Spanish's influence in the Philippines

In 1565, explorer Miguel López de Legazpi set off for New Spain, in the Americas, and established the first Spanish settlement. Here, they found a huge linguistic variety that still exists today, with around 180 languages.

Like in the Americas, an evangelist process began. To this end, they took advantage of local languages in addition to Spanish. They mostly used so-called general languages, such as Nahuatl in Mexico and Quechua in Peru.

Spanish remained a language reserved for the social elite for centuries. In the 19th century, it was the language of the government and the language spoken in the upper echelons of Filipino society, but it was not spoken by the majority of the population at large.

Like in other Imperial Spanish territories, independence movements took over Spanish, and the leaders of the new nations made sure it was the dominant language. However, independence in the Philippines had to wait.

A few months after Manila settled a peace treaty with Madrid, the United States entered the stage with the Spanish-American War of 1898. Spain was defeated and the Philippines unexpectedly found itself under the rule of the other nation.

The first action of the United States was to send boats filled with teachers to the Philippines to teach English. Paradoxically, it was precisely during this era when Spanish flourished and reached its peak. It was the language in which numerous Filipino authors wrote numerous works.

At the time, there were many Spanish words describing objects that were unknown to the indigenous population. In addition, between the 16th and 19th centuries, the world evolved considerably and many things were named in Spanish.

As a result, different concepts were taken from Spanish and adapted to the Tagalog language. These include terms related to gastronomy, dates, and elements that were taken to the peninsula. These terms make up around 30% of Tagalog's vocabulary.

During Spanish rule, the Philippines was under the control of New Spain, now known as Mexico. This link meant that, in addition to cultural aspects, some words, for example from Nahuatl, were also inherited by Tagalog.