Everything about Filipino Language totally explained
Filipino is the
national and an
official language of the
Philippines as designated in the 1987
Philippine Constitution. It is an
Austronesian language that's the
de facto standardized version of
Tagalog, though is
de jure distinct from it. Sometimes the language is incorrectly used as the generic name for all the
languages of the Philippines which, in turn, would be incorrectly termed as "
dialects".
The
Commission on the Filipino Language, the regulating body of Filipino, envisions a process of popularizing regional dialect usage derived from regional languages, as the foundation of
standardizing and intellectualizing a language, based on a
lingua franca.
History
On
November 13,
1936, the
Surian ng Wikang Pambansa (National Language Institute) selected
Tagalog as the basis of a
Wikang Pambansâ (national language) based on the following factors:
- Tagalog is widely spoken and is the language most understood in all the regions of the Philippines.
- It isn't divided into smaller, separate languages as Visayan is.
- Its literary tradition is the richest and the most developed and extensive (mirroring that of the Tuscan dialect of Italian). More books are written in Tagalog than in any other autochthonous Philippine language.
- Tagalog has always been the language of Manila - the political and economic capital of the Philippines under both Spanish and American rulers.
- Tagalog is the language of the Revolution and the Katipunan—two very important incidents in Philippine history.
In
1959, the language became known as
Pilipino to dissociate it from the
Tagalog ethnic group.
Later, the 1973
Constitution provided for a separate national language to replace Pilipino, a language which it named
Filipino. The pertinent article, though, Article XV, Section 3(2), mentions neither Tagalog nor Pilipino as the basis for Filipino, instead calling on the National Assembly to:
new Constitution introduced many provisions for the language.
Article XIV, Section 6, omits any mention of Tagalog as the basis for Filipino, and states that:
and:
August 14,
1991, created the Commission on the Filipino Language, reporting directly to the President and tasked to undertake, coordinate and promote researches for the development, propagation and preservation of Filipino and other Philippine languages. On
May 13,
1992, the commission issued a resolution specifying that Filipino is the
However, as with the 1973 and 1987 Constitutions, the resolution didn't go so far as to categorically identify this language as Tagalog.
Filipino was presented and registered with the
International Organization for Standardization (ISO), and was added to the ISO registry of languages on
September 21,
2004 with it receiving the ISO
639-2 code fil. In
June 2007, Ricardo Maria Nolasco, Chair of the
Commission on the Filipino Language, acknowledged that Filipino was simply Tagalog in syntax and grammar, with yet no grammatical element or lexicon coming from
Ilocano,
Cebuano,
Hiligaynon, or any of the other
Philippine languages. Furthermore, on August 24, 2007, Dr. Nolasco elaborated further on the relationship between Tagalog and Filipino:
August 22,
2007, three
Malolos City regional trial courts in
Bulacan decided to use Filipino, instead of
English, in order to promote the national language. Twelve
stenographers from Branches 6, 80 and 81, as model courts, had undergone training at Marcelo H. del Pilar College of Law of
Bulacan State University College of Law following a directive from the
Supreme Court of the Philippines. De la Rama said it was the dream of Chief Justice
Reynato Puno to implement the program in other areas such as
Laguna,
Cavite,
Quezon,
Nueva Ecija,
Batangas,
Rizal and
Metro Manila.
Classification
Filipino is considered by
Ethnologue to be a variant of Tagalog, a
Central Philippine language within the
Malayo-Polynesian branch of the
Austronesian language family. In practical terms, however,
Filipino is a
synonym for or the formal name of the Tagalog language, especially as used by non-
Tagalogs, who may sometimes refuse to refer to their language as
Tagalog.
One famous event where the definition between Filipino and Tagalog is challenged was during the impeachment trial of the former
president,
Joseph Estrada. When the presiding justice
Hilario Davide asked in which language would the witness Emma Lim prefer to testify, Lim promptly answered "Tagalog", to which Davide promptly didn't agree. According to Davide, nobody could testify in Tagalog because it isn't the official language of the Philippines and there's no available interpreter from Tagalog to Filipino. However, the then President of the
Senate,
Franklin Drilon, sided on the oneness of the two languages saying that an interpreter will no longer be needed because everybody would understand the testimony in Tagalog.
Phonology
Grammar
Orthography
Learning Resources
Many of the following books are published in the Philippines. Many are available on www.amazon.com.
By Vito C. Santos
- New Vicassan's English-Pilipino Dictionary, ISBN 971-27-0349-5
- Vicassan's Pilipino-English Dictionary, ISBN 971-08-2900-9
- Vicassan's Pilipino-English Dictionary (Abridged Edition), ISBN 971-27-1707-0
By others
Further Information
Get more info on 'Filipino Language'.
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