language policy in the Philippines

Over 150 languages are spoken in the Philippines. Considering that only English and Filipino are the official national languages, this is a contentious arena in the Philippines. In this context, the Spanish government has been promoting the Spanish language, adding another layer of political meaning, bringing to the present some of the old colonial discourses. This article explores Spain’s promotion of the Spanish language in the Philippines. Following a semiotic approach, it analyses Spanish official discourses on language and the way that they are represented in several Spanish official exhibitions about the Philippines. This work argues that the Spanish language is portrayed in terms of symbolic power. Furthermore, focusing on Pierre Bourdieu ś concepts, the politics of the Spanish language promotion are analysed in the midst of those language policies at play in the Philippines.

In order to engage today’s diverse student body, Blackmore offers a model for teaching the history of the English language course from an international, comparative perspective.  At the urban, public university where he teaches, he examines the original genesis and early development of English in England side-by-side with the evolution of Spanish from Vulgar Latin.  He also extends the traditional timeframe of HEL by examining in detail the development of English post-1600 in the specific colonial and then postcolonial context of the Philippines. Doing so helps students to understand some of the universals of language change, while simultaneously examining some of the unique ways in which language genesis and evolution occurred in English.  Blackmore also suggests ways of applying this model using other languages and colonial/postcolonial contexts.

In the Philippines, the English-only policy dominates the legal domain, despite the fact that there are at least 175 different languages in the country. As English remains the language of the educated elite, many Filipinos who do not belong to this circle are unnecessarily marginalized by this English-only policy. Whether or not they are proficient in the form of English expected in courtrooms, these Filipinos participate in courtroom talk using whatever linguistic resources or codes are available to them. Attempts by the government to introduce the national language in the courts have had very limited success and prospects for using other Philippine languages remain dim. This article presents the challenges legal stakeholders face in dealing with non-dominant language speakers. I argue that, given the Outer Circle, multilingual context of the Philippines, alternative approaches to courtroom talk must be considered to ensure a more inclusive language policy for the Philippines.

AbSTRAcT This article considers the prospect of expanding the role of the national language, as well as other Philippine languages, in the legal system. While Tagalog-based Filipino, which is the national language according to the 1987 Constitution, is used extensively alongside English in schools, the national language has made few inroads into the legal system. Very little legislation has been translated into Filipino. Filipino-English code-switching has been observed in courtrooms, but English alone is used for records. In recent years, however, there have been signs of a more favorable attitude in the legal profession toward bilingualism. Since 2007, certain criminal courts in the Tagalog stronghold of Bulacan have been conducting cases in the national language, with English being retained for civil cases. So far the experiment has had a mixed reception, with some courtroom participants arguing that Filipino brings greater transparency and others claiming that it reduces efficiency. By weighing the preferences of legal professionals against the needs of defendants, witnesses and litigators, I consider the possibility of extending the Bulacan experiment to the rest of the Philippines. In this article, I also explore the question of introducing regional languages into the legal domain.

As was the case with many newly independent African nations, Somalia was beset by a language problem whose complexity had begun well before independence and the unification of British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland in 1960. With three languages (English, Arabic, and Italian) used as media of communication in government offices and in schools, various Somali administrations struggled to contain the impasse but found no tangible solution. Barely three years after Mohamed Siad Barre seized power in October 1969, he had his military regime introduce the Somali orthography in the Latin alphabet. Based on this milestone, Siad Barre's military rule is highly commended for taking a remarkable step forward in what came to be known as the Somalization project. However, officials of the government and Somali scholarship failed to

ABSTRACT This paper maps out the linguistic history of nation-building in the Philippines through the politics of ‘p’ and ‘f’ in the country. This politics concerns the various strategic acts of naming the national language at different periods of the country's history that have shaped its fate as the most hegemonic indigenous Philippine language. Tagalog, Pilipino and Filipino have been names given to the national language, each loaded with ideological, political and historical significance. Against English, ‘p’ was appropriated through the renaming of Tagalog as Pilipino; against all other Philippine languages, ‘f’ was institutionalized through Filipino to symbolize the multilingual nature of the national language. Thus, the machinations of ‘p’ and ‘f’ show that the national language is a story of the triumph of the Tagalog language over the vernacular languages. Filipinos have fought colonial rule for centuries, but hegemonic visions of a collective national(ist) struggle and identity have likewise exposed the country to its internal struggles over power and control.

Courtroom interaction in judicial settings differs from ordinary conversational discourse in that it is based on institutional modes of talk. As such, it is the lawyer that controls the topic and decides who can talk and when the question and answer exchange may commence and end.
This paper investigates the questioning process in Philippine courtrooms, specifically the typology and structure of the lawyers’ questions and the turn-taking system between the interrogator and the interrogated that show how power is enacted and legitimated in the discourse genre of direct and cross-examinations.
            Selected court proceedings served as corpus of the study. Most of the materials were sourced from RTC Branch 80 in Malolos City in the Philippine province of Bulacan, which is classified as a Special Court for Drug Cases. The court was included in a pilot project conducted by the Committee on Linguistic Concerns of the Supreme Court of the Philippines in 2008 which directed the use of Filipino in courtroom proceedings.
Keywords:  interrogator, interrogated, questioning process, Philippine courtroom discourse

