Philippine Spanish | ||||
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Castellano / Español filipno | ||||
Spoken in | Philippines | |||
Native speakers | 2,660 (1990 census)[1] 439,000 (2007)[2][3] |
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Language family |
Indo-European
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Writing system | Spanish alphabet | |||
Language codes | ||||
ISO 639-1 | es | |||
ISO 639-2 | spa | |||
ISO 639-3 | spa | |||
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Spanish (as Castilian (castellano) or "Philippine Spanish" (español filipino)) was imposed as an official language of the Philippines from the beginning of Spanish rule since the times of Miguel López de Legazpi in the late 16th century, through American rule and independence, until the change of Constitution in 1973. Spanish was then redesignated an official language by Presidential decree, and remained official until a subsequent change in constitution in 1987 removed its official status.[4]
Spanish was the language of government, education and trade throughout the Spanish colonial period and continued to serve as a lingua franca until the first half of the 20th century.[5] Spanish was the official language of the Malolos Republic, according to the Malolos Constitution of 1899.[6] Spanish was also the official language of the Cantonal Republic of Negros of 1898 and the Republic of Zamboanga of 1899.[7]
During the early part of the U.S. administration of the Philippine Islands, Spanish was widely spoken and relatively well maintained throughout the American colonial period.[5][8] The English language was gradually imposed as the official language and medium of instruction in schools and universities and the Spanish language became gradually marginalized.[9][10] Even so, Spanish was a language that bound leading men in the Philippines like Trinidad Hermenegildo Pardo de Tavera y Gorricho to President Sergio Osmeña and even President Manuel Roxas. As a senator, Manuel L. Quezon (later president), delivered a speech in the 1920s entitled "Message to My People" in English and in Spanish.[11]
Spanish remained an official language of government until a new constitution ratified on January 17, 1973 designated English and Pilipino as official languages. Shortly thereafter, Presidential Proclamation No. 155 dated March 15, 1973 ordered that the Spanish language shall continue to be recognized as an official language so long as government documents in that language remained untranslated. A later constitution ratified in 1987 designated Filipino and English as official languages.[4] Also, under this Constitution, Spanish, together with Arabic, was designated a voluntary language.[12]
There are thousands of Spanish loanwords in 170 native Philippine languages, and Spanish orthography has influenced the spelling system used for writing most of these languages.[13] According to the 1990 Philippine census, there were 2,660 native Spanish speakers in the Philippines.[1] Francisco Moreno and Jaime Otero claimed that in 2007, native Spanish speakers comprised 439,000 people, which accounts for just 0.5% of the population[2][3] (88,574,614 total persons as of August 1, 2007).[14] In addition, an estimated 607,000 people speak Chabacano, a Spanish-based creole.[3] However, the Instituto Cervantes de Manila puts the number of Spanish speakers in the Philippines in the area of two to three million, which includes the native and the non-native Chabacano and Spanish speakers as well since there are some Filipinos who can speak Spanish and Chabacano as a second, third, or fourth language.[15]
Contents |
Spanish was first introduced to the Philippines in 1565, when the conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi, founded the first Spanish settlement on the island of Cebú.[16] The Philippines, ruled first from Mexico City and later from Madrid, was a Spanish territory for 333 years (1565–1898).[17] Schooling was a priority, however. The Augustinians opened a school immediately upon arriving in Cebú in 1565; the Franciscans followed suit when they arrived in 1577, as did the Dominicans when they arrived in 1587. Besides religious instruction, these schools taught how to read and write and imparted industrial and agricultural techniques.[18]
Initially, the stance of the Roman Catholic Church and its missionaries was to preach to the natives in local languages, not in Spanish. The priests learned the native languages and sometimes employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as Ladinos.[19] Before the 19th century, the natives generally were not taught Spanish. However, there were notable bilingual individuals such as poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén. Gaspar produced Christian devotional poetry written in the Roman script in the Tagalog language. Pasyon is a narrative of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ begun by Gaspar Aquino de Belén, which has circulated in many versions. Later, the Spanish-Mexican ballads of chivalry, the corrido, provided a model for secular literature. Verse narratives, or komedya, were performed in the regional languages for the illiterate majority.
In the early 17th century, a Tagalog-Chinese printer, Tomás Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized phonetic script to teach the Tagalogs how to learn Castilian. His book, published by the Dominican press where he worked, appeared in 1610, the same year as Blancas's Arte. Unlike the missionary's grammar (which Pinpin had set in type), the Tagalog native's book dealt with the language of the dominant rather than the subordinate other. Pinpin's book was the first such work ever written and published by a Philippine native. As such, it is richly instructive for what it tells us about the interests that animated Tagalog translation and, by implication, Tagalog conversion in the early colonial period.
