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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2008
The major local (Austronesian) languages of the Philippines are Cebuano, Tagalog (the basis of pilipino), Ilocano, Hiligaynon, Bicol, Waray (Samber-Leyte), Kapampangan, and Pangasinan (rank ordered according to the number of first-language speakers). Earlier, any language which had at least 500,000 first-language speakers was considered a major language; with the growth in population, this number has been pushed to 1,000,000. All but Pangasinan, which has about 950,000 first-language speakers, have over a million first-language speakers based on the 1975 census. (A census was taken in 1980 and preliminary reports have been released; however, a breakdown according to language speakers is not yet available.)