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Spanish in the Philippines
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Spanish was the first official language of the Philippines and the country's original national language. The national hero José Rizal wrote most of his works in Spanish, which was the language of the Philippine Revolution. Spanish also became the official language of the independent República Filipina according to Article 93 of the Malolos Constitution of 1899.
Following the Philippine-American War, the U.S. instituted English as the language of education and government, leaving Spanish and Tagalog language as co-official. Nevertheless, Spanish continued to be the language of business, culture, and to a certain extent politics, until the 1970s. However, as younger and new generations of Filipinos educated in the English language became fluent in American pop culture, the use of Spanish gradually declined and no longer spoken by the majority of the population. Spanish remained an official language until ratification of the 1973 constitution on January 17, 1973.
There are thousands of Spanish loan words in 170 indigenous Philippine languages. According to the 1990 Philippine census, there are 2,658 native Spanish speakers (Spanish being their first language) and 607,200 Spanish-based creole Chavacano speakers in the country.Some other sources put the number of spanish-speakers in the Philippines in the area of two to three million, these sources are, however, disputed.
HistoryThe Spanish colonial periodSpanish was first introduced to the Philippines in 1565, when the conquistador, Miguel López de Legazpi founded the first Spanish settlement on the island of Cebu. The Philippines, ruled from Mexico City and Madrid, was a Spanish territory for 333 years (1565–1898).
Although the language was never compulsory while under Spanish colonial rule, Spanish was at one time spoken by around 10% of the population. It was the first and only language of the Spanish and Filipino-Spanish mestizos minority, and the second but most important language of the educated native Illustrados. The stance of the Roman Catholic Church and its missionaries was also to preach to the natives in local languages, and not in Spanish. The priests and friars preached in local languages and employed indigenous peoples as translators, creating a bilingual class known as ladinos. The natives, generally were not taught Spanish, but the bilingual individuals, notably poet-translator Gaspar Aquino de Belén, produced 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 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.
A reason that Spanish did not expand as much as it did in the Americas is attributed to the fact that the archipelago was not a direct colony of Spain, but instead was administered from Mexico City (in what was then New Spain) thereby lessening the possibility of large scale Spanish migration to the Philippines. Another reason is the large distance separating Spain from the Philippines as compared to the Americas. Yet another is the actual population of Spaniards settling in the Philippines was believed to be quite less than that of the Americas.
The more important reason however, is that the Philippines was prevented from consolidating its independent statehood under the First Philippine Republic and the Constitution of Malolos in 1899, which had chosen Spanish as the official language of the country. This would arguably have increased the numbers of Filipino Spanish speakers considerably in a few generations, a phenomenon which took place in most Hispanic countries in Latin America after their independence during the 19th century. In the Philippines this was frustrated due to the US administration and changes of educational policy. Indigenous Philippine languages remained in use, and English supplanted Spanish as the language of instruction in the educational system. Also crucial in explaining the decrease of Spanish was the Philippine-American War in which thousands of Spanish-speaking Filipinos perished.
In 1593, the first printing press was founded. A great portion of the colonial history of the Philippines is written in Spanish. Up until recently, many land titles, contracts, newspapers and literature were still written in Spanish, and though it is no longer an official language, legal documents in Spanish are still recognized in Filipino courts of law.
The Universidad de Santo Tomas, one of the oldest existing educational institutions in Asia, was inaugurated in 1611 and continues to this day as the property of both Spain and the Roman Catholic church. Hence, the words "Royal" and "Pontifical" are part of the university's official title. Towards the end of Spain's colonization, the fluent male Spanish speakers were the graduates of Spanish schools such as the Universidad de Santo Tomas, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, and Ateneo de Manila. Female graduates from Beaterios were fluent in the language as well.
In 1863, Queen Isabel II of Spain decreed the establishment of a public school system.
A 17th century book to learn CastilianIn the early seventeenth century a Tagalog printer, Tomas Pinpin, set out to write a book in romanized phonetic script to teach 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. Pinpin construed translation in ways that tended less to oppose than to elude the totalizing claims of Spanish signifying conventions.
The role of Spanish in rising nationalism
Propagandists during the Spanish era spread nationalism through Spanish. José Rizal's novels Noli Me Tangere, Graciano López-Jaena's satirical articles, Marcelo Hilario del Pilar's anti-clerical manifestos, the bi-weekly La Solidaridad (published in Spain) and other materials in awakening nationalism were written in Spanish. The country's first constitution was written in Spanish, as well as the National Anthem. The constitution proclaimed Spanish as an official language. According to Horacio de la Costa, nationalism would not have been possible without Spanish. It is through Spanish that natives became aware of nationalistic ideas and independence movements in other countries.
Spanish was used by the first Filipino patriots like José Rizal, Andrés Bonifacio and Emilio Aguinaldo, who chose Spanish as the national language of independent Philippines. Spanish was used to write the country's first constitution, Constitución Política de Malolos, the original national anthem, (Himno Nacional Filipino), as well as nationalistic propaganda material and literature, like José Rizal's Noli Me Tangere. Indeed, Philippine nationalism was first propagated in the Spanish language.
