Philippine English
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Philippine English (similar and related to
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
) is any
variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
native to the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
, including those used by the media and the vast majority of educated
Filipinos Filipinos ( tl, Mga Pilipino) are the people who are citizens of or native to the Philippines. The majority of Filipinos today come from various Austronesian ethnolinguistic groups, all typically speaking either Filipino, English and/or othe ...
and English learners in the Philippines from adjacent Asian countries. English is taught in schools as one of the two official languages of the country, the other being
Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
( Tagalog). Due to the influx of Filipino English teachers overseas, Philippine English is also becoming the prevalent variety of English being learned in the
Far East The ''Far East'' was a European term to refer to the geographical regions that includes East and Southeast Asia as well as the Russian Far East to a lesser extent. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons. The ter ...
as taught by Filipino teachers in various Asian countries such as
Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
,
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...
, among others. Due to the highly multilingual nature of the Philippines,
code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualis ...
such as
Taglish Taglish or Englog is code-switching and/or code-mixing in the use of Tagalog and English, the most common languages of the Philippines. The words ''Taglish'' and ''Englog'' are portmanteaux of the words ''Tagalog'' and ''English''. The earliest ...
( Tagalog-infused English) and
Bislish Bislish is a portmanteau of the words ''Bisaya'' and ''English'', which refers to any of the Visayan languages of the Philippines macaronically infused with English terms. It is an example of code mixing. The earliest use of the term ''Bislis ...
(English infused with any of the
Bisayan languages The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Mos ...
) is prevalent across domains from casual settings to formal situations.


History

Filipinos were first introduced to English when the British invaded and occupied Manila and Cavite in 1762 as part of the
Seven Years' War The Seven Years' War (1756–1763) was a global conflict that involved most of the European Great Powers, and was fought primarily in Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific. Other concurrent conflicts include the French and Indian War (1754 ...
, but this occupation had no lasting effect on English in the country. A national variety called Philippine English evolved as a result of the American colonization, and was arguably one of the fastest to develop in the postcolonial world. Its origins as an English language spoken by a large segment of the Philippine population can be traced to the American introduction of public education, taught in the English medium of instruction. This was marked by the arrival of the
Thomasites The Thomasites were a group of 600 American teachers who traveled from the United States to the newly occupied territory of the Philippines on the U.S. Army Transport ''Thomas''. The group included 346 men and 180 women, hailing from 43 differe ...
in 1901, immediately during re-colonization after the Philippine Revolution in the late 19th century up to the early 1900. After a tumultuous period of colonial transition, Filipino leaders and elites, and the American colonial government alike begun discussing the formation of a Philippine national language. The retained high ethnolinguistic diversity of the new colony was due to low penetration of Spanish under Spain's rule. Spanish was limited to a
medium of instruction A medium of instruction (plural: media of instruction, or mediums of instruction) is a language used in teaching. It may or may not be the official language of the country or territory. If the first language of students is different from the offic ...
for the landed elites and gentry. At the end of Spanish colonization, only 3-5% of the colonial population could speak Spanish. The lingering effects of Spanish amongst the general population nevertheless had notable effects on the lexical development of many
Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...
, and even Philippine English, in the form of hispanisms. Tagalog was selected to be the basis for a national language in 1937, and has since remained so. It was re-labelled as ''Pilipino'' in 1959, and ''
Filipino Filipino may refer to: * Something from or related to the Philippines ** Filipino language, standardized variety of 'Tagalog', the national language and one of the official languages of the Philippines. ** Filipinos, people who are citizens of th ...
'' in 1987. With the successful establishment of American-style public education having English as a consequential medium, more than 20% of the Philippine population were reported to be able to understand and speak English just before the turn of mid-20th century. This meteoric growth was sustained post-World War II, much further through Philippine mass media (e.g. newsprint, radio, television) where English also became the dominant language, and by the ratification into the current Philippine Constitution in 1987, both Filipino and English were declared co-official languages. In 2020, the Philippines was ranked 27th worldwide (among 100 countries ranked) in the
EF English Proficiency Index The EF English Proficiency Index (EF EPI) attempts to rank countries by the equity of English language skills amongst those adults who took the EF test.
. In the same report, it was ranked 2nd in Asia next only to
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. Today Philippine English, as formally called based on the World Englishes framework of linguist
Braj Kachru Braj Bihari Kachru (15 May 1932 – 29 July 2016) was an Indian-American linguist. He was Jubilee Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He published studies on the Kashmiri language. Personal life Braj ...
, is a recognized variety of English with its distinct lexical, phonological, and grammatical features (with considerable variations across socioeconomic groups and level of education being predictors of English proficiency in the Philippines). As English language became highly embedded in Philippine society, it was only a matter of time before the language was indigenized to the point that it became differentiated from English varieties found in the United States, United Kingdom, or elsewhere. This, along with the formal introduction of the World Englishes (WE) framework to English language scholars in the Philippines opened the floodgates to research on this new emerging English, which has since been branded as such as Philippine English.