By law, each town had to build two schools, one for boys and the other for girls, to teach the Spanish language and the Christian catechism. There were never enough trained teachers, however, and several provincial schools were mere sheds open to the rain. This discouraged the attendance at school and illiteracy was high in the provinces until the 19th century, when public education was introduced. The conditions were better in larger towns. To qualify as an independent civil town, a barrio or group of barrios had to have a priest's residence, a town hall, boys' and girls' schools; streets had to be straight and at right angles to one another so that the town could grow in size; the town had to be near a good water source and land for farming and grazing.[20]
Better school conditions in towns and cities led to more effective instruction in the Spanish language and in other subjects. Between 1600 and 1865, a number of colleges and universities were established, which graduated many important colonial officials and church prelates, bishops, and archbishops—several of whom served the church in Spanish America. The increased level of education eventually led to the rise of the Ilustrados. In 1846, French traveler Jean Baptiste Mallat was surprised at how advanced Philippine schools were.[18] In 1865, the government inaugurated the Escuela Normal (Normal School), an institute to train future primary school teachers. At the same time, primary schooling was made compulsory for all children. In 1869, a new Spanish constitution brought to the Philippines universal suffrage and a free press.[21] El Boletín de Cebú, the first Spanish newspaper in Cebu City, was published in 1886.[22]
In Manila, the Spanish language had been more or less widespread, to the point where it has been estimated at around 50% of the population knew Spanish in the late 19th century.[23] In his 1898 book "Yesterdays in the Philippines", covering a period beginning in 1893, the American Joseph Earle Stevens, an American who resided in Manila from 1893 to 1894, wrote:
“ |
Spanish, of course, is the court and commercial language and, except among the uneducated native who have a lingua of their own or among the few members of the Anglo-Saxon colony, it has a monopoly everywhere. No one can really get on without it, and even the Chinese come in with their peculiar pidgin variety.[24] |
” |
Long contact between Spanish and the local languages also gave rise to a series of pidgins and creoles. Spanish-based creole language is the language of a substantial proportion of the Philippine population.[25] Unsurprisingly, given that the Philippines was administrated for centuries from "New Spain" in Mexico, Philippine Spanish is broadly similar to American Spanish, not only in vocabulary, but in pronunciation and grammar.[26]
Although the Philippines were not as "hispanized" as the Spanish Americas, the Spanish language was the official language used by the civil and judicial administration, and was spoken by the majority of the population and understood by just everyone, specially after the passing the Education Decree of 1863. By the time Spanish rule came to an end, Spanish was the language of more than 60% of the population[8]
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the oldest educational institutions in the country were set up by Spanish religious orders. These schools and universities played a crucial role in the development of the Spanish language in the islands. Colegio de Manila in Intramuros was founded in 1590. The Colegio formally opened in 1595, and was one of the first schools in the Philippines.[27] During the same year, the University of San Carlos in Cebú, was established as the Colegio de San Ildefonso by the Jesuits. In 1611, the University of Santo Tomás, considered as the oldest existing university in Asia, was inaugurated in Manila by the Dominicans. In the 18th century, fluent male Spanish speakers in the Philippines were generally the graduates of these schools, as well as of the Colegio de San Juan de Letrán, established in 1620. In 1706, a convent school for Philippine women known as Beaterios was established. It admitted both Spanish and native girls, and taught Religion, Reading, Writing and Arithmetic with Music and Embroidery. Female graduates from Beaterios were fluent in the language as well. In 1859, Ateneo de Manila University was established by the Jesuits as the Escuela Municipal.[27]
In 1863, Queen Isabel II of Spain decreed the establishment of a public school system, following the requests of the Spanish authorities in the islands, who saw the need of teaching Spanish to the wider population. The primary instruction and the teaching of the Spanish language was compulsory. The Educational Decree provided for the establishment of at least one primary school for boys and girls in each town and governed by the municipal government. Normal school for male teachers was established and was supervised by the Jesuits.[28][29] In 1866, the total population of the Philippines was only 4,411,261. The total public schools was 841 for boys and 833 for girls and the total number of children attending these schools was 135,098 for boys and 95,260 for girls. In 1892, the number of schools had increased to 2,137, 1,087 of which were for boys and 1,050 for girls.[30] This measure was at the vanguard of contemporary Asian countries, and led to an important class of educated natives which sometimes followed their studies abroad, like national hero José Rizal, who studied in Europe. This class of writers, poets and intellectuals is often referred to as Ilustrados. Ironically, it was during the initial years of American occupation in the early 20th century, that Spanish literature and press flourished. This was the result both of a majority of Spanish-speaking population, as well as the partial freedom of the press which the American rulers allowed.
