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Native Hispanophones in Philippines

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1e4e6
Octoglot
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United Kingdom
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Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 1 of 4
23 April 2015 at 4:24am | IP Logged 
I was wondering how many native Hispanophones there are nowadays in the Philippines. I
have some family that live in the Philippines on one side of the family, whose parents
and grandparents could not speak Tagalog beyond basic level(or any Filipino language
like Bisaya) other than to do rudimentary communication at for example, a store.
Their English was also even worse. They are native Hispanophones that are ethnically
Spanish, and speak only Spanish at home and live in Northern Luzón. I think that they
emigrated from Spain somewhere in the 1800s (but were not elite nor rich). How many in
the Philippines share these characteristics? In general most Filipinos that I meet
usually speak either Tagalog or another Filipino language like Pampangan or Bisaya,
with some understanding of Spanish, but not at native level or even C1+.

Also I should note that when I mean speak Spanish, I mean actual RAE-approved and
understood Spanish like Spain and Latin America, not like the dialect Chavacano in
Zamboanga. I know that most Filipinos can do basic Spanish, but how many actually
speak Spanish as L1 (regardless of whether they are ethnically fully Spanish or not)?

Edited by 1e4e6 on 23 April 2015 at 4:28am

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Gallo1801
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Spain
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 Message 2 of 4
23 April 2015 at 10:54pm | IP Logged 
439,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language_in_the_Philipp ines#cite_note-NativeSpanish-
2
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Duke100782
Bilingual Diglot
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Philippines
https://talktagalog.Registered users can see my Skype Name
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Speaks: English*, Tagalog*
Studies: Spanish, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 4
25 April 2015 at 2:52am | IP Logged 
Great question. Are there any native heritage-Spanish speakers left in the Philippines? I've often wondered
about this myself and on my end I've done some rudimentary Internet research on this, but the picture is still
quite hazy. I've joined a FaceBook group of Spanish speakers in the Philippines, which didn't quite give me a
clear picture of things, and watched a YouTube video of an elderly Filipina woman who spoke Spanish
natively as a heritage language interviewed by Spanish reporters, but beyond other than this I couldn't find
any sources.

While the Wikipedia article tells me there are still some native heritage Spanish speakers left in the
Philippines, it's hard to imagine someone in year 2015 in the Philippines who is one. Of course, growing up in
the Philippines I've heard of this or that person whomhas a grandmother that speaks Spanish natively, but
I've never met these people and verified this. This is something I'd like to do more research on.
1 person has voted this message useful



1e4e6
Octoglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4288 days ago

1013 posts - 1588 votes 
Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian
Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan

 
 Message 4 of 4
25 April 2015 at 5:39am | IP Logged 
I always found it hard to qualify the number, because I do not know how exactly people
consider themselves as Hispaniphones there. Some Filipinos who live, for example, in
the UK or USA said that they know some Spanish from childhood, but I tried talking to
them in Spanish and they had big problems, likewise they cannot read nor write nor
hold conversations with native Hispanophones. Usually in this case they have Tagalog
or another language as native and some level of Spanish as L2 (or L3).

Tagalog has a large number of Spanish loanwords, but they cannot possibly be said to
know Spanish natively just because of this phenomenon. I imagine that passive skills
are much higher, because the Pope gave speeches in
Spanish during a visit to the Philippines
. At least abroad, I have not met
Filipinos who speak Spanish in the house because that is their linguistic tradition,
disregarding those who emigrate to Spain and have to learn Spanish to live in the
country and communicate with their children. In this case it would not be their native
language anyway.

I found a video about some native Hispanophones in
the Philippines
, but they are very elderly. Some use la distinción but
one did not. I am not sure if the native Hispanophones emigrated, but I have yet to
met a Filipino that speaks Spanish as L1 like if one met an immigrant from Spain or
Latin America (whilst simultaneously having English and Tagalog only has L2 and L3 and
never use them at home). I have never been to the Philippines, so I have no idea how
the actual situation is there regardless of the statistics.

Edited by 1e4e6 on 25 April 2015 at 5:54am



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