Do U Speak Tagalog?: Future of Filipino Language (Part I)
by Anson Yu

If you were boasting your family's tree back in the 17th century, speaking in what was then called Tagalog (the basis for today's Filipino), it would sound something like "Caming magcaaanacan ay lalar ng isang malaking ginoo." (Our family is descended from a noble man.) 500 years later saying the same thing in Filipino would sound more like this "Pare, di mo ba alam big shot yon erpat namin?"
This is proof positive that Filipino is an active, living and vibrant language. It openly adopts foreign terms and ideas like "father" and "big shot" and somehow makes them uniquely its own. It also mirrors the changes that Philippine society has undergone, making it one of our more important cultural heritage. But ever wonder how will Filipino be spoken twenty or thirty years from now?

To determine how Filipino will be spoken twenty or thirty years from, we need to look into the past first to see what factors influenced the way we speak Filipino now. As UP associate professor of anthropology, Michael Tan says "A language's evolution tells us the kinds of social and political relationship within one culture, as well as between culture." Whenever there is a prolong contact with a foreign culture, either through trade or colonization, the Filipino language would adopt foreign words and term to express concept, ideas or objects where there is no local equivalent. The only exception seems to be Japanese era, since there was very little attempt by Filipinos to study the language during WW2, as conditions back then were not conducive for cross cultural exchanges. It seems that it is only recently that Filipino is embracing Japanese but more on this later.

Aside from Spanish and English, other languages that have made their way to Filipino includes Malaysian (Bayar or to pay), Arabic (Hukom or judgement), Sanskrit, (Guro or teacher), Mayan (Palenque or gathering place) and Hokkien Chinese (Hikaw or Earring). But this doesn't mean that the Filipino language would blindly adopt the foreign words or terms. While some words would retain their original spelling and meaning such as "chess", "t-shirt" and "shampoo", in many cases the spelling is changes as in "Bayad" (as oppose to Bayar), "Litrato" (as opposed to "Retrato") and "Komiks"(as opposed to "Comics") to suit local pronunciation and spelling rules.

In other cases, the word is twisted beyond its original meaning in the original language. A classic example is "Salvage", which originally meant "to save" in English, but now has come to mean "To kill"or "To execute without due process". In some cases both spelling and meaning change as in palenque which is now spelt as palengke and the meaning has change to market place While there have been attempt to replace foreign loan words with indigenous terms and words, these attempts were not widely accepted by the public.

Another way of predicting how future generations will speak Filipino, is to understand how slang words were form, as there have been numerous cases of words which started out as slang but eventually became part of mainstream vocabulary. According to linguist R. David Zorc and co-author of the Tagalog Slang Dictionary, "It is imperative to understand how such words came into being in order to decipher new forms (or words) that you may encounter". As to how slang are form, Mr. Zorc states that "Filipinos derive their slang words by borrowing from other languages, by giving new meanings to pre-existing words, by coining or creating original forms, or by using numbers as a kind of "in-group" codes."

Now if we look closely at Mr. Zorc's statement and how Filipinos adopt foreign words, we would notice three patterns emerging. One is that Filipino has a habit of adopting words from other languages. We have already seen how Filipino derived from foreign sources, but notice that in recent decades Filipino has also begun adopting words from other Philippine languages and dialects. Words such as Utol from Pampango Kaputul or sibling), Datung (from Cebuano for Cash gift) and Gurang (from Waray for aged or old) are among those that have already entered the national Filipino lexicon. This is probably a sign of a growing emergence of a truly national identity.

Another emerging pattern is how Filipino sometime twists a foreign word outside of its original meaning. This same pattern emerges in how Filipino creates a new slang by giving old words new meaning. Example is the word Sabog which used to be an agricultural term meaning "to scatter the seed on the field", it has since change its meaning and now means "to be high on drugs or extremely drunk."

