Filipino English

The English language as used in the Philippines, a state of South-East Asia consisting of more than 7,000
islands. The 1980 census counted the number of Filipinos with some competence in English as around
65%: some 35m people. Ability ranges from a smattering of words and phrases through passive
comprehension to near-native mastery.

Background

Filipino experience of Western colonialism and its linguistic effects has been unique, in that
there have been two colonizers in succession: Spain from the 16c and the US from 1898, when English
arrived in the islands. It spread rapidly, to the detriment of SPANISH, because it was the new language of
government, preferment, and education.

In the Philippines there are some 85 mutually unintelligible though genetically related languages
of the Malayo-Polynesian family, such as TAGALOG, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Waray, and Bicol.
These languages of the home serve as SUBSTRATES whose features have variously influenced the
development of Philippine English.

(1) Philippine English is RHOTIC, but the local /r/ is an alveolar flap, not an American English
(AmE) retroflex.

(2) It is syllable timed, following the rhythm of the local languages; full value is therefore given
to unstressed syllables and SCHWA is usually realized as a full vowel.

(3) Certain polysyllables have distinctive stress patterns, as with elígible, establísh, cerémony.

(4) Intonation is widely characterized as ‘singsong’.

(5) Educated Filipinos aim at an AmE accent, but have varying success with the vowel contrasts
in sheep/ship, full/fool, and boat/bought.

(6) Few Filipinos have the /æ/ in AmE mask; instead, they use /ɑ/ as in AmE father.

(7) The distinction between /s, z/ and /ʃ, ʒ/ is not made: azure is ‘ayshure’, pleasure ‘pleshure’,
seize ‘sees’, cars ‘karss’. (8) Interdental /ɵ, ð/ are often rendered as /t, d/, so that three of these is
spoken as ‘tree of dese’.

Grammar

The following features occur at all social levels:

(1) Loss of the singular inflection of verbs: The family home rest on the bluff of a hill; one of the
boys give a report to the teacher every morning.

(2) Use of present perfect for simple past (I have seen her yesterday I saw her yesterday) and
past perfect for present perfect (He had already gone home He has already gone home).

(3) Use of the continuous tenses for habitual aspect: He is going to school regularly He goes to
school regularly.
 (4) Use of the present forms of auxiliary verbs in subordinate noun clauses rather than past
forms, and vice versa: He said he has already seen you He said he had already seen you; She hoped that
she can visit you tomorrow She hoped that she could visit you tomorrow; He says that he could visit you
tomorrow He says that he can visit you tomorrow.

5) An apparent reversal of the norms for the use of the definite article: He is studying at the
Manuel Quezon University; I am going to visit United States.

(6) Verbs that are generally transitive used intransitively: Did you enjoy?; I cannot afford; I don't
like.

Vocabulary and idioms

(1) Loans from Spanish: asalto a surprise party, bienvenida a welcome party,despedida a
farewell party, Don/Doña title for a prominent man/woman, estafa a fraud, scandal, merienda mid-
afternoon tea, plantilla faculty assignments and deployment in an academic department, querida a
mistress, viand (from viandaprovisions for a journey) a dish served to accompany rice in a Filipino meal.

(2) LOAN-WORDS from Tagalog: boondock (from bundok) mountain (compare the AmE
extension: the boondocks), carabao (from kalabaw) a water buffalo,kundiman a love song, sampaloc
(from sampalok) the fruit of the tamarind, tao man (as in the common tao).

(3) LOAN TRANSLATIONS from local usages: open the light/radio turn on the light/radio (also
found in IndE), since before yet for a long time, joke only I'm teasing you, you don't only know you just
don't realize, he is playing and playing he keeps on playing, making foolishness (of children)
misbehaving, I am ashamed to you I am embarrassed because I have been asking you so many favours.

