Philippine English is a
variety of
English native to the
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
, including those used by the media and the vast majority of educated
Filipinos
Filipinos () are citizens or people identified with the country of the Philippines. Filipinos come from various Austronesian peoples, all typically speaking Filipino language, Filipino, Philippine English, English, or other Philippine language ...
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, a standardized form of
Tagalog. Due to the influx of Philippine English teachers overseas, Philippine English is also becoming the prevalent variety of English being learned in the
Far East
The Far East is the geographical region that encompasses the easternmost portion of the Asian continent, including North Asia, North, East Asia, East and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included in the definition of the term. In mod ...
as taught by Filipino teachers in various Asian countries such as
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
,
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
, and
Thailand
Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...
among others. Due to the highly multilingual and bilingual 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. These alternations are generally intended to ...
such as
Taglish (
Tagalog-infused English) and
Bislish (English infused with any of the
Bisayan languages) is prevalent across domains from casual settings to formal situations.
Philippine English is 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 lang ...
but in nativized form.
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 to 1763, was a Great Power conflict fought primarily in Europe, with significant subsidiary campaigns in North America and South Asia. The protagonists were Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of Prus ...
. Still, this occupation had no lasting effect on English in the country. A national variety called Philippine English evolved as a result of
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
A state school, public school, or government school is a primary school, primary or secondary school that educates all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in part by taxation and operated by the government of the state. State-f ...
, taught in the English medium of instruction. This was marked by the arrival of the
Thomasites in 1901, immediately during re-colonization after the
Philippine Revolution in the late 19th century up to early 1900. After a tumultuous period of colonial transition, Filipino leaders and elites, and the American colonial government alike began discussing the formation of a
Philippine national language. The retained high ethnolinguistic diversity of the new colony was due to a low penetration of Spanish under Spain's rule. Spanish was limited to a
medium of instruction for the
landed elites and gentry. By the end of Spanish colonization and the
Philippine–American War
The Philippine–American War, known alternatively as the Philippine Insurrection, Filipino–American War, or Tagalog Insurgency, emerged following the conclusion of the Spanish–American War in December 1898 when the United States annexed th ...
in 1903, only 10% 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 (language ...
, and even Philippine English, in the form of Hispanisms.
Tagalog was selected as the basis for a national language in 1937, and has since remained so. It was re-labelled as ''Pilipino'' in 1959, and ''
Filipino'' in 1987. With the successful establishment of American-style public education with English as a consequential medium, more than 20% of the Philippine population was reported to be able to understand and speak English just before the turn of the 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
Events January
* January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency.
* January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade.
* January 3 – Afghan leader ...
, both Filipino and English were declared co-official languages, while removing Spanish as an official language. In 2020, the Philippines was ranked 27th worldwide (among 100 countries ranked) in the
EF English Proficiency Index. In the same report, it was ranked 2nd in Asia next only to
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
.
Today Philippine English, as formally called based on the World Englishes framework of linguist
Braj Kachru, 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 the 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.
Usage
Philippine laws and court decisions, with extremely rare exceptions, are written solely in English. English is also used in
higher education
Tertiary education (higher education, or post-secondary education) is the educational level following the completion of secondary education.
The World Bank defines tertiary education as including universities, colleges, and vocational schools ...
, religious affairs, print and broadcast media, and business. Most well-educated Filipinos are bilingual and speak English as one of their languages. For highly technical subjects such as nursing, medicine, computing and mathematics, English is the preferred medium for textbooks and communication. 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.
Because English is part of the
curricula
In education, a curriculum (; : curriculums or curricula ) is the totality of student experiences that occur in an educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student's experi ...
from
primary to
secondary education
Secondary education is the education level following primary education and preceding tertiary education.
Level 2 or ''lower secondary education'' (less commonly ''junior secondary education'') is considered the second and final phase of basic e ...
, many Filipinos write and speak in fluent Philippine English, although there might be differences in
pronunciation. Most
schools in the Philippines, 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.
