Taglish

Filipinos don't believe in language purity, as they mix languages, typically Tagalog and English, freely, this code-switching being called Taglish. Tagalog proper is already full of Spanish loanwords and borrowings from other languages, like Hokkien. The Philippines is under the American sphere of influence, and code-switching is how Filipinos deal with modernization. Tagalog has an "old attic" of vintage words, with which modern Filipinos are less familiar, but which are still in common use in rural areas and with old folk.

In the sunny blue-sky morning of the 13th of April of 2023, I was sitting in the teahouse drinking my iced black tea. Lizbeth the Mexican came through the door, and we greeted each other, she still teaching Dance Fitness and Zumba at several schools here on Lulu Island. I suppose some people at the teahouse miss the noisy patois of Taglish of Greg and me. I was just reading my Japanese-language fantasy book Tabi no Nakama, or The Fellowship of the Ring, of the famous J.R.R. Tolkien. Walking back to my house, I saw Nikki the Cypriot Greek and her Korean neighbour, as they continued their six rounds around the neighbourhood block.

Born in the time of The Beatles, my generation in the Philippines was the product of more nationalism and less Americanization than what my parents experienced, born during the Swing and Big Band music era. It was in 1937 that the Philippine government adopted Tagalog, an Austronesian language, as the basis of the national language. Filipinos born during the time of "King of Pop" Michael Jackson had much more Tagalog indoctrination, and television shows, anime, and cinema became more Tagalog. Later Filipinos born during the reign of Lady Gaga became more exposed to the Internet, where English was ubiquitous. With floodgates open, the archipelagic nation once again became inundated with the colonial language. It still seemed though that the reading habit was not for the majority because most books there were in English, which the elite gobbled up. The Philippines was a country of about 200 native Austronesian languages, whose ancient origin was Taiwan. What school children learned was Tagalog (alias Filipino) and English, but Taglish, the patois of code-switching between the two languages, was the de facto oral-aural lingua franca in the islands. English was the main written language.

On its way to Americanization since the Spanish-American War of 1898, in the 1930s, the Philippines was still somewhat a Hispanic country. Manila was the 9th largest Spanish-speaking city in this world in 1930 with 324 552 inhabitants. The switch to English for at least written communication was set in motion. Adding to the linguistic confusion, in 1937, the Philippine government chose Tagalog, out of about 200 native Austronesian languages, as the basis of the national language, because it was already dominant in many parts of the archipelago. By the late 20th century, Taglish, the patois of code-switching between Tagalog and English, became the de facto oral-aural lingua franca in the islands, despite that Tagalog (alias Filipino) and English were separate studied subjects in school. English was the window to the external world, whilst Taglish became the familiar chit-chat on the streets and in the domestic media. Spanish embedded itself as many natural-sounding loanwords within Tagalog, Taglish, and other native languages. Tagalog had not been fully "intellectualized" as a language, as many great international works had not been translated into it. Tagalog used in non-humanities fields of science remained only experimental. Artificial Intelligence and machine translation might give Tagalog a "kangaroo-hopping" boost.

There is such a thing as "Filipino English." Most Filipinos cannot pronounce English the way Americans do. So, when they speak English, they speak with a Filipino accent. There are also special local words that creep into it. Such includes food words like "hopia" and "pancit." But most of the time, the archipelagic lingua franca is really Taglish, the patois of code-switching between Tagalog and English. Filipinos reserve speaking pure English when Anglophone foreigners are present.

Looking from outside, the whole Earth may still be like Papua New Guinea, or PNG for short. My fatherland the Philippines obliquely retains its primitive innocence. It is really too bad that literature in indigenous languages there is still scarce. A trip to a bookstore in the Philippines reveals many books in English, but a mere small section in Tagalog. People speak an indigenous language ordinarily, every day, but when they read or write, it is often English. But texting on cellphones and smartphones and in Social Media may often be abbreviated Taglish code-switching. Many Filipinos prefer television, cinema, or videos in an indigenous language, rather than read English, which to them is still foreign cold. Maybe, Roman letters are too rigid for their Asian eyes, unlike the ancient Baybayin script, which nowadays people relegate to tattoos and patriotic T-shirts. Filipino culture is highly aural-oral, today. Today, Japanese anime, Korean dramas, American shows, and so on are dubbed in Tagalog in the Philippines, more so than when I lived there decades ago.

I wonder what would have been, if administrators had chosen Chabacano, Philippine Creole Spanish, as an official language in the Philippines, much as administrators had chosen Tok Pisin, an English-based creole, as an official language in Papua New Guinea. Today, Filipinos wax nostalgic and poetic of the bygone Hispanic Era. After the Spanish-American War of 1898, Puerto Rico retained Spanish, but not the Philippines. Like an effervescent pink drink, English is now the main written language in the Philippines. However, the de facto aural-oral lingua franca in the archipelago is Taglish, the patois of code-switching between the two official languages, Filipino (Tagalog essentially) and English. Chabacano (Chavacano) combines Spanish with native elements. There is in Chabacano no verbal conjugation that does exist in Spanish, Tagalog, and English, which complicates these languages. Native languages in the Philippines have oodles of Spanish-derived words embedded in them. Native languages are of the Austronesian family, said to have originated thousands of years ago in Taiwan. About 200 languages exist in the Philippines. Most of them are of the Austronesian family, whilst Chabacano, an outgrowth of Hispanic colonization, sprouted like mushrooms in various places there.