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<img loading="lazy" src="https://cdn.kahimyang.com/resources/ferdinand-blumentritt.webp" alt="A sketch of Ferdinand Blumentritt by Juan Luna" />
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(A sketch of Ferdinand Blumentritt by Juan Luna)
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Much has been written about the necessity of diffusing the knowledge of the Spanish language in the Philippine islands,
and it seems strange that this necessity is denied not by Filipino authors, but by natives of the Spanish peninsula belonging
to the regular clergy. It is evident that by their opposition they wished to preserve their great power as mediators between
the governing nation and the governed and subdued peoples. This can not be denied. Señor Father Francisco Gainza
said that he considered that the generalization of the knowledge of Spanish among the natives would be fatal to the country
in religious and political respects, and that "the priest instinctively ahhors to have the language of his country spoken in his
pueblo. and experience shows that instinct to be a rational one". If that instinct were really rational, then those friars should
have advised the Government to establish a school of Philippine languages in order to educate in it the staff of the battalions
of employees which now is obliged to govern the country with the friars as interpreters and advisers.


I believe that at the present writing nobody would dare to repeat coram publico what that wise prelate said in the year of
our Lord 1861. The progress which despite all misgovernnient and all commercial crises, local as well as universal, is being
made in the beloved land of Salcedo and Lacandola, contributes to the recognition of that necessity, and the policy of assimilation for which the 

Philippines are indebted to the colonial ministers of the Sagasta cabinet shows that necessity to be an urgent one.


The question now reduces itself to the means of facilitating that generalization of the language of Cervantes and to the
means of propaganda and methods that will tend to overcome the obstacles, active and passive, encountered by that desire
of the natives of the country.


But I do not desire to take up these measures; I crave the indulgence of my readers in order to speak now of the purposes
involved in the idea of the generalization of the Castilian tongue among the natives of the Philippines. Some applaud that
idea because they see in its realization a further element tending to unite the Philippine Islands with the sovereign country;
others concur in it because the general knowledge of Spanish not only facilitates national, but also spiritual assimilation, and
I have noticed that there are writers who want the languages of the country extirpated and replaced by Spanish; other authors
declare it to be impossible to supplant the Tagalog. Visayan. and other tongues; they complain and despair because they believe
that if the knowledge of Spanish becomes general throughout the country without the native tongues being eliminated, only
utilitarian purposes will be served and the result will not be the desired assimilation, crowned by the unity of language.


I, for my part, am a believer in the impossibility of extirpatlng a language which, like the Tagalog, the Visayan, the Bikol,
the llokano, and others is spoken by millions or many thousands of people. Only small nations of not more than from ten to
forty thousand souls could give up their language for the Spanish, and though I may be mistaken, I believe that even these
nations would be better absorbed by a greater Malayan nation than by the Spanish. This we observe in Mindanao, where
the Manobos and Mandayas of the Agusan valley, upon being baptized, become Visayans, not Spaniards, through the influence
of the schools, the church sermons, and commercial intercourse with the Christians of longer standing of Butuan, Linao, etc.
 We observe this also in Luzon, where the Christian Tinguians become Ilokanos instead of Spaniards. In the best case only
the inhabitants of the head towns become Spaniards.


In my humble judgment national assimilation does not demand as a prerequisite the extinction of the Philippine tongues.
Just as the Catalonian the Mallorquin, and the Valencian dialects and the Basque language do not prevent the Catalonians, 
etc., from being patriotic Spaniards, so does the existence of the Tagalog, Pampango, Visayan, etc., not prevent the existence
of fraternal relations between Spaniards and Filipinos. If we now declare war against the native tongues, simultaneously
with the introduction of obligatory instruction in Spanish, I fear we shall be rendering but a poor service to a good cause. The
generalization of the official language of Spain is a necessity, to be sure, but only in the sense of removing the anomaly of a
country being governed by officials unable to understand the natives, and vice versa; this generalization is needed in order
that the Filipinos, through the medium of the language of Cervantes, may participate in all that commoves the nation and
may have a medium by which they can communicate with each other, not to mention the bene?t which the Filipino will derive from the grand literature 

of Spain. We fail to see how the cultivation by the Tagalogs, Visayans, etc., of their own tongues
could be an obstacle in the way of the attainment of these advantages; the modern Catalonians, Mallorquines, etc., also continue cultivating their 

peculiar dialects. All that is necessary is what the interests of the State demand, namely, that every man aspiring to office in the State or 

municipal service know the official language.


This can be accomplished particularly by overcoming the clandestine and passive opposition on the part of many friars;
but we must state that this is not a matter of a year, nor of three years. It is a question of time and the harvest will be
gathered by the coming generation.


