Basillo, Alliza June A. - Written Work 2

                                             Philippine Literature Critic Analysis 

Frank R. Blake, a professor of language from Johns Hopkins University wrote a thesis  about the Philippine Literature. He pointed out three (3) groups that separate different tribes.  These tribes differ from their appearance, religion, environment and their language. Their  languages were different from each other but is similar to some languages from their  neighboring countries like Malay or the language of Malaysians. The thesis aims to inform  people of how the languages were used in real-life and on different compositions. 

Religion has a big impact on the Philippine literature based on his thesis. Individuals  that has different religions or different origin made the languages of the country. Places from the  northern part of the country or people from Luzon used the language written by Christians and  people from Mindanao used the language written by Islam. The Writings were modified from  Arabic writing and the Roman type. Moro’s writing were similar to the Malays’ and it has four  classifications; must be legendary, follows the Arabic laws, Translated from their Kuran and  must be unique for every chief. However, due to the colonization in the Philippines, other  ancient writings were forgotten but one remained which was the Roman typing. Compositions by Christians in 1903 were mostly written in Tagalog or Bisaya. A poem written by Francisco  Baltazar was known to be the best Tagalog poem which was a story of “Florante and Laura in  the kingdom of Albania”. When a war broke between the Spaniards and Moro’s that left a big  impression to the Filipinos, they wanted avenge their people by the use of words. Filipinos got  fond of proverbs and poems that were derived from Spanish. Tagalog, Bisaya, other native  languages and Spanish were used to publish newspapers, Books were written with the mix of  Bisaya, Tagalog, Spanish and Ilokano grammar, Gospels were written in British, Medical works  used Bisaya and Tagalog and sports used Tagalog. Multiple of languages were born and made  in the country but Tagalog, a beautiful language that the capital uses and the most used  language in the country were named as the country’s national language. 

The article was written by the author accordingly. He presented the ideas well from how  the languages were different to how it was decided to make a language as the country’s  national language. He stated the story of how ancient writings were forgotten and was replaced  by the Roman alphabet that we use up until today. It gives the readers the full and complete  story of the literature of the country. It helps them understand the culture of the place and see 

the beauty of the country. It can also inspire people and encourage people to love their own  language and its message. 

The Philippine literature was written as a memory lane for people who wants to learn  about its origin or history. It states how we are connected with each other. It also shows the  struggles of our people in order to achieve this present. Philippine literatures were also used in  order to achieve peace just like Noli Me Tangere by Doctor Rizal, which he wrote in order to  show the public how people suffered in the arms of the colonizers, and proved how powerful  words could be.