Babayin

The Philippines is the “Hawaii of Asia”. The climate and the environment are exactly like Hawaii. The Philippines have the greatest variety of fish species in the world, and the most fertile soil in Asia. That is why Japan back in World War 2 wanted to sieze control of the Philippines, which to the Japanese geographically would make them stronger to control Australia, their next target after Asia. I am sure glad their was no Japanese Empire in Asia and Australia. That was another large part of Philippine history I was captivated about knowing. But what capitvated me even more was that the great masterpiece written works of the Philippines in literature, science, and the social sciences before the 20th century, were written mainly in the Spanish language. Just how did Spain influence the Philippines so much before the 20th century?

I was captivated to learn that the Philippines was a colony of Spain for almost 400 years (between 1565 and 1871) during the 16th century! The island was named after King Philip the 2nd of Spain in 1565, hence the slang/nickname “the islands of King Philip the 2nd”. The Philippines was called “New Spain” by the Spaniard king and his servants. But despite colonization for almost 400 years, the Filipinos maintained their original Asian oral and written language, called Babayin.

Babayin is the original Filipino language from which arose the origins of the 82 Filipino dialects of the island nation today, including Tagalog, the official language. Babayin  came from Indonesia. Hence, the first Filipinos were Indonesian/Malaysian people who migrated to the Philippine islands around the 14th century (the 1300s). Babayin came from the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra. At least I know where the Filipinos’ pure Asian history comes from and also their original Asian ancestors in their genetic line: the Indonesians and Malaysians.

These unique Indonesian and Malaysian people were colonized by the Spaniards from the 16th to the late 19th centuries, by the Americans during the late 19th century and early 20th century, and by Japan between 1943 and 1945. During those times, these Indonesian and Malaysian people were ‘Hispanicized’, or became Asian Hispanics because of almost 400 years of Spanish rule and control, just like Spain conquored Central and South America around the same time period, and colonized the Native Indians there into American Hispanics. But some of these Hispanicized Indonesians and Malaysians maintained their cultural and religious identity, mainly in the southern island of Mindanao. In that island, Islam is the predominant religion and culture, just like in Indonesia. Also, some of the local village people of the Visayas islands like Palawan and Cebu still practice traditional Indonesian and Malaysian customs, despite a tinge of Spanish influence tainting those customs. Luzon and the Visayas islands were Christianized as Catholic by the Spanish king in the 16th century. Strict Spanish punishment was enforced on those Indonesians who resisted and instead embraced the Babayin language and culture. Fortunately, the Mindanoan people could not be easily Hispanicized and Christianized  by the Spanish, because of their war-like culture.

I have analyzed Babayin and it is a beautiful language. Tagalog was the first dialect to evolve from Babayin. There are many similarities. A beautiful Indonesian/Malaysian language in terms of grammar and sound! So, Filipinos, Malaysians, and Indonesians are actually very close relatives to each other! It certainly explains the beautiful and unique background of the Filipino people in terms of their language and culture. I am just glad that the Filipinos were not ‘Japanicized’ along with the rest of Asia and Australia in the 20th century, because Japanization if Japan won World War 2 basically would be more brutal than what Spain had done during the 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th centuries.