(4) Local NEOLOGISMS: agrupation (from Spanish agrupación) a group, captain-ball team captain
in basketball, carnap to steal (kidnap) a car, cope up to keep up and cope with (something), hold-
uppersomeone who engages in armed holdups, jeepney (blending jeep and jitney, AmE a small bus) a
jeep converted into a passenger vehicle.

Written models

Because of the influence of reading and writing and the academic context in which English is
learned, local speech tends to be based on written models. Filipinos generally speak the way they write,
in a formal style based on Victorian prose models.

Because of this, spelling pronunciations are common, such as ‘lee-o-pard’ for leopard, ‘subtill’
for subtle, and ‘worsester-shire sauce’for Worcestershire sauce.

Style is not differentiated and the formal style in general use has been called the classroom
compositional style. When style differentiation is attempted, there may be effects that are comical from
the point of view of a native speaker of English: ‘The commissioners are all horse owners, who at the
same time will appoint the racing stewards who will adjudicate disputes involving horses. Neat no?’
(from a newspaper column).

Code-switching
 A register has developed for rapport and intimacy that depends on CODE-MIXING AND CODE-
SWITCHING between Filipino and English. It is largely confined to Metro Manila and other urban centers
and used extensively in motion pictures and on television and radio as well as in certain types of
informal writing in daily newspapers and weekly magazines

Examples: (1) ‘Peks man,’ she swears, ‘Wala pang nangyayari sa amin ni Marlon. We want to
surprise each other on our honeymoon.’ [‘Cross my heart,’ she swears. ‘Nothing yet has happened
between Marlon and me …’] (from a movie gossip column). (2) Donna reveals that since she turned
producer in 1986, her dream was to produce a movie for children: ‘Kaya, nang mabasa ko ang Tuklaw sa
Aliwan Komiks, sabi ko, this is it. And I had the festival in mind when finally I decided to produce it.
Pambata talaga kasi ang Pasko,’ Donna says. [‘That is why when I read the story “Snake-Bite” in the
Aliwan Comic Book, I told myself, this is it …. Because Christmas is really for children’] (from a movie
gossip column)

Social issues

Philippine English is currently competing in certain domains with the rapidly spreading and
developing Filipino, which is in a process of register-building sometimes called intellectualization.

Filipino is not fully developed for academic discourse, especially in the sciences, and there is an
ongoing debate on the use of Filipino instead of English for school work and official purposes.

There is also conflict between the learning of Filipino for symbolic purposes and the learning of
English for utilitarian, largely economic, purposes. The two official languages are propagated through a
bilingual education scheme begun in 1974: mathematics and science continue to be taught in English
although it is envisaged that when possible the teaching of these subjects at certain grade levels shall be
in Filipino. The print media are dominated by English, but television, radio, and local movies are
dominated by Filipino.

Philippine English has developed a vigorous literature. It is in the process of standardization,

On the one hand, code-switching may end up in code-mixing, resulting in a local creole. On the
other hand, the need for international relations, the dominance of the print media, and the continued
use of English in education may exercise a standardizing role, making it possible for the Philippine
variety to be mutually intelligible with other varieties of English. It is also possible that the present
system of bilingual education will be converted into a purely monolingual Filipino scheme in which
English is taught as a foreign language and becomes available only to an élite.

English as a language of power

The power of English is of a worldly nature which is termed the “vehicular load” of a language.
English is considered as the “primary medium for 20th century science and technology.”  Important
Markers of English power: demographic distribution, native & non-native users across all cultures, use in
world forums, and it’s rich literary tradition.
 Power resides in: its uses, the roles users can play, its perceived importance in that English
exceeds other languages on all counts.

The English language is a tool of power, dominance, communication and elitist identity across
the world. More than this, English is the language of power and progress. In the Philippines, it is highly
valued not only because it is functional and practical and washes over us constantly, but more
importantly, because it is an affordable item, a skill that can be used to increase one's position,
respectability and marketability.

