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BALANGHAYIssue No. 4 January-February 2013

A publication of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts

ThePhilippineFactsheet

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The national language of the Philippines is calledFilipno. It is based on Manila Tagalog.

The Philippines is made up of many ethnic groupsand has many indigenous languages, all belonging tothe Austronesian family of languages. The Philippinegovernment wished for one language to be the basis of

the countrys official and national language, which canunite the whole country. And it chose Tagalog, one ofthe major languages of the country and the language ofthe capital city. It also has the most extensively writtenliterature in 1935, when this language was made the basisfor Filipino, the name of the national language. Filipinois expected to evolve with contributions from otherPhilippine and foreign languages.

The renaming of Tagalog to Filipino is for national andinternational use and intent, just like how Castilian, one ofthe languages of Spain, became known as Spanish all overthe world as the national language of Spain.

Filipino serves as the current lingua franca for the

entire country. A lingua franca is the language used bytwo persons who use different languages to understandand communicate with each other. Particular Philippineregions have their own lingua franca. In northern Luzon,for example, it is Ilocano; while in Central Visayas andcertain parts of Mindanao, it is Cebuano.

Typically, a Filipino, particularly if hesfrom the regions, can speak the language

of his ethnic group as well as theregional lingua franca. If he is wellexposed, he can speak as well the

national lingua franca andEnglish. For example, anIfugao in the Cordillera

Region of northern Luzoncan speak an Ifugao language.

He may be able to speak I locano, theregional lingua franca, which he uses tocommunicate with people outside hisethnic group. He will be able to speak

Filipino, the national lingua franca andmay also understand and speak English.

English and Filipino arewidely used in mass media,commerce and education in

The Filipno Languagethe Philippines, resulting in their being understood almosteverywhere in the country.

HistoryEfforts in formulating a national language started in

1935. When the Philippines was a colony of Spain for 333

years, Spanish was the official language. Then Spanish wasreplaced by English when the Americans came.

Wenceslao Vinzons, a young representative fromCamarines Norte in the 1935 Constitutional Convention,officially proposed to include an article on developing anational language. Thus, the 1935 Constitution Article XIV,Section 3, states that the Congress shall make necessarysteps towards the development of a national languagewhich will be based on one of the existing nativelanguages.

The following year, the National Assembly passedCommonwealth Act No. 184, establishing the Institute ofNational Language on November 13, 1936, that decided

which among the existing native languages will be the basisfor the national language. Jaime C. de Veyra from Leyte wasthe first director. Eminent linguists, representing differentlinguistic groups, were the other members of the institute.After studying the case, the institute recommended Tagalogto be the basis of the national language.

In 1937, Executive Order No. 134 was passed statingthat the national language will be based on Tagalog. Itwas intended that the national language will be purifiedas well as enriched through borrowings from other nativelanguages and from foreign languages such as Spanishand English. Lope K. Santos, who later became a director ofthe Institute of National Language, prepared the grammarbookBalarila ng Wikang Pambansa in 1939. A Tagalog-English dictionary was also published by the institute.

After three years, the Tagalog-based nationallanguage was taught as a subject in the teacher educationcourses and in the elementary and secondary schoolsthroughout the country. Yet, English was still themedium of instruction as well as the official languagefor communications, the Philippines being under theAmerican rule at that time.

In 1959, the Department of Education called theTagalog-based national language Pilipino.

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The balanghayis an ancient Philippine plank boat adjoined

by carved-out planks edged through pins or dowels. More

than a mere boat, it was more like a vessel bearing a social

unit, thus the term came to mean the smallest political

unit in the Philippines. In the late 1970s, balanghays

were excavated in Butuan City, Agusan del Norte, then

considered the rst wooden watercraft ever excavated

in Southeast Asia. They are a testament to early Filipino

craftsmanship and seamanship skills.

Balanghay: The Philippine Factsheet is a bimonthly publication of the NationalCommission for Culture and the Arts. It comes withAgung, the NCCA newsletter, and

is also given to educational institutions, libraries and the general public. Balanghay:

The Philippine Factsheetaims to be a vessel and conveyor of knowledge on Philippine

culture. It also aims to broaden cultural literacy among our people and enhance theirunderstanding of Philippine arts and culture.

