HISTORY OF THE SPANISH LANGUAGE IN THE PHILIPPINES

The Spanish language, whilst not always being the most spoken language in the Philippines, has been an integral
part of Filipino society for over 400 years.

The Spanish language arrived in the Philippines in the mid-16th century. During 333 years of Spanish rule the
Philippines failed to embrace the language in a similar manner to Latin America. Nevertheless, Spanish flourished
there in the early 20th century before being cast aside in favor of Tagalog and English.

The Introduction of Spanish to the Philippines

When Miguel López de Legazpi, a Spanish conquistador, landed on the island of Cebu in 1565 he brought the
Spanish language with him. King Philip II (r. 1554-1598) decreed that Spanish authorities in the Philippines should
to teach the natives Spanish. In practice, however, the missionaries realized that teaching all the locals Spanish
would be difficult. They decided it would easier to learn the indigenous languages of the Philippines and preach to
the locals using their own language.

Certain Spanish words, however, were introduced. For example, the Tagalog people believed in a supreme being
called Bathala. In order to avoid confusion between Bathala and the Christian God, the missionaries introduced the
Spanish word Dios, or “God”.

Spanish Fails to Become Widely Spoken in the Philippines

When Spanish rule of the Philippines came to an end in 1898 Spanish was the first language of around 10-15% of
the population. In the countrys capital, Manila, approximately 50% of people spoke Spanish.

In 1863 Queen Isabel II (r. 1833-1868) sought the establishment of a public school system that would see at least
one school for boys and girls in each town. The primary language of instruction was Spanish. Filipino academic,
Guillermo Gómez Rivera, states in Statistics: Spanish Language in the Philippines that Agustin de la Cavada y
Mendez de Vigo estimated that 2.8% of the population spoke Spanish in 1870—the year the study was published.
It is clear that Isabel IIs insistence on Spanish being the primary language at schools had an effect on the amount of
Spanish speakers given that the figure had risen to 10-15% by 1898. Had the same stringent policy been seen
through in the early years of Spanish rule, the language may have been entrenched into the Filipino psyche, much
like it is in Latin America.

The End of Spanish Rule in the Philippines

After the departure of the Spanish, the three unrecognized successor states—the Philippine Republic, the Republic
of Negros and the Republic of Zamboanga—all adopted Spanish has their official languages.

The turn of the 20th century brought American rule over the Philippines. As a result, the English language was
promoted in schools and the government opted to conduct its business in English. Nonetheless, their efforts were in
vain as Spanish continued to grow. In fact, Gómez Rivera alludes to Luciano de la Rosas article entitled Aves de
Rapiña, or “Birds of Prey”, in El Renacimiento when he says that a 60% of the population speak Spanish as a
second language. Gómez Rivera says that would mean 70% of Filipinos spoke Spanish between the 1890 and
1940.

Spanish politician, Rafael Rodriguez-Ponga, says in Pero ¿cuántos hablan español en Filipinas? that 70% may be
an exaggeration. He claims that Gómez Rivera only counted people in major cities and those who spoke different
varieties of Spanish, as well as varying degrees of knowledge of the language.

The Decline of Spanish in the Philippines

Spanish had been an intrinsic part of Filipino life in the first few decades of the 20th century. The children that had
been educated in Spanish as result of Isabel IIs policy had grown up and continued to speak Spanish.

English had become the primary language of instruction at schools and universities and those children that had
been educated in English at the beginning of the 20th century were adults by the 1930-40s. Consequently, English
became more influential in daily life.

In 1973 Spanish—which had been listed has an official language of the Philippines in all previous constitutions—
lost its status as an official language. It would get it back shortly after only to lose it once again in 1987. The 1987
constitution states that Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English are co-official languages, whilst Spanish and
Arabic are optional languages.

Spanish in the Philippines Today

It is nigh-on impossible to determine how many Spanish speakers there are in the Philippines because censuses do
not distinguish between Spanish and Spanish-based creoles, such as Chabacano.

Some older people have a working knowledge of Spanish given the fact that it used to be a compulsory subject at
university. Lawyers also have a good grasp of the language since the legal code is drafted in Spanish.

Efforts are being made to increase the use of Spanish, especially since much of the countrys history is written in it.
Former President of the Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, made the study of Spanish compulsory in schools.

