also called Pampangan, Pampango. From the 20 earliest times until the mid – 1900s, most Kapampangans referred to their 21 province as Capampangan; it was the non-Kapampangans like the Spaniards, 22 Americans and other Filipino who called the province Pampanga (R.T., n.d.). 23 Very little is known about Kapampangan oral tradition prior to the arrival 24 of the Spaniards in the 16th century. From 1580-1900, the field of 25 Kapampangan language studies was predominated by Spaniards, mostly friars. 26 In line with their intention to learn the oral tradition of their subjects, this 27 period is one of the pedagogical literature in all forms as dictionaries, 28 grammars, catechism, and how to carry simple conversations (Del Corro , n.d.). 29 Kapampangan has a diversity of culture in terms of oral tradition, some of 30 which in arts and music are: polosa this is a lyrical recitation which is rendered 31 in kapampangan and in pronto, the need to memorize the lyrics is not 32 important, whatever the polosador sees at the moment that is what he usually 33 recites, the tagulele is chant of lamentation during a person's wake or burial, 34 relating the bravery of the deceased; layunan is a Kapampangan re-enactment 35 of Joseph and Mary‘s search for suitable kubol to give birth to Jesus rendered 36 true song in the street in the 24th night of December; and a lot of folk songs; 37 Prayers are spoken and recites in Kapampangan, during Lenten seasons which 38 is called maleldo by the Kapampangan some folks sing verses of the bible true 39 sound of gegege in the pabasa (altar); Kapampangan has a unique folk games 40 like bulaklakan (flower game) an ancient poetic game played during the nights 41 burial of the wake; and one of the Kapampangan folklores, Sinukwan, a 42 Kapampangan mythical king lived in the legendary Mt. Arayat in the province 43 of Pampanga. 44 The aforementioned oral tradition were unfortunately not practically 45 appreciated well by the Kapampangan youth nowadays. The oral tradition in 46 Province Pampanga, Philippines like some other oral tradition in the world is in 2 2021-4192-AJHA – 16 APR 2021 1 great danger, it is slowly dying, and this fact cannot be underestimated and 2 denied, more specifically on the three (3) progressive cities of the province. 3 Each language is a unique expression of the human experience of the 4 world (UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, 2003) 5 Language grow, evolve, and mutate, in some instances some languages 6 survived fires, floods, droughts, famines and wars (Silva, 2018). however, there 7 are also recorded languages that dies. The world is in massive language 8 extinction, languages are disappearing at an unprecedented pace (UNESCO 9 Atlas of the World‘s Languages in Danger, 2016). Most of the reputable 10 sources states that one language dies every 14 days (Rymer, 2012; Strochlic, 11 2018) Over 40% of the world‘s approximate 7,000 languages are at risk of 12 disappearing (About the Endangered Languages Project, n.d.; Shurkin, 2014; 13 Rymer, 2012; Foltz, 2015; Laliberte, 2018; Tesch, n.d.; Foltz, 2015; Eschner, 14 2017) and 95 percent of the world‘s population speak 300 of them, some 40 15 percent of the world's languages are threatened (About the Endangered 16 Languages Project, n.d.; Shurkin, 2014). Thousands of languages have gone 17 extinct in the last few centuries, and language of any people whose total 18 population is fewer than 35,000, is possibly endangered (Shurkin, 2014; Tesch, 19 n.d.), though approximately six thousand languages still exist, many are under 20 threat (UNESCO Ad Hoc Expert Group on Endangered Languages, 2003). 21 According to one count, 6,703 separate languages were spoken in the world in 22 1996. Of these, 1000 were spoken in the Americas, 2011 in Africa, 225 in 23 Europe, 2165 in Asia, and 1320 in the Pacific, including Australia (Hornsby, 24 n.d.). Only the top 100 are widely spoken (Eschner, 2017). By 2100, it is quite 25 realistic to expect that half of these languages will be gone (Hieber, 2012). 26 More than 200 languages have become extinct around the world over the last 27 three generations (UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger, n.d.). 28 For example, for Uganda lists 6 languages, of which 3 are now considered 29 extinct, namely Napore, Nyang‘i and Singa (Hornsby, n.d.). 30 ―When humanity loses a language, we also lose the potential for greater 31 diversity in art, music, literature, and oral traditions,‖ (Strochlic, 2018). Each 32 language is a key that can unlock local knowledge about medicinal secrets, 33 ecological wisdom, weather and climate patterns, spiritual attitudes and artistic 34 and mythological histories‖ (Eschner, 2017). Scholars think, nearly half of the 35 world‘s current stock of oral tradition may disappear. More than a thousand 36 are listed as critically or severely endangered—teetering on the edge of 37 oblivion (Rymer, 2012).