Before the 19th century, Philippine revolts were small-scale and did not extend beyond linguistic boundaries. Thus, they were easily neutralized by Spanish forces.[31] With the small period of the spread of Spanish through a free public school system (1863) and the rise of an educated class, nationalists from different parts of the archipelago were able to communicate in a common language. José Rizal's novels, Graciano López Jaena's satirical articles, Marcelo H. del Pilar's anti-clerical manifestos, the bi-weekly La Solidaridad which was published in Spain, and other materials in awakening nationalism were written in Spanish. The Philippine Revolution fought for reforms and later for independence from Spain. However, it did not oppose Spain's cultural legacy in the islands or the Spanish language.[32][33][34] Even Graciano López Jaena's La Solidaridad article in 1889 praised the young women of Malolos who petitioned to Governor-General Valeriano Weyler to open a night school to teach the Spanish language.[35] In fact, the Malolos Congress of 1899 chose Spanish as the official language. According to Horacio de la Costa, nationalism would not have been possible without Spanish.[31] by then increasingly aware of nationalistic ideas and independence movements in other countries.
Spanish was used by the first Filipino patriots like José Rizal, Andrés Bonifacio and, to a lesser extent,[36] Emilio Aguinaldo, who chose Spanish as the official, common, and unifying language of the newly-independent Malolos Republic.[6][36] Spanish was used to write the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato, Malolos Constitution, the original national anthem, Himno Nacional Filipino, as well as nationalistic propaganda material and literature.
Filipino nationalism (Spanish colonial period up to the early American colonial period), government reforms, the country's first two constitutions and historic novels were written in Spanish. While widely understood by the majority of the population, Spanish at this time was the unifying language since Tagalog was not as prominent or ubiquitous as it is today and each region had their own culture and language, and would rather speak in their local languages. Before the spread of Filipino nationalism, denizens of each region still thought of themselves as Ilocano, Cebuano, Bicolano, Waray, Tagalog etc., and not as Filipinos.
The term "Filipino" in its earliest sense referred to Spaniards born in the Philippines and also referred to as Insulares. Spanish-born Spaniards or mainland Spaniards residing in the Philippines were referred to as Peninsulares and they were characterized mostly in the 19th century Philippine history as corrupt bureaucrats. Peoples born in Spanish Americas or in the North American continent of New Spain who were residing in the Philippines were collectively referred to as Americanos. The Catholic Austronesian peoples of the Philippines were referred to as Indios and for those who were practicing the Islamic faith, Moros. The indigenous Aetas were referred to as Negritos. Chinese settlers were called Sangleyes. Japanese settlers were called Japoneses. Those of mixed ancestry were referred to as Mestizos or Tornatrás. In the 1800s, the term "Filipino" gradually became synonymous to anyone born in the Philippines regardless of race through the effort of the Insulares, from whom, Filipino nationalism began.
In 1863, the Spanish language was taught freely when a primary public school system was set up for the entire population. The Spanish-speaking Ilustrados (The Enlightened Ones), which included the Insulares, the Indios, the Mestizos, the Tornatrás, etc., were the educated elite who promoted and propagated nationalism and a modern Filipino consciousness. The Ilustrados and later writers formed the basis of Philippine Classical Literature which developed in the 19th century.
José Rizal propagated Filipino consciousness and identity in Spanish. One material highly instrumental in developing nationalism was the novels entitled Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo which exposed the abuses of the local Spanish government and clergy composed of Peninsulares. The novels' very own notoriety propelled its popularity even more among Filipinos. Reading it was forbidden because it exposed and parodied the Peninsulares in the Philippine Islands.