BALANGHAYThe PhilippineFactsheet

Issue No. 4

January-February 2013

PROF. FELIPE M. DE LEON, JR.

Chairman

EMELITA V. ALMOSARA, CESO IVExecutive Director

MARLENE RUTH S. SANCHEZ, MNSA

Deputy Executive Director

Rene Sanchez Napeas

Head, NCCA-PAIO

Leonor Petra Elepao

Executive Assistant to the Chairma

Roel Hoang Manipon

Writer

Mervin Concepcion Vergara

Art Director

Ryan C. Arengo

Graphic Artist/Illustrator

Dr. Jesus T. Peralta

Consultant

In 1970, the Board of National Education furthered the useof Pilipino as language of instruction in schools together withEnglish, a bilingual approach to teaching. It also encouragedthe use of regional languages in Grades 1 and 2. And todevelop Filipino further, it was promoted as a language forintellectual discourses.

In 1973, during the Constitutional Convention, theCommittee on National Language (CNL) was created. Itrecommended replacing Pilipino with a fusion of the differentnative languages to be called Filipino. The recommendationwas met with much opposition, pointing out that such anartificial language is not feasible since it lacked both nativespeakers and a literary tradition to help propagate it.

The matter was settled in 1987, when the Constitutionstated, in Article XIV, Section 6, that the national languageof the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be furtherdeveloped and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine andother languages.

Filipino was modernized with the inclusion in its alphabetthe letters C, F, J, , Q, V, X, and Z in addition to the letters ofthe old Tagalog alphabet. The current Filipino alphabet has 28

letters. This is for the development of the language nationally,to include words from the other native languages, and make itadaptable to the modern environment and to accommodateborrowed words from foreign languages. The sounds of lettersF, J, V and Z, for example, cannot be found in the Tagalog andCebuano languages. However, it can be found in the Ivatan,Mranaw, Tausug, Blaan, Tboli, Cordilleran and other nativelanguages.

The Filipino language continues to evolve as Filipinos havewidely used it as lingua franca in most parts of the country in oral and written communications, education and massmedia.

The present Komisyon ng Wikang Pambansa is in fact,

propagating a new Ortograpiyang Pambansa which explainsnot only the functions of the 28 letters of the new alphabet butalso recognizes other peculiarities of our native languages. Anexample of these peculiarities is the schwa sound in Ilocano,Cordillera, Mranaw and other Mindanao languages.

References

Entry on Filipino by Virgilio S. Almario, Sagisag Kultura ng Filipinas CD-ROM,National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2011

Nationalization of a Language: Filipino by C.J. PazDevelopment of Filipino, the National Language of the Philippines by Paz M.

Belvez, NCCA Web site.

Manuel Luis

Quezon

Manuel LuisQuezon is thefirst president ofthe Philippine

Commonwealth andis widely regardedas Ama ng WikangPambansa or theFather of the NationalLanguage becausehe spearheaded theformation of a national language, based on Tagalog.

Quezon was born on August 19,1878, in Baler, Tayabas (nowin the province of Aurora). During the Filipino-American War,he joined and became a major in the army of General TomasMascardo. After the war, he returned to school and finishedstudying law. He was appointed fiscal and then became governorof the province of Tayabas. He resigned as governor to runfor elections in the Philippine Assembly. He won and becamemajority floor leader. He then worked as a resident commissionerat the United States Congress, where he successfully lobbied forthe passage of the Jones Law, containing the first formal andofficial declaration of the United States Federal Governmentscommitment to grant independence to the Philippine. Hecontinued working for Philippine independence, securing thepassage of the Tydings-McDuffie Law, which provided for self-government of the Philippines and for Filipino independence fromthe United States after a period of ten years

He was elected president of the Philippine Commonwealthin 1935. When the Japanese army invaded the Philippines duringWorld War II, he served in exile in the United States, where he died

on August 1, 1944.Quezon is also called Ama ng Katarungang Panlipunan,or Father of Social Justice, because of his efforts in helpingthe poor. He is more known for leading the establishment of anational language based on a native language. The celebrationof the National Language Month coincides with the month of hisbirthday.

