Despite the wide array of languages native to the Philippines, their vitality is threatened, as demonstrated in this interactive StoryMap.

https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/44ef21a201d04242942a9573d5d62919

According to Ethnologue, there are 175 living languages indigenous the Philippines. However, this diversity can obscure a tragic reality. The reality is that, due to a legacy of centuries of colonialism (from Spain, the United States, and to a much lesser extent, Japan), the vitality of the vast majority of languages in the Philippines are threatened.

The interactive map shows the geospatial locations of languages indigenous to the Philippines. The digitized points on the map will serve as language markers that will pinpoint the locations where either most of the language speakers are concentrated (such will be the case for most languages that only have a few hundred or a few thousand speakers) or the administrative centres of regions where those languages dominate. For example, while Ilocano is a wide-ranging language, the digitized point associated with it will be located in San Fernando, La Union province, as it is the administrative centre of the Ilocos Region. It will also give information on whether it’s an institutional (green), stable (yellow), endangered (orange), or extinct (red) language. All information has been sourced from Ethnologue.

By mapping and identifying geographic areas in the Philippines that showcase the geographic distribution of language use in the Philippines, this map aimed to not only show which languages need the most attention, but also identify which provincial governments should take the initiative of preserving their local languages.