The Lingua Franca We Dare Not Criticize: Why Pilipino Struggles as an Intellectual Language

The Unfulfilled Promise of Pilipino as a National Language

For decades, government and academe in the Philippines have championed the cause of Pilipino—often interchangeably called Tagalog—as the national and intellectual language. Billions of pesos have been spent on its promotion. Educational reforms have mandated its use. Institutions have held conferences, coined new words, and created elaborate glossaries. And yet, for all the ceremony and lip service, one fact remains stubbornly obvious: Pilipino has not—and perhaps cannot—break through as a truly academic, global, or world-class language of intellectual thought. Why?

A Cumbersome Language for Serious Thought

Because, simply put, Tagalog is a cumbersome language for formal, intellectual, or technical use. Anyone who has had to write an academic paper or deliver a scientific lecture in Pilipino is familiar with this. The words are often long, mechanical, or awkwardly constructed. The syntax favors redundancy over precision. The coinages—many of them manufactured by committees rather than by natural linguistic evolution—feel clunky and artificial.

When Translation Becomes Alienation

Take, for instance, the government-approved Pilipino translation of “facilitator" or "moderator”: “tagapagdaloy.” A five-syllable tongue-twister that literally means “facilitator of flow” (as in a conference or seminar).  No one uses it in real life unless required by a speech contest rubric. Or how about “salipawpaw” for “airplane”—a ”poetic but obscure word that only ever shows up in textbooks and bureaucratic signage, never in everyday conversations. Even the everyday cellphone charger becomes “pantablay,” a coinage that sounds more like an ancient kitchen appliance than a living word.

We can go on and on: website is "pook-sapot", email is "sulatroniko", mathematics is "sipnayan", dictionary is "talatinigan", web browser is "panginain," and microphone is "miktinig." These esoteric terms are the eloquent symbols of why Pilipino, despite its noble intentions, struggles to gain traction in real intellectual and cultural spaces.

English: The Unacknowledged Default

In contrast, English—for all its colonial baggage—remains the language of science, law, medicine, international diplomacy, and even higher education in the Philippines. It allows for clarity, nuance, and brevity. It is the medium of instruction in our best universities, the default language of thesis writing, and the bridge to global knowledge. 

When Pilipino is mandated for use in academic settings, what often happens is this: the speaker or writer thinks in English, outlines, and then translates awkwardly into Pilipino, with mixed results. So why can’t we admit this?

The Politics of Linguistic Denial

Because doing so feels politically incorrect. Language is identity, nationalism, and pride. To point out Pilipino’s limitations is to risk being called unpatriotic, colonial-minded, or elitist. It is more comfortable—and safer—to pretend that efforts to elevate Pilipino as a language of scholarship and discourse are succeeding, even when they are not.

As a result, we continue the charade. We hold seminars in Pilipino where the PowerPoint slides are written in English. We coin new terms that no one uses. We “develop” the language without really using it to develop ideas.

Still Not a Lingua Franca and the Rise of Taglish

And still, Pilipino has not emerged as a regional lingua franca (unlike Bahasa Indonesia or Bahasa Malaysia), nor a literary powerhouse like Spanish, nor a diplomatic language like French. It remains largely confined to domestic entertainment, informal communication, and the echo chambers of state-funded institutions.

Adding Pilipino's predicament is the solidification of English over the past two decades as the global language of science, technology, business, and academia—a dominance that further marginalizes Pilipino, which has long struggled to gain equal footing as a medium for intellectual and academic discourse. 

Compounding this already tangled linguistic landscape is the rise of "Taglish," a hybrid of Pilipino and English that has become the lingua franca of urban Filipinos, particularly among the youth and in popular media.  In fact, Taglish now appears to be emerging—by default rather than design—as the de facto national language, further blurring linguistic boundaries and casting doubt on the future of Pilipino as a distinct, fully developed medium for national and intellectual life.

Toward a More Honest Conversation

It is time to be honest. Pilipino has not failed because it is inferior, but because the gap between its romanticized vision and its actual use has never been addressed. The language is weighed down by politics, artificial rules, and cultural insecurities. What it needs is not more tokenistic promotion but genuine development, grounded in organic usage, literary excellence, and intellectual utility.

Until then, let us not vilify those who choose English as their tool of thought. They are not traitors to the Filipino soul. They are, more often than not, realists in a country that refuses to face linguistic truth.