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 center
A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...
s and other
outsourcing
Outsourcing is a business practice in which companies use external providers to carry out business processes that would otherwise be handled internally. Outsourcing sometimes involves transferring employees and assets from one firm to another ...
.
English proficiency sustains a major call center industry and in 2005,
America Online
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, and a brand marketed by Yahoo! Inc. (2017–present), Yahoo! Inc.
The service tra ...
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. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
has over 400 employees in
Makati, 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. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...
, has also led to growth in the number of
English language learning centers,
especially in
Metro Manila
Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...
,
Baguio,
Metro Cebu
Metropolitan Cebu, or simply Metro 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 nearby island of Mactan. It accounts for 19. ...
and
Metro Bacolod.
Positioning
In 2003,
Edgar W. Schneider defined a
Dynamic Model of the evolution of Postcolonial Englishes, positioning Philippine English in Phase 3, ''Nativization''. In 2016, Ariane Macalinga Borlongan argued in a research article that Philippine English had met the parameters set for repositioning into Phase 4, ''Endonormative stabilization''.
Features
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 lang ...
spelling and grammar while it shares some similarity to
Commonwealth English. 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 Associated Press Stylebook'' (generally called the ''AP Stylebook''), alternatively titled ''The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law'', is a style and usage guide for American English grammar created by American journali ...
'' and other style guides in English-language journalism generally).
* Dates are often read with a cardinal instead of an ordinal number. (Example: January 1 is pronounced as "January one" instead of "January first" or "the first of January".)
*
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'' following
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 lang ...
.
*
Mass noun and
non-count nouns are sometimes treated as count nouns in Philippine English. Words treated as mass nouns such ''furniture'' and ''imagery'' in native-speaker English varieties may be treated as
count nouns (with plural ''furnitures'' and ''imageries'') in Philippine English due to grammatical influence from Philippine languages. Similar tendencies also exist in non-native-speaker English varieties such as
Indian English
Indian English (IndE, IE) or English (India) is a group of English dialects spoken in the Republic of India and among the Indian diaspora and native to India. English is used by the Government of India for communication, and is enshrined ...
.
* 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 following American English, e.g., ''Pasig River'', rather than the British convention of coming before the name, e.g., ''River Thames''.
* Abbreviations such as ''Mr'' and ''Mrs'' are spelled with a final period (cf. ''Mr., Mrs.'') following American spelling.
* While prepositions before days may be omitted in American English, e.g., ''She resigned Thursday'', they are usually retained in Philippine English: ''She resigned on Thursday''. However, those prepositions are usually omitted in journalistic writing.
* The institutional nouns ''hospital'' and ''university'' sometimes do not take the
definite article
In grammar, 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" ...
, 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''.
* 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.
* 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, following American English, whereas British English uses ''have a shower'' and ''have a bath''. However, ''bathe'' is as often as similar to American or British usage, but not widespread.
* Directional suffix ''-ward(s)'' generally found in British English is the primary usage in Philippine English, therefore ''towards'', ''afterwards'' and ''upwards'' over the American ''toward'', ''afterward'' and ''upward''. However, ''forward'' is more prevalent than the chiefly British ''forwards''. Philippine English speakers drop the -s when using
phrasal verbs 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 (''decimal fractions'') of th ...
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.
Education
* The word ''course'' in the Philippines generally means 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. This usage is due to indirect influence from Spanish ''curso'' and its borrowed forms in Philippine languages. The usage is shared with British English.
* 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.
* Grade levels in the Philippines are named ''grade one'' and ''grade two'' as opposed to ''first grade'' and ''second grade'' like in
Canadian English
Canadian English (CanE, CE, en-CA) encompasses the Variety (linguistics), varieties of English language, English used in Canada. According to the 2016 Canadian Census, 2016 census, English was the first language of 19.4 million Canadians or ...
.
