World March in Tagalog serves 90 million people worldwide

Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 22 million people. Around the world it is estimated that there are 90 million speakers.

In 1937, Tagalog was selected as the basis of the national language of the Philippines by the National Language Institute. Twenty years later, in 1959, it was renamed to Pilipino to give it a national rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing of the name did not, however, result in acceptance among non-Tagalogs, especially Cebuanos who had not accepted the selection. In 1971, the language issue was revived once more, and a compromise solution was worked out-a "universalist" approach to the national language, to be called Filipino rather than Pilipino. However in the Philippines itself over 180 native languages, and dialects are spoken.

The World March is due to pass through Manila from Sydney on its way to many parts of Asia between the 5th and 7th of October 2009.

Go to the top menu and select tagalog, from the "available languages" list.