
The term Tagalog came from ”taga ilog,” meaning the river dwellers along the Pasig River during Spain’s occupation of the Philippines.

This is one of the reasons why many people, Filipinos, and foreigners alike, are confused as to which term to use for the language. Since 1897, Tagalog was the official language in the land.įilipino on the other hand became the official language in 1987. It belongs to the subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian languages that are typically spoken by people in several island nations in the Pacific Ocean and Southeast Asia. The Filipino language is a member of the Austronesia language family, which includes Malay, Māori and Hawaiian. Many interesting factors as well as political and social developments occurred that helped the journey of the language from Tagalog to Filipino. The Filipino language is not a stranger to this fact. The development of languages around the world is typically fascinating because several factors normally contribute to the formation of a language. Tagalog is partly responsible for the emergence of Filipino, but it should be noted that in several key areas, the two languages are different. To understand the development of Filipino as a language, one must know its origin. Majority of the Filipino citizens are bilingual and multilingual. Officially, it is the standard version of Tagalog, the language spoken mostly in Luzon, the foremost island of the Philippines. The development history of the Filipino language is complex. Out of the estimated 2019 Philippine population of 108.2 million, 45 million speak Filipino. Right now, 183 languages and dialects are spoken in the country.

The Philippines is a diverse country with several ethnic and immigrant communities. Ethnologue on the other hand lists Tagalog as one of the principal languages of the Philippines together with Filipino and English.


A citizen of the Philippines is also called Filipino, although some use the term Pilipino from Pilipinas, the name of the country in the local language. Before anything else, it should be known that the Filipino language is the national language of the Philippines. The Philippines has two official languages, Filipino and English.
