Filipino (Tagalog in Filipino) is mainly used in the Philippines and is also widely used in Sabah of Malaysia, the Northern region of Indonesia and Singapore. Filipino was made to be the official language of the Philippines by the Filipino constitution in 1987. Among the about 170 local languages in the Philippines, Filipino is the only one having the status as the official language.
In Filipino, the original meaning of “Tagalog” is “residents living on riverside”.
During the development of Filipino, plenty of vocabularies from other languages were absorbed due to its interaction with many different languages. For instance, Spanish, Chinese Hokkien, English, Malay (Bahasa Melayu), Sanskrit, Arab and Kapampangan used in Luzon of the Philippines all have certain degree of influence on Filipino vocabularies.
