Jolog Speak: The Future of Philippine Language and Literature?

“Jolog” is transliterated (literal translations), modified code-switching (mixing Tagalog with English or English with Tagalog); that includes Pinoy slang, carabao English, gay language, and as its growing literature shows technology savvy, global and popular (mass media) jargon are part of its speak. Whether some people like Jolog or not, it is a good big part of the country’s educational system that involves the education/development of mostly the youth.

Paolo Manalo, gave an academic (definitive) meaning of the word through his essay entitled, “Being the True, the Good, the Beautiful and Definitive Meaning of Jologs”. Manalo clarifies that; (1) the true jolog, came from Jolina (Magdangal). A Jolina fan calls her, “Jol” for Jolina and “og”, a suffix for follower; (2) the good jolog came from “hulog”, the hiphop fashion consisting of very loose and wide pants that kept on falling “huhulog-hulog”. “Hulog” later was spelled “jolog”; (3) the beautiful jolog’s origin is “Jaloux”, a low class disco that played baduy music and patronized by young fashion victims. A standing joke became, “Nag-jaloux ka, ano.” Thus, Jaloux became a byword which after some permutations became jolog; but (4) the meaning acceptable to most is that Diyolog stands for dilis, tuyo and itlog, the food of the masses. Eventually, it was shortened to d’yolog, which later, became jolog. Jolography, Manalo (2002) elucidates that it is a collection of poems that originally,
begins with H-holography method of producing three dimensional
images of objects by recording on a photographic plate or film the
pattern of interference formed by a split-laser beam and then illuminating
the pattern either with a laser or with ordinary light.

In his Jolog way, he clarifies,
Sa madaling salita, pag-iilusyon . . . along the way, the “H” became a “J”
because to some Filipino ears, the two sounds alike - nagkakaringgan. To
some Filipino eyes, they look alike – namamalikmata. The result, being
the search for Jolina Magdangal references and allusions when there is none.

“O, how dead you child are” (patay kang bata ka) is how Manalo opens Jolography, a collection of Engalog (English-Tagalog) poems. Rich in transliterations and carabao English, Kris Lanot Lacaba clarified its contents,
we are introduced to a voice emulating that of the Jologs. It is the voice of the underdogs we are presented [with]. It is the representation of a voice like that of Yoyoy, of Dolphy, of Aegis, of April Boy Regino. It is the voice like that of Sexbomb Girls: Get get awww!

Manalo pointed out that, Michael V in his songs and Jimmy Santos of Eat Bulaga are artists who take Tagalog expressions and turn them into their English counterpart. An inspection of the book’s 90 pages, one won’t miss the opening quote, by Melanie Marquez, “and I want to thank God for my long legged.” Among the 20 poems in his book are Jolography, Mrs. Tsismis, Nihil Obstat, a take on Roman Catholic approved literature; Still Life With a Fallen Angel, based on a creepy UFO poster; Echolalia, Peksman, Boy Wonder (based on text taken from an online review of Niño Muhlach’s The Boy God., The Hollow, etc.; B-Sides, a combination poem-prose; Bonus Track, the essay on , “Being the True, the Good, the Beautiful and Definitive Meaning of Jologs”; end Notes of the poems; the comic(s) cartoon of Atomo and Weboy, additional quotes and half a page, ‘About the Author’. His Jolography (2002), won first prize in English poetry of the 2002 Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards and 2004 UP Gawad Chanselor Para sa Natatanging Likha ng Sining.

Manalo’s poetry played the three rules of (1) acquisition, (2) transliteration, and (3) juxtaposition in the writing of Jolography. Written for Gemino H. Abad, Peksman is colloquial for promises and honesty. The complete phrase being, “Peksman, mamatay man ako” which is like saying, “Cross my heart and hope to die.” Easy and entertaining at first,

This is a phone call out of season,
(Hilaw?) This is
an angel out of
breath. (Hilo?) This is a watermelon
Out of order. Hello,
He reveals the poem’s/poet’s depth,
The truth is what was taken
Was maybe got, as in the heavy
Pare heavy, mostly labo.

