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A Brief History of the Filipino Language
The responsibility to unify Tagalog to create a national language was assigned to the Institute of National Language, also known as Surian ng Wikang Pambansa. Here are examples of the unifying process the Institute of National Language had to accomplish:
In Bicol, the question "Do you" is formed by affixing "Na" to the root word. So how do you say "Do you eat fish?" The root word for eat is "kain". Combine this root word with "Na" and you have "Nakain." The noun for fish is "isda." So you say "Nakain ka ba ng isda?" to mean "Do you eat fish?"
The syntax and usage of such statement is fine in Bicol because it will be properly understood there. The problem is it does not come across correctly in other Tagalog speaking provinces. In Manila, for instance, the question "Nakain ka ba ng isda?" means "Were you eaten by fish?" So what is correct Tagalog in Bicol may not be correct Tagalog in Manila.
As an example of regional differences in style between Batangas and Bulacan, to say "She is beautiful" in Batangas you can say "Maganda siya eh." In Bulacan you say "Siya ay maganda."
There are also regional differences in Tagalog diction. In Pampanga, Tagalog words with the letter H lose the H sound. Thus, BAHAY, which is Tagalog for house, becomes BAAY. Likewise, words without H acquire the H sound. Thus, MATAAS, which is Tagalog for high or tall, becomes MATAHAS. While this speaking style is perfectly fine in Pampanga, it is considered improper in Manila and other provinces.
These examples of regional differences meant there was also a need to call the national language by another name, instead of simply calling it Tagalog. In 1959, nationalized Tagalog was formally reintroduced in all schools as the Pilipino language.
Because nationalized Tagalog, which became known as Pilipino, had well defined rules of usage and interpretation, it became useful in legal, commercial, and military transactions. From the 1940s to 1980s this process of unifying and propagating of a national language proved very successful. It is safe to say that today a good majority of Filipinos speak nationalized Tagalog or Pilipino.
In the late 1980s there were efforts to call Pilipino by another name - Filipino. The 1987 constitution of the Philippines specifically identifies Filipino as one of the only two official languages of the country. The other language is English. The thinking goes like this: the language of the French is French, the language of the Germans is German, the language of the English is English. Therefore, the national language of the Filipinos is Filipino.
Filipino, however, is not simply Pilipino given another name. Just as Pilipino went beyond Tagalog by being the nationalized version of Tagalog, the purpose of the Filipino language is to include words from other Filipino languages - like Cebuano and Ilocano. From a national perspective, this makes sense because Cebuano is spoken by twenty million Filipinos and Ilocano by eleven million.
The University of the Philippines added fuel to this movement by publishing a Filipino dictionary called UP Diksyonaryong Filipino.
In the last thirty years, the name Filipino continued to replace Tagalog and Pilipino as the true national language of the Philippines.
About Ray Colorado
Ray Colorado was born in the island of Mindoro, Philippines, where people speak different Filipino languages. Tagalog was his first language. He also speaks Ilocano, Bicol, English and Spanish. He learned these languages because of his father's job - Methodist Evangelist and Pastor. They moved every two years, living in places where people spoke differently. He had to learn each local language in order to survive and win new friends. He also formally studied English and Pilipino, the national language, in elementary, high school, and the University of the Philippines. He started creating Web-based Tagalog lessons in 1999. He moved to United States in 1984. He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with his wife, former Lura Eden Alampay, and their three sons Marc Dexter, Maxwell Lucas, and Hexel James. He may be reached at ray@coloradobrothers.com.
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