TO BE JOLOG

Having been out of the country for quite sometime now, I have yet to learn a tremendous list of terms that are "in" these days....I must admit I am no jolog as far as the trendy words are concerned.

You see, I often send and receive txt messages from my friends in Pinas via that SMS thing....and I am oftentimes in awe at the number of words used that do not register in my memory bank. Let us see....

SWAK- as in the text: "Swak na swak ang dating!"

I texted back: "whats 'swak'?
The reply was instant: 'sakto or exactly/fit!
The term was used to describe the tees I sent them.

Shiver-me-timbers!

So if I have to describe the picture above, I should say:
"Swak-na-swak sa rhythm and galaw nila!"

Then one time, I read some more:
....carmi [for karma; jolina [for tuli na]; tsugi, and more!

Of course, I know what "bagets" mean, having heard those words used over and over again as we try to wiggle out of the long arm of my parents as they try to push us out of those 'dabarkads' who keep on calling.....

But there are more words used primarily by gays.....
these words they call "swardspeak" which I find daunting and not necessarily 'sosi'.

I remember reading some words to describe the extravagance of Imelda Marcos. It was described in some british papers as "imeldific!" The meaning is not lost to us: it means exhorbitantly extravagant, leaning on the superflous use of money for personal use..." or something of that sort.

I remember first hearing 'tsugi' used by that gay manicurist who do my Nanay's nails. I wondered what [s]he meant. I was thinking of that word and wondered who's "next"....because in Nippongo, tsugi means next. Apparently, in Pinas, teh word meant to be dead...or "dedo." I was aghast and confused at what the word meant, locally at least.

Language, being a living one, has the capacity to grow and before we know it, we are faced with a deluge of "new terms" by the end of the day. More people using them means they word is coined. When it remains used, thereby accepted by a majority numebr of speakers, then we add a new term in our vocabulary. This is the reason why all Languages, continue to add more in their long lists. While other terms become "dead" after a long while, their definitions have been entered and logged in a certain nation's history of Languages. This is true with major languages like English ...or even the minor ones like Nippongo which enters hundreds of new words every year.

Locally, the latest ones which caught my attention were these:

[*] na-gloria= meaning...naloko[mang-gloria=manloko!]
[*] ma-jonas= meaning 'mawala' or madukot ng militar.
[*] ma-palparan=meaning, ma-salvage, ma-torture, ma-kidnap, mawala sa listahan....
[*] mang-garci=meaning "mandaya sa anumang eleksyon.
[*] ma-honasan=meaning tumakas...as in takas-ng-takas....

There are more of these words....
I wish I could have them all here. But I only know a little from afar.


But knowing these words,makes life bearable among Pinoys who have to make
just tiis while waiting for justice to grind its wheel. Furthermore, Pinoys just bear it out with jokes to forget, even for a while...the looming distress that these "glorias" bring.