Language of the Philippines

Prepared by:

Mrs. Cristina D. Adoyo

Contents 1 National and official languages 2 Indigenous languages

2.1 Mutual intelligibility 2.1.1 Dialectal variation 2.1.2 Philippine-language comparison chart

2.2 List of speakers per language 3 Major foreign languages

3.1 Chinese/Lan-nang 3.2 English 3.3 Arabic 3.4 Japanese 3.5 Malay / Indonesian 3.6 Spanish

3.6.1 Spanish creoles 3.7 South Asian languages

LanguageSystem of conventional spoken or written symbols

used by the people in a shared culture to

communicate with each other.

Classifications of Language

Malayo – Polynesian languages

Chabacanois ( a Creole)Official Auxiliary Languages

National and OfficialLanguage

Spanish It was the national and official language of the

country for more than three centuries under Spanish colonial rule.

Become the Lingua Franca of the Philippines in the 19th and 20th centuries.

It was also the language of the Philippine Revolution In 1899 Malolos Constitution effectively proclaimed

it as the official language of the First Philippine Republic.

National hero Jose Rizal wrote most of his works in Spanish.

Luciano de la Rosa established that Spanish was spoken by a total of 60% of the population in the early 20th century as a first, second or third language. Following the American occupation of the Philippines and the imposition of English, the use of Spanish declined gradually, especially after the 1940s.

Under the U.S. occupation and civil regime, English began to be taught in schools. By 1901, public education used English as the medium of instruction. Around 600 educators (called "Thomasites") who arrived in that year aboard theUSS Thomas replaced the soldiers who also functioned as teachers.

On November 12, 1937, the First National Assembly created the National Language Institute. President Manuel L. Quezón appointed native Waray-Waray speaker Jaime C. De Veyra to chair a committee of speakers of other regional languages. Their aim was to select a national language among the other regional languages. Ultimately, Tagalog was chosen as the base language December 30, 1937.

In 1939, President Manuel L. Quezón renamed the Tagalog language asWikang Pambansa ("national language" in English translation). The language was further renamed in 1959 as Pilipino by Secretary of Education Jose Romero. 

The 1973 constitution declared the Pilipino language to be co-official, along with English, and mandated the development of a national language, to be known asFilipino. In addition, Spanish regained its official status when President Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 155, s. 1973.

The Constitution of the Philippines provides for the use of the vernacular languages as officialauxiliary languages in provinces where Filipino is not the lingua franca. This is however not implemented as Filipinos at large arepolyglots. In the case where the vernacular language is a regional language, Filipinos would speak in Filipino when speaking in formal situations while the regional languages are spoken in non-formal settings.

The diglossia is more evident in the case of other languages such as Pangasinan, Kapampangan, Bikol, Waray, Hiligaynon,Sambal, and Maranao, where the written variant of the language is becoming less and less popular to give way to the use of Filipino.

Indigenous languages

List of speakers per language

Name of Philippine language Number of native speakers[11]

Tagalog 22,000,000

Cebuano 21,000,000

Ilocano 7,700,000

Hiligaynon 7,000,000

Waray-Waray 3,100,000

Kapampangan 2,900,000

Northern Bicol[12] 2,500,000

Pangasinan 2,434,086

Southern Bicol[13] 1,200,000

Chavacano 1,200,000

Meranaw 1,150,000

Maguindanao 1,100,000

Kinaray-a 1,051,000

Tausug 1,022,000

Surigaonon 1,000,000

Masbateño 530,000

Aklanon 520,000

Ibanag 320,000

Español 2,000

Yaqan

Major foreign languagesChinese/Lan-nang

Main article: Lan-nangDiplomatic ties with the Ming dynasties among some established states or kingdoms in Luzon and direct interactions and trade overall within the archipelago as a whole go perhaps as far back as early 10th century. Mandarin Chinese is the medium of instruction in Chinese schools and lingua franca of the mainland and overseas Chinese.

The Lan-nang variant of the Hokkien (Min Nan) is the language of the majority the Chinese in the Philippines, who immigrated from the Fujian (pronounced locally as Fukien or Hokkien) province in China.

Another Chinese language, Cantonese, is spoken among the Chinese in the Philippines who are descendants of people from Guangdong province in China.As with Spanish, many native languages have co-opted numerous loanwords from Chinese languages, in particular words that refer to cuisine, household objects, and Philippine kinship terminology.

EnglishMain articles: Philippine English, Taglish, Bislish and EnglogThe first significant exposure of Filipinos to the English language occurred in 1762 when the British invaded Manila, but this was a brief episode that had no lasting influence. English later became more important and widespread during the American Occupation between 1898 and 1946, and remains an official language of the Philippines.

English is an exogenous language that is difficult for the mass of Filipinos to acquire fluently, while tens of millions are acquiring the lingua franca and using it extensively on a daily basis. English will remain a second language in the country, while the endogenous Austronesian languages will come to play a more important role in both speech and writing.

ArabicThe 1987 Constitution mandates that Arabic (along with Spanish) is to be promoted on a voluntary basis. Arabic is currently taught for free and is promoted in some Islamic centres. It is used primarily in religious activities and education (such as in amadrasa or Islamic school) and rarely for official events or daily conversation. In this respect, its function and use is somewhat like the traditional roles of Latin and Spanish in Filipino Catholicism vis-à-vis other currently spoken languages.

JapaneseThe Japanese first came to the Philippines around the 11th century CE, the first country they emigrated to, as well as in waves from the 15th century, 17th century, late 19th century, 1900s, 1930s, and the 1940s.

Malay / IndonesianMalay is spoken as a lingua franca in the southernmost parts of the Philippines, from Zamboanga down to Tawi-Tawi among a minority of the Tausug, Bajau, and Yakan peoples.

It is also spoken as a daily language by Malays and Indonesians who have settled, or do business in the Philippines. 

 It is also spoken in southern Palawan to some extent.

It is not spoken among theMaranao and Maguindanao people.

The liturgical language of Islam is Arabic, but the vast majority of Muslims in the Philippines have little practical knowledge of it beyond limited religious terminology.