Philippine E-Journals

Language and the Metropolis: The Origins of Tagalog as the Basis of the National Language

Maria Teresa Tinio

Discipline: Philippine History

 

Abstract:

The idea that Tagalog became the basis for the national language because Manuel L. Quezon, President of the Philippine Commonwealth and a Tagalog himself, maneuvered it to be so has achieved the status of folk wisdom. Thirty years before Quezon was to oversee the process of establishing a national language, however, a number of active, Manila based language organizations were already hard at work at the campaign to get Tagalog established as the national language. This study examines the activities of two language organizations, the Kapulungan ng Wikang Tagalog (est. circa 1902) and the Aklatang Bayan (established circa 1910). These activities were pursued with fervor and excitement to the point of arrogance and militancy but sometimes also to the extent of being lightly and confidently playful. The study will explore the idea that the zeal and excitement with which these activities were pursued were fuelled by and fueling into the idea of these organization’s actors being part of not just a metropolis but also of a seminal moment in nation-building.