Languages
There are between 120 and 170 languages spoken in the country. Most of them have several varieties (dialects), totaling over 300 across the archipelago. Since the 1930s the government has promoted the use of the national language, Filipino, based on Tagalog. Visayan languages (also called Bisaya or Binisaya) are widely spoken throughout the Visayas, and in some parts of Mindanao. The Ilokano language is the lingua franca of the Northern Luzon.
English is considered an official language for purposes of communication and instruction. Consequently, it is widely spoken and understood. The other non-indigenous languages commonly used is Arabic language, and the Spanish.
Read more about this topic: Demographics Of The Philippines
Famous quotes containing the word languages:
“I am always sorry when any language is lost, because languages are the pedigree of nations.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Wealth is so much the greatest good that Fortune has to bestow that in the Latin and English languages it has usurped her name.”
—William Lamb Melbourne, 2nd Viscount (1779–1848)
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)