During the Spanish colonial era, and also through the early American period, Philippine nationalism, government reforms, the country's first constitution and historic novels were written in Spanish. While not widely understood by the majority of the population, Spanish at this time was nonetheless 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. Denizens of each region thought of themselves as Ilocano, Cebuano, Bicolano, et cetera, and not as Filipinos.
Throughout the colonial era the term "Filipino" originally referred to only the Filipino-born Spaniards and Filipino mestizos; while indigenous Filipinos (who are referred to as Indios) referred to them as 'Castila' or 'Cachila'.
The Ilustrados or "The Enlightened Ones", which included Philippine-born Spaniards, certain Mestizos, Sangleys (or Chinese mestizos) and prominent indigenous Filipinos, were the educated elite who promoted and propagated nationalism and a modern Filipino consciousness. The unifying force is primary reasons historians say that the Spanish authorities did not want to promote the language.
José Rizal propagated Filipino consciousness and identity in Spanish. One material highly instrumental in developing nationalism was the novel Noli Me Tangere (Latin for "Do not touch me") which exposed abuses of the Spanish government and clergy. Nevertheless, Rizal promoted the use of the indigenous languages.
The novel Noli Me Tangere's very own notoriety among the Spanish authorities, government and clergy, propelled its popularity even more among Filipinos. Reading it was forbidden because it exposed and parodied Spanish clergy and government authority.
The American periodWith the era of the Philippines as a Spanish colony having just ended, a considerable amount of media, newspapers, radios, government proceedings, education, etc. were still written and produced in Spanish. Ironically, the public school system the Americans established served to further promote Spanish-language literacy among the masses. Even in the early 20th century a hegemony of Spanish was still in force.
Although the English language had begun to be heavily promoted and used as the medium of education and government proceedings, the majority of Spanish literature by indigenous Filipinos was produced at this time. Among the great Filipino literary writers of the period were Fernando Ma. Guerrero, Rafael Palma, Cecilio Apóstol, Jesús Balmori, Manuel Bernabé, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Teodoro M. Kalaw.
This explosion of Spanish language literature occurred because the upper class minority were educated in Spanish. For the first time, Filipinos experienced a greater degree of freedom of expression and even support, since the Spanish authorities weren't too receptive to Filipino writers and intellectuals during the colonial period. As a result, Spanish became the most important language in the country despite that the majority was composed of non-Spanish speaking natives.
The new Philippine Republic established Spanish as the official language in the constitution of 1898, drawn up during the Constitutional Convention in Malolos, Bulacan. The language was then free to be taught and learned by all the natives, and not just by the select few. Its officialization was in an attempt to increase its speakers so it would serve as a common language in a nation of over 80 different local languages, each with its many dialects
In his 1898 book “Yesterdays in the Philippines”, the American Joseph Earle Stevens 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.
While the 1903 census officially reported the number of Spanish-speakers at only 1% of the population, it only considered those who were monolingual in the language and had Spanish as their one and only tongue, ie. Peninsulares (Spanish-born Spaniards), Insulares (Filipino-born Spaniards), and other Europeans (Filipino-born, Spanish-speaking Italian families, among others). It completely disregarded the bilingual Spanish-mestizo and multilingual Chinese-mestizo and Chinese minorities who - although spoke two or more languages - utilized Spanish as their primary language of business and culture. Furthermore, the indigenous Filipino illustrado class, who were academically instructed in the Spanish language, also used Spanish as their primary language despite having any one of the many native languages as their mother tongue. These together would have placed the numbers at 10% of the 8 million Filipinos of that era as Spanish-speakers.
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.
In 1924, the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language was created. In 1936, Filipino films in Spanish began to be produced.
Decline of the Spanish languageSpanish has been in decline since the 20th century due to the introduction of the English language, "lacked" of promotion to the public sphere and guidance by the Filipino government.
During World War II many of the centuries old Spanish-speaking families of Philippines migrated to Spain, Latin America and the United States following the US bombing of Intramuros home to thousands of Spanish-speaking families. Many migrated also during the Marcos regime. By 1940 the number of Spanish-speakers in the Philippines was approximately 6 million, however, as a percentage of the total population the numbers had actually dropped. By the 1950 Census Spanish-speakers constituted 6% of the population, down from a 10% peak. However, down through the 1960s and 1970s, Filipinos were still being exposed to the Spanish language through print and audiovisual media even before they learned to speak Filipino or English.
Spanish was abolished as an official language in 1973 during the Marcos regime and as a compulsory school subject between 1987 and 2008 (abolished by Corazon Aquino, reinstated by Gloria Macapagal Arroyo).
