Archaic terms used in the Philippines
Ethnic group
SangleyA mestiza de sangley, c. 1875 |
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Philippine Spanish, Tagalog (Filipino), Philippine Hokkien, Cantonese, Taishanese, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon/Ilonggo, Philippine English, Waray-Waray, Bicolano, Kapampangan, Pangasinense, Maranao, Tausug, Maguindanaon, Chavacano, Kinaray-a, Surigaonon and other Chinese and Philippine languages |
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Chinese Filipinos, Filipino mestizos |
Sangley (English plural: Sangleys; Spanish plural: Sangleyes) and Mestizo de Sangley (Sangley mestizo, mestisong Sangley, chino mestizo or Chinese mestizo) are archaic terms used in the Philippines during the Spanish colonial era to describe respectively a person of pure overseas Chinese ancestry and a person of mixed Chinese and native Filipino ancestry.[1] The Sangley Chinese were ancestors to both modern Chinese Filipinos and modern Filipino mestizo descendants of the Mestizos de Sangley, also known as Chinese mestizos, which are mixed descendants of Sangley Chinese and native Filipinos. Chinese mestizos were mestizos (mixed peoples) in the Spanish Empire, classified together with other Filipino mestizos.
The Spanish had such categories as indios (Spanish: indio, lit. 'Indian' for natives of the East Indies), mestizos de Español (descendants of colonial ethnic Spanish and native-born Filipinos), the tornatrás (Spanish-Chinese mestizos, descendants of colonial Spanish Filipinos and Sangley Chinese), the mestizos de Bombay (Indian mestizos, descendants of colonial Indian Filipinos and native Filipinos), mestizos de japoneses (Japanese mestizos, descendants of colonial Japanese Filipinos and native Filipinos), etc.
Overseas Chinese entered the Philippines as traders prior to Spanish colonization. Many emigrated to the Philippines, establishing concentrated communities first in Manila and throughout the island of Luzon, then in other cities and settlements throughout the archipelago, historically going from Luzon to Visayas and Mindanao.
Other Filipino terms that refer to ethnic Chinese or Filipinos with Chinese ancestry:
- Intsik (derived from the Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 引叔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ín-chek; lit. 'uncle')[2] is the native, colloquial informal term in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages used to refer to Chinese people in general, albeit some speakers prefer 'Tsino' (see below) due to some perceived informal vulgar connotations.
- Chinoy or Tsinoy (a blend of Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' or Tagalog: Tsino, lit. 'Chinese' with Tagalog: Pinoy, lit. 'Filipino' or the Tagalog: -oy, lit. 'diminutive suffix') is a modern term currently used in Philippine English and Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages to refer to a Filipino citizen or permanent resident of either mixed (whether partial or half or majority descent) or pure Chinese descent born and/or raised in the Philippines, also known as ''Chinese Filipinos'' or ''Fil-Chi''.
- Chino or Tsino is derived from Spanish and literally means “Chinese”. "Tsino" is the formal and literary spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
- Chinito or Tsinito is a term derived from Spanish and means “a young Chinese man”, from Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' with the diminutive suffix -ito. "Tsinito" is the spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
- Chinita or Tsinita is the feminine form of the above, meaning “a young Chinese woman”, also from Spanish: Chino, lit. 'Chinese' with -ita. "Tsinita" is the spelling in Tagalog/Filipino and other Philippine languages.
- Chekwa or Tsekwa is an offensive derogatory slang or slur referring to both Filipinos with Chinese ancestry, and Chinese people in general. It is derived from Cebuano Bisaya as an elided compound of Insik + wákang, from “Insik wákang, káun, kalibang!",[3] a derogatory Visayan children's limerick from the late Spanish colonial era, where "Insik"/"Intsik" was originally the Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 引叔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: ín-chek; lit. 'uncle', and "wákang" from 我工; guá kang; 'I work'. The last two words come from Cebuano: kaon, lit. 'to eat' and Cebuano: kalibang, lit. 'to defecate'; The full phrase was thus "Chinese (labourer), I work, eat, and shit!" and was when opium dens were rampant, with many Chinese migrants working as low-wage labourers.
- Langlang (derived from Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 咱人; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lán-lâng; lit. 'our people') is a very obsolete term in Tagalog referring to ethnic Chinese persons. It is recorded in the 1613 Vocabulario de la lengua tagala,[4] where its entry reads in Early Modern Spanish: Sangley) Langlang (pc) anſi llamauan los viejos deſtos [a los] ſangleyes cuando venian [a tratar] con ellos, lit. 'Sangley) Langlang (pc) this is what the elderlies called [the] Sangleys when they came [to deal] with them'. This has long fallen out of use except in food such as Pancit Langlang from Cavite. The etymon, Philippine Hokkien Chinese: 咱人; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: lán-lâng; lit. 'our people', retains its meaning and is still used primarily in Philippine Hokkien by Chinese Filipinos as an endonym.