The third pattern we noticed earlier is how a foreign word spelling is change to suit local pronunciation and spelling rules. This is similar to a process in slang derivation known as Metathesis, which is the switching of sounds within a word, either through inversion of syllables or by a re-arrangement of the letters. The two common ways that this is manifested in Filipino is either through syllable switching (as in astig from matigas or hard) or through full reversal of spelling (as in atab from bata or child)

But this doesn't mean that Filipino is not creative enough to create new words of its own. Going back to Mr. Zorc's earlier statement where he states that slang are developed as an in group code. Often times these new words began from a particular people sector where the idea, concept or object originated. Example is the gay community referral to male prostitute as "call boys" or the way drug addicts various terms for marijuana. These words were originally as a form as a way to create group identity and keep out outsiders, as well as express certain words or terms that is socially unacceptable or illegal as in the case of human genitalia or drug paraphernalia.

Despite this exclusive usage, many did manage to make its way to the mainstream usage via the media, especially through the tabloid and radio.

Now that we understand the process how words are adopted or coined in Filipino, what will be the factors that affect the way we speak and write Filipino now in the next twenty years? What are the trends we can spot now that will affect how it will be spoken tomorrow? While forecasting is not an exact science, there are some trends are already affecting Filipino even as we speak. The most prominent of which is technology. Word such as "internet", "video game", "email", "website", "cell phone" and "text messaging" have already entered the Filipino language. A number of those terms are already undergoing a process of Filipinization as they are conjugated with "mag", "nag" or other prefix, as in "Nagte-text", "magcha-chat" and "nag email". In some cases some of these technical terms are slowly being used to describe human traits or emotion, example is the term "low batt" which originally meant that a cell phone needs to be recharge, but has since been use by some to describe tiredness.

But technology has its dark side. Since it can be tedious to punch in the correct spelling of a word or a frequently use phrase such as "How are you?"or "Good morning", abbreviation is becoming the norm in text messaging such as "ASL PLS", "GUD AM" and "W R U".

This trend has been annoying both local and foreign educators as they violate existing grammar and spelling rules. Though a test conducted by De La Salle University in Manila in 2001 on students from DLSU and UP Los Banos, found that cell phone usage does not affect grammar and spelling skills. In fact the heavy texters were the one who got good test scores. It might be argued though that the test was conducted on college students whose language competency is somewhat stable.

Currently abbreviations used in text messaging are limited to English words and phrases, attempts to shorten Filipino words, such as "MGND AM" and "KMST K?" have proved to be futile as they hard to be immediately decipher. That is because Filipino is syllabic in nature and texting a Filipino abbreviation will only work if it is a well known phrase as in "CR"(comfort room) or "KSP"(kulang sa pansin or lacking attention). But then again who knows, some one out there might find a way to abbreviate "Magandang Umaga?" in a readable way and might even change the way we write in Filipino.

Another factor that might affect how we speak Filipino is an aging population. Just as the baby boom years resulted in the creation of new words and slang describing the situation of young people, (such as "Jeprox" in the 1970s) It is possible that as larger portion of Philippine society aged, that new words will be created to describe their situation. While older people are not thought to be as creative with language as the younger people are, there is still the possibility that some of the new words describing their situation will come from within them.

A third factor is the huge number of oversea filipino workers. It is highly probably that foreign words or phrases will enter the Filipino lexicon through them and from their crossover to mainstream society usage. A good example are gay entertainers who have picked up the Japanese pronouns of "Anata" (You) and "Watashi" ( I ) and have included them in the Filipino gay lexicon.

Aside from foreign words and phrases, there is the possibility of the OFWs themselves coming out with words and phrases unique to their own situation. Already some words are in existence as in the phrase "Katas ng Saudi" or roughly "Saudi Arabian Juice", something obtained through hard work in the Middle East. It has already spawn a series of imitators such as "Katas ng Taiwan", "Katas ng Hong Kong", "Katas ng Guam" etc.

A fourth factor is the rise of China as an economic and military super power, it is possible that many Filipino would try to learn the language other than members of the Tsinoy community. If this happen, then it will be Putonghua (or Mandarin) that will be contributing words and phrases to Filipino and not Hokkien as it was before. However of all the trends, this seems to be the weakest, as there very little incentive for most Filipino at this point in time to study Putonghua. As of now most business dealings between Chinese and Filipinos are handled by the Tsinoy business community. Other than teaching English, there are not that many job opportunities for most Filipinos inside China, meaning fewer opportunities for Filipinos to stay inside China for long periods and absorb the language. But the popularity of the F4 boy band is a sign that given the right motivation, the Filipinos can learn to speak (and sing) in Putonghua.
A fifth trend that will affect how we speak is the future state of morality of Philippine society. I noticed that a large number of Filipino slang and expressions are related to the issue of sex and gender. That is because at the times those slang and expression were created, society then can only speak about such matter behind close doors or in low voices. As historian Ambeth Ocampo once pointed out that during the Spanish time "they (Spanish friars) kept us in the dark about anatomical parts or sexual functions because the words for 'shameful parts' in Philippine language did not have the equivalent Spanish translations. These were so offensive that the translation were in Latin!"

