Note 1 — INTRODUCTION

Somewhere between one-quarter and one-third of the population of the Philippines speaks Cebuano natively.1 But despite its numerical importance and wide use Cebuano lags far behind Tagalog (Pilipino) in prestige and development as a means of literary and scientific expression. In the schools the emphasis is almost entirely English: Cebuano composition is not a school subject, and students read nothing in Cebuano after the first two grades. In prestige Cebuano is losing ground: for the upper and middle class elite, with isolated praiseworthy exceptions, eloquence in Cebuano is not admired. In fact it is almost a matter of pride not to know Cebuano well. Thus, despite a phenomenal increase in literacy and in the total number of potential contributors and participants in Cebuano literature, output has declined in quantity and quality at an ever increasing rate over the past two generations. The cultivation and development of Cebuano is left to the least influential segments of the population, to whom English education and exposure to English publications are minimally available. These people still compose the vast majority of the population, but the influential classes that have grown up knowing only a dilute and inarticulate Cebuano are ever increasing in number, proportion, and prestige.