Spanish in the Philippines
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Spanish is a language of historical and cultural significance in the Philippines. It is perceived as the language of the elite. It ceased to be an official language in 1973 and ceased to be part of the college curriculum in 1987.
According to the 1990 census, there are 2,658 Spanish speakers and 292,630 creole (Chavacano ) speakers in the Philippines. There are thousands of Spanish loanwords in 170 Philippine languages, and around 13 million Spanish documents in the Philippine archives. Courts of law still recognize documents written in Spanish. The common consensus is that Spanish as a living and working language in the Philippines is doomed. However, as of 2005, there is a growing interest due to demand in call center industries.
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History
The Spanish colonial era
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 Cebu. The Philippines was a Spanish territory for 333 years (1565-1898).
Although the language was never compulsory while under Spanish colonial rule, and its learning was in fact discouraged or explicitly prohibited from the natives by the Spanish colonial authorities, Spanish was at one time spoken by around 10% of the population. It was the first and only language of the Spanish and Spanish-mestizo minority, and the second but most important language of the educated native Ilustrados. 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 bilinguale 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.
Reasons given as to the less expansion of Spanish in the Philippines than the Americas include the fact that the archipelago wasn't a direct colony of Spain, but instead was administered from Mexico City (in what was then New Spain) thereby lessening the ties, and disabling the large scale Spanish migration experienced across the Americas.
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, the oldest educational institution, inaugurated in 1611. In 1863, Queen Isabel II of Spain decreed the establishment of a public school system.
A 17th century book to learn Castillian
In 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
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 mestizos who could pass for whites; while the Malay natives referred to them as 'Kastila'.
The Ilustrados or "The Enlightened Ones", which included Philippine-born Spaniards, Mestizos, Sangleys (or Chinese mestizos) and prominent Malays, 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.
Jose Rizal propagated Filipino consciousness and identity in Spanish. One material highly instrumental in developing nationalism was the novel Noli Me Tangere which exposed abuses of the Spanish government and clergy. Rizal of course, wrote in Tagalog also and did promote Tagalog. However, the majority of his works are in Spanish.
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 era
With 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 in Spanish. Even in the early 20th century a hegemony of Spanish was still in force.
Although English had begun to be heavily promoted and used as the medium of education and government proceedings, the majority of Spanish literature by native Filipinos was produced at this time. Among the great Filipino literary writers of the period were Fernando Ma. Guerrero, Rafael Palma, Cecilio Apostol, Jesus Balmori, Manuel Bernabe, Trinidad Pardo de Tavera and Teodoro M. Kalaw.
This explosion of Spanish language literature occurred because the upper class minority were educated in Spanish, and for the first time they 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, while at that time the majority of the population was comprised of the uneducated native who had no understanding of the language, Spanish was nonetheless the most important language in the country.
In his 1899 book “Yesterdays in the Philippines”, the American John Early 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. (Page 11).
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. The efforts failed, and the number of speakers steadily declined. Today it is spoken by less than 0.01% of the population; 2,658 speakers (1990 Census). Spanish was abolished as a compulsory school subject in 1968 and as an official language in 1973.
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) and Insulares (Filipino-born Spaniards). 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 native-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.
The 1916 report by Henry Ford to President Woodrow Wilson says
- ...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 language
Spanish has been in decline since then, because the Americans gradually pursued an aggressive campaign of de-Hispanization and promotion of English as a universal language which has resulted in the loss of Spanish as the major language of commerce and government.
After World War II and during the Marcos regime, many of the old Spanish-speaking families of Philippines migrated to Europe or the Americas, including the United States. 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 constitued 6% of the population, down from a 10% peak. During the 1960s and 1970s, Filipinos grew up with Spanish being their first and primary language, even before they learned to speak Tagalog or English.
The state of Spanish today
Spanish ceased to be the official language of the country, during the Marcos Regime in 1973. This is due to lack of Government guidance and promotion to the public. It is only used for cultural heritage purposes and on an optional basis. Spanish was a required subject in college before 1987. It ceased to be a required subject in 1987 during the Cory Aquino Administration in Manila.
In the Philippines today, the language is spoken by less than 0.01% of the population; 2,658 speakers (1990 Census). The language is maintained by mestizo families, and thousands of people around the country, particularly in the province of Cebu, Zamboanga and Bacolod. Philippine President, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a member of the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language.
The Clamor for Spanish
The propagation and/or imposition of Spanish as an official language is still in heavy dispute. On one side, much of the history and culture is embedded in the language. There are an estimated 13 million manuscripts from the 16th century to 1898 which include government documents, economics, trade disputes, legal matters, patriotic material, religious material, registrations etc. Up to the 60s, birth certificates were in both English and Spanish. There is still a very strong need to translate a great number of historical documents.
On the other side, Spanish is accused by some as representing colonization and has less relevance than English for practical usage or Filipino in terms of nationalism. Certain advocates maintain that Spanish was used by the first Filipino patriots. For example, Spanish was used to write the country's first constitution, Constitución Política de Malolos, Noli Me Tangere, the original national anthem, nationalistic propaganda material, etc and thus should be considered a national language. Philippine nationalism was first propagated in the Spanish language.
