The languages in the Philippines is largely influenced by its colonial history. The history of the languages in Philippines can be mainly divided into pre-colonial history, the Spanish occupation (1565-1896), the American Occupation (1898-1946) and Independence (post World War II).

 

Before the Spanish occupation.  Filipinos had spoken languages that were descended from Austronesian or Malayo-Polynesian language (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 54). The major dialects showed a close similarity to the Malay language (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 55). They had also used the baybayin script as the written language (Halili, 2004, p.47). However many of them were destroyed by the early Spanish missionaries so little of this history are left today (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 56). 

 

In 1565 Spanish explorer Miguel Lopez de Legazpi established first Spanish settlement in Cebu and started the long period of Spanish colonization in the Philippines (Nadeau, 2008, p.xviii). The long years of Spanish rule undoubtedly had many long-lasting impacts on the languages of the Philippines. As part as the Spanish Hispanization of the FIlipinos, along with the influence of the Spanish missionaries, the precolonial baybayin script was replaced by the Latin alphabet (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 96). According to Agoncillo (1990), it was rare to find a Filipino who could read and write the script by the mid-eighteenth century (p.96). The Spanish also taught Spanish in school and "promoted" Spanish as the lingua franca in the late 18th century by strictly forbidding Filipinos to speak their won dialects in convents, monasteries and courts (Agoncillo, 1990, p.97). In 1849, Governer Narciso Claveria declared that Filipinos adopt Hispanic names (Agoncillo, 1990, p.94). Up until 1986, Spanish was still an official language of the Philippines. Though not many speak Spanish nowadays, the legacy of Spanish in the language of the Philippines is not hard to be noticed, as Agoncillo stated that "Nobody can deny the extent of Spanish loan words that filtered into major and minor languages of the Philippines".

 

Under American rule, English became part of the curriculum in school and a medium of instruction from primary to university level (Espinosa, 1997). Most Philippines became fluent in the language. English has become highly valued in the Philippines because it is an affordable skill that allows one advance in their career and incrase their status (Espinosa, 1997). Filipinos even began adopting American words into the Philippine languages. Code-mixing and code switching between Filipino and English is very common (Cavestany, 2015). However, not everyone agrees that this bilingualism and codemixing in the Philippines is a positive impact. According to Agoncillo, problems arise in schools where the students learn Filipino (based on Tagalog), English and also their native dialect, the result of such is "a half-baked knowledge of all but their own regional languages"(1990, p.551). The mixing of English and Filipino is also merely a result of the ignorance of its speakers in both Filipino and English. Filipino, the national language that is based on Tagalog, are "liberally and indiscriminately sprinkled with English words and phrases"(Agoncillo, 1990, p.552). Nevertheless, the years of foreign domination have made many Filipinos polyglots. The education in different languages has allowed a increase in diversity in culture of the Philippines and to become more integrated with the rest of the world.  

 

Today, Filipino along with English is the national language of the Philippines (Ethnologue, 2015). Considering that there are more than a hundred languages and dialects in the Philippines (Agoncillo, 1990, p. 54), it is a feat that all its people are united with one language.