In Philippine #English, if it’s called a “storm” it’s “weak” (but can still bring in a lot of rains, rains and wind gusts are separate matters, don’t mix the two).
If it’s called a “typhoon”, it’s definitely not a joke.
(P.s. And once again, let me reiterate this: “Philippine English” is a legitimate & recognized variant of English. It is NOT the same as Taglish, Singlish, or Konglish/Kinglish.)
#Philippines
- Taglish is code-mixing.
- Singlish is, I can’t even remember the proper terminology.
- Kinglish/Konglish is actually a subset of Korean. It’s different from Singlish and Taglish.
So many foreigners, and it’s understandable, mistake Philippine English as Taglish" Or, how it is supposedly similar to Singlish and/or Kinglish/Konglish.
It is not. Philippine English is pure English. It is a combination of Australian, British, and American English, with Philippine languages and dialects (200+) influences. It also focuses on pronouncing the letters clearly, as it is written, and as “neutral” as possible.
Example: We clearly pronounce “than” and “then”. You won’t hear us say “other then”, you’ll hear us pronounce it correctly as “other than”.
We also follow what is commonly known as the “Oxford comma”.
And when it comes to spelling variations, all are valid, you can freely mix them. Although there are cases wherein a specific use became common. Like, “center vs centre”. We don’t write, “Can you centre this?” We use “center” for that. But we write, “Can you go to that centre you went to and ask for this?” Which refers to an institution. But we generally pronounce both the same as “sen-ter” (some say “sen-tre” 🤪).
Confused already? That’s only the tip of Philippine English. We form our sentences differently too. 🤣
There is also the politeness/respect and formality levels from various Philippine languages and dialects also influenced the way we choose which English words to use and how we construct our sentences. It’s not much because English itself is limited and simple, but the influence is there.
Oh, and the overused “po” gets mixed in Philippine English as well. It’s the only non-English word that gets mixed in a pure Philippine English sentence (well, sometimes “na” and “ka” too).
- “Good morning po.”
- “How are you po?”
- “Yes, po. We’re on the way na po.” (overused)
- “F*ck you po!” 🤣🤣🤣 (Seriously)
- “How do you like your egg po?”
So, if you’re a foreigner visiting the #Philippines for the first time and you hear “po” in pure English sentences, don’t ask, “Who is po?” 😜
“Po” is a Tagalog-only word show respect. It’s actually overused because we can shiw politeness in different levels, but “po” made it easier and faster to do so. And since it is not easy to show politeness in English the way we Asians do in our native languages, the Tagalog “po” got mixed in to Philippine English sentences.
So, now, one need not think how to change their English sentence to make it polite, just use “po”.
Like in, “f*ck you po” or “I hope you die po, thief!”. You can be polite while cursing someone in Philippine English. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
@[email protected] Does “bagyo” apply to any storm, or just a typhoon?
@[email protected] Good question! Yep, “bagyo” applies to any storm and typhoon. It’s only in Philippine English that we have two words for it. 😅
I’m not sure when it happened. But IIRC, back in the 90s, “storm” and “typhoon” were the same. I guess it was part of PAGASA’s (Philippine meteorology agency) to make it easier to distinguish what is weak vs powerful “storms”/“typhoons”.
Oh, we still don’t use “hurricane”, it’s still reserved for the Western hemisphere.
