Warning: Language Nerd Article Ahead!
Non-nerds interested in this topic are advised to look at other websites.
Foreign language nerds, like me, are often also history nerds. So if you’re studying Tagalog, you’re probably interested in where the language came from.
The problem is, most of what you’ll see online on the history of Tagalog is same copy-pasted drivel.
Let’s go back really deep in the past. How far back in history should we go? Should we start with the Australopithecus afarensis 3.9 million years ago? Nah, not quite that far back. Linguistics can’t look that far back. The limit or farthest time-depth of historical linguistics is 10,000 years.
That means beyond 10,000 years, Linguists have no freakin’ idea how any languages are related.
However, we can start around 6,000 years ago…
Tagalog is from China
“What did you just say?” you say.
Yeah, Tagalog is from China. I’m saying this because you may have heard that Tagalog is an Austronesian language. That means it’s a language of the Austronesian people.
But who the heck are the Austronesians?
Around 6,000 years ago, these farmers and fishermen from Neolithic southern Mainland China crossed the Taiwan strait settling in Taiwan.
(By the way, this describes the “out of Taiwan” theory. There’s a competing theory, “out of Sundaland” which describes the ancestors of the Austronesians migrating from peninsular Southeast Asia during the Ice Age to the Philippines but most academics prescribe to the former)
Just note that the ancestors of the Austronesians are different from the modern “regular” or Han Chinese that make up most of the people modern China.
Neolithic Taiwan itself was a melting pot of the various groups that settled on the island. But it was in Taiwan that the Austronesians developed a very distinctive language, pottery and tools, which we can collectively call as a culture.
This makes Taiwan the “Urheimat” or the homeland of the Austronesian family of languages, of which Tagalog is a member. Tagalog is genetically related to all Austronesian languages. (I’m using the word “genetically” here as used in Linguistics NOT Biology, of course.)
This Austronesian family of languages includes the indigenous Taiwanese languages, Indonesian, Bahasa-Malay, Malagasy, Moari and Hawaiian.
Their language and culture was very distinct, and they carried it with them across the seas.
Austronesians crossed from Taiwan to the Philippines
The Austronesians were also the first people to bring ocean-going maritime sailing technology.
Using their ocean-going sailing technology they spread far and wide in a matter of centuries, from Madagascar, to New Zealand, to the remote Chile’s Easter Island. This is called the Austronesian Expansion.
From Taiwan, the Austronesians sailed off to the seas perhaps as early as 5,000 years ago (but no later than 3,500 years ago).
But wait. I’m getting ahead of ahead of myself. The Austronesians first stop from Taiwan was… (you can check a map) …the Northern Philippines.
The Austronesian were not the first inhabitants of the Philippines, by the way. The smaller and darker Melanesian people were there already (closely related to today’s “Negritos and Australian aborigines) perhaps thousands of years earlier. However, the farmer culture of the Austronesians allowed them to displace the earlier wave of migrants, bringing their agricultural technologies and language wherever they went.
From the Northern Philippines they spread further down the Luzon. Of course, the farming Austronesian people were able to occupy the most suitable areas for farming and trading.
They occupied the rich flatlands of southern Luzon displacing the earlier settlers. (The north of Luzon tends to be mountainous.)
Tagalog is from Southern Luzon
As early as 900 AD, as the Byzantine Empire flourished, at the prime trading spot of the archipelago, an excellent bay where Pasig river emptied itself, the Kingdom of Tondo (also called the Polity of Tondo) was formed. At this time they were trading with other Southeast Asian kingdoms. This is evidenced by an artifact called the Laguna Copperplate Inscription (or LCI), a copper-plate with nscriptions (talking about payment of debt) in and a Javanese writing system with some words in Old Tagalog.
The language of the Kingdom of Tondo was Old Tagalog . Old Tagalog developed from the Proto-Philippine language the Austronesians brought with them from across the seas. Old Tagalog developed its own script called Baybayin (that has recently been experiencing a resurgence among enthusiasts.) But of course, the language continued.
