Origins, Reactions and Future **
The earliest recorded usage of the term \\"jologs\\" is from pop music lyrics of the late 80's to the early 90's. The late 90's saw the rise of blogging, which provided a more accessible media for storing sub-cultural linguistic formations like \\"jologs\\" that reflect emerging social phenomena. \\"Jologs,\\" as a term, has evolved and has had various usages, all of which denote tackiness or bad taste, as can be seen in several web-based dictionaries.<1><2><3> This study tackles one of the usages of Jologs--Jologs as a derogatory term for a social class in Manila: the poor urban youth.
The Good: The word originally referred to the <A title=\"Filipino hip hop\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Filipino_hip_hop\">Pinoy hip-hop, or hiffhaffers, especially those seen walking as a group in malls. Hiphop fashion includes those very loose and wide pants that were huhulog-hulog (kept falling). \"Hulog\" later was spelled \"Julog\" until it was pronounced \"ju-log\", then its final form: \"jo-log\". Many students were shaking their heads. \"That sounds too easy, too obvious.\"
The Beautiful: The etymology I'm familiar with (and that makes the most sense to me) is geographically specific. The term was coined by high school students in <A title=\"Quezon City\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Quezon_City\">Quezon City, specifically those familiar with <A title=new title=\"Quezon Avenue (page does not exist)\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/w/index.php?title=Quezon_Avenue&action=edit&redlink=1\">Quezon Avenue in the 80's. Back then, across <A title=\"National Bookstore\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/National_Bookstore\">National Bookstore, Quezon Avenue, was a disco that was rumored to be owned or co-owned by <A title=\"Edu Manzano\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Edu_Manzano\">Edu Manzano. This disco was cheap compared to the popular discos of the time that were in Makati. In fact, the place was called \"the squatter of discos\". This establishment had a pretentious name: Jaloux. The disco played really baduy disco music, and people who frequented the place were young fashion victims who were quite feeling and baduy themselves.
High school students from private schools would tease each other: \"Hey pare, I saw you at Jaloux last night.\" This was such an insult. Eventually other schools picked this up. \"Si John, pumupuntang Jaloux.\" \"Wow, John, Jaloux ka pala.\" Eventually it became an adjective too. \"Kadiri, Melanie's Jaloux.\" <…>
The Definitive: \"Sorry, sir,\" said one of my students, \"but I think you're mistaken. We discussed this in our philosophy class by accident and it seems that the \"jolog\" word's origin comes from food.\" \"What?\"
\"You don't recognize it now because the spelling's changed, but it was actually originally spelled as 'diyolog' which stands for dilis (anchovies), tuyo (dried fish) and itlog (egg)--the food of the poor. And it was used like this: 'Oh, look she eats diyolog.' Later it became 'Look, diyolog, o.' Until the 'diy' got changed to 'j', hence 'jolog. <…>'”<5>
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It may take years of research for the experts to agree on the etymology of Jologs. However, it is clear that the word is an invention of the <A title=\"Middle class\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Middle_class\">middle or <A title=\"Upper class\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Upper_class\">upper class; specifically, the middle or upper class of Manila. This knowledge of the originators of the word would be the starting point of our study of the origins of jologs—not of the word, but of the <A title=\"Social phenomenon\" href=\"http://www.filipino.net/wiki/Social_phenomenon\">social phenomenon. We know that the birthplace of the phenomenon, the concept, the word, is Manila. We also know that its growth and full maturity took place in the same city. However, there is nothing which shows us that this phenomenon is happening in other cities.
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