Philippine English in the services sector

The abundant supply of English speakers and competitive labor costs enabled the Philippines to become a choice destination for foreign companies wishing to establish call centers and other outsourcing. English proficiency sustains a major call center industry and in 2005,
America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...
had 1,000 people in what used to be the US Air Force's Clark Air Base in Angeles City answering ninety percent of their global e-mail inquiries. Citibank does its global ATM programming in the country, and
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/consumer hea ...
has over 400 employees in
Makati Makati ( ), officially the City of Makati ( fil, Lungsod ng Makati), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines; it has the highest concentration ...
, a central Manila neighborhood, doing back office work for their Asian operations including finance, accounting, human resources and payments processing. An influx of foreign students, principally from
South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
, has also led to growth in the number of English language learning centers, especially in
Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...
,
Baguio Baguio ( , ), officially the City of Baguio ( ilo, Siudad ti Baguio; fil, Lungsod ng Baguio), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Philippines. It is known as the "Summer Capital of the Philippines", ...
,
Metro Cebu Metropolitan Cebu, or simply Metro Cebu, ( ceb, Kaulohang Sugbo; fil, Kalakhang Cebu), is the main urban center of the province of Cebu in the Philippines. Metro Cebu is located along the central eastern portion of the island including the ne ...
and Metro Bacolod.


Orthography and grammar


Orthography

Philippine laws and court decisions, with extremely rare exceptions, are written solely in English. English is also used in
higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after completi ...
, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, and business. Most educated Filipinos are bilinguals and speak English as one of their languages. For highly technical subjects such as nursing, medicine, computing and calculus, English is the preferred medium for textbooks, communication, etc. Very few would prefer highly technical books in either Filipino or the regional language. Movies and TV shows in English are usually not dubbed in most cable channels except a few such as
Tagalized Movie Channel The Tagalized Movie Channel (or TMC) is a 24-hour Filipino cable channel co-owned by Viva Communications and MVP Entertainment. TMC airs 24 hours of Asian and Hollywood movies dubbed in Tagalog Tagalog may refer to: Language * Tagalog lang ...
. Because English is part of the
curricula In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...
from primary to
secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...
, many Filipinos write and speak in fluent Philippine English, although there might be differences in
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
. Most
schools in the Philippines A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compulso ...
, however, are staffed by teachers who are speakers of Philippine English and hence notable differences from the American English from which it was derived are observable.