The revolutionary Malolos Republic of 1899 designated the Spanish language for official use in its constitution, drawn up during the Constitutional Convention in Malolos, Bulacan.[6][8][37] During this period, the nascent republic published a number of laws, acts, decrees, and other official issuances. These were published variously in the Spanish, English, and Tagalog languages, with the Spanish language predominating.[38] Spanish was also designated the official language of the Cantonal Republic of Negros of 1898 and the Republic of Zamboanga of 1899.[7]
Many Spanish-speaking Filipino families perished during the Philippine–American War. According to the historian James B. Goodno, author of the Philippines: Land of Broken Promises (New York, 1998), one-sixth of the total population of Filipinos or about 1.5 million died as a direct result of the war.[8][39][40]
With the era of the Philippines as a Spanish colony with its people as Spanish citizens[41] having just ended, a considerable amount of media, newspapers, radios, and government proceedings were still written and produced in Spanish. By law, the Taft Commission allowed their guests to use the language of their choice.[42] Ironically, the partial freedom of the press allowed by the American rulers served to further promote Spanish-language literacy among the masses. Even in the early 20th century, a hegemony of Spanish language was still in force.[5]
While the census of 1903 and of 1905 officially reported that the number of Spanish-speakers have never exceeded 10% of the total population during the final decade of the 19th century, it only considered Spanish speakers as their first and only language. It disregarded the Catholic Chinese Filipinos, many of whom spoke Spanish, and the creole-speaking communities.[8] Furthermore, those who were academically instructed in the public school system also used Spanish as their second or third language. These together would have placed the numbers at more than 60% of the 9,000,000 Filipinos of that era as Spanish-speakers.[8]
In the Eighth Annual Report by the Director of Education, David P. Barrows, dated August 1, 1908, the following observations were made about the use and extension of the Spanish language in the Philippines:
“ |
Of the adult population, including persons of mature years and social influence, the number speaking English is relatively small. This class speaks Spanish, and as it is the most prominent and important class of people in the Islands, Spanish continues to be the most important language spoken in political, journalistic and commercial circles.[8][43] |
” |
A 1916 report by Henry Ford to President Woodrow Wilson said
“ |
...as I traveled through the Philippine Islands, using ordinary transportation and mixing with all classes of people under all conditions. Although based on the school statistics it is said that more Filipinos speak English than any other language, no one can be in agreement with this declaration if they base their assessment on what they hear... Spanish is everywhere the language of business and social intercourse...In order for anyone to obtain prompt service from anyone, Spanish turns out to be more useful than English...And outside of Manila it is almost indispensable. The Americans who travel around all the islands customarily use it. The use of Spanish as an official language has been extended to January 1, 1920. Its general use seems to be spreading. Natives acquiring it learn it as a living speech. Everywhere they hear it spoken by leading people of the community and their ears are trained to its pronunciation. On the other hand, they (the natives) are practically without phonic standards in acquiring English and the result is that they learn it as a book language rather than as a living speech.[44] |
” |
Although the English language had begun to be heavily promoted and used as the medium of education and government proceedings, the majority of literature produced by indigenous Filipinos during this period was in Spanish.[23] Among the great Filipino literary writers of the period were Fernando M.a Guerrero, Rafael Palma, Cecilio Apóstol, Jesús Balmori, Manuel Bernabé, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Teodoro M. Kalaw.[45] This explosion of Spanish language in Philippine literature occurred because the middle and upper class Filipinos were educated in Spanish and Spanish language as a subject was offered in public schools. In 1936, Philippine sound films in Spanish began to be produced.[46] Filipinos experienced a partial freedom of expression, since the American authorities weren't too receptive to Filipino writers and intellectuals during most of the colonial period. As a result, Spanish had become the most important language in the country.[5]
Until the Second World War, Spanish was the language of Manila.[23] After the war, the English-speaking U.S. having won three wars [in 1898, against Spain (Spanish–American War); in 1913 (from Philippine–American War to Moro Rebellion) against the Filipino independence; in 1945 against Japan (Philippines Campaign)], the English language was imposed.[23]
The Spanish language flourished in the first two decades of the 20th century due to the partial freedom of the press and as an act of defiance against the new rulers. Spanish declined due to the imposition of English as the official language and medium of instruction in schools and universities.[9][10] The American administration increasingly forced editorials and newspapers to switch to English, leaving Spanish in a marginal position, so that Enrique Zóbel de Ayala founded the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española and the Premio Zóbel in 1924 to help maintain and develop the use of Spanish among the Filipino people.
The Americans propagated the Black Legend in Philippine history to the detriment of Spanish language and Hispanic culture. Neither did it help when some Filipino nationalists and nationalist historiographers during the American Colonial Period who took their liberal ideas from the writings of the 19th century Filipino Propaganda which portrayed Spain and all things Spanish as negative or evil. Therefore, Spanish as a language was demonized as a sad reminder of the past.[47] These ideas gradually inculcated into the minds of the young generation of Filipinos (during and after the American administration) who used those history textbooks at school that tended to generalize all Spaniards as villains due to lack of emphasis on Filipino people of Spanish ancestry who were also against the local Spanish government and clergy and also fought and died for the sake of freedom during the 19th century revolts, during the Philippine Revolution, during the Philippine–American War and during World War II.[48][49][50]
By the 1940s as children educated in English became adults, the Spanish language was starting to decline rapidly. Still, a very significant community of Filipino Spanish-speakers lived in the bigger cities, with a total population of roughly 300,000. However, with the destruction of Manila during the Japanese occupation in World War II, the heart of the Spanish language in the Philippines was dismantled.[51][52][53] Many Spanish-speaking Filipino families perished during the massacre and bombing of the cities and municipalities between 1942 and 1945. At the end of the war, an estimated 1 million Filipinos lost their lives.[54] Some of those Spanish-speakers who survived were forced to migrate in the later years.
