Why the term "Filipinx" might problematic as a linguistics major from a sociolinguistic perspective; a thread https://twitter.com/PhilippineStar/status/1301731713979047936

The issue comes here: @Dictionarycom now thinks that Filipinx both as an adjective and a noun refer to natives or inhabitants here in the Philippines.

Imagine you, a native Filipino / Tagalog speaker who goes abroad and a foreigner asks you: "Where are you from?" and you answer "I'm from the Philippines"

Then the foreigner replies "Oh, so you're a Filipinx"

Imagine being labeled using a term that looks and sound so foreign to your native language. And you correct them saying "Oh I'm Filipino". But then the foreigner says "But that's offensive as it is non-inclusive"

This is why there is a backlash from the "mainlanders" as the fil-ams would call Filipinos here sa Pinas.

"Filipinx" sound so alien to us, native Filipino / Tagalog speakers because afaik, the -inx suffix sounds SO phonologically weird to us.

And as a lot of people already pointed out, the term Filipino is a gender neutral already, just like our language.

So why the need to copy the Latinx movement when our language is already "progressive" based on the standars of the "progressive movement"

How does sociolinguistics play into this? There is a concept wherein the "language elite" attempts to standardize the language based on their beliefs and ideology.

Want to unify the country? Force a single language even in a linguistically diverse country as the lingua franca

The language elites usually refer to the language policy bodies of the government (like the KWF), the academe, the intellectuals, or the writers of literature.

The diaspora, particularly the Fil-ams, might be our new language elites in the west.

With their campaign to use "Filipinx" in the West for their "progressive" belief, they think that they are making Filipino / Tagalog more progressive and they can influence other intellectuals in the west to adopt such thinking.

This can potentially marginalize voices here in the Philippines, where a lot of Filipino / Tagalog native speakers live, by imposing their own standards on how our language should be, ironically ignoring the evidence that our language is already is what they want.

I have no issue with them using "Filipinx" to label themselves, as it is their right to do so. Their sociolinguistical situation is very different from ours.

However, there is a need for "nuance" in their campaign for the usage of "Filipinx" as what applies in their socialinguistical situation does not apply to us, and vice versa.

And lastly, they should not dismiss our backlash to the term as mere "mainlander tantrums" against their progressiveness, but understand our position against the imposition of western standards to our language.

PS: I hope some lingg major taking sociolingg right now makes this a topic for their term paper for a deep dive into this issue

so this semi-blew up so i want to open another can of worms regarding more linguistic issues here sa pinas

> the debate whether Filipino and Tagalog is the same language

> why some languages of small ethnic communities are facing extinction due to the imposition of a lingua franca threatening the linguistic diversity of the philippines

> the poor state of language education here in the Philippines that leads to poor appreciation of our native languages leading to issues like this

and finally "no, bisaya, tagalog, ilokano, etc. aren't dialects, they are languages"