Filipino language

Filipino
Pilipino
Wikang Filipino Wikang Pilipino
Native to	Philippines
Region	All regions of the Philippines, especially in Metro Manila, the National Capital Region (of the Philippines), and in all other urban centers of the Philippines
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Central Philippine Tagalog Filipino
Writing system	Latin script (Filipino alphabet, Abakada alphabet; historically) Baybayin (revitalizing)
Official status
Official language in	Philippines
Regulated by	Commission on the Filipino Language (Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino)
Language codes
ISO 639-2	fil
ISO 639-3	fil
Glottolog	fili1244

Filipino (historically Pilipino) is "in practice" but not "according to the law" a form of the Tagalog language or the Metro Manila dialect of Tagalog. It is the national language of the Philippines, and one of the two official languages of the Philippines, with English being the other.

Background

The Philippines is a multilingual country with 175 living languages. These languages are spoken by different ethnic and language groups.

Spanish involvement in the Philippines began in 1565 after the Spanish captured Cebu. Spain later established Manila as the capital of its colony. Manila was in a Tagalog-speaking area. Before the Spanish conquest, the area was ruled by the Muslim Kingdom of Luzon, led by Raja Matanda and his heir Raja Sulayman, and by the Hindu-Buddhist Kingdom of Tondo, led by Lakan Dula.

After the Spanish captured Manila, they made it the capital of their Asian colony. They chose Manila because of its commercial wealth, influence, and strategic location. Spain also wanted to protect the city from possible attacks by Portugal and the Netherlands.

During the Spanish period, Spanish was the official language of the government. Spanish helped unite the Philippines, which contains more than 7,000 islands and many different ethnic groups, languages, and cultures. Before Spanish rule, the islands were not one united country. They were made up of independent kingdoms, sultanates, and tribes, each with its own language and customs.

During the American colonial period, English became an additional official language alongside Spanish. However, the number of Spanish speakers gradually decreased.

The United States introduced policies that gradually removed Spanish from official use in the Philippines. Spanish was not completely banned. Instead, English became the main language used in education, government, and law.

Designation as the national language

During the American colonial period, Spanish and English were official languages. However, the Philippines did not have a national language at first. Article XIII, Section 3 of the 1935 Constitution, which created the Commonwealth of the Philippines, stated:

The National Assembly shall take steps toward the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages. Until otherwise provided by law, English and Spanish shall continue as official languages.

On November 13, 1936, the first National Assembly of the Philippine Commonwealth passed Commonwealth Act No. 184. This law created the Institute of National Language, later called the Surián ng Wikang Pambansâ or SWP. The institute was ordered to study all the native languages of the Philippines and recommend one of them as the basis for a standard national language.

President Manuel L. Quezon appointed representatives of the major language groups to serve on the institute. Jaime C. De Veyra became its chairman and represented the Samar-Leyte-Visayans. The other members were Santiago A. Fonacier, who represented the Ilokano-speaking regions; Filemon Sotto, who represented the Cebu-Visayans; Casimiro Perfecto, who represented the Bikolanos; Felix S. Sales Rodriguez, who represented the Panay-Visayans; Hadji Butu, who represented the languages of Muslim Filipinos; and Cecilio Lopez, who represented the Tagalogs.

On November 9, 1937, the Institute of National Language recommended Tagalog as the basis of the national language. On December 30, 1937, President Quezon issued Executive Order No. 134. It approved the use of Tagalog as the basis of the national language of the Philippines.

On December 31, Quezon officially declared Tagalog to be the basis of the Wikang Pambansâ (“National Language”). The decision was based on several reasons:

1. Tagalog was widely spoken and understood in many parts of the Philippines.
2. Unlike Visayan and Bikol, Tagalog was not divided into many smaller languages.
3. Tagalog had the richest and most developed literary tradition among Philippine languages. Before 1935, more books had been written in Tagalog than in any other Philippine language.
4. Tagalog had long been the language of Manila, the political center of the Philippines and an important economic center.
5. The Katipunan generally used Tagalog in its activities. The Philippine Revolution and the First Philippine Republic later used Spanish for official activities, but many revolutionary leaders spoke Tagalog. Some non-Tagalog revolutionaries and nationalists also used Tagalog in their writings, especially when publishing in Manila. The Katipunan used the word “Tagalog” to refer to all native people of the Philippines, including Cebuanos, Ilocanos, and Kapampangans. It also used Katagalugan to refer to the entire Philippine islands, not only Tagalog-speaking areas. This use supported the idea of a united opposition to Spanish rule and led to the creation of the idea of a Tagalog Republic.

On June 7, 1940, the Philippine National Assembly passed Commonwealth Act No. 570. It declared that the national language would become an official language on July 4, 1946, the date when the Philippines was expected to become independent from the United States.

That same year, grammarian Lope K. Santos published Balarílà ng Wikang Pambansâ (English: Grammar of the National Language). The book introduced the 20-letter Abakada alphabet, which became the standard writing system for the national language. The Institute for the Tagalog-Based National Language officially adopted the alphabet.

During World War II, the Japanese occupiers encouraged people to use the national language instead of English in schools. As a result, the Tagalog-based national language was used more widely in education, mass media, and official communication.

The 1948 census reported that 7,126,913 people, or 37.11% of the population, spoke the language. This was an increase from the 4,068,565 people who spoke it in 1939. Of the people who spoke the language in 1948, 47.7% learned it as a second language.