* Graduating classes in the Philippines are called ''batches''. Thus, a student in the same ''batch'' is called a ''batchmate''.
* In the Philippines, a group of students in a regularly scheduled meeting in a classroom with a teacher in a certain school year or semester or school quarter year is called a ''section''. The teacher in charge of a specific ''section'' in a grade level where the students for each class in a certain school year or semester does not typically change per class in a system where each subject is taught by different teachers is called a ''class adviser'' or simply, an ''adviser''.
* A school where primary and secondary students study together is called an ''
integrated school''.
Religion
* The name of a Catholic cardinal is almost always in the pattern "
irst nameCardinal
ast name, for example, Juan Cardinal de la Cruz, similar to the syntax in German and Latin, unlike "Cardinal
irst name ast name in non-Philippine English.
* Catholic priests, both diocesan and those of a religious order, are titled "Reverend Father", abbreviated as "Rev. Fr." before their first and then last names, in contrast to practice in some other English-speaking nations. By contrast, "Reverend" or "Rev." before a personal name is only for deacons, for example, "Reverend Juan de la Cruz", unlike their counterparts in the United States. "The Rev." alone before priests' names is usually found in articles sourced from non-Philippine media, like the Associated Press (AP), in Philippine newspapers.
* A pastor goes by "Ptr." rather than the international "Ps."
Monetary units
* Philippine English speakers often say ''two hundred fifty or two 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 often say ''one hundred fifty'' instead of 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
Spelling and style
Philippine spelling usually follows
American spellings, following the
reforms promulgated in
Noah Webster's
1828 Dictionary.
* Words which in British English (except in
Oxford spelling) end with ise, such as ''realise'', ''recognise'' and ''organise'' are spelt with ize following American English: ''realize'', ''recognize'' and ''organize'' (''exercise'', however, is universal in all varieties).
* Words which in British English are spelled with ''-ae-/-oe-'' such as ''oestrogen'' and ''mediaeval'' are spelled with e alone as in American English as ''estrogen'' and ''medieval''. Exceptions are ''aesthetic'', ''amoeba'' and ''archaeology'' which follow common usage in American English, but can be spelled with just an ''e''.
* French-derived words which in British English end with our, such as ''colour'', ''honour'' and ''labour'', are spelled with or following American English: ''color'', ''honor'' and ''labor''. British -our spellings are sometimes used as an affectation.
* French-derived words which in British English end with re, such as ''fibre'', ''centre'' and ''metre'' are usually spelled with er as in American English as ''fiber'', ''center'' and ''meter''. The word ''theater'' (American spelling) is also often spelled ''theatre'' (British spelling), with no preference in spelling. The British spelling ''centre'' is also used, but it is rarely used and not accepted in many settings such as schools.
* Words which in British English end with yse, such as ''analyse'', ''paralyse'' and ''catalyse'' are spelled with yze following American English as ''analyze'', ''paralyze'' and ''catalyze''.
* 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''.
* A double-consonant ''l'' (primarily used in British and Commonwealth English) is usually retained in Philippine English when adding suffixes to words ending in ''l'' where the consonant is unstressed, contrary to common American practice. Therefore, Philippine English favors ''cancelled'' and ''travelling'' over the American ''canceled'' and ''traveling''.
* 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 following American English: ''skillful'', ''willful'', ''enroll'', ''distill'', ''enthrall'', ''fulfill'' and ''installment''.
* The Commonwealth English ''defence'' and ''offence'' are spelled ''defense'' and ''offense'' following American English.
* Philippine English uses ''practice'' and ''license'' for both nouns and verbs, following American English, rather than ''licence'' for the second noun and ''practise'' for the first verb as in Commonwealth English.
* Philippine English prefers spellings with silent ''e'' in some words such as ''acknowledgement'', ''judgement'' and ''loveable'', as opposed to ''acknowledgment'', ''judgment'' and ''lovable''.
