Lost in Translation: The case of "Inday" being maid in Imperial Manila's Tagalog, young girl in Cebuano | Luzvimindan Project

Introduction


Recently the Facebook page called Bisayaball [1] has been showing signs of "anti-Tagalog" sentiments. One of its post [2] centered on the Tagalogs use of the word inday [3]. In this article we will try to clear things up, looking at its origins, and context.

Imperial Manila's Mainstream Media's: Adding Oil to the Fire

Photo: Bisayaball

One of the reasons why Bisayaball hates Tagalog is because some Tagalog speaking groups specifically in Imperial Manila use the Cebuano (Bisaya) word for inday, the word for young girl as a synonym for maid. While the mainstream media can be blamed for this due to Imperial Manila's Tagalog Telenovelas often utilize this stereotype[4]  personally I think it is a case of lost in translation. Then again, I think ABS-CBN should correct itself for writing an article that contains derogatory implications in it's title "Inday is not always a maid" [5] since it's adding oil to the fire. 

Simply due to the fact that Imperial Manila is a Melting Pot

Back with "Inday", in Cebuano or incorrectly Bisaya, the term inday means young woman, while in Tagalog, inday is somewhat synonymous to maid. This infuriates some Cebuano speaking individuals, and to some extent other groups of rural origin since it promotes the stereotype that women from rural areas are simply maids in Imperial Manila. Note that I kept using Imperial Manila since not all Tagalog speaking regions use inday as a synonym for maid. Inday is mostly use in Metro Manila. A possible origin of this is because Metro Manila is the melting pot of the Philippines[6] Someone may have heard a  Cebuano speaking individual referring to a young woman as inday, and tried to imitate it. The same can be said with the Ilocano word manong which is used similarly as the Tagalog word  kuya,  the word manong in Tagalog can mean old man. 

Misinterpretations, and another perspective

Another perspective is the context. The proper term in Tagalog for maid is kasambahay or katulong or to some extent yaya. Almost no one refers to maids as Inday in third person. Almost no Tagalog speaking individual would say something like this "Kailangan ko ng Inday" or "Wanted: Inday" because it is either "Kailangan ko ng katulong" or "Wanted: Kasambahay" or something like that. In Imperial Manila's Tagalog however, inday is used in second person as a way to refer to maids, or is it? Take the statement "Inday ipagtimpla mo nga ako ng kape." This is where the confusion begins. In plain sight it would look as if inday is a synonym for maid, right? However, if you look at its context, it is used similarly like the Tagalog word ate. The Tagalog word ate is used to refer to a woman who is older than the speaker, and is traditionally used as an honorific to older women (older sister or cousin) who are blood relatives with the speaker, as it comes from the Hokkien Chinese word 阿姊 (a-chi / a-ci) [7] which literally means older sister. Though in modern use, ate is generally used as an honorific to refer any woman who is older than the speaker e.g. Ate Ponciana, or to refer to any unfamiliar woman regardless of age, similarly with the English word miss. This is probably why the Tagalog word ate wasn't used to refer to maids since it is traditionally used only among family members. Since Manila is the capital of the Philippines, it became a melting pot of ethnic groups, Cebuano speakers probably used the word inday to their peers, and Manileños adopted it to refer to their kasambahay to add some sort of intimacy.

Closing remarks

Of course, there are lots of issues to address between Tagalog and Cebuano. This article is simply looking at the tip of the iceberg of the deeply rooted ethnic divide among our country which cannot be fixed by addressing a tiny detail of the problem as it is way too broad to fix in one go. However, the main lesson we can hopefully learn is that we should try to put things into perspective before anything to resolve our problems.

References:

[1]] Bisayaball's Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bisayaball/

[2] Bisayaball's dislike for Tagalog's use of the word "inday": https://www.facebook.com/bisayaball/photos/a.635180156537831.1073741828.621527161236464/1252385744817266/?type=3&theater

[3]Translation of the Cebuano term inday: http://www.binisaya.com/cebuano/inday
[4]Inday as a stereotype discussed: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/opinion/content/363958/maids-of-honor/story

[5]ABS-CBN's "Inday is not always a maid." article:
http://news.abs-cbn.com/views-and-analysis/06/16/08/inday-not-always-maid-leonor-magtolis-briones

[6]Metro Manila being the Melting Pot of the Philippines: https://welcomeasia.jp/city-top/city-manila

[7] Filipino loan words from Chinese: http://tagaloglang.com/filipino-family-terms-from-chinese/