Re: One language for the world

> > Are they both from regions where cebuano is the
> primary language? What
> >is the situation (linguistic, historical) between
> cebuano and Tagalog? Was
> >it numbers or trading influence that made it a
> contender for the national
> >language?
>
> Cebuano is a part of the Bisayan branch of the
> Philippine languages. This
> paper:
> http://www.bisaya.com/papers/context/welcome.html,
> compares
> Malaysian Bisaya, and the Bisayan language group
> (through Cebuano. It also
> shows what languages are in the Bisayan group.
> Cebuano has over 15 million
> speakers and is the Lingua Franca (from what i have
> read) of its region.
> The parent site may have more information than I can
> provide. I think one
> of the reasons it was a contender is because it has
> such a large number of
> native speakers, and Cebu is an important city in
> the Visayas. Though
> Tagalog and Cebuano are related to each other (Both
> in the Meso-Philippine
> group), a speaker who only knows Cebuano and one who
> only knows Tagalog
> wouldn't be able to understand each other.

Cebuano and Tagalog were the top contenders for the
basis of Pilipino during President Quezon's Time
(1935-1944) because they had (and still have) the most
number of native speakers.  Plus the fact that the
largest city in the Philippines is Manila, which is in
a Tagalog-speaking region, and the second-largest city
is Cebu City, which is obviously Cebuano speaking.
Plus the fact that Quezon is Tagalog and his
vice-president, Sergio Osmeña, is Cebuano.  So
politics also came into the picture.  Many Cebuanos in
Cebu City are still bitter about the choice of Tagalog
because they still believe that Tagalog was chosen
over Cebuano because Quezon was the President and
Osmeña was only a vice-president, even though Cebuano
has more native speakers.

I can relate to this topic very much because my father
is Cebuano and my mother is Tagalog.  I grew up in
Quezon City, a suburb of Manila, that's why I grew up
speaking Tagalog, even though I don't have any
relatives in Manila.  All of my relatives from my
mom's side are all here in America, and all of my
relatives on my dad's side are in Mindanao.  I can
speak and understand Cebuano because of my dad and our
maids, who are always from my dad's hometown in
Mindanao.

Andre

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