About Mother Tongue Publishing Inc.
September 19, 2006
Mother Tongue Publishing Inc. (MTPI) is a new publishing company based in Manila, Philippines. It was founded in 2006 by Mario and Beaulah Taguiwalo. Their purpose is to publish books in as many languages and dialects as possible – especially the rarely published languages that children in different parts of the world first hear and speak soon after they are born.
The inspiration for MTPI are the words of science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin: “Literature takes shape and life in the body, in the wombs of the mother tongue.” As neuro-scientist Elkhonon Goldberg puts it, mother tongues are an “an extremely adaptive and powerful device for modeling not only what is, but also what will be, what could be, and what we want and do not want to be.”
The founders want to help realize these great expectations by making more published materials available, not only to Filipino children in their mother tongue but to children all over the world so that they may learn reading and writing in the first language that they hear, speak, and are immersed in from birth.
As for their native country, the Philippines, MTPI’s founders have a special mission. They point out that while they themselves communicate to others in English, they were born and raised like most Filipinos in homes and communities where more than 170 distinct living languages are spoken, including the most widely spoken regional languages. They believe that these Philippine mother tongues are the key instruments of each Filipino child for first knowing, understanding, and learning about the world.
By making more books available in as many Philippine languages as possible, the founders hope that more Filipinos will become even more literate in their mother tongue, more adept at mastering other languages and cultures, and better equipped to engage with an increasingly globalized world.
Mother Tongue’s very first children’s books
Email Mother Tongue : mothertonguepublishinginc@gmail.com
Call or text Mother Tongue : Cellphone No. 0917-787-4956 in Manila
Mother Tongue at ABS-CBN Interactive
Filed in Blogroll, beaulah, beaulah pedregosa taguiwalo, beaulah taguiwalo, children's book translations, children's books, cultures, dialects, languages, mario taguiwalo, mother tongue, mother tongue books, multicultural books, translations, translations of children's stories
October 31, 2009 at 5:15 am
Dear Douglas Fee, yes, we have received a few requests from English speakers on using children’s books for learning Hiligaynon (the language spoken by the Ilonggos). Our advice is to find and buy children’s books in Hiligaynon (very few, I think), English-Hiligaynon dictionaries (there are some online), engage in conversations or correspond by e-mail with Hiligaynon speakers. There’s also a website where you can find some antique illustrated children’s books that are originally in English but are translated to Hiligaynon. It’s the Rosetta Project: Children’s Books Online. When you get to the translations, scroll down and at the botttom right you will see books translated to Hiligaynon <> I hope that helps. Best wishes, Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo – Illustrator, Book Designer, Publisher: Ang Bukid Nga Nagpalangga Sang Bukid (English version of The Mountain That Loved A Bird).