HISTORY AND ORIGIN

The history of the Spanish language in the Philippines is not an illustrious one, even though
Spanish first reached the Philippines in the second half of the sixteenth century, and the
country remained a Spanish territory for over 300 years. The history of the Spanish language in
the Philippines began roughly around the year 1571 when the islands were incorporated into
the Spanish crown. As compared to the American region, Spanish did not become the prime
language of the Philippines.
The reasons for this lack of acceptance were numerous. Firstly, there were too few Spanish
settlers in the Philippines. Secondly, because of the geographical distance from peninsular
Spain, the Philippines were never at the center of Spanish attention.
Conflict and Issues
Though education was a priority, there was a lack of trained Spanish teachers, and the schools
lacked adequate facilities. Even the missionaries instructed the natives in their own language
and not in Spanish. The Filipino’s exposure to Spanish was, therefore, minimal.
In the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, attempts were made to make the learning of
Spanish obligatory, but like all other attempts in the history of the Spanish language in the
Philippines, it was a slow and half-hearted attempt, and it was brought to a halt with the
Spanish-American war in 1898, after which the Philippines became a U.S. territory. The
American conquest marks the end of the history of the Spanish language in the Philippines.
Despite these obstacles, Spanish was the language of government, education, and trade
throughout the Spanish colonial period. In the first half of the seventeenth century, a Tagalog-
Chinese printer, Tomas Pinpin, wrote a book in to teach the citizens of the Philippines the
Castilian Spanish dialect.
Established as a Common and Official Language
It became the common language of the educated and elite class in the Philippines. The famous
Filipino patriotic idol Jose Rizal and others wrote most of their works in the Spanish dialect.
Spanish was also the language of the Philippine Revolution.
After 1898, the USA instituted a program of anglicizing the country by spending vast sums on
establishing the usage of English. English was made the official language as well as the medium
of instruction in schools and universities.
From 1935, Spanish and English co-existed as official languages in the Philippines, but the
Philippine Constitution of 1987 withdrew this status from Spanish. Thus according to the
constitution, Pilipino (i.e., Tagalog) and English are the official languages of communication and
instruction, while “Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.”
Other Spanish Variants
The Spanish language in the Philippines has influenced not only the Standard Tagalog dialect
but also its several other variants spoken in different parts of the country. Today, there are
more than two million Spanish speakers in the Philippines apart from those who speak some
form of Spanish Creole dialect.
The Spanish Language and Culture Institute in Manila claims the number of Spanish speakers in
the Philippines to be around three million, which includes speakers who communicate Spanish
and consider it as one of the languages for their routine interactions.

Spanish in the Philipinnes
Spanish is a language of historical and cultural significance in the Philippines

Spanish ceased to be an official language of the Philippines in 1987. In this country most native languages are part
of the Philippine branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is itself a branch of the Austronesian language
family. The only non-Austronesian Spanish-Asiatic language indigenous to the Philippines is Chavacano
(Chabacano), a Spanish-based creole which developed in the southern Philippines. The Chavacano language is the
only Spanish-based creole in Asia. It has survived for more than 400 years, making it one of the oldest creole
languages in the world. According to the official 2000 Philippine census, there were altogether 607,200 Chavacano
speakers in the Philippines in that same year. The exact figure could be higher as the 2000 population
of Zamboanga City, whose main language is Chavacano, far exceeded that census figure.1 There are thousands of
Spanish loanwords in 170 Philippine languages. Spanish is still spoken today and maintained by mestizo families,
and thousands of people around the country, particulary in the provinces of Cebu, Zamboanga and Bacolod.

Spanish was an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish rule in 1565 to a constitutional
change in 1973. During Spanish colonization (1565-1898), it was the language of government, trade and education,
and spoken as a first language by Spaniards and educated Filipinos. In the mid-nineteenth century, the colonial
government set up a free public education system with Spanish as the medium of instruction. This increased use of
Spanish throughout the islands led to the formation of a class of Spanish-speaking intellectuals called
the Ilustrados. However, Spanish was never spoken by the majority of the population.

The Philippines was a Spanish colony for 333 years (1565-1898). Much of the history and culture is embedded in
the language. There are an estimated 13 million manuscripts from the 16th century to 1898 which include
government documents, economics, trade disputes, legal matters, patriotic material, religious material, registrations
etc. Up to the 60s, birth certificates were in both English and Spanish. There is still a very strong need to translate a
great number of historical documents. Courts of law still recognize documents written in Spanish.

Spanish was used by the first Filipino patriots. It was used to write the country’s first constitution, Constitución
Política de Malolos, Noli Me Tangere, the original national anthem, and nationalistic propaganda material, and
thus should be considered a national language. The Political Constitution of 1899 (Spanish: Constitución Política
de 1899), informally known as the Malolos Constitution was the basic law of the First Philippine Republic.
Philippine nationalism was first propagated in the Spanish language.

Despite American administration after the defeat of Spain in the Spanish-American War in 1898, the usage of
Spanish continued in Philippine literature and press during the early years of American rule. Gradually, however,
the American government began increasingly promoting the use of English, and it characterized Spanish as a
negative influence of the past. Eventually, by the 1920s, English became the primary language of administration
and education. But despite a significant decrease in influence and speakers, Spanish remained an official language
of the Philippines when it became independent in 1946, alongside English and Filipino, a standardized version
of Tagalog.

Unlike in the Americas then, Spanish never came to be the general language of the Philippines. There were efforts
in the late 18th and 19th centuries to expand the provision of free schooling, which involved the obligatory
teaching of Spanish. However, the slow process of Hispanization came to an abrupt halt in 1898, when sovereignty
was ceded to the USA. The USA spent vast sums on establishing the usage of English in the Islands and
on dismantling the educational apparatus set up by the previous administration. From 1935, Spanish and English
co-existed as official languages in the Philippines, but in the Philippine Constitution of 1987 this status was
withdrawn from Spanish. Thus according to the constitution, Pilipino (ie. Tagalog) and English are the official
languages of communication and instruction, while ‘Spanish and Arabic shall be promoted on a voluntary and
optional basis’.

Spanish was removed from official status in 1973 under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, but regained its
status as an official language two months later under Presidential Decree No. 155, dated 15 March 1973. It
remained an official language until 1987, with the ratification of the present constitution, in which it was re-
designated as a voluntary and optional auxiliary language.2 Manila is home to the main East Asian branch of
the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish government’s official overseas institute for the promotion of Spanish language
and Latin American culture. The Spanish language enjoys popularity as a language of choice for learning a foreign
language among new generations of young Filipinos.

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