Grammar

*Philippine English traditionally follows
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
spelling and grammar while it shares some similarity to
Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British colonisation, with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations. Many r ...
. Philippine English follows the latter when it comes to punctuation as well as date notations. For example, a comma almost never precedes the final item in an enumeration (much like the ''
AP Stylebook The ''AP Stylebook'', also known by its full name ''The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law'', is an American English grammar style and usage guide created by American journalists working for or connected with the Associated Pr ...
'' and other style guides in English-language journalism generally). Except for some very fluent speakers (like news anchors), even in English-language media, dates are also often read with a cardinal instead of an ordinal number. **Most Filipinos say "January one" (instead of "January first" or "January the first") even if the written form is the same. This is mostly because educated Filipinos were taught to count English numbers cardinally, thus it carried over to their style of reading dates. In reading the day-month-year date notation used by some areas in the government (e.g. 1 January), it may be pronounced as "one January" instead of "the first of January" or rearranged to the month-first reading "January one". Foreign nationals of Filipino descent, however, may have continued to read dates in English based on the conventions of their birth countries. **Perhaps because of this practice, levels of primary pupils and secondary students are usually referred to as ''grade one'', ''grade two'', and so on, similar to Canadian English, rather than American ''first grade'', ''second grade'', etc. * Tautologies like redundancy and pleonasm are common despite the emphasis on avoiding them, stressing brevity and simplicity in making sentences; they are common to many speakers, especially among the older generations. The possible explanation is that the English language teachers who came to the Philippines were taught old-fashioned grammar, thus they spread that style to the students they served. **Examples are "At this point in time" and ".. will be the one ..." (or "... will be the one who will ...") instead of "now" and "... will ..." respectively - e.g., "I will be the one who will go ...", rather than "I will go ...".Examples: Citing ''Cebu Daily News'', "So if they see policemen about to conduct a security survey, they should ask me first because I will be the one who will know about it. They will have to talk to me,", ; "If I will be the one who will talk and explain, that will be self-serving,";"Whoever wins on the issue of secret balloting will be the one who will win the speakership,",. *Collective nouns are generally singular in construction, e.g., ''my family is doing well'' as opposed to ''my family are doing well'' or ''the group was walking'' as opposed to ''the group were walking''. This is also the case in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
. *The past tense and past participles of the verbs ''learn'', ''spell'' and ''smell'' are often regular (''learned'', ''spelled'', ''smelled'') in Philippine English. These are also the case in American English. *''River'' follows the name of the river in question, e.g., ''Pasig River'', rather than the British convention of coming before the name, e.g., ''River Thames''. This is also the case in
North American English North American English (NAmE, NAE) is the most generalized variety of the English language as spoken in the United States and Canada. Because of their related histories and cultures, plus the similarities between the pronunciations (accents), v ...
. *While prepositions before days may be omitted in American English, e.g., ''She resigned Thursday'', they are retained in Philippine English: ''She resigned on Thursday''. This is shared with
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Lexico, Oxford Dictionaries, "English language, English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in ...
. However, those prepositions are usually omitted in journalistic practice. *The institutional nouns ''hospital'' and ''university'' sometimes do not take the
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
, e.g. ''He's in hospital'' and ''She's at university'', while sometimes they do, e.g. ''He's in the hospital'' and ''She's at the university''. *''On the weekend'' is used in favor of the British ''at the weekend'' which is not encountered in Philippine English. *Ranges of dates use ''to'', e.g., ''Monday to Friday'', rather than ''Monday through Friday''. This is shared with British English and is in contrast to American English. *When speaking or writing out numbers, ''and'' is not inserted before the tens, i.e., ''five hundred sixty-nine'' rather than ''five hundred and sixty-nine''. This is in contrast to British English. Additionally, the insertion of ''and'' is also common in American English. *The preposition ''to'' in ''write to'' (e.g. ''I'll write to you omething') is always retained, as opposed to American usage where it may be dropped. *Philippine English does not share the British usage of ''read'' (v) to mean ''study'' (v). Therefore, it may be said that ''He studies law'' but not that ''He reads law''. *When referring to time, Filipinos refer to 12:30 as ''half past twelve'' or, alternatively, ''twelve thirty'' and do not use the British ''half twelve''. Similarly, ''a quarter to twelve'' is used for 11:45 rather than ''(a) quarter of twelve'', which is found in American English. *To ''take a shower'' or ''take a bath'' are the most common usages in Philippine English, in contrast to British English which uses ''have a shower'' and ''have a bath''. However, ''bathe'' is as often as similar to American or British usage, but not widespread. *Did: The past tense is ill-formed when used together instead of the present tense with the word "did", e.g. Only then did I 'knew'... instead of 'Only then did I 'know'. This syntax is, of course, incorrect. *Directional suffix ''-ward(s)'' is used in the Philippines, ultimately favoring the British usage. Philippine English uses the British ''towards'', ''afterwards'' and ''upwards'' over the American ''toward'', ''afterward'' and ''upward''. However, ''forward'' is more prevalent than the chiefly British ''forwards''. Philippine English users drop the -s when using
phrasal verb In the traditional grammar of Modern English, a phrasal verb typically constitutes a single semantic unit composed of a verb followed by a particle (examples: ''turn down'', ''run into'' or ''sit up''), sometimes combined with a preposition (ex ...
s such as ''look forward to''. *When reading
decimal The decimal numeral system (also called the base-ten positional numeral system and denary or decanary) is the standard system for denoting integer and non-integer numbers. It is the extension to non-integer numbers of the Hindu–Arabic numeral ...
numerals that are usually two or three digits, each numeral is read like a whole number rather than by each digit, e.g. (0).99 is ''(zero) point ninety-nine'', instead of ''(zero) point nine nine'' or, especially in schools, ''ninety-nine hundredths'' in both British and American English. Additionally, four-digit decimals are also treated similar to how Americans read four-digit numbers with non-zero tens and ones as pairs of two-digit numbers without saying "hundred" and inserting "oh"; 3.1416 is thus "three point fourteen sixteen" and not "three point one four one six" as pronounced.


