Filipino, Philippine linguistics and the Filipino nation

Abstract

Having 7,107 islands and a long history of foreign domination, the Philippines with its 165 languages and dialects is still in the process of searching for direction and definition of its national language which is substantial to the Filipino identity and nationhood. With the current assessment, this paper attempts to (1) address the questions on the status of the standardization of Filipino and its significance in nation building; (2) deal with the issues of the use of Filipino as the national language and its relation to the major languages (including English and Spanish) in the archipelago; and (3) present a picture of the teaching of Filipino language outside the Philippines. This paper constitutes four parts. First, it presents the preliminaries of Filipino and other major languages in the Philippines. This part includes the geographical distribution and characteristics of the Philippine languages and dialects. The second part presents the issues of the use of Filipino from the political, social, and pedagogical viewpoints. This entails the inclusion of the discussion on the significance of English in the Philippine society and the knowledge of the Spanish language. The third part is the presentation of the panorama of teaching Filipino language in the Philippines and abroad. The fourth part is the conclusion.