Philippine Azkals: The Accents (3)
This is the 3rd installment of posts regarding the accents of the Philippine Azkals. Click for the 1st post and the 2nd post.
On my previous post, I talked about the Estuary English of Neil Etheridge, Phil Younghusband and James Younghusband, the Californian accent of Anton del Rosario, the Dutch manner of speaking by Jason de Jong, and Persian cliques of Misagh Bahadoran.
By now, let's cure more of your curiosity.
Many wonder how the recent goal-maker for the team, Fil-German midfielder Stephan Schröck, and the German coach Hans Michael Weiß (pronounced as /'vaisz/, also spelled Weiss) speak English. Well, I wondered, too, how they speak when I first heard of them. Luckily, I found a video from a TV Patrol report. (Last interview clip shows James Younghusband, the Middlesex boy.)
Anyhow, Stephan, while having a deep but sharp, gritty voice, has a thick German accent. His glottals and dipthongs are typical of a south German (He hails from Fürth, in Bavaria); /g/ and /t/ are sharp, /ai:/ and /oi:/ are fluid.
On the other hand, the Dannenfels, Rhineland-Palatinate native Weiß has a thicker accent, mainly because of his countryside origins. His alveolars are not strong, glottals and velars are prominent, and the short-E split exists typical of German amateur anglophones.
And common to these two, they don't seem to velarize /l/ and /r/. But they're comprehensible at least; we still understand what they are saying. (I'll find a video clip sometime with the non-native English speaking Azkals speaking in their "mother", er, "father" tongue.)
Let's now go to the locals.
The above video is a clip from TV Patrol Negros, so the report is in Ilonggo, also known as Hiligaynon. This was about their game vs. Mongolia at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod. Here the almost-Oxford-sounding Rob Gier commends Barotac Nuevo-native midfielder Chieffy Caligdong as the "man of the match." Then Chieffy comments in Ilonggo that he takes the game seriously.
You can tell that Chieffy has the phonology of Hiligaynon and Kiniray-a (a sub-dialect common to people outside Iloilo City in Panay). This language or dialect is very particular with stressing syllables and intonations have to be clear. The vowels /e/ and /i/ are usually interchanged in some words, and /g/ and /k/ are velar. You will be able to notice it when he tries to speak Tagalog.
Now this above video depicts forward Ian Araneta talking on his experience in Kuwait before their 1st leg match there. Ian is also from Barotac Nuevo, and he also has the phonology of Ilonggo creeping in his Tagalog. Never mind that anyway.
Now this video depicts second choice goalkeeper Paolo Pascual. He is speaking here about being in the Philippine Under-23 team and the Azkals. He hails from Cebu City; therefore, he has the accent of a Sugbuanon or Cebuano. Native Cebuanos sometimes have difficulty in conversing with Tagalog-speaking people due to strict implementations of speaking Cebuano (or Bisaya to most Filipinos) in the island province. While it is so, Paolo, like younger Cebuanos of this generation in which Tagalog is sometimes mixed into their school curricula, can sometimes lose distinctions of Cebuano. While the velars and glottal are thick like /g/, /k/ and /l/, his vowels are loosely resembling Tagalog in which /e/ and /i/ are not stressed.
Now, the wrap-up.
Skipper Aly Borromeo's accent might make a non-Filipino linguistics junkie go ask "Is he from Spain or is he from Ireland?" (citing his occasional open aired /e:/ in "best" or "name", or his velarized /k/ in "scraps".) Or non-linguists here in the Philippines might just conclude that the accents of Neil, Phil, James, Simon, and Rob are the same "sexy, nosy British" variant, or Jason Sabio's and Anton's are the same "American" tone. Or "expert anglophone" people would laugh at thick European or Middle-Eastern accents of Jason de Jong, Misagh, and Stephan. Or Tagalogs might despise the vowel switching of the Ilonggos Chieffy and Ian, and Cebuano Paolo. This is often percieved as discrimination or racism. It might make people like or dislike these people.
Nevertheless, they are Filipinos. Filipinos by choice, then Filipinos by right. They chose to play for the Philippines, no matter what their color of their skin is, what culture they are brought with, or what language they primarily speak.
It's about dedicating themselves to the nation.
It's about promoting the once-popular football that captured many Filipino hearts.
It's about making football known in this basketball-crazy nation.
They desire unity among the Filipinos all over the world.
And that is what makes them unique.
Cheers, Azkals! We believe.
KENNETH