University

*The word ''course'' in the Philippines shares the British definition of the entire program of study, which may extend over several years and be made up of any number of ''modules'', hence it is also practically synonymous to a degree program. *When a student takes an exam, a Philippine English user shall say 'takes an exam' in favor of the British 'sit an exam'. *When a student prepares for an exam, a Philippine English user shall say 'review' in favor of the British 'revise'. *When a student takes a course in university, a Philippine English user shall say 'I study law' in favor of the British 'I read law'. *In the Philippines, a student ''studies'' or ''majors in'' a subject (although a student's ''major'', ''concentration'' or, less commonly, ''emphasis'' is also used in Philippine colleges or universities to refer to the major subject of study). ''To major in'' something refers to the student's principal course of study; ''to study'' may refer to any class being taken.


Monetary units

*Philippine English speakers would often say ''two hundred fifty'' over the British and alternatively American ''two hundred and fifty''. In British and sometimes American English, the "and" comes after the hundreds (one thousand, two hundred and thirty dollars). Philippine English does not observe this. *Philippine English speakers would often say ''one hundred fifty'' over the American ''a hundred (and) fifty''. *In Philippine English, particularly in television or radio advertisements, integers can be pronounced individually in the expression of amounts. For example, ''on sale for ₱399'' might be expressed ''on sale for three nine nine'', though the full ''three hundred and ninety-nine pesos'' is also common. Philippine English follows the American English ''on sale for three ninety-nine'', which is understood as ₱399; In the past this may have been understood as ₱3.99, however due to inflation, ₱3.99 is no longer a common price for goods.


Vocabulary

As a historical colony of the United States, the Philippine English lexicon shares most of its vocabulary from American English, but also has loanwords from native languages and Spanish, as well as some usages, coinages, and slang peculiar to the Philippines. Due to the influence of the Spanish languages, Philippine English also contains Spanish-derived terms, including Anglicizations, some resulting in
false friend In linguistics, a false friend is either of two words in different languages that look or sound similar, but differ significantly in meaning. Examples include English ''embarrassed'' and Spanish ''embarazada'' 'pregnant'; English ''parents'' ...
s, such as " salvage". Philippine English also borrowed words from Philippine languages, especially native plant and animal names (e.g. "
ampalaya ''Momordica charantia'' (commonly called bitter melon; Goya; bitter apple; bitter gourd; bitter squash; balsam-pear; with many more names listed below) is a tropical and subtropical vine of the family Cucurbitaceae, widely grown in Asia, Afr ...
",
balimbing Carambola, also known as star fruit, is the fruit of ''Averrhoa carambola'', a species of tree native to tropical Southeast Asia. The mildly poisonous fruit is commonly consumed in parts of Brazil, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Oceania, Sou ...
"), and cultural concepts with no exact English equivalents (e.g. kilig); some borrowings from Philippine languages have entered mainstream English, such as abaca and
ylang-ylang ''Cananga odorata'', known as ylang-ylang ( ) or cananga tree, is a tropical tree that is native to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Queensland, Australia. It is also native to parts of Thailand and Viet ...
. For
rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...
terminology, Philippine English uses both British and American parlance. Both the British rail''way'' and the American rail''road'' spellings are acceptable in formal discussion and official documents, the former being used in the context of the Philippine National Railways while the latter having more genericized usage. British terms used in the country include ''bogie'' (US ''truck''), ''coach'' (US ''railcar''), and ''train driver'' (US '' ailroadengineer''). American terms used in the country include ''boxcar'' (UK ''goods wagon''), ''caboose'' (UK ''brake van''), and ''consist'' (UK ''rake'').


