Philippine Languages: A Backgrounder
Filipino or Tagalog, a member of the Austronesian languages, is the official language of the Philippines. This language comprises all other dialects spoken by the native inhabitants of the country’s different regions.
How this happened is told in the Philippines’ journey down history lane, which involved various races. The Spaniards are the most influential people to have colonized Philipines. Their invasion nearly ripped the country of its own identity as they took over and controlled its culture, religion, and language. Spanish then, became the Philippines official language. It filled all curriculums in the academe, while Spanish priests ran schools. Their reign lasted for four hundred years, until the Americans arrived. The country’s official language was turned to English.
Japanese came next but their language made very little impact on the Filipino tongue. The National Language Institute, which was formed in 1937 by the National Assembly, decided that Tagalog should be officially recognized as the foundation of Philippine language. Later, Tagalog became a subliminal term. It was replaced with Pilipino, which was again changed to Filipino as the official language in the Philippines in 1997.
Still, after several renaming of the Philippine language, the fact remains that there are as many as 170 dialects that make up Filipino. There are three major groupings — The Northern Philippine language, Meso Philippine, and the Southern Philippine Language.
The Northern Philippine language is widely spoken by the natives of Northern and Central Luzon including Ilokano, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, and Sambal.
Meso Philippine languages are widely spoken in Central Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao regions. To name a few, they are the Tagbanwa, Palawano, and Hanunoo in Palawan and Mindoro.
The largest subgroup are the Central Philippine languages which are composed of Tagalog; Bicol languages; 80% use Visayan languages such as Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray-Waray; and Mansakan languages.
Southern Philippine languages such as Maranao, Maguindanao, Manobo languages, and Subanun languages are concentrated in Mindanao but more than 80% use Visayan or cebuano language. Malaysian, Indonesian, Sanskrit, and Arabic words have influenced many Southern Philippine languages.
The final three following groups are thought to be more distantly related to the previous three. Southern Mindanao languages are languages such as Tboli and Blaan which are spoken in southern Mindanao.Sama-Bajaw languages mainly centered in the Sulu Archipelago as well as parts of Borneo. One language, Abaknon, is spoken on Capul Island near Samar, which is far from other Sama languages. Other languages in this group are Yakan and Sama.Sulawesi languages has only two representatives in the Philippines, the Sangil and the Sangir languages.
