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Ano ang kaibahan ng Filipino at Tagalog, at bakit nalilito ang ilang Pinoy kung ano dito ang pambansang wika?
SBS Filipino
01/08/202415:21
According to the 2021 Census conducted by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), out of the ,
Tagalog is one of the country's major languages, while however, they are often used interchangeably, with the two considered to be the same thing.
How do the two differ? Does their seeming relation alienate speakers of other Filipino languages?
Filipino-Australian socio-linguist Loy Lising, who wrote the chapter 'Philippine Languages in multilingual Sydney' for the book 'Multilingual Sydney', explains.
Cebuano vs Tagalog
Lising shares that the 1937 government created the Surian ng Wikang Pambansa or the Institute of National Language. The institute members were tasked to decide on the Philippine National Language to bridge the divide amongst regions and unify the country.
"We have many languages in The Philippines. The country is an archipelago and we are very regionalistic.
Because President Quezon and many of the members were Tagalog, and because the Philippines was very Manila-centric even then, Tagalog was chosen as the basis of the national language.Loy Lising, Socio-linguist
Although Tagalog was chosen as the foundation of the language, Lising said that the institute members were aware that there were more Cebuano speakers in the country.
Women in Ritual Costume during Religious Festival in Cebu Credit: Cesan Ecaudro/Pexels
Tagalog vs Filipino
Lising shared that whatever the language, there are five aspects that we need to remember:
- phonetics or the sounds and how we make them;
- lexical semantics or the words and their meanings;
- morphology or how we create new words;
- sentence structure;
- and pragmatics or how you use language to communicate.
"I tell my students that the easiest way to explain pragmatics is by looking at how we greet each other.
Like in Cebu where I'm from, when you greet someone familiar to you, you can say, 'Nikaon na ka?' ['Have you eaten?']. It's not necessarily that you're asking if they've eaten, it's just a way of saying hello.Loy Lising, Socio-linguist
While there are Tagalog words present in the Filipino language, Filipino tends to be the more lenient and malleable version of Tagalog; making the latter sound more traditional and archaic.
For example, the Filipino word 'yung' ['that'] is derived from the more traditional Tagalog word 'yaong'.
Filipino tends to be the more lenient and malleable version of Tagalog; making the latter sound more traditional and archaic. Credit: DragonImages/Envato
There are also Tagalog words that are very rarely used today, such as bandahali [butler], dangkang [spreading fingers], kabigin [gem] and wingkag [to open forcibly].
Despite these apparent differences, Lising shares that Filipino is still "very much structurally based on Tagalog".
Filipino speakers vary
"Ultimately the term 'Filipino' as a language was used to appease people from other regions so that they don't protest the idea that they are being dictated to speak Tagalog as their national language."
While no hard-fought protesting occurred, Lising shares that people in different parts of the Philippines adapted the Filipino language to their context.
The basis for the national language is Tagalog, but the idea was also to expand it. How it would look like and sound like will be very different depending on where you're from.Loy Lising, Socio-linguist
"If you're based in Cebu, Davao, Bohol, up in the north and you're using Tagalog, you adjust the way you use it to your own situation.
"For example, I was interviewing a participant from Davao for one of my studies and she referred to it as 'Davao Tagalog'. I asked her what she meant. She said the way she speaks has the Tagalog structure, but she uses local words in her sentences."
People in Davao have their own version of Tagalog. Credit: MC Jay Acedila/Pexels
I don't subscribe to the idea of 'bastardisation' of language. Language evolves. It changes depending on who you're speaking to and where you are from.Loy Lising, Socio-linguist
Has Filipino achieved the purpose of unification?
Being a Cebuano herself, Lising admits that she understands the negative "socio-political feeling" of Tagalog being chosen over Cebuano despite the disparity in numbers.
Is it a sufficient indicator that Filipino is used in school that we've achieved national unity - because everybody uses it? Is it enough that we all watch the same TV shows in the same language?Loy Lising, Socio-linguist
"The answer depends on how people define success in unifying the country. "The question of unity - when you really look at the word - goes beyond language."