After the war, Spanish became increasingly marginalized at an official level. As English and American-influenced pop culture increased, the use of Spanish in all aspects gradually declined. In 1962, when President Diosdado Macapagal decreed that the Philippines mark independence day on June 12 instead of July 4 which the country gained complete independence from the United States, it revealed a tendency to paint Spain as the villain and the United States as saviour, or the more benevolent colonial power.[55] The Spanish language and Hispanic culture was demonized again.[9] In 1973, Spanish briefly lost its status as an official language of the Philippines, was quickly redesignated as an official language, and finally did lose official status with the ratification of a subsequent constitution in 1987.[4]
The 21st century has seen a revival of interest in the language, with the numbers of those studying it formally at college or taking private courses rising markedly in recent years.[2] Today, the Philippine constitution provides that Spanish shall be promoted on a voluntary and optional basis.[56] A great portion of the history of the Philippines is written in Spanish and, up until recently, many land titles, contracts, newspapers and literature were still written in Spanish.[57] Today, Spanish is being somewhat revived in the Philippines by groups rallying to make it a compulsory subject in school.[58]
Republic Act No. 9187 was approved on February 5, 2003 and signed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declaring June 30 of every year as Philippine–Spanish Friendship Day to commemorate the cultural and historical ties, friendship and cooperation between the Philippines and Spain.[59] On July 3, 2006, the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines created Resolution No. 2006-028 urging the national government to support and promote the teaching of the Spanish language in all public and private universities and colleges in the Philippines.[60] On December 17, 2007, the Department of Education issued Memorandum No. 490, s. 2007 encouraging the secondary schools to offer basic and advance Spanish in the 3rd and 4th year levels respectively, as an elective.[61] As of December 2007, 41,780 Overseas Filipinos (permanent, temporary and irregular) are known to live in Spain adding a bulk to the number of Filipinos who can speak and write in Spanish.[62] As of 2008[update], there was a growing demand for Spanish-speaking agents in the call center industry as well as in the business process outsourcing in the Philippines for the Spanish and American market. Around 7,000 students were enrolled in the Spanish language classes of the Instituto Cervantes de Manila for the school year 2007–2008.[63] On December 11, 2008, the Department of Education issued Memorandum No. 560, s. 2008 that shall implement the Special Program in Foreign Language on a pilot basis starting school year 2009–2010. The program shall initially offer Spanish as a foreign language in one school per region, at two classes of 35 students each, per school.[64] As of 2009, the Spanish government has offered to fund a project and even offered scholarship grants to Spain for public school teachers and students who would like to study Spanish or take up a master’s degree in four top universities in Spain. The Spanish government has been funding the on-going pilot teacher training program about the Spanish language, involving two months of face-to-face classes and a 10-month on-line component.[65] Clásicos Hispanofilipinos is a project of Instituto Cervantes de Manila which aims to promote Filipino heritage and preserve and reintroduce the works of great Fil-Hispanic authors of the early 20th century to the new generation of Filipino Hispanophones. The Spanish novel of Jesús Balmori entitled Los Pájaros de Fuego (Birds of Fire) which was mostly written during the Japanese occupation was published by the Instituto last June 28, 2010.[66] King Juan Carlos I commented in 2007 that
“ |
In fact, some of the beautiful pages of Spanish literature were written in the Philippines.[67] |
” |
From 1565 to 1821, the Philippines was governed as a territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain which was centered in Mexico. It was only administered directly from Spain in 1821 after Mexico gained its independence that same year. Since the Philippines was a former territory of the Viceroyalty of New Spain for most of the Spanish colonial period, Spanish as was spoken in the Philippines had a greater affinity to American Spanish rather than that of Peninsular Spanish.
For Filipinos who studied Spanish in formal institutions, the tendency is to follow the Iberian dialect of the Spanish language called Castilian Spanish. Thus, these speakers will tend to employ the distinction between the sounds written "ll" /ʎ/[68][69] and "y" /j/.
With regard to the consonants, place names and other proper names tend to preserve the sound of /ll/. Examples of these are Cordillera (Filipino: Kordilyera), balyena (Spanish: ballena; whale), Padilla, Relleve, Villanueva and Arellano. This is known as Lleísmo. However, there still exist some few works where the sound of [j] is utilised. Most common of these examples are kabayo (Spanish: caballo; horse) and sibuyas (Spanish: cebollas; onions). This is known as yeísmo.
