Contents

1 Spanish colonization 2 Influence in Tagalog and other languages 3 A book to learn Castillian in the 17th century 4 False friends/False cognates 5 List of DRAE Spanish words from the Philippines 6 Role of Spanish in rising nationalism during Spanish colonial times 7 The American era 8 Decline of Spanish 9 The state of Spanish today 10 See also 11 References

Spanish colonization

Spanish began to be one of the languages in archipelago from 1565, when the Basque explorer Miguel López de Legaspi founded the first Spanish settlement on Cebu.

At first, the learning of the Spanish was optional, not compulsory. As in The Americas, the missionaries preached the natives in local languages.

In 1593, the first printing press was founded. A great portion of the colonial history of the Philippines is written in Spanish. Many land titles, contracts, newspapers and literature are still written in Spanish.

The Universidad de Santo Tomas, the oldest educational institution, was opened in 1611. In 1863, Queen Isabel II of Spain decreed the establishment of a public school system.

Influence in Tagalog and other languages

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.

Chavacano, also called Zamboangueño and Chabacano, is a Spanish creole spoken in the Philippines. Chavacano is concentrated mostly in the South, in the provinces of Zamboanga, with some speakers found in Cavite.

A book to learn Castillian in the 17th century

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.

False friends/False cognates

The following words are misleading. They appear to be Spanish or are Spanish words that changed in meaning in various Filipino Languages.

Ya (Chavacano) denotes past tense. (Spanish: ya-already)

Donde andas?(Chavacano) denotes 'Where are you going?'. (Spanish: anda - to walk or operate)

Siguro means 'Maybe'. (Spanish: seguro-sure, secure, stable)

Syempre means 'Of course'. (Spanish: siempre-always)

Pirmi (Tagalog, Visayan, Chavacano) means 'Always'. (Spanish: firme-firm,steady)

Basta - as long as (Spanish: basta - enough)

Maske/maski - even if (Spanish: mas que - more than)

Kubeta - toilet/outhouse (Spanish: cubeta - bucket)

Casilyas (Visayan, Chavacano) - toilet/toilet seat/to shit (Spanish: casillas-Chess squares/hut /cabin)

Lamierda/lamyerda - 'paint the town red' (Spanish:la mierda - shit, excrement)

Puto - a rice cake (Spanish: Male prostitute )

Baho - pungent/smelly (Spanish: bajo-descend, below)

Sabi - to say (Spanish: saber-to know)

Barkada - groupfriend (Spanish: barcada - boatload)

Sugal - gambling (Spanish: jugar - to play)

Mamon - fluffy bread (Spanish: woman's large breast)

Pera - money (Spanish: perra - silver coin)

Kasí/kasé - because (Spanish: casi - almost)

Silbí - use (Spanish: servir - to serve)

Palengke - market (Spanish: palenque - palisade)

Kontrabida - villain (Spanish: contra vida - against life)

Aparador - clothes cabinet(Spanish: sideboard)

List of DRAE Spanish words from the Philippines

The following words can be found in the official dictionary of the Royal Academy of the Spanish Language [Diccionario de la Lengua Española, Real Academia Española]. Please click on 'Busqueda sin diacriticos' when checking these words.

• carabao
• barangay
• yoyo
• abaca
• cogon
• sampaguita
• gumamela

Role of Spanish in rising nationalism during Spanish colonial times

During the Spanish and to some degree, American colonial times, Philippine nationalism, government reforms, the country's first constitution and historic novels were written in Spanish. Spanish, at this time, was the unifying language as Tagalog was not as prominent or ubiquitous as it is now and each region had their own culture, language and would rather speak in their language. Denizens of each region thought of themselves as Ilocano's or Cebuano's, etc., not as Filipinos.

Throughout the colonial era the term "Filipino" originally referred to only the Spanish and Spanish-mestizo minority. While the Malay natives referred to them as 'Kastila'.

The intelectuals which included both the Kastilas and Malay natives and called ilustrados, were educated elite who promoted and propagated nationalism and a modern filipino consciousness.

The unifying feature is one of the 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. Majority of his writings however 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 caricatured Spanish clergy and government authority .

The American era

In 1898 in the Constitutional Convention in Malolos, Bulacán, the new Philippine Republic established Spanish as the first and official language. The era of the Philippines as a Spanish colony just ended and 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 was heavily promoted and used as the medium of education and government procedings, the majority of Spanish literature by native Filipinoes was produced at this time. This was because the overwhelming majority of upper class people where educated in Spanish, and for the first time experienced a greater degree of freedom and even support. The Spanish authorities were not too receptive to Filipinoes writers and intellects during the Spanish period.

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 ling 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).

While the 1903 census officially reported the number of Spanish speakers at only 1% of the population, it only considered the Spanish-born and completely disregarded the mestizos, the Chinese population, and the native illustrado class which would have placed the numbers at 10% of the 8 million Filipinos speaking Spanish as their first language. Between 1890 and 1940, 70% of the Filipino population made daily use of the Spanish language as a second language.

The late president Manuel L. Quezon brought a Spanish-English Dictionary when he was in the United States to lobby for the independence of the Philippines.

In 1924, the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language was created. In 1936, Filipino films in Spanish began to be produced.

Decline of Spanish

Spanish has been in decline since the 20th century, though some families within the mestizo minority to this day continue to use Castillian as the language of the home.

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.

Reason given as to the decline of Spanish in the Philippines include the fact that the archipielago 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.

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 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. In the Philippines today, the language is spoken by less than 0.01% of the population; 2,658 speakers (1990 Census).

The state of Spanish today

Spanish ceased to be an official language in 1973, and a required subject in college in 1987 during the Cory Aquino Administration. It is still spoken and maintained by mestizo families, and many Filipinos, even during the 60s and 70s, grew up with Spanish being their first and primary language, even before they learned to speak Tagalog or English. Speakers are typically, but not always, the 'elite'. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is a member of the Philippine Academy of the Spanish Language. Many of the older people speak it well in Zamboanga where the general population speak the creole, Chavacano.

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 where 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 and Latino American culture. The Spanish language enjoys popularity as a language of choice for learning a foreign language among Filipinos.

See also

• Hispanic culture in the Philippines
• Latin Union
• Chavacano
• Spanish Language
• Literature of the Philippines
• Black Legend

References

• Hispanofilipino Circle
• Spanish for Filipinos and others
• "Statistics: Spanish Language in the Philippines"
• Archives,Spanish

• La Solidaridad article on teaching of Spanish during the Spanish Period

• Los Indios Bravos Filipino Solidarity Project
• Philippine Spanish Literature by Professor Resil Mojares