‘Kalandrakas’, still: What’s with the hyphen ‘Kagay-an’?
We are psyching up for Fiesta mood. All is set. Promote CDO Foundation, Inc. have decided — and recently launched, the Fiesta Festival to be called ‘Kagay-an’ (along with other activities for a week-long fun. Fine, not much to argue. But not until one takes a closer look and notice what’s a hyphen (-) doing in ‘Kagay-an’? There is unease.
After we posted our take on ‘Kalandrakas’, the lurking erudites — them that possesses profound knowledge — surfaced and enlightened us on this one. We share them to you. Be very concious now because, from the looks of it, we’re in ‘kalandrakas’, still.
From our Inbox:
Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007
Subject: Still on the hyphen in “Kagayan”
From: “Elson T. Elizaga”
To: heritage1@googlegroups.com
Here’s a post I sent recently to our HCA egroup:
I’m glad Promote CDO Foundation has changed “Kalandrakas Festival” into “Kagay-an
Festival”. But I’m still wondering about the hy-phen in there. 
Yesterday, I consulted
some writers about the use of hyphens in writing, graphic design and advertising, and
this is what Doddie Pacion Householder wrote back, after reading my article in
http://cagayan.elizaga.net/appendix.html:
“You presented a major point, Elson. I do agree with the ban on hyphens in general except in cases like the Spider-Man title. But in any case, it is just poor English or just plain stoopid to hyphenate a word in a title or tag line. If I was handling the Cagayan de Oro fiesta, I would probably suggest to the folks who to want to break up the word “kagayan” into “kagay an” to put a flower or asterisk in the middle of the space (kagay*an). Then it becomes a motif to work around it for designs and such. But not with a blasted hyphen. It is just plain wrong.”
Doddie is a succesful public relations writer. She lives in South Korea.
Another Cebuano writer and poet who works in Dubai gave comment, but I’m still waiting for his permission to share his message.
And, by the way, Gold Star Daily published “Kagay-an: Cagayan de Oro’s Fiesta Festival”
(June 23-24, 2007). It quotes VERBATIM my report of Dr. Lawrence’s Reid’s explanation of the etymology without indicating the writer. Absent, too, are quotation marks. Anyone knows how this happened? Can’t Promote CDO also promote local writers and researchers?
July 7th, 2007 at 7:01 am
Kagay-an is from our own native tongue. It is not an English term or word. So placing a hyphen is anybody’s privilege. The hyphen here was placed, I believe, by the author to emphasize where the accent should be. Its how the old folks pronounce it and it also distinguishes us from those in the Cagayan Valley province.
With the advent of the computer, the English language is changing and new terms are created and accepted. Semantics is now a game. Texting is even making it worse.