Spelling and style

Philippine spelling is significantly closer to
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
than
British spelling Despite the various English dialects spoken from country to country and within different regions of the same country, there are only slight regional variations in English orthography, the two most notable variations being British and American ...
, as it adopted the systematic
reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...
promulgated in
Noah Webster Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5– ...
's 1828 Dictionary. However, there are exceptions below. * French-derived words which in British English end with our, such as ''colour'', ''honour'' and ''labour'', are usually spelled with or in Philippine English: ''color'', ''honor'' and ''labor'', though the British rule of spelling words ending in -our is sometimes used. * Words which in British English end with ise, such as ''realise'', ''recognise'' and ''organise'' are spelled with ize in Philippine English: ''realize'', ''recognize'' and ''organize''. A notable exception is exercise (as in American English). * Words which in British English end with yse, such as ''analyse'', ''paralyse'' and ''catalyse'' are spelled with yze in Philippine English: ''analyze'', ''paralyze'' and ''catalyze'', though the British English style of spelling those words are sometimes used. * French-derived words which in British English end with re, such as ''fibre'', ''centre'' and ''metre'' are spelled with er in Philippine English: ''fiber'', ''center'' and ''meter''. The words ''
acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...
'', '' lucre'', ''
massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...
'' and '' mediocre'', are used in Philippine English to show that the ''c'' is pronounced rather than . The spellings ''ogre'' and ''euchre'' are also used in Philippine English. More recent French loanwords keep the ''-re'' spelling in Philippine English. These are not exceptions when a French-style pronunciation is used ( rather than ), as with ''
double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, of which one is typically obvious, whereas the other often conveys a message that would be too socially ...
'', ''
genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...
'' and '' oeuvre''. However, the unstressed pronunciation of an ''-er'' ending is used more (or less) often with some words, including ''
cadre Cadre may refer to: *Cadre (military), a group of officers or NCOs around whom a unit is formed, or a training staff *Cadre (politics), a politically controlled appointment to an institution in order to circumvent the state and bring control to th ...
'', ''
macabre In works of art, the adjective macabre ( or ; ) means "having the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere". The macabre works to emphasize the details and symbols of death. The term also refers to works particularly gruesome in natu ...
'', '' maître d''', Notre Dame, '' piastre'', and ''
timbre In music, timbre ( ), also known as tone color or tone quality (from psychoacoustics), is the perceived sound quality of a musical note, sound or musical tone, tone. Timbre distinguishes different types of sound production, such as choir voice ...
''. The word ''theater'', using American spelling, is as common as ''theatre'', which always follows the British English spelling. * There is no preference for words spelled with log in American English or logue in British English in Philippine English: Some words are usually spelled with log, like ''catalog'' and ''analog'', while others are typically spelled with logue, like ''monologue'' or ''dialogue''. * Ae and oe are not maintained in words such as ''oestrogen'' and ''mediaeval'' as Philippine English favors the American English practice of using e alone (as in ''estrogen'' and ''medieval''). Though -ae and -oe are rarely used in Philippine English, words that retain the -ae or -oe include: ''aesthetic'', ''amoeba'' and ''archaeology''. * A double-consonant l is usually retained in Philippine English when adding suffixes to words ending in ''l'' where the consonant is unstressed, contrary to American English. Therefore, ''cancelled'' and ''dialling'' are more prominent than the American spelling of ''canceled'' and ''dialing''. * Where British English uses a single-consonant l in the words ''skilful'', ''wilful'', ''enrol'', ''distil'', ''enthral'', ''fulfil'' and ''instalment'', Philippine English typically uses a double consonant: ''skillful'', ''willful'', ''enroll'', ''distill'', ''enthrall'', ''fulfill'' and ''installment''. * The British English ''defence'' and ''offence'' are spelled ''defense'' and ''offense'' in Philippine English. * Philippine English uses ''practice'' and ''license'' for both nouns and verbs rather than ''licence'' for the second noun and ''practise'' for the first verb. * Philippine English uses ''acknowledgement'' and ''judgement'' etc. as opposed to ''acknowledgment'' and ''judgment''. * Examples of individual words where the preferred spelling is different from current British spellings include ''program'' (in all contexts) as opposed to ''programme'', ''loveable'' as opposed to ''lovable'' and ''guerrilla'' as opposed to ''guerilla''. However, ''programme'' is often used in the sense of "A leaflet listing information about a play, game or other activity" for distinguishment.


Style

The DD/MM/YYYY and MM/DD/YYYY
date format A calendar date is a reference to a particular day represented within a calendar system. The calendar date allows the specific day to be identified. The number of days between two dates may be calculated. For example, "25 " is ten days after " ...
are used in the Philippines for date notation and the 12-hour clock for time notation.


