Philippines language

The Republic of the Philippines is a country in Southeast Asia, whose capital is Manila. It has a population of 107 million inhabitants (12th) and an area of ​​300,000 km ² (72nd). Its human development index is medium (113º) and its official currency is the Philippine peso. And what language is spoken in the Philippines?

What language do they speak in the Philippines?

The Philippines is a very linguistically diverse country with 183 living languages ​​(175 of them are indigenous languages). The Philippines has 2 official languages ​​since the 1987 Constitution:

• Filipino , spoken by 45.7% of the population.
• English , which is spoken by 40.6% of the population (the vast majority as a second language).

Likewise, it designates 19 auxiliary languages, which are of official use in teaching media (ordered by number of speakers):

• Tagalog (20 million)
• Cebuano (15.9 million)
• Ilocano (6.37 million)
• Hiligaynon (6.24 million)
• Bilocano (3.89 million)
• Samaritan (2.6 million)
• Pampango (2.04 million)
• Pangasinense (1.24 million)
• Maguindana (1.1 million)
• Maranao (866,000)
• Joloan (784,000)
• Aklanon (502,000)
• Surigaense (501,000)
• Kinaray-a (433,000)
• Apricot (431,000)
• Ibanag (277,000)
• Yakans (130,000)
• Sambal (70,000)
• Ibatán (1,240)

Lastly, it is stipulated in the constitution that Spanish and Arabic should be promoted (on a voluntary and optional basis), although they are no longer widely used as in the past. Spanish is experiencing a renaissance thanks to government promotion, while Arabic is mainly used in Islamic schools in Mindanao.

The most learned foreign languages ​​are French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Korean. The most common immigrant languages ​​are Sindi (20,000 speakers), Japanese (2,900), Indonesian (2,580), Hindi (2,420), and German (960).

The Filipino language

Filipino (Wikang Filipino ) is a de facto standard version of Tagalog. It is spoken in the capital, Manila, as well as in other urban areas. It is used in almost all official fields, such as government, education, media, business, politics, books, etc.

Due to the country’s constant interaction with foreign cultures, Filipino has a large number of loanwords, from languages ​​such as English, Latin, Greek, Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Tamil, Malay, Chinese, Japanese. and Nahuatl (Aztec).

The English language

English (English ) is used in all official spheres. It was important and spread between 1898 and 1946, during the American occupation. Many television channels are broadcast in English, as well as the presence of several newspapers in the Anglo-Saxon language. However, the level of English spoken in the Philippines is poor.

The Spanish language

Spanish is currently spoken by 465,000 Filipinos (the vast majority as a second language). It ceased to be the official state language in 1973, as well as a compulsory subject at university in 1987.

Although the historical background of the Spanish variety spoken in the Philippines is full of Mexican linguistic influences (the Philippines was administered by Mexico rather than by Spain itself during the colonial period), the new generation of Spanish speakers is adapting with the grammar, phonology and the vocabulary of European Spanish.

In fact, the language is maintained by mestizo families and by educated youth, especially in the province of Cebu, Zamboanga and Bacolod. This is due to the historical roots that Spanish has left in Philippine culture throughout the colonial era, from 1565, when the Spanish language was first introduced, to the early 20th century, when American hegemony began.

There are more than 10,000 Spanish words in all the dialects spoken in the Philippines. They are mostly archaic Spanish words that were preserved and adapted to Creoles of Spanish origin.

The most interesting aspect to analyze, however, is the presence of false friends, which are words used in the Philippine language that, phonetically and graphically speaking, could be confused with words in Spanish, but actually have totally different meanings:

Share which languages ​​are spoken in the Philippines.