Today, that vision is more or less realized. This vision of having one nation, one people, unified under one Filipino language brought about the evolution of Filipino. Because language, the language of any country in the world, is used as a powerful tool for expressing people’s sentiments, for gaining knowledge and for defending their rights. We will only deserve freedom if we can defend the sacred soul of the nation, our own language. It is necessary that as early as now we must love the freedom and the soul of the nation – our own language.

We have to let the world know today that we are a people no longer under the Flag of Spain, nor under the shadow of the American Flag. Jose¹ delivered a powerful speech in Tagalog: Hopes and sentiments for a unifying, native language was best articulated by one of the delegates during the 1934 convention, when Felipe R. The national language was not formally called Filipino until 1987.

It was a vision originated during the 1934 Constitutional Convention and since had many iterations. It is based on the Tagalog language, which is a native, regional language spoken in the capital city of Manila and its surrounding provinces.įilipino was borne from the intention of creating a native language that would unify the people of the Philippines and assert their independence from foreign rule under Spain and the United States. Hard copies are currently unavailable for purchase online.The Filipino language is the national language of the Philippines today. Hard copies available in limited quantities at: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino and UST Publishing House, Manila. 'Phonology: The Sound of Language' is a chapter in The Tagalog Region: Lexicon of the Languages & Dialects (2009) by Fe Aldave Yap. This alphabet was instituted in 1987 during the Aquino presidency. The current Filipino alphabet includes 8 letters from the Spanish alphabet: c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x, z. Abakada remained the national language's alphabet from 1940 to 1976. The result was 20 letters (5 vowels and 15 consonants). Santos developed The Grammar of the National Language (Ang Balarila ng Wikang Pambansa), which contained the alphabet for the national language abakada, named after its first three letters, representing the sounds in the Tagalog language. Spanish missionaries introduced the Latin alphabet and the Spanish language. Before today, the number of letters in the Filipino alphabet varied, having four sets of letters since the pre-colonial times.

Abakada alphabet