Keyboard layout

There are two major English language keyboard layouts, the United States layout and the United Kingdom layout. Keyboards and keyboard software for the Philippine market universally use the US keyboard layout, which lacks the pound sterling,
euro The euro ( symbol: €; code: EUR) is the official currency of 19 out of the member states of the European Union (EU). This group of states is known as the eurozone or, officially, the euro area, and includes about 340 million citizens . ...
and
negation In logic, negation, also called the logical complement, is an operation that takes a proposition P to another proposition "not P", written \neg P, \mathord P or \overline. It is interpreted intuitively as being true when P is false, and false ...
symbols and uses a different layout for punctuation symbols than the UK keyboard layout.


Phonology

Philippine English is a
rhotic accent Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
mainly due to the influence of
Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...
, which are the first language of most of its speakers. Another influence is the rhotic characteristic of
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lan ...
, which became the longstanding standard in the archipelago since Americans introduced the language in public education. This is contrary to most
Commonwealth English The use of the English language in current and former member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations was largely inherited from British colonisation, with some exceptions. English serves as the medium of inter-Commonwealth relations. Many r ...
variants spoken in neighboring countries such as
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
or
Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
. The only exception to this rule is the word ''
Marlboro Marlboro (, ) is an American brand of cigarettes, currently owned and manufactured by Philip Morris USA (a branch of Altria) within the United States and by Philip Morris International (now separate from Altria) outside the US. The largest Mar ...
'', which is frequently read as ''Malboro''. Therefore, phonemes are pronounced in all positions. However, some children of
Overseas Filipinos An overseas Filipino ( fil, Pilipino sa ibayong-dagat) is a person of full or partial Filipino origin—i.e., people who trace back their ancestry to the Philippines but living or residing outside the country. This term generally applies to ...
who are educated in Commonwealth countries (such as Australia, New Zealand or the United Kingdom) may speak in a non-rhotic accent unless taught otherwise. Native and well-educated speakers (also called acrolectal speakers) may also feature
flapping Flapping or tapping, also known as alveolar flapping, intervocalic flapping, or ''t''-voicing, is a phonological process found in many varieties of English, especially North American, Cardiff, Ulster, Australian and New Zealand English, whereby ...
and vowel sounds resembling the
California vowel shift California English (or Californian English) collectively refers to varieties of American English native to California. A distinctive vowel shift was first noted by linguists in the 1980s in southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area of no ...
due to the influence of
Hollywood movies The cinema of the United States, consisting mainly of major film studios (also known as Hollywood) along with some independent film, has had a large effect on the global film industry since the early 20th century. The dominant style of Ame ...
and call center culture mostly pegged towards the American market. For non-native speakers, Philippine English phonological features are heavily dependent on the speaker's mother tongue, although foreign languages such as
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
also influenced many Filipinos on the way of pronouncing English words. This is why approximations are very common and so are hypercorrections and
hyperforeignism A hyperforeignism is a type of qualitative hypercorrection that involves speakers misidentifying the distribution of a pattern found in loanwords and extending it to other environments, including words and phrases not borrowed from the language th ...
s. The most distinguishable feature is the lack of fricative consonants, particularly , and . Another feature is the general absence of the schwa , and therefore pronounced by its respective full equivalent vowel although the r-colored variant is increasingly popular in recent years.


