Philippine Languages

Lemme just get some things off my chest…

Filipinos are what you call to the citizens of the Philippines. Let me point out that there are only two alternative spellings for it, and that is: Filipino and Pilipino. Not Philippino. Not Filippino. And definitely not Phillipino! And I also have to correct that the adjective used is "Philippine" and not "Filipino". Like, Philippine foods, Philippine products; NOT "Filipino food" or "Filipino products". Many use the wrong adjective and even Filipinos themselves!

Official name: Republika ng Pilipinas * Republic of the Philippines

There are 7, 107 islands in the Philippines. It is divided into 3 major parts: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Visayan is what the dialects are called in the Visayas. Cebu is in the Visayas so I speak Visayan. To be more specific, I speak Cebuano. Cebuano is the language spoken by the natives in Cebu. But not only Cebuano are spoken in the Visayas. There are also Waray, Illonggo and many more.

The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. There are around 80 distinct languages together with their respective dialects, but there should only be one national language so we may understand each other wherever we may be in our country. You must be wondering, “There are HUNDREDS of dialects in the Philippines and all of them are Filipino. Which one is which???” This is where Tagalog enters. The Tagalog language was chosen amongst all. So our national language is based in Tagalog. And it is learnt in the whole country. There’s 1 national language and 8 major languages. Cebuano is a major language. There are also some provinces there who speak Cebuano too.

That’s why for example, if ever I find myself in Mindanao... in Zamboanga del norte for example (or del sur??) I can speak in Cebuano because they understand Cebuano but I cannot understand them if they speak in their dialect, Chavacano. If I am in Manila I speak in Tagalog coz they cannot understand Cebuano. If ever if I find myself in other provinces which both parties cannot understand each other’s dialect, we both use Tagalog.... or English. Oh, we speak English. It is an official language. Foreigners will not have a problem in communication with the natives at all. You see, the people here are bilingual, others are multilingual! Spanish used to be the official language but not anymore. Only a minority speaks that language nowadays. The majority speakers are now dead to speak.

Ok, that’s it! I feel better now…