What Ours is Ours

                Language is the system of words, sounds and grammar used by a particular group of people for communication. The word “language” came from the Latin word “lingua” meaning “tongue”.  The suffix –age was added in French, from which the word was adopted in the thirteenth century. Language can also be described as vocabulary or idiolect. There are different kinds of languages used in other countries. There are English, Mandarin, French and Japanese. But for us Filipinos, we use our native language, Tagalog.

                Tagalog progressed into a much higher level back when foreigners ruled our country.  During the Spanish period, Tagalog was the language used in Manila, the canter of education, industry and business.  Tagalog magazines and newspapers were made such as “El Renacimiento”, “Ang Mithi”, “Taliba” and “And Demokrasya”. Filipino writers, Alejandro G. Abadilla, Teodoro A. Agoncillo, Jesus A. Arceo, Salvador Barros and many more became popular. They used Tagalog in their short stories and poems. Tagalog, indeed became famous.

                Until now, we use and speak our native language. Although in some parts of our country, others use their own language like Bisaya. But most of our population use Tagalog as their language. You can say that Tagalog is important to us Filipinos just like English is important to Americans. We have English and Filipino subjects in our schools. We also study both languages. But for me, our native language is much better than any language in the world. I chose to master Tagalog first before I speak fluently in the English language.