But whether future generations of Filipino still need to create code words for these "shameful parts" will depend on what will be the future society attitude toward sex. From all indication now it does seem like we are headed to a more sexually open society, as evident by the contents in today's media. However in my opinion the slang will still be used by future generation when referring to sex and human anatomy, but it will be more to add flourish in their speech rather than to hide what is consider as something shameful.

The sixth and final trend is the medium of instruction. Recently the president reinstated the use of English as medium of instruction in the local school system. The logic behind this was to preserve our competitive edge in the global work force. However this goes against on a number of studies that learning is best facilitated by the first language at least in the first few years. They also point also that once students master a first language then it will be easier for them to take on another language. It does make more sense to learn Filipino first then use it to learn English rather than have Filipino taught to us using English. Whether future government administration will reinstate Filipino remains to be seen.

Again I would like to remind that these are only my hunches as to how Filipino will be spoken in the next twenty years or so. There will other factors that will affect how we speak that we could not even foresee now, such as a war, government regulations, religious influences, trends in globalization, shifts in the class structures, etc which could interfere or even cancel out what I have just stated. But whatever the state of Filipino is in the future, we need to keep it alive so that it will continue to reflect who we are as a people and as a nation.

i know, Tagalog, shouldn't be called Tagalog cuz it's technically "Filipino" now.

I speak Filipino pero di gaano fluent

I speak Filipino pero di gaano fluent

I speak Filipino pero di gaano fluent

hoy! tatlong ulit ba itala? haha j/k

@flip, ang Tagalog ay tumuturing sa mga taong naninirahan sa kalakhang Maynila at Katagalogan at gayundin sa wikang gamit ng mga taong ito. Ang Filipino naman ay tumutukoy sa Pambansang wika ng Pinas... na kaparehas naman ng wikang Tagalog... mas opisyal lang na tawaging Filipino kung gusto mong tumukoy sa pangkabuuan...

meh, i suck at tagalog, but i'm gonna ask my parents to teach my kids tagalog and cinese if i ever have any lol

dapat mag-aral ka na kahit konti! mamaya nyan pag natuto na ang mga anak mo, ibenta ka nila sa Tsino! hahaha

=/ i really wanted to learn more filipino last summer, but i guess i got sidetracked... AF has helped a bit, but now i just hang around the off topic section... if i knew more grammar i'd probably be really good at filipino... i can listen to someone and know exactly what they're saying, but when it comes to writing my own sentences... eek.. that's another story...

My tagalog has always been pretty $hitty but im getting better i have a wierd habit of subtituting words i dont know in either ilongo or english. It seems to pop out lol. Anyways my goal is to speak in fancy tagalog like they do in the old movies. They just sound so cultured and educated. Unlike some of the movies ive seen lately, they sound so cheesy and bordering trashy imo.

do flip people have culture and language?

^troll alert.

yeah, we do have, But do you?

What kind of question is this, d@mn troll .

Yes filipinos do have an culture and language. But its probably too complicated for your stupid @zz to comprehend.

true, but it's pretty much tagalog, based on it pretty much just changing the name to Filipino, even changing the p for an f.

so to me Tagalog shouldn't be called Tagalog because it's so bogged down by slangs and foreign loanwords. and even spoken like "Taglish". So to me Tagalog isn't tagalog anymore it should be just Filipino. (There are still Tagalog speakers, but they are outskirts of Manila in the countryside, but for Manila and mainstream Filipino speakers, it shouldn't be called Tagalog.)

just ignore them by responding to them the way u do ur just sinking to thier level

Ikaw lang eh, bihira ka nang mapagawi dito...

I think what ate is trying to say that "filipino" includes all local languages and dialects..ganun din yung napag-aralan ko sa school eh, elementary hanggang HS. So bale, hindi lang siya Tagalog.