Saturday, December 29, 2012

My Opinion: Should Filipino be considered a part of Indo-European family of languages because of its extensive borrowing of words from Spanish?


Answer: No. Because it may have extensively borrowed words from Spanish but its grammar is still Malayo-Polynesian. For example, tienda becomes tindahan. Caballo becomes kabayo and nangangabayo as a verb in the present tense. It is like saying English should become a part of the Romance languages because of its extensive borrowings from French. English should and shall still remain a part of the Germanic languages even though it extensively borrowed words from French. It should be better stated that Filipino as well as the other languages or dialects spoken in the Philippines should be recognized as Hipanized Austronesian or Latinized Austronesian.

No comments: