Lesson 1 LANGUAGES IN THE PHILIPPINES: AN OVERVIEW

Objectives:

At the end of this lesson, the students will be able to:

1. Identify the languages in the Philippines;

2. React on issues regarding current linguistic situations in the Philippines.

What is Language?

Language is a system of conventional spoken or written symbols used by the

people in a shared culture to communicate with each other. It is a system of arbitrary
sounds used by a community for communication.

Classification of Philippine Languages

The term “Philippine language” has been used ambiguously in literature. It is used to
refer either to “any language native to the Philippines, without regard to its genetic
affiliation” or to “any member of a putative subgroup of Austronesian languages
located in the Philippine Islands” (Blust, 1991). In this article, the term “Philippine
language” (PL) is used to refer to the genetic sense and “languages in the Philippines” is
used to denote purely geographical or political reference.

Philippine languages belong to the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of the

Austronesian language family. The Austronesian language family, the largest existing
language family in terms of the number of its member languages, spreads from
Malagasy (in Madagascar) to the Rapanui (in Easter Island), and from Formosan
languages (in Taiwan) to Maori (in New Zealand) (Adelaar & Himmelman, 2005).

Philippine languages can be further classified into microgroups as can be seen in the
following table.

Table 1: Language microgroups of the Philippines (Blust, 1991)

Language versus dialect

Most speakers and users of Philippine languages, including the national mass media,
have little, if not none, idea regarding the status of their own native language. They
often refer to them as “dialects”, with only English and Filipino having the official status of
“languages” in their minds.

There are two kinds of criteria that are used to distinguish languages from dialects:
social and political; and linguistic. The first typically view “languages” as prestigious,
official and written, while “dialects” are mostly spoken, unofficial, and associated with
groups lacking in prestige (Chambers & Trudgill, 2004).

Linguists, however, use different criteria. If speakers of the two speech varieties can
have a conversation and understand each other, they are using “dialects” of a single
language. In contrast, if speakers of the two speech varieties converse and do not
understand each other, they are using two distinct languages. This criterion is
called mutual intelligibility. In this criterion, Cebuano, Ilocano, Masbatenyo, Waray,
among others, are languages and not merely dialects. On the other hand, the Tagalog
varieties spoken in Batangas, Rizal, and other southern Tagalog areas are dialects of the
Tagalog language.

Table 2: Mutual intelligibility in Philippine languages (Wikipedia)

 Dialectal variation varies from language to language. Tagalog and Kapampangan
have very moderate dialectal variation. Dialects of Bikol, however, exhibit great
dialectal variation. Bikol is an example of a macrolanguage: a set of related
languages/dialects that must be very closely related and that there must be some
domain in which a single language identity is recognized. It consists of the following
dialects: Central Bikol, Northern Catanduanes Bikol, Southern Catanduanes Bikol,
Rinconada Bikol, West Albay Bikol, Libon, Miraya, Buhi’non. Bisayan languages (e.g
Masbatenyo, Hiligaynon, Waray, Cebuano), on the other hand, exhibit a high rate of
mutual intelligibility.

Another measure for distinguishing a language from a dialect is grammar. If the

speech variety has different grammar, then it is a different language.

Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, can be considered the Tagalog
variety spoken in Metro Manila, sharing identical grammar with other Tagalog varieties
(Nolasco, 2007).

There are 187 distinct living languages in the Philippines, including the Filipino Sign
Language (FSL), according to the latest edition of Ethnologue (2015). Of these, 183 are
living and 4 are extinct. Of the living languages, 41 are institutional, 73 are developing,
45 are vigorous, 13 are in trouble, and 11 are dying.

References:
Adoyo, Cristina. (2014). Language of the Philippines. Retrieved from
https://www.slideshare.net/cristinaadoyo/language-of-the-philippines

https://blog.senti.com.ph/the-philippine-linguistic-situation-18a69f14a1b7