Dear Cecil,
Why does the country of the Philippines begin with the letters “Ph” and have two "p"s (not counting the first “P”) and the people of the Philippines, the Filipinos, begin with the letter “F” and has one “P”. Wouldn’t you think the two names would have originated at the same time and even if they didn’t, why weren’t they consistant?
Thanks
Barry
Most likely because the name we use for the country is the English form of the name, while the name of the people themselves is derived from the Spanish.
The archipelago was discovered by Ferdinand Magellan sailing for Spain. It eventually became a Spanish colony and was named after the king at the time, Felipe II, known in English as Philip II. The name of the islands in Spanish is Filipinas, and that is surely the source of the name of the people.
The archipelago, currently known as the Philippines in English, was named as Las Islas Filipinas by the Spanish who named it after Felipe II de Habsburgo, or Philip II in English. After colonization, the term “Filipino” was used to refer to a Spaniard born in the Philippines. During the latter half of the nineteenth century, the native-born population, searching for a national identity, started calling themselves “Filipino”. We have called ourselves that ever since.
Is “Pinoy” a further contraction of the “Pilipino” variation?
What did the people living in the country we now call the Philippines call themselves before they were colonised by the Spanish?
Yes. The /f/ phenome doesn’t exist in many Philippine languages, so “Pilipino” is a legitimate pronunciation.
They called themselves Tagalog or Kapampangan or Ilokano or Bisaya or any of the dozens of regional identities. The Spanish colonial philosophy was very much one of “divide and conquer”.
Tagalogs, Vasayans, Ilocanos, etc. for the people and various areas of the islands ultimately united as Republika ng Pilipinas were referred to by their local names: Mactan, Mindanao, etc. This Wiki article says
So, it’s one country now thanks to the Spanish. Before Spanish rule, it was many countries. There is a dispute between the Philippines and Malaysia regarding Sabah, so I suppose you could say it’s now two countries.
While Felipe has become increasingly common, it’s worth noting that Filipe is the older form in both Spanish and Portuguese, deriving, via an Apostle, from the Greek name Philippos, “lover of horse.”
Pilipino, with the initial P standard, is also the name given to the lingua franca, based on Tagalog, that was encouraged in lieu of the various local languages. With what success is a question someone with knowledge of the contemporary Philippines would need to answer.
During some overly ambitious drive by the government for nationalism in the late 80’s-early 90’s, it was drilled into us to refer to our language as Pilipino, not Tagalog. And for a time, there was a strong push to change our medium of instruction from English to Pilipino. Neither caught on. I still say I speak Tagalog, and that I am Filipino (with an F).
IIRC, we were divided before the Spanish came.
Thanks, Terminus Est and Monty. You learn something new here every day.
I was under the impression that Pilipino and Tagalog are not the same language. The former is a mixture of English, Spanish and Tagalog. Certainly, I have known many Pilipinos who have said as much, and it sounds that way to me when I’ve watched TV or movies there. Did I misunderstand the situation?
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Tagalog and Pilipino (Filipino) are not the same language, although the latter is based on the former:
According to the Embassy of the Republic of the Philippines, English is the “second official language alongside English.”
The Wiki article on Pilipino has some interesting things to say on the subject. Here is the Ethnolouge entry on Filipino.
There are all sorts of socio-political considerations for language in the Philippines, but succinctly Filipino is the officially-blessed language, largely based on Tagalog, used on government documents. Tagalog is what people actually speak in the capital and surrounding regions. When traveling to other parts of the country, you’ll ask whether the locals can speak Tagalog, not whether they can speak Filipino. Students are taught, in Filipino class, how to read and write Tagalog.
As for the foreign words, Tagalog is a living language that has assimilated words from Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, etc. It’s happily doing the same with English right now.