PHILIPPINES

The Philippines (About this soundlisten) Filipino: Pilipinas or Filipinas , officially the Republic of the
Philippines (Filipino: Republika ng Pilipinas), is an archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Situated in the
western Pacific Ocean, it consists of about 7,641 islands that are categorized broadly under three main
geographical divisions from north to south: Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. The capital city of the
Philippines is Manila and the most populous city is Quezon City, both part of Metro Manila. Bounded by
the South China Sea on the west, the Philippine Sea on the east and the Celebes Sea on the southwest,
the Philippines shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the northeast, Vietnam to
the west, Palau to the east, and Malaysia and Indonesia to the south.

The Philippines' location on the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes the Philippines prone
to earthquakes and typhoons, but also endows it with abundant natural resources and some of the
world's greatest biodiversity. The Philippines has an area of 300,000 km2 (120,000 sq mi), according to
the Philippines Statistical Authority and the WorldBank and, as of 2015, had a population of at least 100
million.As of January 2018, it is the eighth-most populated country in Asia and the 12th most populated
country in the world. Approximately 10 million additional Filipinos lived overseas, comprising one of the
world's largest diasporas. Multiple ethnicities and cultures are found throughout the islands. In
prehistoric times, Negritos were some of the archipelago's earliest inhabitants. They were followed by
successive waves of Austronesian peoples. Exchanges with Malay, Indian, Arab and Chinese nations
occurred. Then, various competing maritime states were established under the rule of datus, rajahs,
sultans and lakans.

The arrival of Ferdinand Magellan, a Portuguese explorer leading a fleet for the Spanish, in Homonhon,
Eastern Samar in 1521 marked the beginning of Hispanic colonization. In 1543, Spanish explorer Ruy
López de Villalobos named the archipelago Las Islas Filipinas in honor of Philip II of Spain. With the
arrival of Miguel López de Legazpi from Mexico City, in 1565, the first Hispanic settlement in the
archipelago was established. The Philippines became part of the Spanish Empire for more than 300
years. This resulted in Catholicism becoming the dominant religion. During this time, Manila became the
western hub of the trans-Pacific trade connecting Asia with Acapulco in the Americas using Manila
galleons.

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, the Philippine Revolution quickly followed, which then
spawned the short-lived First Philippine Republic, followed by the bloody Philippine–American War. The
war, as well as the ensuing cholera epidemic, resulted in the deaths of thousands of combatants as well
as tens of thousands of civilians. Aside from the period of Japanese occupation, the United States
retained sovereignty over the islands until after World War II, when the Philippines was recognized as an
independent nation. Since then, the unitary sovereign state has often had a tumultuous experience with
democracy, which included the overthrow of a dictatorship by a non-violent revolution.

The Philippines is a founding member of the United Nations, World Trade Organization, Association of
Southeast Asian Nations, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit. It also
hosts the headquarters of the Asian Development Bank.The Philippines is considered to be an emerging
market and a newly industrialized country, which has an economy transitioning from being based on
agriculture to one based more on services and manufacturing. Along with East Timor, the Philippines is
one of Southeast Asia's predominantly Christian nations.
NATIONAL AND OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

The 1987 Constitution declares Filipino as the national language of the country. Filipino and English are
the official languages, with the recognition of the regional languages as auxiliary official in their
respective regions (though not specifying any particular languages). Spanish and Arabic are to be
promoted on an optional and voluntary basis.

Spanish was the official language of the country for more than three centuries under Spanish colonial
rule, and became the lingua franca of the Philippines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1863, a
Spanish decree introduced universal education, creating free public schooling in Spanish. It was also the
language of the Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution effectively proclaimed it as the
official language of the First Philippine Republic. National hero José 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 USAT Thomas replaced the soldiers who also functioned as teachers. The
1935 Constitution added English as an official language alongside Spanish. A provision in this
constitution also called for Congress to "take steps toward the development and adoption of a common
national language based on one of the existing native languages." On November 12, 1937, the First
National Assembly created the National Language Institute. President Manuel L. Quezón appointed
native 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, on the basis that it was the most widely spoken and
developed local language.

In 1939, President Manuel L. Quezón renamed the Tagalog language as Wikang Pambansa ("national
language" in English translation). 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. In
addition, Spanish regained its official status when President Marcos signed Presidential Decree No. 155,
s. 1973.

The present constitution, ratified in 1987, designates Filipino and English as joint official languages.
Filipino also had the distinction of being a national language that was to be "developed and enriched on
the basis of existing Philippine and other languages." Although not explicitly stated in the constitution,
Filipino is in practice almost completely composed of the Tagalog language as spoken in the capital,
Manila; however, organizations such as the University of the Philippines began publishing dictionaries
such as the UP Diksyonaryong Filipino in which words from various Philippine languages were also
included. The present constitution is also the first to give recognition to other regional languages. The
constitution also made mention of Spanish and Arabic, both of which are to be promoted on a voluntary
and optional basis.
Language map of the 12 recognized auxiliary languages based on Ethnologue maps.

Filipino is an official language of education and also the major language of the broadcast media and
cinema, but less important than English as a language of publication (except in some domains, like comic
books) and less important for academic-scientific-technological discourse. Filipino is used as a lingua
franca in all regions of the Philippines as well as within overseas Filipino communities, and is the
dominant language of the armed forces (except perhaps for the small part of the commissioned officer
corps from wealthy or upper-middle-class families) and of a large part of the civil service, most of whom
are non-Tagalogs.

There are different forms of diglossia that exist in the case of regional languages. Locals may use their
mother tongue or the regional lingua franca to communicate amongst themselves, but sometimes
switch to foreign languages when addressing outsiders. Another is the prevalence of code-switching to
English when speaking in both their first language and Tagalog.

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. Filipinos at large are polyglots; 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 non-formal settings. This is evident in major
urban areas outside Metro Manila like Camarines Norte in the Bikol-speaking area, and Davao in the
Cebuano-speaking area. As of 2017, the case of Ilocano and Cebuano are becoming more of bilingualism
than diglossia due to the publication of materials written in these languages.[citation needed]

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. Although Philippine laws consider some of these
languages as "major languages" there is little, if any, support coming from the government to preserve
these languages. This may be bound to change, however, given current policy trends.

There still exists another type of diglossia, which is between the regional languages and the minority
languages. Here, we label the regional languages as acrolects while the minority languages as the
basilect. In this case, the minority language is spoken only in very intimate circles, like the family or the
tribe one belongs to. Outside this circle, one would speak in the prevalent regional language, while
maintaining an adequate command of Filipino for formal situations. Unlike the case of the regional
languages, these minority languages are always in danger of becoming extinct because of speakers
favoring the more prevalent regional language. Moreover, most of the users of these languages are
illiterate[specify] and as expected, there is a chance that these languages will no longer be revived due
to lack of written records.[citation needed]

Aside from the two official nationwide languages used in the Philippines, namely, Filipino and English,
other languages have been proposed as additional nationwide languages. Among the most prominent
proposals are Japanese, and Spanish.