Consonants

The following consonant changes apply for most non-native speakers of the language: *The rhotic consonant may vary between a trill , a flap and an approximant . The English approximant is pronounced by many speakers in the final letters of the word or before consonants, while the standard dialect prefers to pronounce the approximant in all positions of . *The fricatives and are approximated into the stop consonants and , respectively. *
Th-stopping ''Th''-stopping is the realization of the dental fricatives as stops—either dental or alveolar—which occurs in several dialects of English. In some accents, such as of Indian English and middle- or upper-class Irish English, ...
: The dental fricatives and become the stop consonants and , respectively. This can be also observed from speakers of
Hiberno-English Hiberno-English (from Latin ''Hibernia'': "Ireland"), and in ga, Béarla na hÉireann. or Irish English, also formerly Anglo-Irish, is the set of English dialects native to the island of Ireland (including both the Republic of Ireland a ...
dialects and a number of American English speakers. *
Yod-coalescence The phonological history of the English language includes various changes in the phonology of consonant clusters. H-cluster reductions The H-cluster reductions are various consonant reductions that have occurred in the history of English, inv ...
: Like most Commonwealth English variants outside Canada and sometimes in Irish English, the , and clusters become , and respectively. This makes the words ''dew'', ''tune'' and ''pharmaceutical'' are pronounced as , and , respectively. Yod-coalescence also occurs in some other words where other English variants either resist it or do not call for it, e.g. ''calcium'' and ''Celsius'' are respectively and . For these reasons, the use of yod-coalescence is another case of approximation for
aspirated consonant In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of breath that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. In English, aspirated consonants are allophones in complementary distribution with the ...
s which
Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...
lack in general in words such as ''twelve''. *Yod-retention is usually practiced selectively, similar to the historical
mid-Atlantic accent The Mid-Atlantic accent, or Transatlantic accent, is a consciously learned accent of English, fashionably used by the late 19th-century and early 20th-century American upper class and entertainment industry, which blended together features rega ...
in the U.S., Irish or British and Commonwealth English, and to a lesser extent, some speakers of English in Canada, in certain words such as ''new(s)'' but not ''student''. For that reason, ''maneuver'' is mainly pronounced also with a yod, somewhat in a hyperforeign manner, whereas all other accents drop it intrinsically. However, yod-dropping is often common due to influence of modern General American. The yod as retained in many words is sometimes coalesced; see "Yod-coalescence" above. *The fricative may be
devoiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...
into in words such as ''measure'' or affricated into in words such as ''beige''. *The phoneme is devoiced into an . This also includes intervocalic which is usually pronounced as a in most other accents of English. *Older speakers tend to add an ''i'' or ''e'' sound to the clusters ''sl'', ''sm'', ''sn'', ''sp'' and ''st-'' due to Spanish influence, so the words ''star'' and ''lipstick'' sounds like ''(i/e)star'' and ''lipistick'' respectively. *Like most non-native speakers of English elsewhere, the " dark ''l''" () is merged into the usual "
light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 tera ...
" equivalent. *The compound is pronounced as a palatal lateral approximant in between vowels (e.g. ''gorilla''), especially to those who were exposed to Spanish orthography. This is negligible among younger well-educated speakers. *The letter "z" is usually pronounced (and sometimes spelled) as a "zey" like in
Jamaican English Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is a variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (or Creole), though not entirely a ...
. However, in standard Philippine English, it is pronounced as the American "zee".


Vowels

Vowels in Philippine English are pronounced according to the letter representing each, so that are generally pronounced as , respectively. The schwa —although a phonological feature across numerous
Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...
such as
Kinaray-a The Karay-a language ( krj, label=none, Kinaray-a, krj, label=none, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or krj, label=none, Hinaraya; en, Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique, I ...
, Meranao, or the ''Abagatan'' (Southern) dialect of Ilokano—is absent. *The following are the various approximations of the schwa: **Words that end in ''-le'' that succeeds a consonant (such as ''Google'') are generally pronounced with an , except for words that end ''-ple'', ''-fle'' or ''-ble'' (''apple'', ''waffle'' and ''humble''), which are pronounced with an . **The in words such as ''knowledge'' or ''college'', it is pronounced as a
diphthong A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech o ...
, making it rhyme with ''age''. **The rhotic vowels and may be pronounced as an (command''er''), (c''ir''cle) or an (doct''or''), usually by non-native speakers outside urban areas or the elderly. *The pronunciations are pronounced as central vowels and . In the standard dialect, the open front may be pronounced as an allophone of . **The first in some words such as ''patronage'', ''patriot(ic/ism)'', ''(ex/re)patriate(d/s)'', and ''(ex/re)patriation'' usually have the sound of either , like in British/non-Canadian Commonwealth or Irish English, or sometimes , rather than in the United States and Canada. *The phoneme may be merged or replaced by the longer for some speakers. The words ''peel'' and ''pill'' might sound the same. *The may be enunciated as an (''color'' or even ''tomorrow'', ''sorry'', ''sorrow'', etc. like in Canada) or an (''not''). *The ''u'' sound from the digraph ''qu'' may be dropped before ''e'' and ''i'' in some words such as ''tranquilize(r)'' and ''colloquial''. *The in namely ''couple'' and ''double'' may also be enunciated as an or, rarely, as an . *The in namely ''culture'' and ''ultimate'' is sometimes enunciated as an , partly similar to accents in England, Ireland and Wales without the ''foot–strut'' split.


