An Autoethnography of the Language Experiences of an Internal Migrant in the Philippines

This article examines my language experiences as an internal migrant from Cotabato to Metro Manila through analytic autoethnography. I treat my migration not only as a movement across geographic space, but also as an encounter with unequal linguistic regimes within the Philippine nation-state. Drawing on memory and reflexive writing, I analyze how my linguistic repertoire, Cebuano and a dialect of Tagalog spoken in Cotabato, was reorganized in relation to Manila-based Tagalog and English. I focus on moments when my accent, lexical choices, and speech patterns became marked in interaction. I argue that internal migration produces forms of linguistic vulnerability that cannot be reduced to communicative competence. Rather, vulnerability emerges from the unequal valuation of linguistic resources within national hierarchies. At the same time, my continued use of Cebuano and a dialect of Tagalog in familial and intimate domains demonstrates that adaptation does not entail full assimilation. Instead, migrant language practice involves the ongoing negotiation of accommodation, continuity, and belonging. This article contributes to migration linguistics by foregrounding internal migration as a site of linguistic inequality, ideological struggle, and identity work.