A brief note on correct usage

This may be a naive post for those who - unlike myself - knew how to spell the Philippines before this project began (I thought there were two 'l's and one 'p', rather than the other way around). However, I for one have been unclear on the correct language to use when referring to the Philippines and its people and would like to provide a little clarification. It may seem picky and pedantic, but I always find it prudent to make these clarifications in advance of visiting and working in another land, especially where a colonial legacy exists that may have produced insensitive or derogatory terminology.

the Philippines: The original (if by "original" you mean, "first European") name of the Philippines was the Archipelago de San Lazaro, so named by Magellan in 1521. In 1543, the archipelago was renamed "Felipinas" by Capt. Ruy Lopez de Villalobos after the crown prince of Spain, who later became Phillip II. Because European colonialism is responsible for organizing the peoples of the archipelago under a single flag, there is no pre-existing indigenous name for the country. However, the revolutionary events of 1896 and 1897 produced two alternative names: The Tagalog Republic or the Republic of Biak-na-Bato.

"Ph" or "F"?: The disparity between use of "Ph" and "F" when referring to the country and its people is actually a disparity between English and Spanish. King Felipe II of Spain is King Phillip II in English (also, notice the number of 'l's). After the Treaty of Paris, when the United States bought the country, the name of the republic was anglicized, while the name of its people retained its original Spanish spelling.

Or is it "P"?: Another usage when referring to the people of the Philippines is "Pilipino". The origins of this usage lie in a contested attempt to institutionalize indigenous language, which privileged Tagalog over other native tongues and was rooted in ancient script called Baybayin. The term "Pilipino" is an attempt to appropriate the term "Philippines" into an alphabet that did not contain a letter for the sound of "F". However, a 1987 constitution restored the "F" to the word referring to both the native language and the people, designating a larger alphabet that includes foreign sounds.

Philippine: The term "philippine" is an adjective, and therefore should not be confused with "filipino" (or "filipina", retaining the the gender rules of old espanol). "Philippine" may be used to refer to a person, but only as a modifier of another personal identifier, such as "Philippine congresswoman" or "Philippine boxer". It is more commonly used to refer to objects or concepts, such as "Philippine culture" or "Philippine island".

Philippino: Just wrong.

So all of this is to say that the variant spellings and usages of Philippines, Filipino, Pilipino, et al are more or less safe to use since all usages that refer to the country necessarily invoke its colonial legacy for want of common indigenous terms.

With all that said, then... carry on.