These speakers often also distinguish between the sounds written "z, c" /θ/ and "s" /s/. However, for the non-learned population, the sound written "z, c" /θ/ is generally merged with the sound written "s" /s/. Examples of this phenomenon are the names Ciriaco [siˈrjako], sédula [ˈsedula] (Spanish: cédula; document; Philippine English: community tax certificate/residence certificate) and sinturón (Spanish: cinturón; belt). This is known as seseo.
The sound called 'jota' is non-existent in any of the Philippine languages. In words that carry this grapheme, Filipinos usually realise the sound as [h]. Therefore, names such as 'José' is pronounces [hoˈse] instead of [xoˈse].
For most of the non-learned population, Spanish is acquired through Latin Music, or for some, especially the children by watching Dora the Explorer in Nickelodeon. For the learned population, Spanish is further enriched through watching Telenovelas from the internet or watching the cable channel of Televisión Española.[70] This results to the lack of general characteristics that describe its phonological system.
Old Mexican Spanish words entered into the lexicon of the indigenous languages of the Philippines. In fact, of the great number of Spanish loanwords that exist in the various Philippine languages, a few are actually derived from the words of some of the indigenous languages of the Americas that were first incorporated into American Spanish.[71] These include but not limited to:[72]
PHILIPPINE LOANWORD | ORIGIN | VIA MEXICAN SPANISH | ENGLISH EQUIVALENT |
---|---|---|---|
tsokolate | Nahuatl: xocolatl | chocolate | chocolate |
sayote | Nahuatl: chayotl | chayote | chayote |
kamote | Nahuatl: camotl | camote | sweet potato |
bayabas | Arawakan: guayabo | guayaba | guava |
papaya or kapayas | Cariban: papaya | papaya | papaya |
singkamas | Nahuatl: xicamatl | jícama | Mexican turnip |
Even words of Nahuatl origin penetrated into the Philippine languages such as nanay [from (Nahuatl: nantl); (mother)] and tatay [from (Nahuatl: tatl); (father)] as a direct result of the Manila galleon. Peninsular Spanish started to influence the vocabulary of Philippine languages after the Philippines was administered directly from Spain.
Diacritic marks are almost always left out, save for the tilde on the ñ, because of the use of American standard machines. Typewriters sometimes include the ñ, but they do not include accented vowels. Computer keyboards currently and have always used the U.S. standard layout, which includes neither ñ nor combining diacritics. Spanish words, however, are vocally stressed as they would be by Spanish speakers.
Some of the younger generation of Filipino Hispanophones are now following the Spanish orthographic convention of typing letters with diacritic marks (acute accents and diaeresis) as well as the inverted question and exclamation marks and the rest of the special characters and symbols found in Spanish orthography on their U.S. standard layout computer keyboards by using the AltGr key, Modifier key, Code page 437, Code page 850 or Microsoft Windows Alt Key Numeric Codes for character shortcuts.
Microsoft Windows Alt Key Numeric Codes for the Spanish language:[73][74]
NUMERIC CODE | CHARACTER DISPLAYED | NAME | NUMERIC CODE | CHARACTER DISPLAYED | NAME |
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uppercase A with accute accent |
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lowercase a with acute accent |
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uppercase E with acute accent |
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lowercase e with acute accent |
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uppercase I with acute accent |
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lowercase i with acute accent |
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uppercase O with acute accent |
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lowercase o with acute accent |
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uppercase U with acute accent |
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lowercase u with acute accent |
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uppercase U with umlaut |
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lowercase u with umlaut |
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uppercase N with tilde or eñe |
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lowercase n with tilde or eñe |
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masculine ordinal indicator |
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feminine ordinal indicator |
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inverted question mark |
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inverted exclamation mark |
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left angle quote or left guillemet |
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right angle quote or right guillemet |
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euro sign |
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pesetas (out of circulation) |
For the numero signs such as n.o and N.os, superior ordinal letters such as 1.o, 2.a and 3.er, superior letters such as F.ca, D.a, F.co, M.a and f.do, and superior numbers such as 8€50, you may use the superscript (hold down the Ctrl, the Shift and the =) and underline (highlight the text then hold down the Ctrl and the letter U) keyboard shortcuts.[75]
There are approximately 4,000 Spanish words in Tagalog (between 20% and 33% of Tagalog words),[2] and around 6,000 Spanish words in Visayan and other Philippine languages. The Spanish counting system, calendar, time, etc. are still in use with slight modifications. Archaic Spanish words have been preserved in Tagalog and the other vernaculars such as pera (coins), sabon [(Spanish: jabón) at the beginning of Spanish rule, the j used to be pronounced [ʃ], the voiceless postalveolar fricative or the "sh" sound; (soap)], relos [(Spanish: reloj) with the j sound; (watch)], kwarta (Old Spanish: cuarta; money), etc.[76] The Spaniards and the language are referred to as either Kastila or Katsila (mostly Visayan languages) after Castilla (Castile), the original Spanish Kingdom under which Spain was unified in 1492, which later became a Spanish region.