Reference

Entry on Manuel Luis Quezon by Virgilio S. Almario, Sagisag Kultura ngFilipinas CD-ROM, National Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2011

THE FILIPINO LANGUAGE...From page 1

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Lope K. Santos

Lpe K. Sntos was a prominentwriter, linguist and labor leader. He wasborn on September 25, 1879, in Pasig,Rizal. At an early age, he learned printingfrom his father, who worked as a printer.Santos studied at the Escuela NormalSuperior de Maestros and Escuela deDerecho in Manila, and earned a degreein Bachelor in Arts from Colegio Filipino.

In 1900, Santos became a journalistfor different newspapers. He then becameeditor ofMuling Pagsilang, Lipang Kalabawand other newspapers. Santos wrote ten

volumes of poetry in Tagalog includingPuso at Diwa (1908), Mga Hamak na Dakila(1945),Ang Diwa ng mga Salawikain(1953), andAng Pangginggera (1912). Heis most known for Banaag at Sikat(1906),one of his six novels. He also wrote literarycriticism.

Santos was also active in politics,becoming a governor in Rizal, the firstgovernor of Nueva Vizcaya and a senatorof the 12th district of Nueva Vizcaya. Assenator, he was responsible for laws thatenable us to celebrate Bonifacio Day aswell as uplift the conditions of workers.With Isabelo de los Reyes, he establishedUnion Obrera Democratica in 1902.He was also the president of Union delTrabajo de Filipinas, and the founder andpresident of Congreso Obrero.

Santos was also known for hiscontributions in the establishment of anational language. He was director ofthe Institute for National Language andauthored Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa,which became the official textbook in theteaching of Tagalog.

He died on May 1, 1963.

Reference

Entry on Lpe K. Sntos by Galileo S. Zafra,Sagisag Kultura ng Filipinas CD-ROM, National

Commission for Culture and the Arts, 2011

CAPE TOWN, South Africa. For the lastfour days, Ive been listening to a group ofscholars from nine African nations talk aboutthe language situation in their respectivecountries. One immediately realizes that thiscontinent has been robbed not only of itspast but also of its soul.

In country after country, the officiallanguage is invariably that of the formercolonial master. The people have kept theirmother tongues, but these languages, ifthey are not dying, have not grown. To bean educated African today means goingthrough a painful process of cutting oneselfoff from the culture of ones ancestors inexchange for a chance at personal success.

Freshly emancipated from Apartheid

rule in 1994, South Africa, the continentsrichest nation authorized 11 languagesto serve as the official languages of thecountry. Yet, English and Afrikaans haveremained the language of government. Thepost-Apartheid government had a bias forEnglish because it was after all the languageof the African National Congress. Afrikaanswas the language that the Dutch settlersbrought with them into the country in the17th century. In the 1960s, it was refined intoa racialized language of the white minority.But, as history would have it, the oppressed

colored people also quickly acquired it.Among the so-called colored peoplewho were neither black nor whitewere theCape Malays. These were the descendantsof the slaves that the Dutch took from theislands comprising present-day Indonesia.They didnt quite speak like their masters,but they spawned their own versions ofthe oppressors language. The latest censusreveals the startling fact that in South Africatoday, there are more non-whites who speakAfrikaans than whites. To banish Afrikaanswould have meant burying the language ofthese equally oppressed people.

English is very much the languageof power, wealth and social mobility inthe African continent today. Of the ninecountries represented in the meeting, onlyBenin, the former French colony, has notadopted English as the principal medium ofinstruction and of government. Not only isEnglish very much regarded as the languageof modernity, it is also ironically made towork as a language of national unificationin societies deeply fragmented by tribal andethnic differences.

