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  • Essay / The national language, the unifying factor of...

    Language and unityFilipino, the national language, is the unifying factor of the Philippines. It allows citizens to communicate with each other in many remote areas who, in turn, assimilate their mother tongue into the national language and will be united. The pressure on English may cause a tendency to miseducate and misinform the Filipino people that English is the only language used solely for international and academic purposes. Animosity also increases when the masses and elites fail to communicate well with each other. The importance of national language is vital to our nation since we need it to communicate with different groups. This is why it is necessary for the Filipino language to be a symbol of unity in order to bridge the gap between the elite and the masses. (Tollefson 1986 in Gonzales nd). This allows the majority of people to understand each other and become aware of the relationships they may possibly have (Porcalla, 2013). As Fausto (2013) mentioned, the Filipino language is an instrument to express the personal feelings and ideas of Filipinos, it develops reinforcement in our society. This is clearly expressed and demonstrated through the works of many contemporary artists of the Philippines when they use the Filipino language to express to their fellow citizens the problems and difficulties of the society, which in turn helps the Philippines in its aspect social. Since Filipinos are our national language or official means of communication, it somehow unites us in knowing the distinctions of our culture, the deep feelings we have created, the values ​​we place on things, and it symbolizes the core of the Filipino people ( Fausto, 2013). An example that can be shown here are the variations of ...... middle of paper ...... for example, the word "automatic", can be roughly translated to the word "automatik" in Tagalog, and this word always has the same or similar sound to the English word "automatic". Indeed, this will allow more scientific and technological terms to exist in the Filipino language in combination with the English language, resulting in intellectualization of the language. With this spelling promotion, the media, such as television, took advantage of the loanword spelling system (Paz, 1996) and used it for the public and, in the long run, simultaneously strengthening the media. Not only was this spelling beneficial to the previous one, it was also applied in formal writing, and academic articles were published in the national language. Originally an oral language, it evolved into a written form acceptable to speakers..