* In all other cases, Philippine English prefers the American English spelling where it differs from current British spelling, as in ''program'' (in all contexts) for British English ''programme'', and ''guerrilla'' for British English ''guerilla''. However, ''programme'' is often used in the sense of a leaflet listing information about a play, game or other activity.
*
Eid al-Adha and
Eid al-Fitr
Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main Islamic holidays, festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide becaus ...
are mostly spelled without the hyphen and the first A is replaced with an apostrophe as Eid'l Adha and Eid'l Fitr respectively as opposed to the rest of the world.
* The abbreviations ''natl'' and ''govt'' are often written with an apostrophe before the last letter (as ''nat'l'' and ''gov't'') in Philippine English.
* The elements ''aluminium'' and ''caesium'' are spelled as ''aluminum'' and ''cesium'' following American English.
Date and time notation
The MM/DD/YYYY and DD/MM/YYYY
date format are used in the Philippines for date notation and the
12-hour clock
The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. (from Latin , translating to "before midday") and p.m. (from Latin , translating to "after midday"). Each period consists of 12&nb ...
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. Common special characters such as
Ñ (used in proper nouns and Spanish loanwords) or the
Philippine peso sign (₱, used in prices), however, are not indicated on Philippine keyboards; these are usually entered through
dead key
A dead key is a special kind of modifier key on a mechanical typewriter, or computer keyboard, that is typically used to attach a specific diacritic to a base letter (alphabet), letter. The dead key does not generate a (complete) grapheme, charact ...
s, keyboard shortcuts or character input aids.
Phonology
Philippine English is a
rhotic accent 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 (language ...
, 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 lang ...
, which has been a standard in the archipelago since the language was introduced through American public education.
This is contrary to the majority of
Commonwealth English varieties spoken in neighboring countries such as
Malaysia
Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
or
Singapore
Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...
. The only exception to this rule is the word ''
Marlboro'', which is frequently read as ''Malboro''. Therefore, phonemes are pronounced in all positions. However, some children of
Overseas Filipinos 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 and vowel sounds resembling the California vowel shift due to the influence of Hollywood movies and ]call center
A call centre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling) or call center (American English, American spelling; American and British English spelling differences#-re, -er, see spelling differences) is a managed capability th ...
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 have also influenced the pronunciation of English words. This is why approximations are very common, along with hypercorrection
In sociolinguistics, hypercorrection is the nonstandard use of language that results from the overapplication of a perceived rule of language-usage prescription. A speaker or writer who produces a hypercorrection generally believes through a ...
s and hyperforeignisms. The most distinguishable feature of Philippine English is a lack of fricative consonants, including , , , , , and often . Another feature is a general absence of the schwa ; it is instead pronounced by its respective equivalent full vowel, although the r-colored variant has become increasingly popular in recent years.
Consonants
The following consonant changes apply for many non-native speakers of the dialect:
* 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: The dental fricatives and become either the alveolar stop consonants and or the dental stop consonants and , respectively. This can be also observed from speakers of Hiberno-English
Hiberno-English or Irish English (IrE), also formerly sometimes called Anglo-Irish, is the set of dialects of English native to the island of Ireland. In both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, English is the first language in e ...
dialects and a number of American English speakers.
* Yod-coalescence: 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'' become 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 . Because of these, the use of yod-coalescence is another case of approximation for aspirated consonants 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 (language ...
lack in general in words such as ''twelve'' and ''top'' and the influence of the phonology of the mother tongues of many speaks of it.
* Yod-retention is usually practiced selectively, similar to the historical 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 the yod, in a somewhat hyperforeign manner, whereas all other accents drop it intrinsically. The yod is also retained in ''figure(d/s)'', thus not rhyming with ''bigger''. However, yod-dropping is often common due to the influence of modern General American. The yod is also dropped in many words with an unstressed U, e.g. ''(ir)regular'' and ''municipal(ity)''. It, as retained in many words, is sometimes coalesced. More at " 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 ref ...
into in words such as ''measure''. Alternatively, it can be affricated into in words such as ''beige''.
