# Gumigewang



## Inglip

Siyam ang magtityaga sa mga gumigewang na salumpuwit.

I came across that sentence. It is describing a scene in a school. This is my attempt:

9 (students) will preserve  the X chairs.

I couldn't find meaning for 'gumigewang'

What does the sentence translate to?


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## DotterKat

You have a very interesting text._

Siyam ang magtitiyaga sa mga gumigewang na salumpwit._ *Nine *(of them) *will have to make do / will have to settle for (lopsided/crooked/askew/twisted/buckled/slanted, etc.) chairs.  *----- meaning that there are not enough proper chairs to go around so nine people will unfortunately have to sit on lopsided chairs.

What makes this interesting, besides the use of the archaic salumpwit (instead of the more common _silya_) is of course the word *gumigewang*, which in my opinion can be considered a form of onomatopoeia in as much as it imitates the sound of the action, or situation, it aims to describe. It will require some in-depth familiarity with Tagalog culture and speech, but gumigewang somewhat describes the way a lopsided, askew or buckled piece of machinery (let's say a car) would sound and even look when it goes down the street. Just as cats and birds are perceived and described to meow and chirp in different ways according to the country describing it, the "sound effects" of a squeaky chair, the "kerplunk" of a falling object, the "whizzing" by of a bee are perceived and described differently. Gumigewang, at least to me, describes in a somewhat visual and aural way the manner in which lopsided chairs would squeak, be off-balance, twist and turn when somebody sits on it. Note, however, that gumigewang can also be used to describe people as well as objects, let's say the unsteady way that drunk people walk --- _Gumigewang-gewang ang mga lasing sa kalye. (The drunks are zig-zagging their way across the street.)_


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## Cake.

_Gumigewang_ literally translated is "swaying" although like DotterKat said, it is almost always used to connote crookedness and unsteadiness. It's not an onomatopoeia though and does not apply to how an object sounds, just how it looks.

I'm curious as to how you came to that DotterKat. Have you seen it in a Filipino comic strip perhaps?


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## mataripis

Inglip said:


> Siyam ang magtityaga sa mga gumigewang na salumpuwit.
> 
> I came across that sentence. It is describing a scene in a school. This is my attempt:
> 
> 9 (students) will preserve  the X chairs.
> 
> I couldn't find meaning for 'gumigewang'
> 
> What does the sentence translate to?


  The sentence means,  even the chair is swaying or not properly fixed, the 9 students managed to sit/use the chair.  Matiyaga= endure/patience  , Gumegewang, from root word "gewang" or not properly fixed or done.


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## DotterKat

Cake. said:


> _Gumigewang_ literally translated is "swaying" although like DotterKat said, it is almost always used to connote crookedness and unsteadiness. It's not an onomatopoeia though and does not apply to how an object sounds, just how it looks.
> I'm curious as to how you came to that DotterKat. Have you seen it in a Filipino comic strip perhaps?



Not from a comic strip for sure, but I cannot recall where exactly I first encountered _gumigewang_ as it must have been at least several years ago. Also, as indicated in my post, my take on it as a form of onomatopoeia is purely subjective. There is just something about the word that suggests, at least to me,  the sound of an off-kilter object moving --- swaying or twisting this way and that, particularly in the context of the Tagalog sentence provided. Although, when applied to people as in the example I provided, I don't get that same aural sense, that is I simply picture unsteady people without the "sound effects". Purely subjective, as I said.

Addendum: I just recalled that another way to say _gumigewang na silya _might be _a *rickety chair*_, though it still does not quite capture exactly the same idea as the Tagalog text.


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## Cake.

I see. xD

Anyway, back to topic. Yeah, I stand by DotterKat's translation of "Nine will have to make do with rickety chairs."


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