Thank you Vladis. Will check out Jeanne Mas and Anggun. Heard about Anggun before too.
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Oh, London 11 am will be 6 am for me, I won’t be there 
진영씨 안녕하세요~
I’m a native English and Tagalog speaker from the Philippines. I’m also learning Bahasa Indonesia and Thai as well.
Feel free to ask me anything about Tagalog. 
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Hello Mark, when Filipinos say Tagalog, do they actually mean Filipino (standardized national language based on Tagalog)? I guess most foreigners are confusing the two. I learnt some basics with a book and a podcast, but I’m fluent in bahasa Indonesia.
On another note, is Mark the most common name in the Philippines? the majority of my pinoy friends are called Mark.
Ack, how shall I put it? It’s still an ongoing debate.
Well, let me explain (not-so) briefly. Back in 1936, our then-government wanted to create a standardized national language and base it on an existing native language. The following year, they decided on Tagalog mainly because it was more widely understood and was the language of Manila, which back then was an important economic center and international port city.
Tagalog soon became the basis of our “national language.” In 1959, the name of this standardized national language became “Pilipino,” which did not sit well with non-Tagalog groups such as the Cebuanos. The issue soon became the subject of a lot of debates, and then they proposed to revise it to a more inclusive “Manila lingua franca” that allowed more loanwords from Spanish and English. In 1987, the year in which they ratified our current Constitution, it was announced that “Filipino” would become our national language and “English” as our official language.
In Article XIV Section 6 of our Constitution, it is stated that “The national language of the Philippines is Filipino. As it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.”
Furthermore, the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino then specified through a resolution describing Filipino as “the native language spoken and written in the National Capital Region and other urban centers in the Philippines, and is used as the language of communication between ethnic groups.”
However, while the government officially regards it as a separate language, it’s still basically just like a standardized variety of Tagalog. KWF chair and linguistics expert Ricardo Nolasco pointed out that Filipino and Tagalog are linguistically the same because it’s basically Tagalog in syntax and grammar. Quoting him in a 2008 newspaper commentary, “Are ‘Tagalog,’ ‘Pilipino’ and ‘Filipino’ different languages? No. Someone speaking in Tagalog or Pilipino can be understood by anyone claiming to speak in Filipino, and vice versa.” (I’ll look for the article online, but I had taken some notes when I was doing my library research.)
So yeah, it’s still an ongoing debate, but basically, they’re just the same thing. Think of Filipino as the standardized Tagalog used in education and mass media (Tagalog has a number of dialects as well). Personally, I’d still call it “Tagalog” as a form of respect to the native speakers of other Philippine languages (Cebuano, Ilokano, etc.) that see its name as “Filipino” as a somewhat alienating term.
I guess a close comparison to the issue would be the “Español vs Castellano” naming debate.
I’d love to hear my fellow Filipinos on this platform give their own insights as well.
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That was a perfect reply and the last paragraph is what I needed to hear. In fact, about 80% of my pinoy friends are not from Manila but half of them say their first language is Tagalog, so I’ll probably call it Tagalog from now on. I often used the word “Filipino” to let them see that I understand the difference, but they themselves tend to use “Tagalog”. However, I have a pocket book here called “Conversational Filipino for foreigners” by Prof. Rene Cruz (Smartbooks Publishing) and it never mentions the word “Tagalog” at all.
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The Castellano example is valid, but I think we see it as Castellano dialect of Spanish, never did I encounter “Tagalog dialect of Filipino”, and it doesn’t make much sense to me. The Castellano example is the question of dialect (like Levantine Arabic or Egyptian Arabic being the standard) while the difference between Filipino and Tagalog is rather political.
You’re absolutely right. It is political.
The way I see it, the past efforts to create a “national language” have unexpectedly and unfortunately created some sort of linguistic hegemony that promotes Tagalog as the more superior Philippine language. There was a time that the other Philippine languages (Tagalog included) were classified as “dialects” of Filipino, and many Filipinos sadly still refer to the regional languages as mere “dialects.”
I’d still call it “Tagalog”, but many nationalist sociolinguists would insist on calling it a separate “pluricentric” language. I’m not an expert on linguistics, and I’d still love to read up more on the debate. As an anthropology graduate student, I err more on the side of caution and acknowledge and respect all cultural identities. I think our main feature as Filipinos lies in our unique cultural diversity, and that’s something to be celebrated.
As for the Castellano example, wow, I didn’t know that. Thanks for the clarification. I’ll read up more on that.
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Hello Everyone!
I’m actually doing a live Q&A session today at 6pm Kuala Lumpur/Manila/Taipei, 11pm Auckland, 10am London (Mars School Room 1) to answer questions regarding my talk on Austronesian languages particularly on the interesting question of whether Malay-Indonesian speakers can communicate with Polynesians in their respective languages.
Do come along if you’re interested!
Terima kasih, salamat po, ꦩꦠꦸꦂꦤꦸꦮꦸꦤ꧀, misaotra, mahalo, kia ora,
Brian
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We can extend this discussion on to the field of anthropology. I did masters in demography, but I sneaked into the anthropology group during the second semester because I had free time before and after my internship, so I attended a few courses. I managed to cover many related subjects such as ethnography, psycholinguistics, culturology, and sexuality. The profs were welcoming, because their anthropology groups were tiny and mostly feminine.
This is such a nice explanation @MarkOng! If I may just add that sociolinguists and linguists agree to disagree on this matter. Since Tagalog and Filipino do not differ greatly in syntax and lexicon, linguists consider them to be the same. However, for sociolinguists (and the Filipino department) they are different. Proponents do admit that Filipino and Tagalog are too similar linguistically to be considered different, that is why these days the KWF and other universities are supporting programs that “develop” the Filipino language mostly through translation and writing.
There are some linguists that do believe that Filipino will eventually diverge from Tagalog but this will take time. However, that is not to say that “Filipino” is fully welcome by all Filipinos. Its Tagalog roots is still problematic and is still privileging one ethnic group over the other.
Anyway, this might be a worthwhile read: http://sealang.net/sala/archives/pdf8/paz1996nationalization.pdf
I am an ethnic Tagalog so I can use Tagalog all I want (lol) but it is never a clear line where Tagalog ends and Filipino begins at least as far as linguistics is concerned. I asked the KWF about this (which is, btw headed by a Tagalog) and even they couldn’t give a definite answer. At least for now.
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There are 9 major official languages, including English, Vietnamese, Thai, Malay, Indonesian, Lao, Burmese, Cambodian and Filipino in 10 countries of Southeast Asian. The most spoken language in the region is Malay, with 290 million total speakers. Other widely spoken South love language test East Asian languages include Bahasa Indonesia (156 million speakers), Vietnamese (90 million) and Javanese (82 million). The three most widely spoken languages in Asia—Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, and Russian —are often considered to be the most intimidating languages by beginner learners.
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