In most cases, the better one's ability to understand and use English, the better one's chances of
career advancement. This is true for both extremes of the socio-economic ladder. English is as important
to the Harvard-educated Filipino working in Manila's cosmopolitan business district as it is to the
overseas contract worker working as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia.

English as a colonial language

Due to the political power of the British in the India and the Americans in the Philippines and
Puerto Rico, the colonists had to adopt a pose fitting their new status. English became a marker of
power.

Because English was clearly a powerful language the Natives tried to adopt the language and
pose the same status as the colonists. This made the colonists uncomfortable.

Thus the term “non-native” English is coined. It is the transplanted varieties of English that are
acquired as a second language.

English is used as a tool of power to connect those with similar cultures and norms as the
politically elite.

In 1898, America’s power spread to the Philippines and President McKinley considered it the
American’s duty to educate, civilize, and Christianize the Filipinos so that they would be fitting of
citizenship.

Throughout South Asia, the same was true, many English speakers were trying to Christianize
and change the “natives.”

English has become a tool of civilization and light. Use of said tool is considered to the colonist’s
contribution and duty.

English also became the medium for understanding technology and scientific developments.

Eventually the Indians (as well as Filipinos or Africans) who did become skilled in professional
roles were called “Westernized” or to be more neutral “modernized.”

English acquired a strong non-native base and local languages lost their prestige and power.

In time the elite language was used against the Englishmen and their roles and intentions; it
became the language of a resurging nationalism and political awakening.

The linguistic and cultural pluralism in Africa and South Asia aided with the spread of English and
thus fostered staying power for the language.
 By the 1920’s English had become the language of politics, intranational administration, law, and
was associated with liberal thinking. Even after the colonial period ended English maintained its power
over local language.

The Philippine English System

English is very unique in the Philippines because we use it as the language of instruction, but not the
language of home. (O’Connor, 1955) Not only that, we also use English in the government during
political sessions or meetings, and in law firms and during prosecution hearings and documentation,
English is always the common language. This shows that English is part of our culture and rivals the
importance of the other languages in the Philippines.

We became an English-speaking nation through the help of our teachers whom themselves had learned
English as a second language. The Thomasites arrived in the Philippines on August 21, 1901 to set up a
new public school system to teach basic education, and to train Filipino teachers with English as the
medium of instruction. Our Filipino teachers, during that time, were exposed and immersed with native
speaking pronunciations and comprehension. (Wikipedia)

The destruction caused by the war has been great. O’Connor cites that most of the native English
teachers and non-native English teachers died during the war. Some of them lost their professions
because they did not return to their classrooms when the war ended. Since the spoken language is
learned by imitation of native speakers of the language, the lack of native speaker models has effected
certain English sounds as enunciated by English-speaking Filipinos today.

The English language in the Philippines is often used along with Tagalog. As a result you will find that
people mix English with Tagalog. This is commonly called Taglish.

In the Philippine islands different languages are spoken, therefore, Filipinos who travel to another
region of the country where a different dialect or language is spoken will find that they can
communicate with fellow Filipinos using either the Filipino language (Tagalog) or the English language.
That is if they do not speak the local language.

Some words used in Filipino were borrowed from English. Some borrowed words cannot be directly
translated into Filipino so they are used as is but may be spelled in Filipino according to their
pronunciation. Some of the English words that are used in Filipino include words such as: printer, fax,
bar, and cell phone. Other commonly used English words in Tagalog include: hello, hi, escalator, and so
on..  In the Tagalog language, there are also English words that are spelled according to their
pronunciation when used in Filipino. Examples of these words are telebisyon (television), oben (oven),
and kamera (camera). There are countless others but here are a few more: traysikel (tricycle), dyip
(jeep), and miting (meeting).

Philippine English Linguistic and Literary Perspective by Bautista, Ma. Lourdes

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29- PHILIPPINEENGLISH.html

http://gilesig.org/26Phil.htm  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_English
http://grammar.about.com/b/2013/11/14/notes-on- english-in-the-philippines.htm
http://EzineArticles.com/4546965