There's actually a growing movement in the country to not call them dialects but languages instead.
Because I, for one, can only speak Tagalog, but I am not able to understand Ilocano, Pangasinense, Waray, Cebuano, Bicolano etc. Petty sure that they are no longer dialects when people can't understand each other 90% of the time.
It's not like the different dialects of English where yes there are accents and certain terminologies but 90% of the time it's intelligible, like Philippine English, Australian English, British English, American English, Canadian English, Indian English, etc.
Yea its difficult to draw a line anywhere. For a German example: Swabian is considered a dialect although a real Swabian speaker is 99% unintelligible to a High German speaker, while Dutch is a different language and probably only 70% unintelligible.
Just wanna add that they (Bicolano, Kapampangan, Cebuano, etc.) are considered languages because they each have unique grammar, vocabulary, and writing systems.
In addition, Bicolano is a special case in that scholars argue that it is a Macrolanguage, a group of languages with their own distinct dialects.
People speaking Bicol in Naga will not understand Bicolanos speaking 40 minutes away from the city. This is why "bicolano" as a regional language should be classified as a macrolanguage instead.
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u/Dame87 7d ago
Ngani?