'Jejemon,' 'Ampatuan' among finalists for word of the year

MANILA, Philippines – The word “jejemon” has been picked as finalist for word of the year by a group of academicians from the University of Philippines (UP), according to a GMA News report yesterday.

The Filipinas Institute of Translation (FIT) announced that it has chosen 10 words that had a “strong influence” on the lives of Filipinos during the past two years.

In the list of finalists for word of the year are: “Ampatuan,” “unli,” “load,” “tarpo,” “solb,” “emo,” “namumutbol,” and “Ondoy.”

GMA News said the winning word of the year will be announced after a two-day national conference on July 29 and 30 at the Bulwagang Rizal in the UP Diliman campus.

In 2007, the word “miskol” – a localized version of the phrase “missed call” – was chosen as the word of the year.

No word of the year were chosen in 2008 and 2009 because the group believed that no word “deserved” the title, GMA News also said in its report.

The etymology of the word “jejemon” was supposed to have started from online users’ fondness to type in “hehehe” as “jejeje,” because “jeje” is derived from Spanish, whose speakers denote the interjection as laughter, or because the letters “h” and “j” are beside each other. It is appended by “-mon” which came from the popular Japanese anime Pokemon, with “-mon” meaning monster,” hence “jeje monsters.”

Meanwhile, the Education Secretary Mona Valisno yesterday said she would seek clarification from the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) whether issuing a department order discouraging students from using “jejemon” language is a violation of freedom of speech and hence, a violation of human rights.

Valisno said at the weekly radio program “Para Sa Iyo Bayan” of Vice President Noli De Castro that she would seek clarification from CHR chair Leila De Lima if they could push through with the issuance of the department memo.

She said she read a report that the CHR was against a move to bar students from using “jejemon” because it violates the students’ freedom of speech.

“I want to issue a department memo on the use of ‘jejemon’ but the CHR said that it is against freedom of speech. I want that to be clarified,” Valisno said.

She also said parents play an important role in training their children on correct spelling and sentence construction and leading by example.

 “Jejemon subverts the writing and speaking skills especially of students. Young people instead should be encouraged to read more instead of texting and playing computer games,” she said.