Chavacano, also called Zamboangueño, is a Spanish-based creole language spoken mainly in the southern province of Zamboanga and, to a much lesser extent, in the province of Cavite in the northern region of Luzon.[77] Chavacano became the main language in the Zamboanga City and some parts of Zamboanga Peninsula as a result of the migration into the area of a large number of workers who came from different linguistic regions to build military and other Spanish establishments.
While many Spanish words have made their way to Philippine languages, many of these words have had a shift in meaning and even construction from the original Spanish. This has resulted in false friends, related words that exist in two languages with different meanings. A sampling of these words are shown below:
WORD | LANGUAGE | MEANING IN THE PHILIPPINES | ORIGINAL SPANISH WORD | SPANISH MEANING |
---|---|---|---|---|
asár | Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as asá meaning roast or to roast) | to annoy | asar | roast |
astá | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (hasta meaning until or til then) | rude movements | hasta (in Arabic: Hatta) | until |
bale | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Vale for nice, beautiful) | well and worth, wages, advance pay | ok! and voucher or promissory note | |
balón | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Visayan, Chavacano | well/balloon | balón | ball |
banda | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon, Chavacano | within proximity of and band | banda | band, side |
barát | Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan | cheap | barato | cheap, low prices |
barkada | Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon | group of friends | barcada | boatload |
basta | Tagalog, Chavacano (also retains original meaning), Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan | as long as/secret | basta | enough, stop! |
bida | Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Vida) | lead actor/actress | vida | life |
bomba | Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (also retains it's meaning) | erotica/nudity and bomb | bomba | bomb, and impressive or surprising (slang) used as an exclamation ("la bomba!") |
chika | Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Chica) | gossip and girl | chica | girl |
entonses | Tagalog, Chavacano (spelled as entonces for 'then, afterwards') | elite class | entonces | then, afterwards |
impakto | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Cebuano, Hiligaynon | spirit causing temporary madness (originally elemental spirit from the earth) | impacto | impact, shock |
kasilyas | Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Chavacano (spelled as "casillas"), Ilocano | bathroom, toilet | casilla | square, cube, hut |
kerida | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Querido or Querida. same meaning as beloved) | mistress (only) | querida | dear (used for female loved ones including mothers, sisters, aunts, and friends) and mistress (when used as "la querida") |
kontrabida | Tagalog, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Contra Vida with the same meaning) | villain | contra vida | against life |
konyo | Tagalog, Chavacano (spelled as coño. synonyms to cúlo. also retain its meaning same in spanish "curse word or to be specific 'vagina') | rich or vain | coño | Exclamation and curse word (coño!) |
kubeta | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Cúbeta) | toilet, outhouse | cubeta | bucket |
kumustá | Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Cebuano | hello or How are you? / How is ___? | ¿Cómo está? | How are you? / How is ___? (only) |
kwarta | Cebuano, Hiligayno | money | cuarta | fourth, quarter (coin) |
letse | Cebuano, Tagalog, Chavacano (spelled as leche "milk") | Used as a curse word, but less often, as milk. | The expression: tener mala leche. | to be nasty, but literally, to have bad milk. |
lola | Tagalog, Cebuano, and other Philippine languages | grandmother | Lola | native nickname of Dolores |
madre | Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (also retain its meaning "mother") | nun (only) | madre | mother (parent) and nun |
maldito/a | Cebuano, Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano | bad | maldito/a | bad, damned |
mamón | Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (mamón, it means "cake") | fluffy bread | mamón (de "mamar"), mamón (de "mamas") | suckle (from mamar "to suckle") mammary glands (as in the English word "mammaries") Also papaya in the Caribbean |
maské, maskí | Tagalog, Chavacano (spelled masquen or mas que), Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan | even if | por más que/ más que | as much as; even if; even then;/more than |
mutsatsa | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Muchacha or Muchacho) | maid (only) | muchacha | maid (Mexico and Spain) and girl |
onse | Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano, Chavacano (spelled as 'Once') | eleven and hustle | once | eleven |
