Bayanihan • (buy-uh-nee-hun) • noun Definition: literal translation “being in a community,” the act of helping and sustaining your community Origin: Tagalog, Philippines Linguistically Leaving Europe From the beginning of The Word, our weekly words have been primarily of European origin with Latin, Greek, French, German, and Spanish roots, but this in no way implies that The Word or The Sustainable Culture Lab has a Eurocentric approach to language and philosophy. Our linguistic strategy consists of initially connecting with people via the languages they are most familiar with and then broadening those horizons by introducing unfamiliar words within familiar languages. By expanding this linguistic comfort, we believe that people will be more receptive to unfamiliar words from unfamiliar languages too. Since America is a westernized nation dominated by European languages, we believe that starting with European words before branching out to African, Asian, and Indigenous words makes sense. I say all of this because I am really excited to share our first non-European word: bayanihan.
A Word for Sustaining Your Community
A Word for Sustaining Your Community
A Word for Sustaining Your Community
Bayanihan • (buy-uh-nee-hun) • noun Definition: literal translation “being in a community,” the act of helping and sustaining your community Origin: Tagalog, Philippines Linguistically Leaving Europe From the beginning of The Word, our weekly words have been primarily of European origin with Latin, Greek, French, German, and Spanish roots, but this in no way implies that The Word or The Sustainable Culture Lab has a Eurocentric approach to language and philosophy. Our linguistic strategy consists of initially connecting with people via the languages they are most familiar with and then broadening those horizons by introducing unfamiliar words within familiar languages. By expanding this linguistic comfort, we believe that people will be more receptive to unfamiliar words from unfamiliar languages too. Since America is a westernized nation dominated by European languages, we believe that starting with European words before branching out to African, Asian, and Indigenous words makes sense. I say all of this because I am really excited to share our first non-European word: bayanihan.