Tagalog developed in the southern Luzon lowlands, including what is now Manila. Rivers and bays, like where the Kingdom of Tondo are drivers of civilization. Tagalog is “taga-ilog” meaning someone from the river. The “ilog” or river referred to here is most likely what is today the Pasig river, along the banks of which civilization, trade and culture flourished.
Meanwhille, Austronesian Expansion continued throughout the centuries, settling the Philippines archipelago and the rest of the islands in the Southeast Asia and Polynesia.
Austronesians two main branches became the Formosan languages (Formosa being the island of Taiwan) and the Malayo-Polynesian languages which Tagalog is a member of.
As Tagalog and Austronesian languages spread far and wide in the opening centuries of the second millennium, foreign influences also crept in. Through trade and religion, Sanskrit, Hookien and Arabic words found their way into Tagalog. However, in the 16th Century rapid changes took place.
Tagalog got a lot of influence from Spanish (and English)
The Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan, flying a flag for Spain arrived in the Philippines in 1521. Later on, his voyage was the to circumnavigate the globe. (It was said there was a Filipino translator on board who possibly joined from Europe, but there are little reliable details on this.)
In the succeeding three centuries, the Spanish colonizers laid claim to the Philippine islands and actually gave the Philippines its name (after the 16th-century Spanish King Philip II).
In the 333 years the Philippines was a Spanish colony, they brought their government and administration to the archipelago. The Philippines played an important role in the galleon trade with Mexico. This allowed Spanish words to be heavily absorbed into Tagalog.
These three centuries of Spanish rule heavily influenced Tagalog. (Read: Are Tagalog and Spanish Similar?)
In 1898, Philippines was ceded by the Spanish to the Americans after the Spanish-American War. As the United States began administering the islands, English also started influencing Tagalog.
Tagalog was chosen as a national language
Skipping ahead to the American Commonwealth times, the Philippine’s 1935 Constitution declared that there be two national languages, “Filipino” and English.
First, this paved the way for English to continue its influence on the language.
Second, this “created” a new nation language that was suppose to be based on Tagalog. Supposedly, elements from other Philippine languages would be pulled in to enrich Tagalog to make it truly a national language.
Everyday folk never really took notice of the creation a new language and just continued to speak Tagalog as they always have.
Tagalog is a de facto Philippine lingua franca
Today, roughly half of the 110 million in the Philippines speak it as a first or primary language, concentrated in Manila and southern Luzon, but practically all people in the Philippines speak it to some degree.
There are a lot of other dialects, such as Bisaya (Cebuano), Ilonggo, Kapampangan. However, if two Filipinos meet each other not knowing if they spoke any other home dialects, the first language they would speak to each other in would be Tagalog.
(Another interesting Philippine lingua franca is Bisaya or Cebuano. Interesting read: Should I learn Tagalog or Bisaya?)
Due to the Philippine Disapora, Tagalog along with other Philippine dialects, established themselves in migrant communities in the United States, Canada and other countries. (To better understand the spread of Tagalog, read: Which Countries Speak Tagalog).
Another Austronesian language that became a lingua franca like Tagalog is Bahasa Indones or Indonesian. Read: the Differences between Tagalog and Indonesian)
Conclusion
The short of this story – a group of Neolithic farmers in southern China migrated to the cultural melting pot that is Taiwan. From Taiwan, a distinct Austronesian culture emerged. The Austronesians were excellent ocean-going mariners, and their first stop was the Philippines. They spread out throughout the archipelago, displacing earlier migrants. Those who settled in the fertile southern Tagalog lowlands, particularly near the Pasig river basic developed Old Tagalog. The Spanish then the Americans came colonized the islands, making Tagalog and English prominent. Today, Tagalog is spreading around the world with the Philippine diaspora and as the lingua franca of the Philippines.