padre | Cebuano, Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan | priest (only, inflexible) | padre | father (parent) and priest |
palengke | Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, chavacano (spelled as palenque. mostly used that word "tiange or mercado") | market | palenque | palisade |
pare | Tagalog, Kapampangan | friend (slang) | Corruption of compadre, and not to be confused with pare, the polite imperative of stop. | godfather of one's child, friend |
parì | Cebuano, Tagalog, Hiligayno, Ilocano, Chavacano (Spelled as Parí "giving birth") (spelled padi), Kapampangan | priest | padre | father, priest |
pera | Tagalog, Kapampangan | money | perra | coin, penny |
peras | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon | pear | pera | pear |
pirmi | Hiligaynon, Cebuano, Chavacano(spell it as "firmi", while "Firme" is firm in english), Kapampangan | steady, always | firme | firm, steady |
pitsó | Tagalog, Ilocano, Kapampangan, chavacano (spelled as Pecho) | chicken breast (only) | pecho | breast (in general including humans and other animals) |
pwerta | Tagalog, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon, Chavacano (spelled as Puerta) | door (also, in some instances, used to describe the orifice of the vaginal canal) | puerta | door |
regla | menstruation | regla | rule/ruler/menstruation | |
siguro | Tagalog, Chavacano(seguro. also retains it's meaning), Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Kapampangan | maybe | seguro | secure, stable, sure |
silbí | Tagalog, Cebuano, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as Servi) | to serve | sirve | He/she/it serves |
sugal | Tagalog, Cebuano,Hiligaynon, Ilocano, Kapampangan | gambling | jugar | to play, to gamble |
sugaról | Cebuano, Kapampangan, Hiligaynon | gambler | jugador | gambler and player |
suplado | Tagalog, Cebuano,Hiligaynon, Kapampangan, Chavacano (spelled as suplado or suplada) | snobbish, snooty, stubborn (child), brat | soplado | blown, one who is "inflated" |
syempre | Tagalog, Ilocano, Chavacano(spelled as siempre for "of course" and "always"), Cebuano, Hiligaynon | of course | siempre | always |
The following words do not fall under false friends. They are still a source of confusion:
WORD | LANGUAGE | MEANING IN THE PHILIPPINES | SIMILAR SPANISH WORD | SPANISH MEANING | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
alamín | Tagalog | to know | alamín | village judge who decided on irrigation distribution or official who measured weights | 'alam' is the rootword of 'alamin'. The meaning of 'alam' means 'know', alamin means 'to know'. This Spanish word 'alamin' has nothing to do with the Tagalog 'alamin'.
In fact, many of the words here only sound like they are from Spanish, but actually they don't have significance and relation to the Philippine languages. |
luto | Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray | To cook (Tagalog, Cebuano) cooked rice (Waray) |
luto | mourning | |
lupa | Tagalog | earth, soil | lupa | magnifying glass | |
mata | Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray, Hiligaynon | eye | mata | kills, hassock, clamp, tuft | |
piso | Tagalog, Cebuano, Waray | Philippine peso | piso | floor |
Although the greatest linguistic impact and loanwords have been from Spanish to the languages of the Philippines, the Philippine languages have also loaned some words to Spanish.
The following are some of the words of Philippine origin that can be found in the Diccionario de la lengua española de la Real Academia Española, the dictionary published by the Real Academia Española:[78]
SPANISH LOANWORD | ORIGIN | VIA | FILIPINO LANGUAGE | ENGLISH EQUIVALENT |
---|---|---|---|---|
abacá | Old Tagalog: abacá | abaká | abaca | |
baguio | Old Tagalog: baguio | bagyo | typhoon or hurricane | |
barangay | Old Tagalog: balan͠gay | baranggay | barangay | |
bolo | Old Tagalog: bolo | bolo | bolo | |
carabao | Old Visayan: carabáo | kalabáw | carabao | |
caracoa | Old Malay: coracora | Old Tagalog: caracoa | karakaw | caracoa, a war canoe |
cogón | Old Tagalog: cogón | kogón | cogon | |
dalaga | Old Tagalog: dalaga | dalaga | single, young woman | |
gumamela | Old Tagalog: gumamela | gumamela | Chinese hibiscus | |
nipa | Old Malay: nipah | Old Tagalog: nipa | nipa | nipa palm |
paipay | Old Tagalog: paypay or pay-pay | pamaypay | a type of fan | |
palay | Old Tagalog: palay | palay | unhusked rice | |
pantalán | Old Tagalog: pantalán | pantalán | wooden pier | |
salisipan | Old Tagalog: salicipan | salisipan | salisipan, a pirate ship | |
sampagita | Old Tagalog: sampaga | sampagita | jasmine | |
sawali | Old Tagalog: sauali | sawali | sawali, a woven bamboo mat | |
tuba | Old Tagalog: tuba | tuba | palm wine | |
yoyó | Old Chinese | Ilocano: yoyó | yo-yó | Chinese yo-yo |
Spanish-language media is still present in the Philippines, the country has one Spanish newspaper, E-dyario[1], the first Spanish digital newspaper published in the Philippines and Filipinas, Ahora Mismo was a nationally-syndicated, 60-minute, cultural radio magazine program in the Philippines broadcast daily in Spanish.
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