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[–] 83 points 3 months ago

The Philippines were named after a Spanish king, King Phillip, or Felippe in Spanish. Given that the country was first controlled by the Spanish for ages, then the Americans, I'm guessing that at first the Spanish name for both the people and the territory was used, but when the Americans took over, the English-ified name of the territory was used, while the Spanish name for the people stuck as colonial powers use the name for the territory more often? Perhaps the Filipino diaspora also plays a role in this. I don't know, just my guess.

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  • [–] 60 points 3 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 49 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    And is pronounced "Pilipino" by most Filipinos. But my Filipino wife, who grew up in South Carolina, had a friend who said "Flippin-o". So that's what we say now, lol.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago

    That's not because of the spelling but because of the language. Just like Indonesian, the language doesn't distinguish between f and p, because they're basically the same letter (one is a plosive and one is a fricative but that's it). In Indonesian you'll hear fancake and coppee, for example.

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago

    I knew a Pilipino family that seemed to pronounce it both ways.

    I tend to think it’s due to those around them. Like this kid I knew from school who came from the UK; with us as his friends, he had an American accent like the rest of us. But as soon as he talked to his parents or his sister, he had this heavy English accent. He seemed to be aware of it but had no control over it.

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  • [–] 44 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    English, misspelling and never admitting mistakes go hand in hand.

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  • [–] 30 points 3 months ago (5 children)
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (3 children)

    You could easily replace 'googling' to 'Interneting'.

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    [–] 26 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Hey Filipino here - i honestly don't know the answer (or maybe I'm too old to remember my history class) but as per Wikipedia

    The name Filipino, as a demonym, was derived from the term las Islas Filipinas 'the Philippine Islands', the name given to the archipelago in 1543 by the Spanish explorer and Dominican priest Ruy López de Villalobos, in honor of Philip II of Spain.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filipinos

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  • [–] 26 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Because the English language is rife with tradition that makes the language intentionally more complicated.

    I have postulated for years that you can just get rid of ph from the language entirely and it will make absolutely no difference in how we say the words.

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  • [–] 23 points 3 months ago

    How did this question never occur to me before? Now i need to know the answer too

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  • [–] 23 points 3 months ago* (1 child)

    it was an Spanish colony for 300 years, Filipino is the Spanish spelling, and probably stuck, in English would have been "Philippine"

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  • [–] 21 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    Why is Kansas, "cansus", while Arkansas is "R-cansaw"?

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  • [–] 21 points 3 months ago (1 child)

    Lol

    Guangzhou is spelled with the Pinyin

    But the local language is not called "Guangzhouese", its Cantonese, but the city is not called "Canton"

    lmao

    Also: Petition to rename my city to "Filadelfia" 🤭

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  • [–] 7 points 3 months ago

    Canton was originally the transliterated name for the province of Guangdong, which is why the language is called Cantonese in English, from guǎngdōnghuà.

    The name Canton being applied to Guangzhou came later.

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

    Two things: Competing colonial interests and the orthographic differences between Spanish and English

    The Spanish Empire took control of the Philippines and named the named the islands Las Islas Filipinas or just Las Filipinas which is still today used in Spanish to this day. It was named for the Spanish king at the time of the conquest: Rey Felipe II. Why the change from FE-lipe to FI-lipinas? I don't know.

    Towards the end of the 1800s, The Spanish Empire is crumbling and their last remaining territories (Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and Las Filipinas) is taken by the USA. The US changes the name to the English-inflected The Philippines because English for, some reason, uses to two "F" sounds: "F" and "PH." Spanish only has one: "F."

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (4 children)

    My issue with gif and graphical

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  • [–] 12 points 3 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

    Gotta buy a new JPU for better Jrafix

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  • [–] 2 points 3 months ago*

    Actually, the G in GPU stands for Giraffe. Hardware has gotten quite sophisticated over the years, and are no longer optimized for rendering triangles. If you can render a giraffe you can render anything.

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  • [–] 4 points 3 months ago

    Gotta say, pronouncing it as /dʒɪf/ is just top tier trolling. Everyone knows that /ɡɪf/ is the only one that actually makes sense, but some people intentionally choose to pronouns it wrong anyway. Steve Wilhite saw an opportunity to leave his mark on the world by trolling the hell out of everything, so he took it. Who could resist an opportunity like that.

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