Cebuano was indeed the language with the most speakers in the Philippines, but Tagalog surpassed it in the 1970's or 1980's (don't remember offhand).
The 2000 Philippine census for Visayan languages is very flawed; Cebuano went down from 16 million speakers in 1995 to about 11 million or so in 2000. Many, clearly, were lumped into "Bisaya" just like other Visayan such as Hiligaynon or Waray-Waray. Tagalog, OTOH, had 20 million in 2000 but I think the statistics may be inflated.
Maligayang Pasko / Malipayong Pasko / Maogmang Pasko / Naimbag a Paskua / Mayap a Pasku to you. :-D
--Chris
Posted by Chris S. at December 23, 2003 05:35 AMThanks for the update -- but if the stats for Tagalog are inflated (which seems plausible), how can you be sure it's now the majority language (which is obviously the impression the inflation was meant to produce)?
Posted by language hat at December 23, 2003 10:45 AMMaligayang pasko at manigong bagong taon!
There's a strong Tagalog bias in the Philippines that's questioned by some scholars. Even the formation of Filipino, the national language is problematic, since it's mostly composed of Tagalog words.
Posted by psychicpants at December 23, 2003 12:54 PMI base this on the fact that Metro Manila is home to many "immigrants" coming from non-Tagalog regions in the Philippines. Many of these people have children whose become more fluent in Tagalog than their parents' tongue.
My family's an example. My paternal grandfather is the the child of a Cebuano father and a half-Tagalog/half-Ibanag mother. My paternal grandmother immigrated to Manila from the Bicol peninsula but her father has Ilokano roots. My maternal grandmother is half-Tagalog and half-Bicol.
With the exception of my paternal grandmother, they consider themselves native speakers of Tagalog and don't speak the non-Tagalog languages well at all. Their children - my aunts and uncles - speak only Tagalog and virtually all of my cousins and siblings no longer speak Tagalog due to living in the US.
In any case, I think Cebuano & Tagalog are still neck and neck with Tagalog having the advantage. Based on what I know about the census, I look at the statistics with caution.
--Chris
Seattle
Here are the statistics, if you are interested.
1970
----
Tagalog speakers: 23.8%
Cebuano speakers: 24.4%
1980
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Tagalog speakers: 29.7%
Cebuano speakers: 24.2%
1990
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Tagalog speakers: 16,911,871
Cebuano speakers: 14,713,220
Philippine population: 65,036,621
1995
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Tagalog speakers: 20,044,487
Cebuano speakers: 14,486,196
Boholano speakers: 1,434,529
People on the island Bohol speak a Cebuano dialect. So I guess that should be: 15,920,725
2000
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Tagalog: 21,485,927
Cebuano*: 10,030,667
Ilokano: 6,920,760
Bisaya: 5,778,435
Hiligaynon*: 5,773,135
Bikol: 4,583,034
Waray-Waray*: 2,567,558
Kapampangan: 2,312,870
Boholano*: 1,837,361
Pangasinan: 1,362,142
Maranao: 1,035,966
Maguindanao: 1,008,424
Kinaray-a*: 1,051,968
Tausug: 918,069
*Refer to themselves as Bisayas. Tausug is technically a Bisayan language but Tausugs don't consider themselves as such (the word is synonymous with Christian); they're more partial to their Muslim roots.
There are about 30 more groups that call themselves "Bisaya." So the Bisaya you see in the list could be any of those.
--Chris
Posted by Chris S. at December 23, 2003 06:18 PMthe word is synonymous with Christian
Which word? (And thanks for all the great info!)
Posted by language hat at December 23, 2003 08:56 PMBisaya' is synonymous with Christian for some Tausugs. However, technically, Tausugs are the descendants of Visayan-speaking people in northeastern Mindanao - where Butuan City is.
--Chris
Posted by Chris S. at December 24, 2003 04:45 AMWhat does manigo mean?
Posted by Joel at January 1, 2004 02:55 AMDo you have the percentage of the Philippine population who speak English based on the Philippine Census 2000?
Posted by Rica Llorente at May 1, 2004 01:11 AM