The most striking example of thislinguistic chaos is Cameroon. This nationof 16 million people has 268 languages.Within a 20-kilometer radius live people wholiterally do not understand one another.The colonizers attempted to bring themunder the dominion of one language. TheGermans who first colonized the countrymade German the official language. Then theFrench and the British took over and createdFrench Cameroon and British Cameroon.When the country was reunified, it becamepolitically expedient to adopt English andFrench as the official languages insteadof choosing one from any of the nativelanguages.

In Zimbabwe, the people speak any

of 18 indigenous languages. The mostdominant of these is Shona, which is spokenby 80 percent of the population. Yet, theofficial language is English. It is also thesole medium of instruction from Grade 4 tocollege. The mother tongue, used in the earlygrades, is taught as a subject in a curriculumdominated by English.

The teaching of the early grades in themother tongue is a policy that was adoptedin many of the former colonies after it wasconclusively shown that children learnedbasic concepts faster when they were taught

in the home language. But many Africancountries are rethinking this policy. Ghanadecided to completely junk it after thegovernment was told that students fromprivate schools who were taught exclusivelyin English fared better in the higher grades.Wherever one goes in Africa, parentsdemand to know why they should continuesending their children to school if all theeducation they got was in the language ofthe illiterate.

The disparagement of local languagesis very common in societies that have notrecovered from the colonial syndrome. In

Malawi, the crazy United States-educateddictator who ruled the country for morethan 30 years, Dr. Hastings Banda, neverspoke in any of the languages of his country.He was obsessed with English and lovedto mesmerize his people by his commandof what he clearly regarded as a superiorlanguage.

In Uganda, a nation of 24 millionpeople encompassing 56 tribes, there arethree major native languages, but, again, no

Politics of LanguageBy Randy David

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What is a dialect?

A dialect is a variety of a languagecharacteristic of a particular groupof speakers. It is distinguished bypronunciation, grammar or vocabulary,differing from the standard literarylanguage or speech pattern of theculture in which it exists. A dialect canexist in a particular region, ethnic groupand even social class.

For example, Boholano Cebuano,spoken in Bohol, is a dialect of thelanguage Cebuano. The Tagaloglanguage has also a number of

dialects such as Batangas Tagalog andBulacan Tagalog.

What is a vernacular?A vernacular is the native

language spoken by the ordinarypeople in a particular country orregion, as opposed to a languageof wider communication that is asecond language or foreign languageto the population, such as a nationallanguage, standard language, orlingua franca.

single unifying language. English, spoken byabout 30 percent of the people, is the officiallanguage. It is the medium of instructionfrom nursery till university. The nativelanguage Luganda is taught as a subject atall levels.

The African scholars who came to themeeting believed that this situation shouldnot be allowed to continue. They would not

suffer seeing African children belittle theirown mother tongues. Such a generationwould grow without any commitment tothe nation. On graduation, they would beaspiring to leave their country as quickly aspossible.

Tanzania was the object of envy ofeverybody. Because of the foresight of thelate Julius Nyerere, Swahili has become asophisticated language. He ordered thepreparation of dictionaries and word lists,realizing its potential as a pan-Africanlanguage. After Tanzania acquired its

independence in 1961, Swahili replacedEnglish as official and national language.Today, it is the Americans who are learningSwahili.

Tanzania remains poor, but its soulis intact. It is a stable country that hasovercome its internal conflicts.

Randy David is a journalist, television host and

sociologist. This article was reprinted fromThePhilippine Daily Inquirer, July 12, 2003.

Tagalog

Tagalog is spoken in the Tagalog regionof Luzon including the capital Manila as wellas neighboring provinces. It is also spoken inparts of the islands of Marinduque, Mindoro andPalawan. There are about 28,000,000 speakers.

Cebuano

Cebuano is the language of the provinceof Cebu in the Visayas and its capital, Cebu City,the most important city in the region. It is alsowidely spoken and serves as the lingua franca inmany parts of the Visayas as well as in Mindanao,including Bohol, Negros Oriental, SouthernLeyte, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental,the Zamboanga Peninsula and Davao City.