Parallel with the necessity of the generalization of the Spanish language among the Filipinos runs the necessity of the
Spanish public employees and oficials acquiring the vernacular in order to tighten the bonds of affection between those who
command and those who obey; this the present situation demands. At present the Spaniards are living in their oceanic province almost like 

foreigners, through their own fault and that of the governments of the home country and of the colony. The
Philippines do not seem to be an integral part of Spain, but a territory occupied by Spaniards, because the state officials only
communicate with the natives through interpreters. To this must be added that the friars, chulorratas, and persons of the
Quioquiap type and other champions of the threadbare prestige of the European do not want to admit the Filipino as a brother,
nor do they want the Philippines to have parliamentary representation, whereby they prove that the Philippines are to them
nothing but a possession which is being lost through the incapacity of the governing element or through the rebellion of the
governed who, living as they do in the latter part of the nineteenth century, and as Christians, can not abdicate their right
to form part of the Spanish nation as equals, or, if the doctrine is sustained that the Philippines are merely the property or
possession of an European state—to look for their masters among their own compatriots, that is, to seek separation.


I do not doubt that the Madrid government has the very best intentions, but what good are these so long as the official
guillotine continues to work with tireless activity? Dozens of officials leave for the Philippine on nearly every steamer,
without ever having demonstrated by an examination or in any other manner that they know anything about the country,
this notwithstanding the fact that the government in Madrid as well as that in Manila are forever scenting some filibustering
movement in that hapless country. Any sensible man would suppose that in such a case it is the duty of the Government to be
very conscientious in the selection of the employees which are to represent the national flag in the country of the alleged
filibusters; but the sensible man sees that the reality is not at all in accordance with what simple prudence demands. On the
contrary, any person giving utterance to such opinions is denounced as anti-Spanish.


To the bago (new) employee everything seems new; not only the language of his province. but also all that which we might
call the ethnological and physical situation of the country. With what illusions and what lack of knowledge do even Spaniards
who have the reputation of being very enlightened arrive on Philippine soil! This is evidenced in the pages of the book es-
bows y pincelados, by the famous Quioquiap. in which the author expresses his astonishment regarding things Philippine which,
in our judgment, even a man who has read but a single book on the Philippines must know. These expectorations cause to
the foreigner the same impression as if a Spaniard were to read in a foreign book that the author was astonished to discover.
on his tour of Spain. the incredible new facts that there are bull-fights. republicans. Carlists, gazpacho, and mules all over
Spain; gypsies at Triana, and chains and manolas at Madrid. The Spaniard would most certainly exclaim: "What blockhead
is this foreigner to be surprised to end these things in Spain of which he might have read in any book dealing with Spain!"
But I do not believe it is permissible to say the same thing of a Spaniard taking a trip to the Philippines, who, not having
previously read up on the Islands, expresses urbi el urbi the surprise experienced by him upon seeing things Philippine known
to every European (unless he be a Spaniard) who takes the least interest in the Islands.


The introduction of the Spanish language is therefore not necessarily coupled with the pretension that the Tagalogs, 
Visayans, etc., give up their natural tongue, just as it does not relieve the Government from the obligation of requiring its
subordinate officials to know one of the languages of Luzon or the Visayas.


In our opinion nothing more can be accomplished than to have every native who aspires to a position in the municipal
or state service know Spanish and to have every subordinate European employee know one of the vernacular tongues of his
province. This is a minimum and, therefore, if the Government will but show some energy, it will certainly find this feasible.
We must not forget that the rapid progress made by the commerce of the Philippines, the extension of the steamer lines between
Mindanao, the Visayas, and Luzon, and the early establishment of the first railway do and will contribute towards the propagation of Spanish. The 

ideas here expressed are therefore not more products of a busy imaginatiom, but are ideas that
demand to be accepted as debatable.


And it is proper to call the attention of the Government to their matter, because in the same measure as the commerce
with England and the United States is growing, the danger increases that some day the English language will be of greater
value to the bright native than the national tongue. There is already a considerable number of Filipinos who have been edu-
cated not in a national school, but in English schools in Hongkong. Hence, if the rule of the friars, who are generally opposed
to the generalization of the national language, continues; if the Filipinos are forever told: You are an inferior race and not
worthy of representation in the parliament of the nacion hidalga, then, perhaps, the government leaning upon the only map
of Spanish dominion, will put off the generalization of the national language involuntarily, but the fault will be its own.




Sources:
<ol class="article-sources">
<li>
Revista Filipina, Volume 2, Number 1, January 1917
</li>
<li>
Spanish and the Philippine Languages, Ferdinand Blumentritt, La Solidaridad, July 15, 1890 via Revista Filipina
</li>
</ol>

Spanish and the Philippine Languages - Ferdinand Blumentritt view of the opening of Spanish language School in Malolos