Emphasis

* Distinct non-native emphasis or stress is common. For example, the words ''ceremony'' and ''
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...
'' are emphasized on the second syllable (as and respectively) as another result of indirect Spanish influence. Additionally, words ending in -ary such as ''beneficiary'', ''complementary'', ''elementary'', ''judiciary'' and ''supplementary'' are treated as paroxytones or stressed on the /a/, rather than as proparoxytones or the preceding syllable, a hyperforeignism from the Spanish-derived ''-aria''/''-arya'' and ''-ario''/''-aryo''.


Pronunciation

Many Filipinos often have distinct non-native English pronunciation, and many fall under different ''lectal'' variations (i.e. basilectal, mesolectal, acrolectal). Some
Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languages ...
(e.g. Ibanag, Itawis, Surigaonon, Tausug) feature certain unique phonemes such as , , , and , which are also present in English. However, Filipinos' first languages have generally different phonological repertoires (if not more simplified compared to English), and this leads to mis- or distinct pronunciations particularly among basilectal and to some extent mesolectal speakers.


See also

* International English *
English as a second or foreign language English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...
*
Formal written English English orthography is the writing system used to represent spoken English, allowing readers to connect the graphemes to sound and to meaning. It includes English's norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalisation, word breaks, emphasis, and p ...
*
List of dialects of the English language Dialects are linguistic varieties that may differ in pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling and grammar. For the classification of varieties of English only in terms of pronunciation, see regional accents of English. Overview Dialects can be defi ...
*
List of English words of Philippine origin As a historical colony of the United States, the Philippine English lexicon shares most of its vocabulary from American English, but also has loanwords from native languages and Spanish, as well as some usages, coinages, and slang peculiar to th ...
*
Regional accents of English speakers Spoken English shows great variation across regions where it is the predominant language. For example, the United Kingdom has the largest variation of accents of any country in the world, and therefore no single "British accent" exists. This ar ...
*
Spanglish Spanglish (a portmanteau of the words "Spanish" and "English") is any language variety (such as a contact dialect, hybrid language, pidgin, or creole language) that results from conversationally combining Spanish and English. The term is mos ...
*
Special English Learning English (previously known as Special English) is a controlled version of the English language first used on 19 October 1959, and still presented daily by the United States broadcasting service Voice of America (VOA). World news and othe ...
*
Philippine literature in English The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
*
List of loanwords in Tagalog The Tagalog language has developed a unique vocabulary since its inception from its direct Austronesian roots, incorporating words from Malay, Hokkien, Spanish, Nahuatl, English, Sanskrit, Tamil, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, and Quechua. ...
* Englog (Konyo English), English-Tagalog
code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualis ...
based on English *
Taglish Taglish or Englog is code-switching and/or code-mixing in the use of Tagalog and English, the most common languages of the Philippines. The words ''Taglish'' and ''Englog'' are portmanteaux of the words ''Tagalog'' and ''English''. The earliest ...
, Tagalog-English codeswitching based on Tagalog *
Hokaglish Hokaglish (or Philippine Hybrid Hokkien, ), also known by locals as ''Sa-lam-tsam oe'' (mixed language, Tai-lo: ''sann-lām-tsham-uē'', ), is an oral contact language primarily resulting among three languages: (1) Philippine Hokkien Chinese, ...
, Hokkien-Tagalog-English contact language in the Philippines


References


Further reading

* Acar, A.
Models, Norms and Goals for English as an International Language Pedagogy and Task Based Language Teaching and Learning."
''
The Asian EFL Journal ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...
'', Volume 8. Issue 3, Article 9, (2006). * Manarpaac, Danilo
''"When I was a child I spoke as a child": Reflecting on the Limits of a Nationalist Language Policy''
In: Christian Mair.
The politics of English as a world language: new horizons in postcolonial cultural studies
'. Rodopi; 2003 ited February 18, 2011 . p. 479–492. * Lerner, Ted. ''Hey, Joe, a slice of the city - an American in Manila''. Book of Dreams: Verlag, Germany. 1999. *


External links


The Language Planning Situation in the Philippines
by Andrew Gonzalez, FSC, with sections on Philippine English

by Tom McArthur.
American or Philippine English? (video)
{{English dialects by continent * Dialects of English