His end Notes reveal that each poem is a well-researched piece and takes from global sources – German folk poems, Spanish literature, Catholic religion, and the Internet; Philippine history and literature; and personal lived-in experiences with popular culture. A reference to the head of the Iglesia ni Cristo patriarch’s support at the Acknowledgments makes one sense a family relationship/connection exists.

Kris Lanot Lacaba in her 8 rants, entitled, “this is not jologspeak” describes
Jologspeak as ”the creation of sense and nonsense” comparing Yoyoy Villame’s feel to write his song, “Butse Kik“ to Paolo Manalo ‘s unleashing the Yoyoy in himself by writing “Jolography”, that is writing in the manner that the academics taught him not to. Yoyoy sang with all his heart when he was told not to sing. Lacaba lists that what people are trained to look for in poetry are imagery, metaphors and objective correlatives. However, in Manalo’s Jolography, one should watch for “movement, metonymies and subjective phonetics”.

The quintessential jolog, Paolo Manalo is an avid Friendster whose blogs includes: “Aethsethics”, a list of what he likes: baduy music of Aegis, Sexbomb Girls, Yoyoy Villame, April Boy Regino, Dongalo Wrecords; and discussing works by Christopher Smart, Marianne Moore, Paul Verlaine, Paul Neruda, Arthur Yap and Yoyoy Villame without anybody questioning his selections; and not making distinction whether his writings are Philippine Literature in English or Pilipino Literature. In his Brokeninglish blog, Manalo looks at the language problem as complications brought by the invasions of Japanese anime and Spanish tv drama dubbed in inaccurate Tagalogs using a lot of English words causing Filipino language to “rupture, collide and shift”. In another blog entitled, Jolographiti, he wrote, “You chalk it on the wall, you make taga it in the stone” referring to Andres Bonifacio’s search of the legendary Mount Tapusi that traps Bernardo Carpio, hoping to free the hero that will free the country from the Spanish colonizers.

Elmer A. Ordonez, responding to jolog speak in “The Other View: Jolography”, labeled himself as “gurang” next to his by-line, discovered the meaning of jolog with humor as, “one who knows the names of the Sexbomb Dancers.” He praised Jolography, as the book that should be in the bookshelf of everyone interested in poetry and popular culture adding, that its author “has plumbed the depths of language used in the streets and has produced lines that do need end notes like James Joyce and T.S. Eliot.“ Like a number of his “forget” generations, Ordonez agrees that Jolog speak is fun.

F. Sionil Jose, National Artist in Literature, after a television appearance with Manalo and the Sexbomb Dancers wrote a personal note to Paolo saying, “these academics, they have made literature so boring, so asinine.” and encouraged him “to have more manifestoes and controversies (about academic poetry and jolog)”.

The play, R’mew Luvs Dew-lhiet, a jolog version of the Shakesperean renaissance romantic tragedy, Romeo and Juliet, shown at the Tanghalang Pilipino, Aurelio V. Tolentino of the Culture Center of the Philippines drove jolog watchers. Jorge wrote that, “Shakespeare does jologs” in the play. This same play was also shown in the University of the East Theatre in November 2006 and if Paolo Manalo knew this, he might have been there too. Using the jolog poetry concept of the play, based on rap to create a hip-hop feel of the verses, Manalo wrote:

R’mew Luvs Dew-lhiet Bakit Wala Na?

Si Dew-lhiett (Cats Racsag), Sexbomb Girl and emote,
Ang range ng emotions magandang i-take note.
Si R’meo (Noel Escondo) pang-Danz Focus
Maypang-magickaway, nangho-Hocus Pocus.
Yes talagang mahal ko and run nitong play.

Kung DVD, sira na sa karere-play,
Nine shows ang winatch I wanna see it again
Para maperfect, kailangan yata take ten!

But the tenth I cannot take, kasi nga tapos—
The End na ang run. Kung puwede sanang ma-pause
I will pause it. Kung pwedeng balik-balikan
I’ll rewind it para wala nang uwian.

