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Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, the Bisayan languages, Ilocano, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Indonesian, Malay, Hawaiian, Māori, Malagasy, and many more.
- 28 million (2022), 82 million total speakers (2022)
Additionally, the Arabic script is used in the Muslim areas in the southern Philippines. Tagalog and Cebuano are the most commonly spoken native languages, together comprising about half of the population of the Philippines. Filipino and English are the only official languages and are taught in schools.
Tagalog is an Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language like the other Philippine languages. The mother tongue of some 19,550,000 Filipinos, it was chosen as the basis of the national language (Pilipino) and is taught in all schools.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Apr 13, 2024 · Tagalog language, member of the Central Philippine branch of the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian) language family and the base for Pilipino, an official language of the Philippines, together with English. It is most closely related to Bicol and the Bisayan (Visayan) languages—Cebuano, Hiligaynon.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Article History. Related Topics: Tagalog language. Philippine languages. Pilipino language, standardized form of Tagalog, and one of the two official languages of the Philippines (the other being English). It is a member of the Austronesian language phylum.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Filipino is also influenced by other Philippine languages. Written Tagalog. Tagalog was written with the Baybayin script until the 17th century. After that the Latin alphabet was introduced, and the Baybayin script is used mainly for decorative purposes.
The language is usually called Tagalog within the Philippines and among Filipinos to differentiate it from other Philippine languages, but it has also come to be known as Filipino to differentiate it from the languages of other countries; the former implies a regional origin, the latter national.
