MANILA, Philippines — Faculty members and students of De La Salle University (DLSU) have developed a mobile app and a website that features the first Hanunoo Mangyan e-dictionary.
The e-dictionary, a product of the research titled “Language Preservation and Documentation of Hanunoo: Saving the Mangyan Culture”, aims to “promote and preserve the language and to add impetus to future collaborative work with the speech community,” DLSU said in a statement on Tuesday.
The research was made by faculty members of DLSU’s Department of English and Applied Linguistics, College of Computer Studies, and Behavioral Sciences Department while the e-dictionary was developed by the College of Computer Studies students Beatris Mariell Choo, Robee Khyra Mae Te, and Jan Kristoffer Cheng.
It was the Department of Science and Technology-National Research Council of the Philippines which funded the research.
Hanunoo is one of the eight ethnolinguistic groups comprising the Mangyans of Mindoro island. The other ethnic groups are Iraya, Alangan, Tadyawan, Tau-buid, Bangon, Buhid, and Ratagnon.
DLSU faculty members Dr. Rochelle Irene Lucas (project leader), Dr. Joel Ilao, Dr. Melvin Jabar, and Dr. Ethel Ong selected Hanunoo for the research and e-dictionary project.
According to the multi-disciplinary team, they are eyeing to develop similar dictionaries for the other Mangyan languages in the future.
DLSU said its research initiative was a response to the call of former Education Secretary Bro. Armin Luistro, FSC, for higher education institutions to adopt one indigenous Philippine language for preservation and revitalization.