In 1898, the United States received Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico from Spain as part of the Paris Treaty. The implementation of school systems imported from the United States began almost immediately, marked by the mandate that all instruction be given in English.  The results of this and subsequent language policies formulated for the nation and school in terms of native language maintenance and the spread of the English language are the principal subject of research in this study. An attempt was made to answer the question "What has been the role of nationalist movements in native language maintenance in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico when faced with the possible spread of the English language to the public school system and other societal institutions?" A historical comparative design was used to examine similar variables in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Language shift and language maintenance factors  including societal bilingualism, migration, industrialization, the school and other governmental use of the language, urbanization and the prestige level of the languages in contact were studied through document research, field observation and informal interviews. Documents were used from the years 1898 to 1993. The existence of nationalist movements that may have played a part in native language maintenance and language planning efforts were also looked for in these sources. The three countries were then compared to expose similarities and differences.  The major findings of the study included the apparent relationship between the existence of an educated elite and native language maintenance.  Language planning efforts aimed at preservation of the native or national language were found to be present only if or after the presence of an educated was on the scene. Whether English was seen as a threat to the native language or culture was also found to have some relation to the activities carried out by the intelligentsia. The results of this study led to the recognition of the importance of adequate language planning in order to assure maintenance of the native language while attempting to incorporate an additional language into a society. Recommendations for language planning efforts included planning for maintenance as well as spread, providing for adequate institutional support and dissemination of information related to policy formation and implementation.

"This article considers the prospect of expanding the role of the national language, as well as other Philippine languages, in the legal system. While Tagalog-based Filipino, which is the national language according to the 1987 Constitution, is used extensively alongside English in schools, the national language has made few inroads into the legal system. Very little legislation has been translated into Filipino. Filipino-English code-switching has been observed in courtrooms, but English alone is used for records. In recent years, however, there have been signs of a more favorable attitude in the legal profession toward bilingualism. Since 2007, certain criminal courts in the Tagalog stronghold of Bulacan have been conducting cases in the national language, with English being retained for civil cases. So far the experiment has had a mixed reception, with some courtroom participants arguing that Filipino brings greater transparency and others claiming that it reduces efficiency. By weighing the preferences of legal professionals against the needs of defendants, witnesses and litigators, I consider the possibility of extending the Bulacan experiment to the rest of the Philippines. In this article, I also explore the question of introducing regional languages into the legal domain.

KEY WORDS: Language and law, Philippine languages, Philippine legal system"

In 1898, the United States received Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico from Spain as part of the Paris Treaty. The implementation of school systems imported from the United States began almost immediately, marked by the mandate that all instruction be given in English. The results of this and subsequent language policies formulated for the nation and school in terms of native language maintenance and the spread of the English language are the principal subject of research in this study. An attempt was made to answer the question "What has been the role of nationalist movements in native language maintenance in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico when faced with the possible spread of the English language to the public school system and other societal institutions?" A historical comparative design was used to examine similar variables in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Language shift and language maintenance factors including societal bilingualism, migration, industrialization, the school and other governmental use of the language, urbanization and the prestige level of the languages in contact were studied through document research, field observation and informal interviews. Documents were used from the years 1898 to 1993. The existence of nationalist movements that may have played a part in native language maintenance and language planning efforts were also looked for in these sources. The three countries were then compared to expose similarities and differences. The major findings of the study included the apparent relationship between the existence of an educated elite and native language maintenance. Language planning efforts aimed at preservation of the native or national language were found to be present only if or after the presence of an educated was on the scene. Whether English was iii seen as a threat to the native language or culture was also found to have some relation to the activities carried out by the intelligentsia. The results of this study led to the recognition of the importance of adequate language planning in order to assure maintenance of the native language while attempting to incorporate an additional language into a society.

In 1898, the United States received Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico from Spain as part of the Paris Treaty. The implementation of school systems imported from the United States began almost immediately, marked by the mandate that all instruction be given in English. The results of this and subsequent language policies formulated for the nation and school in terms of native language maintenance and the spread of the English language are the principal subject of research in this study. An attempt was made to answer the question "What has been the role of nationalist movements in native language maintenance in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico when faced with the possible spread of the English language to the public school system and other societal institutions?" A historical comparative design was used to examine similar variables in Guam, the Philippines and Puerto Rico. Language shift and language maintenance factors including societal bilingualism, migration, industrialization, the school and other governmental use of the language, urbanization and the prestige level of the languages in contact were studied through document research, field observation and informal interviews. Documents were used from the years 1898 to 1993. The existence of nationalist movements that may have played a part in native language maintenance and language planning efforts were also looked for in these sources. The three countries were then compared to expose similarities and differences. The major findings of the study included the apparent relationship between the existence of an educated elite and native language maintenance. Language planning efforts aimed at preservation of the native or national language were found to be present only if or after the presence of an educated was on the scene. Whether English was iii seen as a threat to the native language or culture was also found to have some relation to the activities carried out by the intelligentsia. The results of this study led to the recognition of the importance of adequate language planning in order to assure maintenance of the native language while attempting to incorporate an additional language into a society.