Filipino language

Filipino (pronounced FIL-ih-PEE-noh; in the language itself, Wikang Filipino [ˈwikɐŋ filiˈpino]) serves as the Philippines’ national language, its primary lingua franca, and—alongside English—one of its two official languages. In practice, it is a standardized version of Tagalog, based on how that language is spoken and written in Metro Manila and other urban centers across the archipelago. The 1987 Constitution directs that Filipino be continually enriched and developed using the country’s other languages, a framework that aims to build a national language while honoring the contributions of the Philippines’ many regional tongues.

The Philippines is a multilingual nation with 175 living languages spoken by various ethno-linguistic groups. Most of these languages trace back to a common Malayo-Polynesian ancestor, brought by Austronesian migration from Taiwan. That common language later split into distinct branches, and through Malay—the historical lingua franca of maritime Southeast Asia—these languages absorbed terms ultimately from Japanese, Hokkien, Sanskrit, and Arabic. Malay was widely used by ruling classes and merchants for international communication.

Spanish intrusion into the Philippine islands began in 1565 with the fall of Cebu. The Spanish eventually made Manila their capital, after capturing it from the Muslim Kingdom of Luzon (ruled by Raja Matanda, with heir apparent Raja Sulayman) and the Hindu-Buddhist Kingdom of Tondo (ruled by Lakan Dula). Manila was chosen because of its commercial wealth and influence, its strategic location, and Spanish fears of raids from the Portuguese and Dutch. The first dictionary of Tagalog, *Vocabulario de la lengua tagala*, was written by Franciscan missionary Pedro de San Buenaventura and published in 1613 by Tomás Pinpin in Pila, Laguna. A later book with the same title was written by Czech Jesuit Paul Klein (known locally as Pablo Clain) at the start of the 18th century. Klein spoke Tagalog and used it in several of his works; he compiled a dictionary that he later passed to Francisco Jansens and José Hernández. Further work on this substantial collection was prepared by Juan de Noceda and Pedro de Sanlúcar, published as *Vocabulario de la lengua tagala* in Manila in 1754, and repeatedly re-edited, with the latest edition appearing in 2013 in Manila.

During the Spanish period, Spanish served as the offici