Yet, what about the regional languages that are spoken by people throughout the country, but are not recognized officially by the government? Regional Languages of the Philippines Some other influences on this language come from Spanish, English, and Arabic. Filipino language has derived from several most used languages throughout the country, including Tagalog, and was developed to unify the nation. As a result, in 1987, after another amendment to the Filipino Constitution, Filipino was recognized as the official language of the Philippines, along with English. Yet, the problem with Tagalog was that it was not widely used throughout the whole country, so the idea of creating a kind of unifying language was pushed through. Yet, after about 50 years, the Philippines declared independence, so the need to recognize the national language as the official one has raised.įirst, just before the declaration of Filipino independence, Tagalog was declared the official language of the country, along with English. As the United States took the lead from Spain at the very end of the 19th century, English was announced the language of education, thus, becoming the official language of the country. Official and National Languages of the Philippinesīetween 15, the official language of the Philippines was Spanish, with the corresponding colonies being active in the region. Still, the influences of the languages of colonizers remain and are evident today. The solution came only by the end of the 20th century, with the Filipino language being developed and recognized as the official language of the country. Yet, due to the fact that the local and regional languages in the Philippines languages are many, the governments needed a reasonable solution that would be universal for the whole country and not threaten the regional specifics. Finally, after the country gained its independence in 1946, the local languages started to have been recognized as the official ones. Although this was not forced, unlike Spanish, the locals still maintained the Filipino dialects and languages, keeping them in wide use. Multilingualism in the PhilippinesĪfter the country fell under American rule in 1898, English has been implemented in local education and political life. Even though there are more than 150 of them, some Spanish roots can be traced in some words predominantly used for food and some domestic items. This largely explains the influence of the Spanish language on nearly every regional language spoken in the Philippines. The many languages that accumulated in the Philippines long before the rule of Spaniards were saved by people largely because the majority of the population at the time held on to their languages and culture extremely tightly. While many people obeyed this kind of rule, they still refused to let go of their heritage and kept their native languages along with Spanish. For example, the Spanish colonizers who first arrived at the Philippines in 1521 forced the locals to abandon their languages, most of which were limited to local tribes, and accept Spanish as their official language. Although the colonization process that took place in the country was quite rough, people still held to their roots and accumulated the languages with time. The people of the Philippines have kept the number of languages they speak throughout the history of this island country, with some languages being added or developed primarily due to colonization. But is there something that can be called the Philippines language at all? And how did the Filipino people manage to maintain so many languages throughout history? Let’s take a closer look at this wondrous country and find out. In addition, the islands have attracted the attention of traders from Southeastern Asia and the Middle East, so the influences are many. Yet, the reason for such linguistic diversity lies in about 400-years history of colonization. Although there are only 13 major languages with over 1 million speakers, the rest of them are still widely in use and are spread across about 7,000 islands. There’s probably no wonder that in this country, around 85 million people speak over 170 languages, depending on classification. Being an island country with a long history of colonization, the Philippines is very diverse in regard to languages and culture.
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