LANGUAGE USE AND ATTITUDE OF TALAANDIG AND HIGAONON NETIZENS TOWARDS BINUKID LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE

Abstract

This study analyzed the use of a Philippine indigenous language called Binukid on social media among the Talaandig and Higaonon Indigenous cultural communities in Bukidnon Mindanao, Philippines. It also investigated their attitude toward maintaining the Binukid language through social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok. Drawing from qualitative and quantitative data, the study found that the Binukid language was used across various forms shared and cross-posted on different social media platforms, gaining greater use, visibility, and significance. Thus, social media platforms sparked more significant opportunities for Binukid language maintenance. Additionally, it offered the Binukid language an avenue to be used in different types of text genres, which are unavailable in traditional communication. The study also found that social media has made the Binukid language more trend adaptive as it was used in different creative forms and modern communication styles. The Talaandig and Higaonon netizens valorized their heritage language via digital technologies, raising its social prestige online. Moreover, the efforts of the Talaandig and Higaonon netizens to post Binukid content were found to emanate from their language attitude. They portrayed a very high level of positive attitude towards preserving their ethnic language, thereby contributing to the maintenance of the Binukid language.