In Philippine languages, ''kabayan'' or ''kababayan'' means "fellow Filipino, countryman, or townmate". It is used throughout the Philippines and throughout the various Philippine languages. Literally, ''ka-'' means "co-" and ''bayan'' means "

town A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city. The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...

". In the narrow sense, ''kababayan'' means a fellow from the same town. However, it is often used in a much broader sense to mean countrymen or compatriots, especially by

overseas Filipinos An overseas Filipino () is a person of full or partial Filipino origin who trace their ancestry back to the Philippines but are living and working outside of the country. This term generally applies to both people of Filipino ancestry and cit ...

OFWs Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) is a term often used to refer to Filipino migrant workers, people with Filipino citizenship who reside in another country for a limited period of employment. The number of these workers was roughly 1.77 million ...

, and connotes respect for each other’s commitment to unity because of their common

cultural Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

, and

religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...

background from the same "bayan", broadly defined. It should not be confused with ''

balikbayan Balikbayan may refer to: * Overseas Filipinos * Balikbayan box, a corrugated box containing items sent by overseas Filipinos {{disambiguation ...

'', a similar Filipino word, which refers exclusively to overseas Filipinos. "Balikbayan" often refers to (often wealthier) Filipinos who reside overseas and visit the Philippines periodically, even for extended stays, whereas "kababayan", when applied to overseas Filipinos, means ones that live in the Philippines but are overseas temporarily, even for years.

Other uses

*''Kababayan'' is the name of the Filipino-American club at

University of California Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, U ...

. It has more than 400 members and is affiliated with Kaba Modern from

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

's ''

America's Best Dance Crew ''America's Best Dance Crew'', often abbreviated as ''ABDC'', is an American competitive dance reality television series featuring both national and international dance crews. The show was produced by singer, record producer, and former ''Ameri ...

''. *It is the name of a daily talk show hosted by

Jannelle So Jannelle So-Perkins (born September 9, 1977) is a Filipino journalist and broadcaster known for her work as the creator, host and producer of "Kababayan Today" (formerly "Kababayan L.A.), a daily show magazine/talk show for and about Filipinos ...

KSCI KSCI (channel 18) is a television station licensed to Long Beach, California, United States, serving the Los Angeles area. Owned by WRNN-TV Associates, the station airs programming from home shopping network Shop LC. KSCI's studios are locate ...

. *It is the name of a

kulintang Kulintang (, ) is a modern term for an ancient instrumental form of music composed on a row of small, horizontally laid gongs that function melodically, accompanied by larger, suspended gongs and drums. As part of the larger gong-chime culture ...

-shaped muffin in the Philippines.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Kababayan Network

FilAm
Tagalog words and phrases