That is why it is sometimes called Visayan,Bisayan or Binisaya. It is estimated that there areabout 20 million people who speak Cebuanoas their first language and about 11 million astheir secondary language. It is also known asSugbuhanon, Sugbuanon and Sebuano. Its

dialects include Boholano, Leyte Cebuano andMindanao Visayan. Many great Filipino writerswrote in Cebuano. Cebuano has a prolific literarytradition that remains lively.

Ilocano

Ilocano is the language of the Ilocos Regionin northern Luzon. It is also spoken in Cagayan,Isabela, Pangasinan, Babuyan Islands, Tarlac, Abraand some parts of Mindanao. The Ilocano is thethird largest ethnic group of the Philippines. Itsdialects include a pidginized form used in thenorthern Luzon highlands. There are around9,100,000 Ilocano speakers in the Philippines. It

is also called Iloko or Iluko. The epic Biag ni Lam-ang is narrated in this language.

Pampangan

Pampangan is the language of the provinceof Pampanga in central Luzon. It is also spokenin the southern part of Tarlac, particularly inBamban, Capas, Concepcion, San Jose, Gerona,La Paz and Tarlac City as well as in Bataan, NuevaEcija, Bulacan and Metro Manila. Pampanganhas about 1,900,000 speakers. It is also calledKapampangan, Pampango and Pampangueo.

Hiligaynon

Hiligaynon is the language of the provincesof Iloilo and Negros Occidental in WesternVisayas. It is also spoken in Capiz and someparts of Mindanao. There are around 5,770,000Hiligaynon speakers in the Philippines (2000),about less than 10 percent of the population.It is popularly called Ilonggo. Filipino novelistsMagdalena Jalandoni and Ramon Muzoneswrote in Hiligaynon.

Some Major Languages of the Philippin

Bikol

The Bikol group of the Bicol Region insouthern Luzon has eight languages: BuhinoBikol, Central Bikol, Libon Bikol, Miraya Bikol,Northern Catanduanes Bikol, Rinconada BikoSouthern Catanduanes Bikol and West AlbayBikol. Aside from these, the region also speakNorthern Sorsoganon, Southern SorsoganonMasbatenyo and Agta languages. What manpeople regard as simply Bikol or Bikolano isCentral Bikol, which is the language of Nagaand Legaspi, the two most important cities othe region. It is also spoken in Camarines NoCamarines Sur, southern Catanduanes, northSorsogon, and Albay. There are about 2,500,0Central Bicolano speakers, about seven perceof the population (1990). For all the Bikollanguages, there are 4,580,000 (2000).

Tausug

Tausug is spoken in the Sulu ArchipelagPalawan, Basilan, Zamboanga City and enviro

It is also spoken in Indonesia and Malaysia.There are about 1,100,000 speakers.

Pangasinan

The Pangasinan language is spoken byabout two million people in the province ofPangasinan.

Mranaw

The Mranaw language is spoken in theprovinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao delSur in Mindanao. There are about 7,800,000speakers.

WarayThe Waray language is spoken in north

east Samar-Leyte islands and Biliran of EasterVisayas. It is also called Waray-Waray, SamarnSamareo, Samarenyo and Samar-Leyte. Theare 2,560,000 speakers (2000).

Chavacano

The Chavacano language is spoken inZamboanga and Basilan provinces, particulain Kabasalan, Siay, Margosatubig, Ipil, MalangLapuyan, Buug, Tungawan, Alicia, Isabela,Lamitan, Maluso, Malamawi, as well as inCotabato City, and Ternate in Cavite and Erm

in Manila. It is a creole with predominantlySpanish vocabulary and Philippine-typegrammatical structure.

Maguindanaoan

The Maguindanaoan language is spokein Maguindanao, Cotabato, South Cotabato,Sultan Kudarat, and Zamboanga del Surprovinces. There are 1,100,000 speakers (2010

Reference

Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 17th edition, edited by M. Paul Lewis, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D.Fennig, 2013, SIL International, Dallas, Texas.

POLITICS OF LANGUAGE...From page 3