Manila is home to the main East Asian branch of the Instituto Cervantes, the Spanish government's official overseas institute for the promotion of Spanish language. The Spanish language enjoys popularity as a language of choice for learning a foreign language among new generations of young Filipinos.
In Internet, there are some resources and groups for recovering the Philippine Spanish, as Hispanofilipino Circle, Spanish for Filipinos and others and Los Indios Bravos Filipino Solidarity Project.
Philippine Spanish
Since the Philippines was administered by New Spain (Mexico) rather than Spain herself during the colonial period, the Spanish language as it was once 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.
Phonology
There are tendencies to
- 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 Template:IPA as in ciento, caza (interdental voiceless fricative, like English th in thin) does not exist in Philippine Spanish; it combined with Template:IPA as in siento, casa,
- Pronounce d as [d] in all positions,
- Pronounce both b and v as [b] or differentiate between the two, resulting in v sounding as in English.
Ll is invariably pronounced as /ly/.
Vocabulary
There are Latin 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.
Influence on the languages of the Philippines
There are approximately 4,000 Spanish words in Tagalog, and around 6,000 Spanish words in Visayan and other dialects. 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 (perra - coins), sabon [jabón (the j used to be pronounced as in French and Portuguese:'jsh' or roughly the j sound in beige or garage) - soap], relos [reloj (with the j sound) - watch], kwarta (cuarta), etc. The Spaniards and the language were referred to as Kastila after Castila, the name of the Spanish language.
Chabacano, also called Zamboangueño, is a Spanish-based creole spoken in the Philippines. Chabacano is concentrated mostly in the South, in the provinces of Zamboanga, with some speakers found in Cavite. As a large number of workers to build military and other Spanish establishments in Zamboannga and other areas in the South, were imported from different linguistic regions, Chavacano developed as a lingua franca.
False friends
False friends, also known as False cognates are words that exist in two languages, but mean different things. Here is a list of word in Filipino languages that are Spanish, or appear to be Spanish, and which have changed in meaning.
| Language | Meaning | Resembling Spanish word | Actual Spanish meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ya | Chabacano | denotes past tense | Ya | already, now |
| Ama | Tagalog | father | ama | He/She loves |
| Donde andas? | Chabacano | where are you going? | andar | to go, to walk |
| Siguro | Tagalog, Chabacano, Cebuano, Ilonggo | maybe | seguro | secure, stable, sure |
| Syempre | Tagalog, Chabacano, Cebuano, Ilonggo | of course | siempre | always |
| Pirmi | Ilongo, Cebuano, Chabacano | always | firme | firm, steady |
| Basta | Tagalog, Chabacano, Cebuano, Ilonggo | as long as | basta | enough!, stop! |
| Lupa | Tagalog | ground, earth | lupa | magnifying glass |
| Luto | Tagalog | cook | luto | mourn |
| Maske, Maski | Tagalog, Chabacano, Cebuano, Ilonggo | even if | más que | even if; more than |
| Kubeta | Tagalog | toilet, outhouse | cubeta | bucket |
| Casilyas | Cebuano, Chabacano | toilet, toilet seat, to excrement | casillas | square, cube, hut |
| Lamierda, lamyerda | Tagalog | paint the town red | la mierda | shit, excrement |
| Puto | Tagalog | a type of rice cake | puto | man-whore, homosexual (derogatory) |
| Baho | Tagalog | pungent, smelly | bajo | below, descend |
| Sabi | Tagalog | to say | saber | to know |
| Barkada | Tagalog | groupfriend | barcada | boatload |
| Sugal | Tagalog | gambling | jugar | to play, to gamble |
| Mamon | Tagalog | fluffy bread | mamón (de "mamar"), mamón (de "mamas") | suckle (from mamar "to suckle") mammary glands (as in the English word "mammaries") |
| Pera | Tagalog | money | perra | silver coin |
| Kasí, kasé | Tagalog | because | casi | almost |
| Silbí | Tagalog | use | servir | to serve |
| Soplado | Tagalog | snobbish/Snooty | soplado | blown |
| Palengke | Tagalog | market | palenque | palisade |
| Kontrabida | Tagalog | villain | contra vida | against life |
| Aparador | Tagalog | clothes cabinet | aparador | sideboard |
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.
The following words can be found in the DRAE, "Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Real Academia Española" (Diccionary of the Spanish language, Royal Academy of the Spanish Language).
- carabao
- barangay
- yoyo
- abaca
- cogon - a grass.
- sampaguita- a flower
- gumamela - a flower
- baguio - typhoon/hurricane
- bolo - A big knife/ short sword.
- palay - rice plant
- caracoa - small barge
- pantalan - wooden pier
See also
- Hispanic culture in the Philippines
- Latin Union
- Chavacano
- Spanish Language
- Literature of the Philippines
- Black Legend
References
- About History:
- About Philippine Spanish
- About the influence on the languages of the Philippines
- Spanish Speaking call -center
- Instituto de Cervantes in Manilade:Philippinisches Spanisch
es:Idioma español en Filipinas tl:Wikang Kastila sa Pilipinas