Exploring the Filipino Psyche Entry 30: “The Letter ‘s’ ”

 

It’s been a while since I wrote an entry in this blog. I used to classify the topics as days since at first I thought I would be able to regularly put something in and share this with all of you. However, things gained speed and directions changed for now. Anyway, never mind about that. Let us go to the next observation, which suddenly entered my thoughts the other day and the wonder never left me—the letter ‘s’.

I was going through TV channels when the ‘s’ dawned on me because Max Alvarado was mentioned somewhere. Where? I cannot recall at the moment, but his name popped up. Then I remembered scenes from Filipino movies and a usual line for a villain if the leading lady was a hostage, or if the leading lady talked to the leading man and the best friend would ask this question: “Pare, chicks mo?”  I was alone when I remembered this line, then I wondered… “Ba’t kaya may ‘s’ (I wonder why there’s an ‘s’)?” The ‘s’ is used not to pluralize a word, but it just happens to stick around. I made a rundown in my head and realized I never really researched on why it was there. But to come across this letter from time to time in different words is a fascination. Another word is fans. A line of a person who admires or idolizes a celebrity: “Fans mo ako.”  Fans pertains to  one person, and the definition is the same as its singular form. Then there is sports. “Okay lang. Sports lang dapat.”  Sports in this sentence means being a good sport. Then in jeepney signs: “Thanks God!” Okay, maybe they just forgot the comma. Then there is colds: “May colds ako ngayon  (I have a cold today).”  Cold is an acronym, which is chronic obstructive lung disease. But it does not matter, we understand what it means when someone says colds, there’s just an ‘s’ in the end.  And one other word  is cokes. "Pabili nga ng cokes," one would say when buying in a sari-sari store to buy a Coke.

 Then I wondered again, when we do not  need an ‘s’ we add it on the word, but when we need it, we remove it. For example, I went to a children’s party the other day and the lovely host said to the child who won the game, “Congratulation!” ‘Uy, nawala yung ‘s,’’ I thought to myself.  In the older days there was also the word betamak. "Nuod tayong betamak mamaya!" with excitement a friend would suggest.

It is pretty interesting, why we put an ‘s’ where it is not needed. Then remove it when it is necessary. I do wonder how this began and when it started, though. I have done my interviews and research on the wandering apostrophe, where this little mark all of a sudden pops up in signs such as ‘Thanks’ for coming…” or “For Costumers’ Only”  (spelling is another cute amusement). What I have discovered is the reason behind this is that those who made these signs have seen this little mark in different places. Therefore, they thought that when there is an ‘s’, the apostrophe should be there, too. Now about the ‘s’  in words we use…  Hmmm…with that one, well, ‘di ko pa gets. Pero oks lang. :-)