Center for Language Studies

After seven years, the Summer Seminar in Linguistics (SSL) is finally back.

The UP Department of Linguistics, together with the MSU-IIT Center for Language Studies, brings back this UP Board of Regents-approved extension program as a four-day onsite seminar on language, culture and research at the Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology.

Beyond introducing key topics in linguistics, SSL 2026 also aims to help build a community of researchers interested in developing and refining research topics and proposals that can contribute new ideas and perspectives to the field.

UP Diliman's Tuting Hernandez at MSU-IIT!

Historical linguist Tuting Hernandez will dive down the rabbit hole of words and their origins for the talk, Worlds in Words: Etymologies, Ethnolinguistics and the Philippine Etyma.

This is the third talk under the annual Maridette Molina Lectures in Linguistics hosted by the MSU-IIT Center for Language Studies.

This on-site talk is free and open to the public!

Register here: https://forms.gle/n44NPYkJ94cwQkS6A

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Registration closes on April 30, 2026!

In celebration of National Literature Month, MSU-IIT's Center for Language Studies and the Department of English bring you DLSU's Marjorie Evasco and UP-Diliman's Ramon Guillermo!

BAHANDI features two talks:

𝐓𝐚𝐡à𝐧: 𝐀 𝐏𝐨𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐇𝐨𝐦𝐞 by Marjorie Evasco
𝐑𝐄𝐌: 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐬𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 by Ramon Guillermo

Join us as we experience how language is shaped into expression.

This class-led, on-site event is organized by the BAELS and BALCS sophomores taking regional literature under Profs. Onnah Pierre P. Talle, Therese P. Abonales, Ivie C. Esteban and Fatimah Joy S. Almarez.

This event is free and open to the public!

📌April 8, 2026
8:00 AM – 5:00 PM
MSU–IIT University Amphitheater (CED Building)

Calling all Mindanao language researchers!

The MSU-IIT Center for Language Studies partners with the Department of Linguistics of UP Diliman for one big training event--the Summer Seminar in Linguistics (SSL 2026)!

This four-day in-person seminar features lectures and hands-on workshops that will equip participants with the know-how to ask questions about language and to design and implement their own linguistic research.

Slots are limited.

Registration fees shall cover meals and access to all sessions.

Need an Invitation? Request your invitation packets here: https://bit.ly/ssl2026Invitation

Register here: bit.ly/ssl2026

We can't wait for this reveal!

Watch out for this four-day in-person event with the UP Department of Linguistics! Happening at MSU-IIT!

Details soon!

📌 MSU-IIT x UP-Lingg

HOW THE SHAPING HAPPENS

UP Linguistics Department's Michael S. Manahan delivers a talk on probing emotion, and how this is shaped by our labels, networks of kin terms, and cultural scripts.

He exemplified the NSM approach with explications from his own work on 'takot' or fear, ultimately inviting everyone to pay attention to how we perceive and experience emotions by how we talk about them as a people, who are not just experiencers, but shapers of our worlds.

Thank you to all our guests who travelled from Zamboanga, Marawi and Naawan to join us in this event!

📌Worded Feelings: A Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) Approach to Emotion
November 15, 2025
MSU-IIT

MSU-IIT’s Center for Language Studies Launches Partnership with UP Diliman’s Department of Linguistics

This is accomplished through a ceremonial signing for one key engagement that will serve language professionals and researchers in Mindanao.

The ceremony was followed by a collaborative meeting among the language departments (Department of English, Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan, and UP’s Department of Linguistics).

The partnership ensures that work is being done on the languages of Mindanao, as well as on everything that our languages empower.

Exciting things are happening!

Watch this page for our future events!

📌 In attendance at the signing ceremony are CASS Dean Marie Joy D. Banawa, CLS Director Honeylet E. Dumoran, DFP Chair Danilyn T. Abingosa, English Department Chair Irish Mae Fernandez-Dalona, and UP Linguistics Department’s Jay-Ar M. Igno and Michael S. Manahan. The signing was headed by MSU-IIT VCAA Pamela F. Resurreccion and UP-Lingg Chair Francisco Rosario.

Happening in two days! See you all at the COET Amphitheatre!

THE GRAMMAR OF FEELING!

We are excited to bring you this talk on words and emotion!

This talk begins with the idea that our emotions live in language and continues the researcher's exploration of takot ‘fear’ and its kin emotions in Filipino. Building on earlier reflections that
include kaba and pangamba, he shows how the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach makes visible, in these related emotion words, the differences in their meanings and how they move through the mind, body, and time. By tracing these emotional scripts, we uncover not only the meanings of words but also the grammar of feeling that underlies how Filipino speakers feel, think, and care in the world. And ultimately, this emotion research through NSM asks: how do words feel and how do we feel with words?

This is a free public event! Seats are limited!

Register here: https://forms.gle/SxkBWGzrWrr6X8kN9