What really makes Alamat stand out is their multilingualism. Aside from Filipino or Tagalog, other Philippine languages are rarely featured in the country's mainstream media. In fact, it's much more common to hear foreign languages than to hear Ilocano, Kapampangan, or any other regional language in Filipino popular music, film, or television. Aside from that, many Filipinos think that these regional languages are merely "dialects." It is part of Alamat's advocacy to debunk this misconception and thus, they incorporate several Philippine languages in their songs. Moreover, they create Philippine language comparison videos, the first of which also features a professor's explanation regarding the difference between languages and dialects.
Dialects are simply regional variations of a language which does not hinder comprehensibility (e.g. A Tagalog speaker from Manila can still understand a Tagalog speaker from Batangas despite a few differences in accent, grammar, word choice, and so on). On the other hand, two people are considered to be speaking different languages if they are not able to understand one another (e.g. Ilocano is a different language from Tagalog because a person who only speaks Tagalog cannot understand Ilocano).
Until now, Alamat continues to promote Philippine languages through their music, personal introduction, and other content.
Check out Alamat's multilingual songs here:
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