* The phoneme is devoiced into an . This also includes intervocalic and the in examples such as ''dissolve'', ''possess'' and their derivatives, ''brassiere'', ''dessert'', ''dissolution'', ''Missouri
Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...
(an)'', ''possession'' and ''scissors'', which are usually pronounced as a in most other accents of English. However, '' Aussie'' is usually pronounced with as in the United States.
* Older speakers tend to add an ''i'' or ''e'' sound before the syllable-initial clusters ''sl-'', ''sm-'', ''sn-'', ''sp-'' and ''st-'' due to Spanish influence, so the words ''star'' and ''lipstick'' sounds like ''(i/e)star'' and ''lip(i/e)stick'' respectively.
* Like most non-native speakers of English elsewhere, the " dark ''l''" () is merged into the usual "light
Light, visible light, or visible radiation is electromagnetic radiation that can be visual perception, perceived by the human eye. Visible light spans the visible spectrum and is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400– ...
" 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 sometimes pronounced (and sometimes spelled) as "zey" like in Jamaican English
Jamaican English, including Jamaican Standard English, is the variety of English native to Jamaica and is the official language of the country. A distinction exists between Jamaican English and Jamaican Patois (a creole language), though ...
. However, in standard Philippine English, it is pronounced and spelled 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 (language ...
such as Karay-a, Maranao, Kapampangan, or the ''Abagatan'' (Southern) dialect of Ilocano—is absent as a separate phoneme.
* The following are the various approximations of the schwa:
** Words that end in ''-le'' that succeeds a consonant (such as ''Google'' and ''castle'') 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 or a vowel glide, 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 ...
, making it rhyme with ''age'', ''cage'', ''rage'', ''page'', and ''beige''.
** 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 vowel may be pronounced as an allophone of .
** For the above reason, words subject to the trap–bath split, e.g. ''basket(ball)'', ''bath'', ''example'', ''laugh'', ''master'' and ''sample'' can be pronounced with but often not for e.g. ''answer(able)'', ''can't'', ''chance'' and ''France''. Also, the ''mary–marry–merry'' merger is partial; ''Harry'' and ''hairy'' are distinct but sometimes not ''carry'' and ''Kerry''.
** 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. Moreover, the in the unstressed ''-ative'' suffix is reduced to either the schwa or , becoming as in Britain and Ireland, for words stressed on the second syllable such as ''administrative'', ''investigative'', ''qualitative'', sometimes ''innovative'', and usually ''legislative''. ''Administrative'' is also erroneously stressed on the third syllable. This does not apply to ''negative'', ''alternative'' or ''initiative''. as the unstressed ''a-'' prefix, called alpha privative, is also the schwa or before stems that begin with consonants, e.g. ''apolitical'', ''asymmetric'' or ''asymmetry'', ''asymptomatic'', ''atypical'', etc.
* The phoneme may be merged or replaced by the longer for some speakers. The words ''peel'' and ''pill'' might sound the same.
* The or 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'' likely due to Spanish influence.
* 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 the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
(except Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
) 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 Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
'' 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 (language ...
(e.g. Ibanag, Itawis, Surigaonon, Tausug) feature certain unique phonemes such as , , , and , which are also present in English. However, Filipinos' first languages (such as Tagalog) 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
* Formal written English
* List of dialects of the English language
* List of English words of Philippine origin
* Regional accents of English speakers
* Special English
* Philippine literature in English
* List of loanwords in Tagalog
* Coño 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. These alternations are generally intended to ...
based on English
* Taglish, Tagalog-English codeswitching based on Tagalog
* Hokaglish, Hokkien-Tagalog-English contact language in the Philippines
* Philippine Hokkien
* Philippine Spanish
* Languages of the Philippines
There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole language, creole varieties ge ...
Notes
References
Bibliography
*
**
**
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'', 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
Philippine English
*
Dialects of English
Southeast Asian English