Philippine English
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Philippine English is the variation of American English used in the Philippines by the media and the vast majority of educated Filipinos. English is officially taught at schools. It is one of the two official languages of the Republic of the Philippines, the other being Filipino (standardized dialect of Tagalog).
Most Filipinos understand, write and speak English, Tagalog and their respective languages. English is used in education, churches, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, and business, though the number of people who use it as a second language far outnumber those who speak it as a first language (see List of countries by English-speaking population). Still, for highly technical subjects such as medicine, programming, calculus, English is the preferred medium for textbooks, communication, etc. Very few would prefer highly technical books in the vernacular. Movies and TV programs in English are not subtitled and are expected to be directly understood.
Philippine English per se (as opposed to American English) is not endorsed by academics, language or business institutions nor is it taught nor promoted by the said institutions. However, most schools in the Philippines, whose teachers are not native speakers of English and thus think using Austronesian instead of Germanic grammatical structures, employ the use of this variant.
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[edit] Orthography and grammar
Philippine English generally follows American standards, except when it comes to punctuation, where a comma almost never precedes the final item in an enumeration.
[edit] Vocabulary and usage
Philippine English shares vocabulary with other English dialects, but it shares most similarities with American English.
Some words and phrases and their respective definitions or uses are peculiar to Philippine English and may not appear in most English dialects. Some examples are:
- Batch - A graduating class.
- Barbecue - Roasted meat must be cut into pieces and put into a stick in order to qualify being called "barbecue".
- Biscuit - An American cracker (as opposed to a British cookie).
- Boundary - An amount public transport drivers pay their operators daily; any excess belongs to the driver as his daily wage. (jargon)
- Brownout - Blackout, power failure.
- Blackout - Same as brownout, but implies widespread power outage.
- Carabao - A water buffalo.
- Chit - A restaurant bill.
- Commute - Same meaning as in other forms of English, but is almost always used to refer to the act of taking public transportation.
- Commuter - Same meaning as in other forms of English, but implies one who takes public transport (rarely used to refer to motorists, often excluding them).
- Coupon Bond - Bond paper. Coupon here is pronounced /kopon/ not /kyupon/.
- Course - While also used to refer to individual classes/subjects (as in other forms of English), a "course" often refers to an entire degree program.
- C.R. (Comfort Room) - Toilet, bathroom.
- Dine-in - "Eat in", "for here"
- Duster - A loose house dress.
- For a while - Used on the telephone to mean "please wait".
- Get down / go down (a vehicle) - "Get off". Derived from Tagalog context ("Bumaba ka", literally meaning "get down").
- Open/ close the light/computer/TV - Turn/switch on /off the light/computer/TV .
- Officemate - a co-worker
- Remembrance - A souvenir or memento.
- Rubber shoes - Sneakers or athletic shoes.
- Rotonda - Spanish loanword assimilated into many Filipino languages, meaning roundabout/traffic circle.
- Salvage - A slang word for summary execution. The meaning evolved from frequent usage in sentences similar to 'The corpse was salvaged from the Pasig river' from "salvage" meaning recovered or found. The victim would usually be a victim of summary execution. The word may also be related to the Spanish-derived Tagalog slang "sinalbahe" (literally "turned bad").
- Step-in - Stylish ladies' sandals minus the strap.
- Short-time - Used to describe a short time stay (2-3 hours) at a love hotel for sex.
- Stow away - Run away from home.
- The other day - Used specifically to refer to the "day before yesterday" (from the Tagalog expression "noong isang araw").
- Thrice - Three times. While it's also used in other forms of English, it's much more prevalent in Philippine English.
- Traffic - implies a traffic jam. Often used as an adjective, referring to heavy traffic volume.
- Gay - Whereas in the U.S., it refers only to homosexuals, in the Philippines, it includes homosexuals, transsexuals, crossdressers and effeminate men. (see Homosexuality in the Philippines).
- Tomboy - A boyish lesbian. A "tomboy" is almost always presumed to be a lesbian, although the word is rarely used for feminine-looking lesbians.
- Yaya - Adopted Hindi word (aya) for nanny. Strictly not a Philippine English word, often used out of a lack of a better term.
[edit] Phonology
Among mother-tongue speakers, the phonology of Philippine English almost completely resembles that of the North American variant, while the speech of non-native speakers is influenced to varying degrees by Tagalog and other indigenous Philippine languages. Since many English phonemes are not found in most Philippines languages, pronunciation approximations are extremely common although never among native Anglophones.
Some examples include:
- Filipino = [pili'pino] or [pʰili'pʰino]
- Victor = [bik'tor]
- Family = ['pɐmili] or ['pʰamili]
- Varnish = ['barnis]
- Fun = [pɐn] or [pʰan]
- Vehicle = ['bɛhikel] or ['bɛhikol]
- Lover = ['lɐber] or loob-er
- Find = ['pɐjnd] or ['pʰɐjnd]
- Official = [o'pisʲɐl] or [o'pʰisʲɐl]
- Very = ['bɛri] or ['bejri]
- Hamburger = ['hɐmburdzʲɐr]
- High-tech = ['hajtɛts]
- Margarine = [mɐrgɐ'rin]
The above list applies mainly to Tagalog speakers, or tagalophones; a number of other Philippine languages employ phonemes such as [f], [v], and [z]. It should also be noted that this form of mispronunciation, caused by the limited sound inventories of Philippine languages compared to English (which has more than 40 phonemes), is generally frowned upon by Anglophone Filipinos, in particular, and and businesses dealing with international clients.
[edit] History
Although the first exposure to English was in 1762-1764 when the British invaded Manila, English from that time never had any lasting influence. English was assimilated when the United States took over the Philippines. In 1898, Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, and thereafter the Americans controlled the Philippines until it gained its independence in 1946. The Americans established a system of public education wherein English was used as the main language of instruction. After independence, the Philippine government continued public education in English, while simultaneously establishing Filipino as its national language. A parallel system of private schools, many of which were established by the Catholic and the Protestant churches, follows the dual-language system, although private schools tend to use English more than Filipino in their instruction.
[edit] Industries based on English
The abundant supply of English speakers and competitive labor costs has enabled the Philippines to become the choice of foreign companies to establish call centers and outsourcing industry. English proficiency sustains a major call center industry. As of 2005, America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in what used to be the US Air Force's Clark Air Base in Angeles City answering ninety percent of AOL's global e-mail inquiries. Citibank does its global ATM programming locally. Procter & Gamble has over 400 employees in Makati, a Manila suburb, doing back-up office work for their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing. See Call center industry in the Philippines
Another industry based on English proficiency in the Philippines is the operation of English as a Second Language schools. English language centers, especially in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, attract foreigners, especially Korean and Japanese students, for training in English.
[edit] See also
- Tagalog language
- Taglish
- Englog (Konyo English)
- Special English
- History of the Philippines
- Philippine Literature in English
- Decreolization
[edit] External links
- The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines, by Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, with sections on Philippine English
- Reinstatement of English as a medium of instruction by the Department of Education
