PHILIPPINE

LANGUAGES AND
DIALECTS

By: Kriezel Anne Siva

3rd Year BA-English
OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, students should be able
to:
1. Determine the National and Official
languages of the Philippines;
2. Identify Philippines’ Indigenous languages;
and
3. Learn the Major Foreign Languages thought
in the Philippines.
CONTENTS
1 National and official languages
2 Indigenous languages
 2.1 Mutual intelligibility
 2.1.1 Dialectal variation
 2.1.2 Philippine-language comparison
chart
 2.2 List of speakers per language
CONTENTS
Major foreign languages
 3.1 Chinese
 3.2 English
 3.3 Arabic
 3.5 Malay / Indonesian
LANGUAGE
System of conventional
spoken or written symbols
used by the people in a
shared culture to
communicate with each
other.
DIALECT
Interchangeably used
with variety. It refers to
a part of the speech community
that has a distinct feature that
distinguishes them from the
whole language community.
DIALECT
Overtime, when
dialects develop on
their own, a time may come
when they can be
distinguished as a separate
language.
NATIONAL AND OFFICIAL LANGU
Spanish
 It was the national and
official language of the
country
for more than three centuries
under Spanish colonial rule.
NATIONAL AND OFFICIAL LANGU
Spanish
 Become the Lingua Franca
of the Philippines in the 19th
and 20th centuries.
 It was also the language of
the Philippine Revolution
NATIONAL AND OFFICIAL LANGU
Spanish
 In 1899 Malolos Constitution
effectively proclaimed it as the
official language of the First
Philippine Republic.
 National hero Jose Rizal wrote
most of his works in Spanish.
 Luciano de la Rosa established that
Spanish was spoken by a total of 60%
of the population in the early 20th
century as a first, second or third
language. Following the American
occupation of the Philippines and the
imposition of English, the use of
Spanish declined gradually, especially
after the 1940s.
 Under the U.S. occupation and
civil
regime, English began to be taught in
schools. By 1901, public education
used English as the medium of
instruction. Around 600 educators
(called "Thomasites") who arrived in
that year aboard the USS Thomas
replaced the soldiers who also
functioned as teachers.
 On November 12, 1937, the
First National Assembly
created the National Language
Institute. President Manuel L.
Quezón appointed native
Waray-Waray speaker Jaime C.
De Veyra to chair a
committee of speakers of
other regional languages.
 Their aim was to select a
national language among the
other regional languages.
Ultimately, Tagalog was chosen
as the base language December
30, 1937.
 In 1939, President Manuel L.
Quezón renamed the Tagalog
language as Wikang Pambansa.
 The language was further
renamed in 1959 as Pilipino by
Secretary of Education Jose
Romero.
 The 1973 constitution declared
the Pilipino language to be co-
official, along with English, and
mandated the development of a
national language, to be known as
Filipino.
 The Constitution of the Philippines
provides for the use of the vernacular
languages as official auxiliary languages
in provinces where Filipino is not the
lingua franca. In the case where the
vernacular language is a regional
language, Filipinos would speak in
Filipino when speaking in formal
situations while the regional languages are
spoken in nonformal settings.
 The diglossia is more evident
in the case of other languages
such as Pangasinan,
Kapampangan, Bikol, Waray,
Hiligaynon, Sambal, and
Maranao, where the written
variant of the language is
becoming less and less popular
to give way to the use of
Filipino.
INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES
LIST OF SPEAKERS PER
LANGUAGE
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Chinese
Mandarin Chinese is the medium of
instruction in Chinese schools and lingua
franca of the mainland and overseas Chinese.
The Lan-nang variant of the Hokkien (Min
Nan) is the language of the majority the
Chinese in the Philippines, who immigrated
from the Fujian.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
English
The first significant exposure of
Filipinos to the English language
occurred in 1762 when the British
invaded Manila, but this was a
brief episode that had no lasting
influence.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
English later became more important
and widespread during the American
Occupation between 1898 and 1946,
and remains an official language of the
Philippines.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
English
English is an exogenous language
that is difficult for the mass of
Filipinos to acquire fluently, while
tens of millions are acquiring the
lingua franca and using it
extensively on a daily basis.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Arabic
The 1987 Constitution
mandates that Arabic (along with
Spanish) is to be promoted on a
voluntary basis. Arabic is
currently taught for
free and is promoted in some
Islamic centres.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Arabic
It is used primarily in religious
activities and education (such as
in Islamic school) and rarely for
official events or daily
conversation.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Arabic
The liturgical language of Islam
is Arabic, but the vast majority of
Muslims in the Philippines have
little practical knowledge of it
beyond limited religious
terminology.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Malay / Indonesian
Malay is
spoken as a
lingua franca in the southernmost
parts of the Philippines, from
Zamboanga down to Tawi-Tawi
among a minority of the Tausug,
Bajau, and Yakan peoples.
MAJOR FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Malay / Indonesian
It is also spoken as a
daily language by
Malays and
Indonesians who have settled, or do
business in the Philippines. It is also
spoken in southern Palawan to some
extent.
CONCLUSION
Language and dialects are expressions
of identity. In a country of over 7,000
islands, diversity is not difficult to find.
While we’re all connected under the same
flag and by the same national language,
we must also embrace what makes us
different. Each region and each ethnic
group have their own sets of practices,
experiences, and of course, language.
CONCLUSION
There’s value in embracing what makes
us different and sharing it with everyone
else. It makes us collectively richer and
allows us to understand, even without
speaking. While we’re all connected under
the same flag and by the same national
language, we must also embrace what
makes us different.
QUIZ
Test I: Identification
1. It is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by
the people in a shared culture to communicate with each other.
2. It refers to a part of the speech community that has a distinct
feature that distinguishes them from the whole language
community.
3. It became the Lingua Franca of the Philippines in the 19th and
20th centuries.
4. What constitution proclaimed Spanish as the official language of
the First Philippine Republic?
5. Who establish the fact that Spanish was spoken by a total of 60%
of the population in the early 20th century as a first, second or
third language?
QUIZ
Test I: Identification
6. Under what colonization did English began to be taught in
schools?
7. Who appointed native Waray-Waray speaker Jaime C. De Veyra
to chair a committee of speakers of other regional languages?
8. What is the medium of instruction in Chinese schools and lingua
franca of the mainland and overseas Chinese?
9. When did the first significant exposure of Filipinos to the
English language occurred?
10. What is the liturgical language of Islam?
Test II: Essay
 What are your insights about the
Philippine Languages and
Dialects?
ANSWER KEY:
Test I: Identification
1. Language
2. Dialect
3. Spanish
4. 1899 Malolos Constitution
5. Luciano de la Rosa
6. American Colonization
7. President Manuel L. Quezón
8. Mandarin Chinese
9. 1762
10. Arabic