The state of Spanish today Today, Spanish is only used for cultural heritage purposes and on an optional basis. Recently there seems to have been a resurgence in interest in the language among educated youth as seen in recent survey by the Academia Filipina de la Lengua Española (English: Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language), which showed that there were roughly 2,900,000 Spanish speakers in the Philippines (as a first, second, third, or fourth language) in 2006. The language is spoken and maintained mostly by Spanish-Filipinos living in minor communities throughout the country.
Spanish as is used in the PhilippinesSince the Philippines was a former territoty of the Viceroyalty of New Spain (1565-1821) during the first half of the Spanish colonial period, the Spanish language spoken in the Philippines had a greater affinity to Mexican Spanish (ie. Spanish as spoken in Mexico) rather than that of European Spanish (as spoken in Spain) and indigenous Philippine languages.
PhonologyWhen pronouncing Spanish words (such as names of people or places), there are tendencies among the majority non-Spanish-speaking population to:
- Stress words differently than would Spanish speakers,
- Raise the mid vowels /o/ and /e/,
- Insert a glottal stop [/] before stressed syllable-initial vowels,
- Palatalize (or affricate) alveolar sounds when they appear before [j],
- Seseo, as in Latin America and Andalusia (where the tendency originated from). The modern European Castilian phoneme IPA as in ciento, caza (interdental voiceless fricative, like English th in thin) does not exist in traditional Philippine Spanish nor in any native Philippine language; it combined with as in siento, casa,
- Pronounce d as [d] in all positions,
- Pronounce g as [g] in all positions,
- Pronounce both b and v as [b] or differentiate between the two, resulting in v sounding as in English,
- Pronounce both "f" and "p" as [p]
- Pronounce z as [z] or devoiced to [s]
- Pronounce sce and sci as [se] and [si] respectively,
- Not distinguish between r and rr,
- Pronounce the h,
- Pronounce au as [o],
- Pronounce eu as [ju],
- Pronounce sr as [s] or [z],
- Pronounce final m as [m].
- Pronounce g (before e and i) and j as [h]
- Pronounce ll as [lj]
- Pronounce ñ as [nj]
VocabularyThere are Native Americanisms, archaisms and borrowings from indigenous Philippine languages. In fact, of the great number of Spanish loan words that exist in the various Filipino languages, a few are actually of Nahuatl origin that were first incorporated into Mexican Spanish, and which do not exist in European Spanish. These include nanay(nantl), tatay (tatle), bayabas [from guayaba(s), guava], abokado (avocado), papaya, zapote, etc.
WritingDiacritic marks are almost always left out, save for the tilde on the ñ. Spanish words however are vocally stressed as they would be by Spanish speakers, by older generations and an increasing number of younger Filipinos.
Philippine computer keyboards currently and have always used the US standard layout, which includes neither ñ nor combining diacritics. Typewriters sometimes include the ñ but not accented vowels.
Influence on the languages of the PhilippinesThere are approximately 4,000 Spanish words in Tagalog, and around 6,000 Spanish words in Visayan and other 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 [jabón (at the beginning of Spanish rule, the j used to be pronounced as , the voiceless postalveolar fricative or the "sh" sound) - soap], relos [reloj (with the j sound) - watch], kwarta (cuarta), etc. The Spaniards and the language are referred to as either Kastila or Katsila (especially in most Visayan languages) after Castilla or 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. Chavacano became the main language in the 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.
Meaning changesWhile many Spanish words have made their way to Philippine languages, many of these words have had a shift in meaning 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:
False cognatesThe following words do not fall under false friends. They are still a source of confusion:
List of Spanish words of Philippine origin Although the greatest linguistic impact and wordloans have been from Spanish to the languages of the Philippines, the Filipino languages have also loaned some words to Spanish.
Following are some of the words of Philippine origin that can be found in the DRAE (the dictionary published by the Royal Spanish Academy):
- abacá (from Abaká)
- baguio (from bagyo), typhoon/hurricane
- barangay (from Balangay, Balanghai)
- bolo, a big knife or short sword
- carabao (from kalabaw)
- caracoa, (from Karakau) small barge
- cogón, (from Kogon) a grass
- gumamela, a flower
- paipay, (from Pamaypay) a kind of fan
- palay, unhusked rice
- pantalán, wooden pier
- sampaguita, a flower
- yoyó
Trivia- The city of Ozamiz announced to recommission the Guardia Civil, who will be required to take Spanish language courses and whose first task will be to guard a local 250-year-old fortress.
- Manuel L. Quezon brought a Spanish dictionary to the United States when he was in exile, as he was more fluent in the language.
- Manila is home to the main Asian branch of the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish government's official overseas institute for the promotion of the Spanish language. The Spanish language enjoys popularity as a language of choice for learning a foreign language among new generations of young Filipinos.
See also
External links- , a group which aims to preserve and revive the use of the Spanish language in the Philippines.
- , an Online Conversation Group for Pinoys
- , the first and only Spanish blog in the Philippines.
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