The Philippines is an Archipelago. This means that the Country is separated into multiple islands. Because of this, it was easily invaded by the Spanish colonizers. (although Magellan is Portuguese, he was tasked by Spain to explore and find the Spice Islands. (Moluccas, Indonesian Maluku, also known as Spice Islands, Indonesian islands of the Malay Archipelago, lying between the islands of Celebes to the west and New Guinea to the east.
Magellan's expedition to the East Indies didn't land on the designated island just yet. The dude got lost. He was so lost that he landed in the Philippines instead. At that time, He took advantage of the Philippines and called them Indio or someone who is uncivilized, which is actually not true. The native tribes of the Philippines already have a civilization and culture, but since it is not "up to their standards" they decided to take advantage of the gullibility and had a YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAW!!!!!!!!
The MR. DUDE-o-Explorer explored a lot more. He decided to stay and.... naaaah this ain't gonna be some boring history lesson. welp. Dude-eo-Magellan was slain in Battle in Mactan. But it's a bit too late for the Filipions since they spread their influence in the Philippines for 333 years. A lot happened in that span. Aside from spreading Christianity and Spanish culture. They also spread their seeds. MAN SEEDS! That's why we Filipinos look a lot like our conquested cousins instead of our oriental neighbors. (another long history lesson that would take a lot of time, research, data, and effort to narrate)
Back to where I was, YESSSS! the ARCHIPELAGO! Since the Philippines is an archipelago, the Native Tribes got different jurisdictions and land to stay. Each tribe got different ways of verbal communication. Around 120-175 Dialects (even now). The words they spoke are alien to some, yet some are close to the other. In the end, the sovereign state ruled to use one major language throughout the country.
For now, the country got its own major language. It is the amalgamation of specific words of dialects, pieces of Spanish phrases, the residue of other invaders' tongues, and the evolving slang of spoken words. It is funny since some words are spoken and spelled similarly but totally unrelated.
Example of it is the word Langgam. In Tagalog, Langgam is Ant. In Bisaya, Langgam is Bird. Buto in tagalog is Bones. In some Northern dialect it is also a seed. in bisaya it is EXPLOSION! and in *waray *and hiligaynon it's PENIS!
It's easy to be misunderstood in our country. But if you have lived here and traveled long enough, you can sometimes differentiate each similar word on what they really mean based on the tone and how the word is pronounced.
I remember a joke I read before,
A Foreigner visited the Philippines. While he was in front of the elevator waiting for it to open. A Filipino guy is standing next to him (let's call him guy 1).
The door opens and another guy is already inside (let's call him guy 2). Guy 1 asked "bababa ba?" and guy 2 replied "bababa" the Foreigner was shocked and didn't get inside. He thought aliens were talking.
Bababa ba? = Is this going down?
bababa = it's going down.
I titled this post "Maginoong Balbon" which roughly translates to "Hairy Gentleman". I can also call it "Ang tawong bunguton" or the "human with a beard" or "ang laking may balbas" or "bearded man" in English or in other local dialect it is "the growing up with beard".
Even parts of beard got different names.
let's do English - Filipino (tagalog) - Filipino (Cebuano) - Filipino (Bisaya)
- Beard - Balbas - Bangas - Bungot
- Sideburns - Patilya - Sampiling - Tinkoy-tinkoy
- Mustache - Bigote - Bungot - Bungot
- Goatee - Balbas - Bangas - Kanding-kanding (literally means goat-like)
BONUS:
Braid - palawit - salapid - sintipid
Sunglasses - salamin - antipara - baring
I just made a bunch of mumbo-jumbo just to make a story out of this photo. The stuff above is information that I can't use that much on a daily bases. I just made a trivia out of it just to have fun. And I know a lot of people that are more knowledgeable than me. please inform me of what I may have said wrong, or add some more information for the topic.
ADIOS!