Why did Jose Rizal said "Who does not love his native tongue is worse than putrid fish and beast",, when almost all of his novels or poems are written in English or Spanish??
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Jose Rizal wrote most of his famous works in Spanish. Even his final farewell poem, Mi Ultimo Adios, was written in the language of his executioners. He was, after all, a man of his times when most educated Filipinos rarely wrote formally in their mother tongue.
"Ang hindi nagmamahal sa sariling wika ay masahol pa sa malansang isda" (Who does not love his native tongue is worse than putrid fish and beast), is one of the most often quoted of Rizal's writings. Why, then, did he write his two novels, Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo in Spanish? In his dedication of the Noli me Tangere, Rizal wrote, "I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully, without discriminations." Surely, the national hero of the Philippines was not somebody who said one thing and did the opposite.
Both novels portrayed the social and political conditions of the time through characters that represented a cross section of Philippine society. It can be said these two novels awoke the slumbering political passion of his countrymen so successfully that it quickened the birth of the Philippine Revolution. If this were Rizal's aim, which most decidedly was not, he would have written the novels in Tagalog. Not only would this have been understandable to most people in Luzon, it would have hidden the revolutionary intent from the Spanish. Which leads to the question of whom his target audience was, in order to answer the first question of why he wrote the Noli me tangere and the El Filibusterismo in the language of the Spanish colonizers
So much has been written about Rizal's extreme reluctance for revolution as the solution to the social cancer that was destroying his country, in contrast to his passionate advocacy of education and political reform. Evidently, the Spanish colonizers were Rizal's primary target audience, hence, he wrote in their language. The Indio could have been a secondary target audience, perhaps in the hope that the Ilustrados would fight for the socio-political reforms that were clearly indicated in the novels. There was no need to reproduce the social conditions of the time to the Indio who knew it only too well and constantly suffered from it.
Rizal wrote in Spanish because that was the appropriate language for his intent. He could have written it in Filipino, but he wrote about the injustices of Spanish rule. Quite fitting that he should rebuke them in their own language. That the people he discussed for a large part, would find Spanish understandable. Spanish was likely the language of the colonial elite of that period and the one used by the Peninsulares. It is useless to insult or berate someone in a language they don't understand. It means someone else will tell them "what was said" about them. Better the author tells them himself, since he was quite capable of it.
Rizal loved the Filipino language. While some of his works may be in Spanish and English, one should understand why Rizal wrote it and who is/are his target audience. Here is an excerpts from "Rizal, Father of Modern Tagalog" by Antonio B. L. Rosales (originally published in The Philippine Magazine, Dec. 1936)
Not only did Dr. Rizal nurture a sincere affection for his native tongue; he helped to lay the foundations for the development of the modern Tagalog language. Rizal was one of the most zealous of students of Tagalog, and was a member of the illustrious triumvirate (the other two members being the late Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera and the late pedagogue, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, who was at one time private tutor to former King Alfonso XIII of Spain) which initiated the modernization of the language.
Rizal's love for his native tongue was evinced from early childhood. In 1869, at the age of eight, he wrote a Tagalog comedy which so pleased the municipal captain of the town of Paete, Laguna, that he gave young Jose two pesos for it, an amount at that time equivalent to a farm laborer's pay for half a month.
That same year, he wrote the poem containing the quotation above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_aking_mg…
Rizal was not a malansang isda (stinking fish) who neglected his own language. Throughout his short life he worked to enrich Tagalog literature and to make it more accessible to ordinary people. He translated European stories into Tagalog such as Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. He wrote a short Tagalog grammar and he also attempted to write his third novel in Tagalog, known today as Makamisa, but it was left unfinished when he was executed in 1896
"Ang hindi nagmamahal sa sariling wika ay masahol pa sa malansang isda" (Who does not love his native tongue is worse than putrid fish and beast), is one of the most often quoted of Rizal's writings. Why, then, did he write his two novels, Noli me tangere and El Filibusterismo in Spanish? In his dedication of the Noli me Tangere, Rizal wrote, "I will strive to reproduce thy condition faithfully, without discriminations." Surely, the national hero of the Philippines was not somebody who said one thing and did the opposite.
Both novels portrayed the social and political conditions of the time through characters that represented a cross section of Philippine society. It can be said these two novels awoke the slumbering political passion of his countrymen so successfully that it quickened the birth of the Philippine Revolution. If this were Rizal's aim, which most decidedly was not, he would have written the novels in Tagalog. Not only would this have been understandable to most people in Luzon, it would have hidden the revolutionary intent from the Spanish. Which leads to the question of whom his target audience was, in order to answer the first question of why he wrote the Noli me tangere and the El Filibusterismo in the language of the Spanish colonizers
So much has been written about Rizal's extreme reluctance for revolution as the solution to the social cancer that was destroying his country, in contrast to his passionate advocacy of education and political reform. Evidently, the Spanish colonizers were Rizal's primary target audience, hence, he wrote in their language. The Indio could have been a secondary target audience, perhaps in the hope that the Ilustrados would fight for the socio-political reforms that were clearly indicated in the novels. There was no need to reproduce the social conditions of the time to the Indio who knew it only too well and constantly suffered from it.
Rizal wrote in Spanish because that was the appropriate language for his intent. He could have written it in Filipino, but he wrote about the injustices of Spanish rule. Quite fitting that he should rebuke them in their own language. That the people he discussed for a large part, would find Spanish understandable. Spanish was likely the language of the colonial elite of that period and the one used by the Peninsulares. It is useless to insult or berate someone in a language they don't understand. It means someone else will tell them "what was said" about them. Better the author tells them himself, since he was quite capable of it.
Rizal loved the Filipino language. While some of his works may be in Spanish and English, one should understand why Rizal wrote it and who is/are his target audience. Here is an excerpts from "Rizal, Father of Modern Tagalog" by Antonio B. L. Rosales (originally published in The Philippine Magazine, Dec. 1936)
Not only did Dr. Rizal nurture a sincere affection for his native tongue; he helped to lay the foundations for the development of the modern Tagalog language. Rizal was one of the most zealous of students of Tagalog, and was a member of the illustrious triumvirate (the other two members being the late Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera and the late pedagogue, Pedro Serrano Laktaw, who was at one time private tutor to former King Alfonso XIII of Spain) which initiated the modernization of the language.
Rizal's love for his native tongue was evinced from early childhood. In 1869, at the age of eight, he wrote a Tagalog comedy which so pleased the municipal captain of the town of Paete, Laguna, that he gave young Jose two pesos for it, an amount at that time equivalent to a farm laborer's pay for half a month.
That same year, he wrote the poem containing the quotation above: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sa_aking_mg…
Rizal was not a malansang isda (stinking fish) who neglected his own language. Throughout his short life he worked to enrich Tagalog literature and to make it more accessible to ordinary people. He translated European stories into Tagalog such as Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell and the fairy tales of Hans Christian Andersen. He wrote a short Tagalog grammar and he also attempted to write his third novel in Tagalog, known today as Makamisa, but it was left unfinished when he was executed in 1896
Source(s):
http://joserizal.info/Reflections/malans…http://ningaskugonbaga.blogspot.com/2008…
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RP-Rizal/m…
http://www.pilipino-express.com/history-…
http://ph.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20101126194709AAlp5JQ
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