LANGUAGES

Due to the many influences, Philippines is a country of many dialects and languages.

TAGALOG
However its main language Tagalog is part of the Astronesian family. In the pre Spanish days, many of the settlers came from the Malay Archipelago hence plenty of the Tagalog words sound and have the same meaning as those in Malay.

SPANISH
However after the Spanish came, the people have been forced to learn Spanish. Partly because one of the Spanish main aim was to spread Christianity hence in order to reinforce its goal, the language became a must know language.

OTHERS
On the other hand many indigenous tribes managed to remain uninfluenced by the Spanish thus retaining their original language. This site tells of the many different languages and dialects spoken by the different groups of people.