Laugh-trip na sana language game never-ending
Move on na daw, everyone should letting going.
Pero IMHO, sa plays there’s no other.
Now wala na [‘to], I can never be sadder.”


The Manila Times Net comments that, “the translations of the play, R’mew Luvs Dew-lhiet are delivered emphatically and go straight to the heart of the Filipino [with its] unrelenting use of Jolog language even in the most tragic and romantic scenes.” Manalo describes the plays dialogue as salpukan ng “Shakespeare at jolog”. Local jologs competing/complementing Shakespeare are the play’s directors, J. Willliam Herbert Sigmund Go and John Victor Villareal. They showed Benvolio dying and languishing, “Ubos na yata load ko dito sa earth,/Low batt na, sa heaven sana ma-divert”; Romeo and Juliet on separate soliloquy sighing, ”ang love kong na-feel ay medyo deep yata”; Juliet lamenting, “Mabibiyuda ‘yata akong virgin”; and together while arguing whether it’s the magtataho sa umaga or the magbabalot sa gabi in the Nightingale and Lark Scene, while voice overs of “Tahooo!” and “Balooot!” are heard one after the other. “Shakespeare’s jolog version” eventually became a model to succeeding plays, for example the UE Drama Theatre’s Esperekengkeng, Esperekangkang, and CCP’s Magno Rubio.

Niño Gonzales writing about, “The Jolog Phenomenon” describes “Jologs”, as a derogatory term for poor urban youth and as a phenomenon unique to Manila; and noted that most authors who write in jolog are Manilenyos and middle class whose writings reveal admiration for the old rich (the conyos) and the lower class (the jologs).

Copong-copong, an on-line dictionary of Pinoy slang gives the meaning of “jolog” as an adjective, “gaudy, unelegant, without refinement in taste [as in] pang-jologs na damit, pang-jologs na abubot (typical jologs get-ups, gaudy accessories).“ It asked, “Siya, when did “siya” became an acceptable pronoun for inanimate objects? What happened to ito and iyon? It listed other contemporary pinoy slang: kulata, tiburcio, autistic, balbonil, gisa, smarts, egoy, bardagol, and XML. Gay language includes: ux, hubag, sheddad, kalechehan, Atenista, tarantations, artistahin, boy ogs, otiks, squid, backlagers, spakels, forgets, aning-aning, uy ay, lollipop, sadili, sinakulo ng Insek, eklavoom, none, wala lang. and limbo.

In Star Cinema’s movie, Jologs, people don’t care for what other people say. Gilbert Perez, its director expounded, “If a person falls for Joey Marquez but siya is sosyal, paninindigan niya ‘yong sarili niya, jologs siya, totohanang tao.” Thus, a person can be “sosyal” (classy, rich, celebrity or all at the same time) and still be a jolog. It’s not an either or (pro)position.

The television program Jologs Guide (March 20, ’06) describes the language as “a common verbal communication among fishwives at your favorite wet market”. The TV however tried to focus on the positive side of the jologs as “true to one’s self and having a good attitude despite the lack of material wealth, which generally refers to all Pinoys.”

One who identifies as, Ang Tanging Jolog blogs, with more than 70 % who live below the poverty line, it’s my way of reminding me that until 100 % of us get what we deserve from our government and from life, I cannot, will not, ever break away from my image of being ‘proudly pinoy, proudly jologs.

Another blogger, APL in, Revenge of the ‘jologs’ , label as jologs the base social existence of the 75 % Filipinos, who are, “native cheap . . . contented with self-created substitutes for things that our economic condition would otherwise not allow us to enjoy”. What scares APL is the thought that history would repeat itself in an incident like EDSA 3 fueled by existing class inequality.

Using the West model when Latin and Greek perished and English flourished as analogy, Professor Gerald Burns (1992), a former visiting American Fullbright scholar/ professor in the Philippines, made a brave prediction on local language survival in favor of the Filipino language versus English. He mentioned Isagani R. Cruz as supporter of this view of, “a much larger group moving within the sphere of an indigenous or vernacular popular culture.”