When we think of Filipinos and their language, the first thing that pops up in our mind is usually Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines. But in fact, apart from Tagalog, there are quite a number of languages and dialects being spoken by Filipinos from different part of the Philippines and we are going to introduce two of them.
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| Bisaya-speaking area in the Philippines |
Bisaya (or Visayan in English) is an Australasian language mostly spoken in the Philippines by approximately twenty million of speakers. It is widely spoken in the Central Visayas, including well-known regions like Cebu, Bohol and Negros Oriental.Despite the fact that Bisaya is not the official language of the Philippines, it has the largest native language speaking population in the country.
These kids are singing a traditional Bisaya song with their home made ukuleles, enjoy it! :)
Ilonggo is an Austronesian language spoken in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. The language is also referred to as Hiligaynon. There are 7,000,000 native speakers of Ilonggo in the world. Moreover, there are 4,000,000 people who can speak the language with a certain degree of proficiency. It is spoken in many provinces, like Iloilo, Negros Occidental, Guimaras and Capiz. It is also spoken as a second language by Karay-a speakers in Antique, Aklanon and Malaynon in Aklan.
Here’s is a short clip for learning Ilonggo. Enjoy!
Reference
Lewis, M. Paul (2009). "Hiligaynon". http://www.ethnologue.com/. Retrieved 23, April, 2013
Filipino is the official language of the Philippines, not Tagalog. There is a slight difference. Filipino lanhuage is 5he hybrid that borrows words from other languages... Tagalog is 5he language of the Central to the Southern rehions of Luzon upon which the grammar of Filipino is based.
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