Pinay mom parenting her Caucasian/Filipino daughter in suburban America.
Tagalog - I run across a lot of Westerners who insist that the official language of the Philippines is Tagalog. I try to explain that is is actually called “Filipino” which is based on the dialect Tagalog.
From the Official Website of the Republic of the Philippines
LANGUAGE
Two official languages — Filipino and English. Filipino, which is based on Tagalog, is the national language. English is also widely used and is the medium of instruction in higher education.
Eight (8) major dialects spoken by majority of the Filipinos: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicolano, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinense.
Filipino is that native language which is used nationally as the language of communication among ethnic groups. Like any living language, Filipino is in a process of development through loans from Philippine languages and non-native languages for various situations, among speakers of different social backgrounds, and for topics for conversation and scholarly discourse. There are about 76 to 78 major language groups, with more than 500 dialects.
There are a lot of English words that I cannot literally translate to Filipino. This morning, Mary wanted to know the “Tagalog” for “sorry.” I said it was “sori” - the same word with a different spelling, pronunciation and accent. And Mary thought it was a completely different one from just the way I pronounced it. I also tell her that she can say “paumanhin“— but truly, who says that in everyday Filipino conversations?
Filipino - Philippine. Generically, refers to people from the Philippines. Specifically, a Philippine male. Also refers to the official national language of the Philippines.
Pinoy - colloquial term for Filipino.
Filipina - refers to a Philippine female.
Pinay - colloquial term for Filipina.
So, I am a Pinay mom with my Tisay daughter and my Kano husband….
(Oh, sori, Kano is slang for American (or any “white”) male…)
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Mary is my "I'm Not a Baby!" daughter and this is my blog about her and our life in suburban America. Parenting tales, our travels and travails, forays into great and not-so-great restaurants, kitchen adventures--- all chronicled with as much photos as you can stand. Comments are very much appreciated --- let me know you dropped by! Thank you.
Here’s To You, Sis!
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:51 am
[...] When one marries to the family, then you get to be in the same order as your spouse. So Jack, my Kano husband, can call my older siblings Kuya, Ate and [...]
AteYeng
October 23rd, 2007 at 8:20 pm
You forgot to mention the names we traditionally call the wives of the older brothers: “Inso” for the Kuya’s wife and “Diso” for the Diko’s wife. Now everybody older is called “Kuya” or “Ate”.
Val
October 24th, 2007 at 5:55 am
Please don’t! If we got so tradional and im the youngest, it will be very difficult for me to call everyone those names! I’ll be the one to call ALL of you that! hehehe
Recipe for Halloween
October 26th, 2007 at 4:59 pm
[...] to satisfy this craving, it is not enough for me to go for those Jell-o gelatin snacks. My Pinay taste buds will not be satisfied with “Strawberry Kiwi” or “Lime” [...]
Seven Things
November 16th, 2007 at 8:11 am
[...] of the Filipino language at her Kwentong Kengkay blog. I was born and raised in the Philippines, Filipino (Tagalog) was spoken in our household, studied it in school and yet I could not come close to her proficiency [...]
kevin
May 11th, 2008 at 3:17 am
So if I married a pinay and I’m American but not a white guy (Hispanic) what would I be called? Wouldn’t it just be “Hey you”? He he he!
Jon
May 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
I saw that explanation of .What is Tagalog, Pinoy, Pinay’, and the explanation is wrong. I not a Pinoy, I am white British, but I lived for years in Philippines.Tagalog has never been the official language of the Philippines, though there have been attempts to make it so. Back in 1937, laws were passed to develop a national language by using words and grammar from’all languages of the Philiippines spoken by more than half a million people’.The language was to be called ‘Pilipino’, and a language institute was set up to do it, to produce a dictionary, and also to ‘invent’ new Pilipino words instead of foregn ones.. The two major languages were seen as Tagalog, spoken in the manila area, and Cebueno, but there were several others that were and still are influential.
It proved a daunting task. WW2 stopped work on it, and though that has been tinkering from time to time, it never really took off. Round about 1987, the word ‘Filipino’ came into use for a national language. Rather strange , because there is no letter ‘f’ in any any of the original languages or dialects of the Philippines. Furthermore, it apparently had a different meaning to the older term ‘pilipino’, though it is hard to see how. To me, ‘pilipino was virtually allTtagalog, whereas though most of the vernacular content of Filipino is Tagalog,it is heavily influenced by English, or rather, localised versions of English words, and this is getting to be even more so with the passing of time.Sometime while I was in the Philippines,a law was passed to make Tagalog compulsory in all Philippine schools. This was resisted in several areas, notably Cebu, where the Mayor led the fight against it,and took it to the Supreme court who ruled the law unconstitutional, and said Cebueno could be used in the Cebu area instead. since that time, Filipino has been creeping in by stealth, but seems to be more and more ‘Taglish’+ the older Spanish origin words. Although new Filipino words have been ‘invented’,by the language institute, they only seem to be ever used by some official organisations,and by academics.The rapid spread of computing and the internet, cellphones,and advancing technology produces new words faster than most countries can come up with vernacular terms, so most don’t bother.In the Philippines, increasing development ,international business and and rising educational standards are all spreading the use of English, which is fast becoming an international language. That trend is likely to continue.
There are very few people in the Philippines these days that speak any pure vernacular language, because none of them have enough words. Thats why the likes of Joseph Estrada are tongue-tied..Hahaha.