The argument for recognizing distinct pre-Hispanic Filipino martial arts is made by Mark Wiley in
Filipino Martial Culture. He states that the term "Kali" should not be used in this context, and argues in favor of using the indigenous-language term for the variety of different arts that existed prior to the Spanish occupation. Martialtalk Forum readers who are interested in this topic may also want to look at the "Influence of Spanish Renaissance Swordsmanship" thread on the Dogbrothers Public Forum.
Re. "Pilipino vs. Filipino," the following essay can be found at:
http://store.escalate.com/store/turoturo/article11.jsp
The author is a professor at San Francisco State University.
"As a Filipino people, we had been completely mixed up and entangled in our colonial past. When we think we have shaken away the vestiges of the Spanish colonial experience, some mundane things such as the way we define ourselves to others reveal how ingrained we have become to the Hispanic cultural influence. For example, the Tagalog term for our race and nationality is "Pilipino", as in "Pilipino ako." (I am a Filipino). In determining someone's nationality we say "Pilipino siya." (He/She is a Philippine native). This sentence cannot be literally translated, because "siya" is a gender neutral pronoun; we can only know the gender of this person by the sentence context. The indigenous Philippine language has no gender differentiation, yet occasionally we apply the gender rules for figures of speech following the Spanish language. We use "Filipino" to refer to individual males from the Philippines, and "Filipina" for individual females. However, when we refer to the people in general, we use "Filipinos", following the Spanish language structure rule.
Many of my colleagues at San Francisco State University had asked me as to when it is proper to use Pilipino and when to use Filipino. I indicate that for purposes of my own idiosyncracy, I use "Pilipino" in two ways. I use the term whenever I want to refer to the people within a Tagalog sentence construction. However, for the same thought expressed in English, I use the word "Filipino". For example the Tagalog sentence, "Pilipino ang salita ng mga Pilipino." when expressed in English becomes "Pilipino is the language of the Filipinos". The words "Pilipino" and "Filipino" have the following meanings:
1) A collective noun, denoting any citizen of the Philippines and refers to both female and male. The Spanish word "Filipino" referring to the people has been adapted in all written English documents. One finds the term "Filipino" used more and more often in the literature and in writings in English, whereas when writing in the Philippine National Language the term is "Pilipino". For example, "The Filipinos are the fastest growing minority population among Asian Americans".
2) "Filipino" is a noun for a male native or citizen of the Philippines. Example: "My friend is married to a "Filipino".
3) "Pilipino" is a noun for the Philippine National Language which is claimed to be based on Tagalog. Since I am Tagalog-speaking, I see no difference whatsoever between what is called the Philippine National Language, and my mother tongue. In my opinion, Pilipino is 98% Tagalog, and we are coopting and perpetrating the hypocritical stance of the Institute of National Language when we keep on mouthing their definition of the National Language as Tagalog-based or as other sociolinguists insist is a syncretic language with borrowings from other Philippine languages.
4) "Pilipino" is an adjective, as in Wikang Pilipino (Philippine Language) or Ugaling Pilipino (Philippine Custom). The debate on the use of "Pilipino" and "Filipino" came during the Constitutional Convention of 1973 when some scholars and linguists, began to question the use of the word "Filipino". The reasoning goes like this: Since there is no letter "f" in the Tagalog alphabet, the right term is "Pilipino". This means that we should call ourselves "Pilipino", our nationality is "Pilipino", and our national language is "Pilipino". The assumption is that we as a nation cannot pronounce "f" because the sound is alien to us. The usage of "Pilipino" began to proliferate. Strangely enough, the Filipino Americans began to use the word "Pilipino" because of the movement of seeking roots in Philippine culture among the Filipinos in America.
There are many who disagree on the use of "Pilipino" for three reasons. First, we no longer use the "baybayin" , apparently of Sanskrit or Arabic origin--an ancient syllabary of 17 symbols where the letter "f" is non existent, and "O" and "U" are interchangeable as well as "E" and "I". We had adopted the Latin alphabet. Second, during the Spanish colonial rule (378 years, 1592-1889), the population had been introduced to the Spanish language. In fact we were then called "Filipinos" after the country "Las Islas Felipinas." Even our own family names have the letter "F". I would hate to have my own name changed to "Plores". Thirdly, we had been educated in the English language, and English became the language in our schools and the instructional tool during the American administration (1889-1945). Since then, English had been the lingua franca of the Philippines. The public school system and the introduction of mass education had mandated that all subjects from Grade three on - primary school, secondary and tertiary levels of education - be conducted in the English language. So, to say that we cannot pronounce "f" is to heap insult on our intelligence and capacity to be trained in speech. It is like saying to Americans to change all English words ending in "ge" as in "garage", "mirage ", "collage" because these are French words and the English speaker can never pronounce the terminal "ge" sound. During President Corazon's Aquinos term, the word "Filipino" began to creep back into correct usage. We have since come a full circle from the 1970's when the nationalistic fervor dictated a return to indigenous alphabet sounds to the 90's when we have become more cosmopolitan in thinking and in accepting common usage and borrowed sounds. To summarize, when using the English medium it is therefore correct to use Pilipino with a "P" when referring to the Philippine National language, and to use Filipino with an "F" when referring to the people, to the race, and to nationality. When using any of the Philippine languages (Tagalog, Ilokano, Cebuano, Ilongo, Bicol, Pampangan, Pangasinan), then the issue becomes moot since one cannot have any other resort except to use the "p" spelling or sound. One more nagging question comes to my mind. At the Treaty of Versailles when "Las Islas Felipinas" (named after the Spanish monarch Felipe II) was ceded by Spain to the US, the name was Anglicized to "The Philippines" (King Philip II) to reflect the change. Why then did we not change our national nomenclature and called ourselves "Philippinos"? I have a theory. We are as uncomfortable with the phoneme "Ph" as we were originally with "f". Another thing, can you imagine debating which is the correct spelling: one "p" or double "p"? It would be deja vu all over again. I think the Hispanic undercurrent influence still runs deeper than we want to admit."
- Penelope V. Flores
