Changes in the Meranaw Language Spoken by Meranaw Teenagers
Presenter(s)
Affiliation
Topic
Language as a Vehicle of Culture
Type
Papers
Abstract
The Meranaw [mrw] language, with over two million native speakers is a Malayo-Polynesian language predominantly spoken in Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in Mindanao, Philippines. The Meranaw people take great pride in their cultural heritage and identity, with language serving as a crucial marker of this identity. Being increasingly exposed to other cultures with the advent of technology, the Meranaw language undergoes transformation.These linguistic changes are particularly noticeable among Meranaw teenagers. This qualitative study utilizing informant interviews and observations identifies the influence of Tagalog, Cebuano, English, Korean, and Japanese languages on Meranaw due to the teenagers' exposure to multimedia, especially through internet access. Additionally, the Arabic language significantly impacts the language largely due to the practice of Islam. These changes are manifested through lexical replacement, morphological borrowing, and code-mixing. These also demonstrate the teenagers' translanguaging. The factors for these changes include the desire to express solidarity, to establish common ground and mutual intelligibility, and to replace Meranaw lexicons that are perceived as archaic. However despite these changes, there remains a level of maintenance and preservation of the Meranaw language.
