The Philippines

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THE PHILIPPINES

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The PhilippinesIt is situated in the western Pacific Ocean and consists of around
seven thousand, six hundred and fourty-one islands that are broadly categorized
|ˈkætɪɡəræɪzd| under three main geographical divisions from north to
south: Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. The Philippines is bounded by the South
China Sea to the west, the Philippine Sea to the east, and the Celebes Sea to the
southwest. It shares maritime borders with Taiwan to the north, Japan to the
northeast |ˌnɔːθˈiːst|, Palau to the east and southeast, Indonesia to the
south, Malaysia to the southwest, Vietnam to the west, and China to the
northwest. The Philippines is the world's thirteenth-most-populous country and has
diverse ethnicities and cultures throughout its islands. Manila is the country's
capital, while the largest city is Quezon City; both lie within the urban area
of Metro Manila.

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The Philippines is an emerging market and a newly industrialized
|ɪnˈdʌstrɪəlaɪzd| country, whose economy is transitioning
|trænˈzɪʃənɪŋ from being agriculture-centered to services and
manufacturing-centered. It is a founding member of the United
Nations, World Trade Organization, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation forum, and the East Asia Summit; it is also
a major non-NATO ally. Its location as an island country both on
the Pacific Ring of Fire and close to the equator makes it prone
to earthquakes and typhoons. The country has a variety of
natural resources and is home to a globally significant level of
biodiversity.

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The ethnically diverse people of the Philippines collectively are
called Filipinos. The ancestors of the vast majority of the population were
of Malay descent and came from the Southeast Asian mainland as well as
from what is now Indonesia. Contemporary |kənˈtemp(ə)r(ər)ɪ| Filipino
society consists of nearly 100 culturally and linguistically distinct ethnic
groups. Of these, the largest are the Tagalog of Luzon and the Cebuano of
the Visayan Islands, each of which constitutes about one-fifth of the
country’s total population. Other prominent groups include the Ilocano of
northern Luzon and the Hiligaynon (Ilongo) of the Visayan islands
of Panay and Negros, comprising roughly one-tenth of the population
each. The Waray-Waray of the islands of Samar and Leyte in the Visayas and
the Bicol (Bikol) of the Bicol Peninsula together account for another onetenth. Filipino mestizos and the Kapampangans (Pampango) of south-central
Luzon each make up small proportions of the population.

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In addition to the main languages, there are more than dialects
in the country.The official language of the Philippines is Tagalog.
It came from the inhabitants of the Mindanao Islands. It contains
a large number of dialects and borrowed words from other
languages.By the way, such borrowed words get very interesting
names (for example, words that were borrowed from English,
mixed with Tagalog, became called Taglish).At the beginning of
the 20th century, the Philippines was occupied |ˈɒkjʊpaɪd| by
the United States Army, so English was taught here in cities and
even small towns.According to the Constitution of 1935, English
began to act as the second official language of the Philippines.
Most of the printed products are produced here in English.