Filipino Lesson 201: A Brief History of the Filipino Language
Quite a good introduction to language in the Philippines. It’s a little long, but I encourage people (especially Filipino-American youth) to take some time to watch this video (it’s 13 minutes long, but I guarantee that you’ll learn a lot!). For those of you who believe that “Tagalog” is the official language of the Philippines, or if you don’t actually understand how language works in the country, this is a good video to help clear some facts up. The topic is definitely a little confusing, but the narrator presents the history of language (as well as other useful information about the history of the country) at a pace that is easy to grasp. It’s worth learning!
Something that I wish the video covered a little more was the idea that although standard Filipino is based off of Tagalog, it incorporates elements of other languages of the Philippines including Cebuano and Ilokano (The video doesn’t give any examples. Are the incorporated words exclusive to Cebuano and Ilocano, or are they mutual with Tagalog?). However, I understand the omission since that’s really another topic that actually leads into a different discussion (issues regarding language learning and use in the Philippines, which is quite a messy topic). Anyway, overall, this video is still good in giving basic introduction about the national language of the Philippines.
Most definitely worth the watch if you’re down for some knowledge about our country’s language. Lots of things definitely make sense to me now!
(Source: i-was-hella-bored-so-i)
