IN THE PAST Electoral Exercise, you’ve – in most likelihood, encountered EXPRs truly only unique in ‘these Heights’, ditoy Kabanbantayan
[THIS TERM REFERS – without prejudice nor favour, to Benguet, the surrounding provinces or locations, and cosmopolitan Baguio City – where presently mingle the native-born and the transient; the ethnic highland, lowland, and upland; and others who have chosen to be Baguioites, since early generations yet or recently; be they of regional, national, or international origin]. Our first EXPR:
TE ET!/~KAYET! =INT “Come on!”. “Come on now!”, “Go now, go!”, etc., the likes of: Te et! Tulok kan man-run (Transl: “Come on now! Be persuaded to run!”); or, Men file ka kayet! (Transl: “Go now file, even in spite/despite!”), and so forth.
YOU USUALLY HEAR this EXPR and related ones, before, nearing, or during – even much much before: Filing (of Candidacy] time. They call it, and we can call it: “Persuading/Convincing time, or period”; or, Penga addok. Our next EXPR:
SHA BY-IM, KASIYATO! /Na, bay-am man, kasiyana! =int, /equals by interpretation, “Nah, don’t fall prey to that/it; you’ll get through, you’ll see!” [or other =ints close to this].
YOU’VE HEARD THIS EXPR at the height and heat of the Campaign Period – when everybody, or not just a few, were doing eager-beaver ways of building ‘mini mini-dams’ of e.g. maneuvering, tongue-fires, name it; so that further, poor candidate, this or that, feels weakened or aghast but.. nurturing/nursing adviser or supporter showers him all through with: Sha by-im, kasiyato! Kasiyana! Our third or final EXPR:
KENSHATTO AH! /UGALI na adi! =int, “(Hush) it’s just that-a-way!”; or, “That’s the way it is!; or, “That’s that/it! none other!”; et cetera.
YOU MUST HAVE heard this said by the: advising one, the relative/s and/or supporters of the losing candidate/s. This reminds us:
IT PARALLELS IN some ways: the Middle Eastern, “it is written in the sand”; or, the Western-inspired, “maybe it is – or you/he/she is, destined to be that way”; or, even the ‘pan Cordilleran’, “waday malas, waday swerte”, doesn’t it? And, some other vital EXPRs we can’t all today discuss fully, but may at least mention or identify, to wit:
AANUSIM NEN E Abak, San agui kta ngo reshan~, Man obda kita et!, Tulongimak koma? Kenshat ni Adivay! [Free Translations respective:
“BE PATIENT with losing. “We’re still kin~ “Kindly help me now instead? “That’s the way it is with Adivay!”
TRULY UNIQUE AND special-traditional-perennial?, in ‘these Heights’, ditoy Kabanbantayan. ain’t that right, folks? Ayuhh kha! Ayuhh nete!
April 19, 2024
