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Origin of the Filipino Language




Filipino language has rich and I would say like a other languages - complicated. But Filipinos being who they are, adds flavour to everything.

The Filipino is based on the language of the Tagalog or “taga ilog" or “of the river". 

The Philippines is composed my thousands of islands, thus the country have many languages - some related to one another, some unique in many ways. Each province has its own or even more, plus the Europeans and the Americans “colonizers” also introduced their own, now creating misunderstandings to the Filipinos. Even before the Spanish era, it was the number one problem of the Filipinos - many provinces of the Philippines want independence from Spain but they couldn't easily unite as one because of language barrier which I think worsen because the Spanish only taught their language to the rich Filipino families unlike in Mexico. Still, even with language differences, 8 primary provinces revolted against Spain.

***just a note: all of Spain's colonies adopted the Spanish language except for the Philippines. I think the reason behind was that the Spanish knew the power of a single language, what could a united languge do to an oppressed nation - slaved for more than 300 years. The Mexicans learned their language and understood their laws and revolted against them.

Now, back to the topic. Under President Manuel Roxas, he wanted to unite all the islands of his nation with a single language. There were nominated languages, the Tagalog, Waray, Pampango and many more. Finally, with the criteria on hand, the language of the Tagalog people became the official language of the Philippines. Since then, it is now being taught to every public school around the country.

Published: April 9, 2019

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