General Introduction

In the Philippines, Filipino and English are designated jointly as official languages in 1987. In fact, according to the Ethnologue, the number of individual languages listed for Philippines is 185. Of these, 181 are living and 4 are extinct. Of the living languages, 43 are institutional, 70 are developing, 45 are vigorous, 13 are in trouble, and 10 are dying. The 181 living languages in the Philippines include Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilokano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kapampangan, Bikol, Albay, Bikol, Pangasinan, Maranao, Maguindanao, Kinraray and Tausug etc.

12 ways to say good morning in the Philippines

The figure shows the languages that have the largest number of speakers in a particular region. Note that on regions marked with black diamonds, the language with the most number of speakers denotes a minority of the population.

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Spanish was the original official language of the Philippines for more than three centuries, and became the lingua franca of the Philippines in the 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1863 a Spanish decree introduced universal education, creating free public schooling in Spanish. It was also the language of the Philippine Revolution, and the 1899 Malolos Constitution effectively proclaimed it as the official language of the First Philippine Republic. National hero José Rizal wrote most of his works in Spanish. Luciano de la Rosa established that Spanish was spoken by a total of 60% of the population in the early 20th century as a first, second or third language. Following the American occupation of the Philippines and the imposition of English, the use of Spanish declined gradually, especially after the 1940s. Though, some of the people in the Philippines still have a Spanish last name now.