# Philippines with 'Ph' vs. Filipino with 'F' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 15, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542 "2004-01-15T05:17:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![neutron5o](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6de8d8/32.png) [@neutron5o](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron5o)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542/1 "2004-01-15T05:17:45Z")
Anyone have any idea why ‘Philippines’ is spelled with a ‘Ph’ while the word ‘Filipino’ is spelled with an ‘F?’ Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542/2 "2004-01-15T06:29:20Z")
The islands were named by Magellan after Philip, the son-in-law of Isabella and Ferdinand, who was effectively King of Spain as Philip I (though this was “by the crown matrimonial” – his wife Joanna was the heiress). But the national languages, part of the Malayo-Polynesian group, spell phonetically, and generally derive their Westernized terms from Spanish, which converts Latin and Greek “ph” to F. (You will occasionally see _Pilipino_, a variant spelling/pronunciation in one of the languages of the islands.) ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542/3 "2004-01-15T14:55:04Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > The islands were named by Magellan after Philip, the son-in-law of Isabella and Ferdinand, who was effectively King of Spain as Philip I (though this was “by the crown matrimonial” – his wife Joanna was the heiress). Was/is Philip spelled that way in Spanish, or is that also an English spelling of the name (which I thought was anyway Greek)? ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542/4 "2004-01-15T15:09:18Z")
> [@ShibbOleth](#): > > Was/is Philip spelled that way in Spanish, or is that also an English spelling of the name (which I thought was anyway Greek)? It’s **Felipe** in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![Daver914](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@Daver914](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daver914)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2004, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/philippines-with-ph-vs-filipino-with-f/224542/5 "2004-01-15T19:30:21Z")
> [@](#): > > But the national languages, part of the Malayo-Polynesian group, spell phonetically, and generally derive their Westernized terms from Spanish, which converts Latin and Greek “ph” to F. (You will occasionally see Pilipino, a variant spelling/pronunciation in one of the languages of the islands.) Tagalog (the major indigenous language of the Phillipines) lacks the /f/ phoneme, so the Spanish Filipinas/Filipino was/is pronounced bilabially as Pilipinas/Pilipino by many natives. The Phillipines were never more than a very tangential part of the Spanish empire, so Spanish never became the dominant language as in Mexico and the rest of Latin America. From a 1595 account of the Phillipines: > [@](#): > > …porque aunque en la çiudad de Manila ay españoles, pero en los pueblos de los yndios no vive español ninguno, y ansí están los pueblos de los yndios sin haçer en ellos mudança ninguna como se estavan antes que los españoles allá fuesen… …Although in the city of Manila there are Spaniards, in the native villages there are none at all, and the indian communities have changed little from how they were before the Spanish came. Cite: [http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/i.e.mackenzie/philippi.htm](http://www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/i.e.mackenzie/philippi.htm)