Philippine English

Philippine English is the variation of English used in the Philippines by the media and the vast majority of Filipinos. It is not officially taught at schools. English is one of the two official languages of the Republic of the Philippines, the other being Filipino.

Most Filipinos understand, write and speak English, Tagalog and their respective dialects. English is used in education, churches, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, and business, though mostly as a second language as there are very few who speak it as a mother tongue (see List of countries by English-speaking population).　Still, for highly technical subjects such as medicine, programming, calculus, English is the preferred medium for textbooks, communication, etc. Very few would prefer highly technical books in the vernacular. Movies and TV programs in English are not subtitled and are expected to be directly understood.

Orthography and grammar

Philippine English generally follows American standards, except when it comes to punctuation, where a comma almost never precedes the final item in an enumeration.

Vocabulary and usage

Where Philippine English shares vocabulary with other English dialects, it shares more similarities with American English.

There are some words and phrases which are peculiar to Philippine English and do not appear in other English dialects at all. Some examples are:

Aggrupation - Group or cluster. From Spanish agrupación.
Aircon - Used when referring to the Airconditioning system. Although this term is also used in Australia and Singapore.
"Ber" months - September, October, November, December (months ending with -ber).
Barbecue - Roasted meat must be cut into pieces and put into a stick in order to qualify being called "barbecue".
Biscuit - Whereas it is well known that what is called a "cookie" in the US is a "biscuit" in the UK, in the Philippines they are two different things. A biscuit here is what Americans call a "cracker", such as Sky Flakes. Furthermore, it is pronounced /biskwit/ rather than /biskit/.
Boundary - An amount public transport drivers pay their operators daily; any excess belongs to the driver as his daily wage.
Brown out - Power failure. Often referred to as a black out in British and American English. Refers to a temporary reduction in power in Canadian English.
Carabao - A water buffalo.
Cell phone - a mobile phone.
Commuter - Same meaning as in other forms of English, but implies one who takes public transport (rarely used to refer to motorists, oftentimes excluding them).
Course - Whereas in other English-speaking countries this is used to refer to individual courses or subjects, this term is used in the Philippines to define whole academic programs leading to either an associate's or bachelor's degree.
C.R. - Toilet, bathroom. C.R. is an acronym for Comfort Room.
Crony - Has a generally more negative connotation in Philippine usage, usually in relation to businessmen with political connections.
Dine-in - "for here" in American English.
Every now and then - Often.
For a while - Used on the telephone to mean "please wait".
Get down / go down (a vehicle) - "Get off". Derived from Tagalog context ("Bumaba ka", meaning "get down").
Gimik (Tagalog, from standard gimmick) - to go out and have fun.
Ref / Frigidaire - Refrigerator.
Remembrance - used when the majority of the English speaking world uses the word "souvenir" (a French loanword).
Rotonda - Derived from the Spanish meaning roundabout (British) or circle (American).
Salvage - A slang word for summary execution. The meaning evolved from frequent usage in sentences similar to 'The corpse was salvaged from the Pasig river' from "salvage" meaning recovered or found. The victim would usually be a victim of summary execution.
Softdrink - Soda; A flavored carbonated drink.
Serving - Portion (food).
Stow away - Run away from home.
Take-out / Take home - "to go" in American English.
Texting - sending SMS messages.
The other day - Literally "noong isang araw", in Tagalog context meaning "The day before yesterday".
Tomboy - Lesbian.
Votation - voting or election.
Yaya - Adopted Hindi word (aya) for nanny.

Phonology

Among mother-tongue speakers, the phonology of Philippine English almost completely resembles that of the North American variant, while the speech of non-native speakers is influenced to varying degrees by Tagalog and other indigenous Philippine languages. Since many English phonemes are not found in most Philippines languages, pronunciation approximations are extremely common although never among native Anglophones.

Some examples include:

Filipino = [pili'pino] or [pʰili'pʰino]
Victor = [bik'tor]
Family = ['pɐmili] or ['pʰamili]
Varnish = ['barnis]
Fun = [pɐn] or [pʰan]
Vehicle = ['bɛhikel] or ['bɛhikol]
Lover = ['lɐber] or loob-er
Find = ['pɐjnd] or ['pʰɐjnd]
Official = [o'pisʲɐl] or [o'pʰisʲɐl]
Very = ['bɛri] or ['bejri]
Foreigner = ['purindzʲɐr]
Hamburger = ['hɐmburdzʲɐr]
High-tech = ['hajtɛts]
Margarine = [mɐrgɐ'rin]

The above list applies mainly to Tagalog speakers; a number of other Philippine languages employ phonemes such as [f], [v], and [z]. It should also be noted that this form of mispronunciation is generally frowned upon by English purists, some schools, and businesses dealing with international clients.

History

Although the first exposure to English was in 1762-1764 when the British invaded Manila, English from that time never had any lasting influence. English was assimilated when the United States took over the Philippines. In 1898, Spain ceded control of the Philippines to the United States under the Treaty of Paris, and thereafter the Americans controlled the Philippines until it gained its independence in 1946. The Americans established a system of public education wherein English was used as the main language of instruction. After independence, the Philippine government continued public education in English, while simultaneously establishing Filipino as its national language. A parallel system of private schools, many of which were established by the Catholic and the Protestant churches, follows the dual-language system, although private schools tend to use English more than Filipino in their instruction.

Industries based on English

The abundant supply of English speakers and competitive labor costs has enabled the Philippines to become the choice of foreign companies to establish call centers and outsourcing industry. English proficiency sustains a major call center industry. As of 2005, America Online (AOL) has 1,000 people in Clark answering ninety percent of AOL's global e-mail inquiries. Citibank does its global ATM programming locally. Procter & Gamble has over 400 employees in Makati doing back-up office work for their Asian operations including finance, accounting, Human Resources and payments processing. See Call center industry in the Philippines

Another industry based on English proficiency in the Philippines is the operation of English as a Second Language schools. English language centers, especially in Metro Manila and Metro Cebu, attract foreigners, especially Korean and Japanese students, for training in English.

External links

Reinstatement of English as a medium of instruction by the Department of Education