Editing Commonwealth of the Philippines (section)

== Demographics ==
In 1939, a census of the Philippines was taken and determined that it had a population of 16,000,303; of these 15.7 million were counted as "[[Brown (racial classification)|Brown]]", 141.8 thousand as "[[Yellow race|Yellow]]",  50.5 thousand as "[[Multiracial people|Mixed]]", 29.1 thousand as "[[Black people|Negro]]", 19.3 thousand as "[[White people|White]]", and under 1 thousand "Other".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1941-02.pdf |title=Statistical Abstract of the United States |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1941 |website=census.gov |publisher=United States Department of Commerce |access-date=September 8, 2014 |archive-date=February 1, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160201190643/http://www2.census.gov/prod2/statcomp/documents/1941-02.pdf |url-status=live}}</ref> In 1941, the estimated population of the Philippines reached 17,000,000; there were 117,000 [[Filipino Chinese|Chinese]], 30,000 [[Filipinos of Japanese descent|Japanese]], and 9,000 [[Filipinos of American descent|Americans]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bailey |first=Rayne |date=2009 |title=Immigration and Migration |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pVcDEfNxEvAC&q=1941+Philippines+17+million+population&pg=PA107 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |page=107 |isbn=978-1-4381-0901-5 |access-date=September 8, 2014}}</ref> [[English language|English]] was spoken by 26.3% of the population, according to the 1939 Census.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Roger M. |date=2003 |title=Filipino English and Taglish: Language Switching from Multiple Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1h9oF9rj-MC&q=spanish+language+Philippine+commonwealth&pg=PA27 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |page=27 |isbn=9789027248916 |access-date=September 7, 2014}}</ref> [[Spanish language|Spanish]], after English overtook it beginning in the 1920s, became a language for the elite and in government; it was later banned during the Japanese occupation.<ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Roger M. |date=2003 |title=Filipino English and Taglish: Language Switching from Multiple Perspectives |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W1h9oF9rj-MC&q=spanish+language+Philippine+commonwealth&pg=PA61 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing |page=61 |isbn=9789027248916 |access-date=September 7, 2014}}</ref>

Estimated numbers of speakers of the dominant languages:{{sfn|Roces | Luna | Arcilla|1986 |p=338}}
*[[Cebuano language|Cebuano]]: 4,620,685
*[[Tagalog language|Tagalog]]: 3,068,565
*[[Ilocano language|Ilocano]]: 2,353,518
*[[Hiligaynon language|Hiligaynon]]: 1,951,005
*[[Waray-Waray language|Waray]]: 920,009
*[[Kapampangan language|Kapampangan]]: 621,455
*[[Pangasinan language|Pangasinan]]: 573,752