Swardspeak as a Communication Medium Among University Students: Empirical Evidence from the Philippines

Abstract

This descriptive study identified the profile, common swardspeak and frequency of its use, and the situations of usage among the Bachelor of Secondary Education students in a higher education institution in the Philippines during the academic year 2020-2021. Thirty (30) randomly selected respondents supplied the data through a survey questionnaire, which was analyzed using frequency count and percentage. Results showed that most of the students who use swardspeak are female within the age range of 19-22 years old. The most common swardspeak used are afam, akeno/aketch/akis, awra, baboosh, beks/vaklangtow, bonak/junakis, bongga, borlog, chaka/shonget, char/charot/chos, cheka/chika, chosera/chusera, churva, daks, dites/ditey, eclavu, eme/keme, ganern, gora/gorabels, gurl, Hagardo Versoza, hanash, imas, juntis/juntils, juts, kabog, kalerki/nakakalurky, keribels/keriboomboom/keri lang, kiber, knowangji, krayola, lafang, Lotlot/Lotlot De Leon, mamsh/momshee/mudra/mudrakels, murayta, pagoda, pakak, payola, pudra, shala, sinetch/sinetchitey, sizt, shokot, shonga/shunga, shupatid, spyokang, Tom Jones, waley/wis/wit/wiz, warla, and Winwin Marquez. Most of these swardspeak words are sometimes used in public places with friends, and in instances or situations where they have to go with or join a group. These cross-sectional findings can affect further studies as this swardspeak can be enhanced as this generation goes out and come up with sets of new words.