Further history

In 1959, the language was renamed Pilipino. This was intended to separate it from the Tagalog ethnic group. However, the new name was not accepted by everyone outside the Tagalog-speaking areas. This was especially true among the Cebuanos, who had already opposed the decision to use Tagalog as the basis of the national language in 1937.

During the 1960s, language purists began creating new words to replace borrowed words. This movement was led by the Institute of National Language and was called “purism.” It was criticized by many people. Two opposing movements developed. One opposed using Tagalog as the national language, while the other wanted the national language to include more words from other Philippine languages.

In 1963, Negros Occidental congressman Innocencio V. Ferrer brought a case to the Supreme Court. He questioned whether choosing Tagalog as the basis of the national language was constitutional. The Supreme Court decided in favor of the national language in 1970.

Congressman Geruncio Lacuesta argued that the national language was only Tagalog and did not include enough from other Philippine languages. He later led the “Modernizing the Language Approach Movement” (MOLAM). Lacuesta organized conferences against language purism and supported a more inclusive “Manila Lingua Franca.” This proposed language would accept borrowed words from both foreign and Philippine languages.

Lacuesta convinced nine congressmen to propose a bill that would:

• abolish the Institute of National Language and replace it with an Akademia ng Wikang Filipino;
• replace the balarila with a Gramatica ng Wikang Filipino;
• replace the 20-letter Abakada alphabet with a 32-letter alphabet; and
• stop the creation of new words and the respelling of borrowed words.

The movement became less active after Lacuesta died.

The debate about the national language began again during the 1971 Constitutional Convention. Many delegates wanted to keep the Tagalog-based national language. However, most delegates who were not Tagalog favored removing the idea of a national language completely.

The delegates reached a compromise. The 1973 Constitution did not remove Pilipino as the national language, and it did not mention Tagalog as its basis. In both its original form and its 1976 amended form, the constitution recognized English and Pilipino as official languages. It also called for the development and formal adoption of a common national language called Filipino. Filipino was intended to replace Pilipino.

The constitution instructed the National Assembly to:

take steps toward the development and formal adoption of a common national language to be known as Filipino.

In 1987, a new constitution declared Filipino to be the national language. It also recognized Filipino and English as official languages.

The constitution included several rules about the Filipino language. Article XIV, Section 6 did not mention Tagalog as the basis of Filipino. It stated:

as Filipino evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.

The constitution also stated:

Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.

It further stated:

The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.

On January 30, 1987, Section 17(d) of Executive Order 117 changed the name of the Institute of National Language to the Institute of Philippine Languages.

On August 14, 1991, Republic Act No. 7104 created the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language, or KWF). It replaced the Institute of Philippine Languages. The KWF reports directly to the President. Its duties include studying, coordinating, and supporting the development, use, and preservation of Filipino and other Philippine languages.

On May 13, 1992, the commission issued Resolution 92-1. It described Filipino as:

indigenous written and spoken language of Metro Manila and other urban centers in the Philippines used as the language of communication of ethnic groups.

However, Resolution 92-1 did not clearly say whether Filipino was Tagalog. It also did not clearly say that Filipino was a language separate from Tagalog. The Supreme Court has the final authority to interpret this issue unless the KWF gives further instructions.^{[original research?]}

Filipino was presented to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) by Martin Gomez, a student at Ateneo de Manila University. It was added to the ISO list of languages on September 21, 2004. Filipino was given the ISO 639-2 code fil.

On August 22, 2007, three regional trial courts in Malolos City, Bulacan, announced that they would use Filipino instead of English in court proceedings. The change was intended to promote the national language.

Twelve stenographers from Branches 6, 80, and 81 were selected as part of the program. They received training at the Marcelo H. del Pilar College of Law of Bulacan State University following an order from the Supreme Court.

De la Rama said that Chief Justice Reynato Puno wanted to introduce the program in other areas, including Laguna, Cavite, Quezon, Aurora, Nueva Ecija, Batangas, Rizal, and Metro Manila. These areas mainly speak Tagalog as their native language.

Commemoration

Since 1997, the Philippines has celebrated its national language for one month every August. In Filipino, this celebration is called Buwan ng Wika (“Language Month”). Before 1997, the celebration lasted one week and was called Linggo ng Wika (“Language Week”).

The celebration takes place in August because it is the birth month of President Manuel L. Quezon. He is known as the “Ama ng Wikang Pambansa” (“Father of the National Language”).

In 1946, Proclamation No. 35, issued on March 26, established a week-long celebration of the national language. The celebration took place from March 27 to April 2 each year. April 2 was chosen because it was the birthday of Filipino writer Francisco Baltazar, the author of the Tagalog epic Florante at Laura.

In 1954, Proclamation No. 12 changed the dates of the celebration to March 29 to April 4 each year.

In 1955, President Ramon Magsaysay changed the dates again through Proclamation No. 186. The celebration was moved to August 13–19 each year. These dates were chosen to match President Quezon's birthday. The change was made because the earlier celebration took place “outside of the school year,” which prevented schools from taking part in it.

In 1988, President Corazon Aquino signed Proclamation No. 19. It confirmed that the celebration would take place every year from August 13 to 19.

In 1997, President Fidel V. Ramos extended the celebration from one week to one month through Proclamation No. 1041, issued on July 15.

References