Filipino
Language · official in 1 country
Filipino was Pilipino until the 1970s, and before that simply the national language based on Tagalog, chosen in 1937. In practice it is the standardised Tagalog of Metro Manila and the other cities, with the same grammar as Tagalog. The 1987 constitution makes it the national language and, with English, an official language of the Philippines, and orders it enriched from the country's other languages.
The language on record
- Own name
- Filipino
- ISO 639-3
- FIL
- Script
- Latin
- Family
- Philippine (Tagalog-based)
- Official in
- 1 country
Where Filipino is official
The Philippines is the single record, where Filipino shares official status with English and the regional languages serve as auxiliary official languages in their own regions.
Official beside Filipino
About Filipino
Why Tagalog was chosen as the base
The 1935 constitution of the Commonwealth asked for a national language based on one of the native languages, with English and Spanish official until then. Commonwealth Act No. 184 of 13 November 1936 set up an Institute of National Language, with members for the main regional languages. On 9 November 1937 the institute recommended Tagalog, and an executive order of 30 December 1937 adopted it. The reasons given were that Tagalog was widely spoken, had a large literature and was the language of Manila. An act of 1940 made the national language official from 4 July 1946, and the same year a grammar introduced the 20-letter Abakada alphabet.
How Pilipino became Filipino
The name Pilipino arrived in 1959, meant to loosen the tie to the Tagalog ethnic group, and it did not win over many non-Tagalogs, Cebuanos in particular. A purist campaign of the 1960s coined words to replace loans and drew two counter-movements, one against Tagalog and one for a more inclusive language. A challenge to the Tagalog basis reached the Supreme Court in 1963 and failed in 1970.
The 1971 Constitutional Convention reached a compromise. The 1973 constitution made English and Pilipino official and called for a future common language named Filipino, with no mention of Tagalog. The 1987 constitution then named Filipino the national language and said it should develop on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. Filipino entered the ISO registry on 21 September 2004 with the code fil.
Is Filipino a separate language from Tagalog
Officially, the government and the Commission on the Filipino Language treat them as separate. The grammar says otherwise: both use the determiners ang, ng and sa, the same pronouns and the same verbal affixes. The commission's own chair said in 2007 that Filipino had as yet no grammar or vocabulary from Ilokano, Cebuano or Hiligaynon, contrary to the law of 1991 that created the commission. In the Philippines the language is usually called Tagalog, and abroad Filipino. Since 1997 August has been Buwan ng Wika, the month of the national language.
Common questions
Questions about Filipino
Is Filipino just Tagalog?
Linguistically they share their grammar and sound system as well as core vocabulary, and the Commission on the Filipino Language's chair called them mutually intelligible varieties of one language in 2007. The official position is that they are separate, and the constitution asks Filipino to draw on other Philippine languages.
What was the difference between Pilipino and Filipino?
Pilipino was the name from 1959 for the Tagalog-based national language. The 1973 constitution called for a new national language named Filipino, and the 1987 constitution adopted it.
When is Buwan ng Wika?
Every August since 1997. It began in 1946 as a week-long celebration and was moved to August in 1955 so that schools could take part.