Dayang C Marikit
I’m a Philippine history professor. I would like to inform people that “nothing is set in stone” because we are constantly gathering information and learning about our history, somethings may change in the future, but for now the things that I publish are the things that we currently perceive to “know about.”
No, Filipino language is a part of the Austronesian language family, specifically the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch. We may have adopted some Spanish loanwords but our languages are related to other Maritime Southeast Asian languages, such as Malay and Javanese.
On a side note, even Malay and Javanese had also adopted Portuguese, Dutch, English, Arabic and Sanskrit loanwords. While Spanish had also adopted many Arabic loanwords as well.
- It's normal for languages to adopt loanwords. In the Philippines we actually have multiple words for the same thing. We may have a "Spanish based loanword" and a "Local translation" as well. Ex: (Mesa/Hapag = Table), (Kwarto/Silid = Room), (Libro/Aklat = Book), (Bandila/Watawat = Flag), etc.
Would Spanish speakers understand these?
