Q: In a recent article, the country of the Philippines is spelled with a “Ph” and the people who live there are called Filipinos (spelled with an “F”). Why is the country spelled one way and the people spelled another way?
—Darryl Weaver, Atlanta
A: The spelling differences are "due to the intertwined history of three languages – Spanish, English and Filipino," an article in the Pilipino Express, a news magazine (pilipino-express.com), states in a 2011 article.
The Philippines were once called the Las Islas Filipinas after being named for the man who would become Spain’s King Felipe II, which is Philip in English.
Las Islas Filipinas became the Philippines, but “English never had a suitable equivalent for Filipino … so English adopted the Spanish word Filipino, retaining the letter ‘F’ and the suffix, ‘ino,’ ” the article states.
Q: Does the United States have an official museum showing the plight of Native Americans, something similar to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum?
—Donald Varn, Conyers
Q: The National Museum of the American Indian, which is a part of the Smithsonian, is located on the National Mall in Washington.
There’s also a location in New York.
The museum includes several collections and exhibits, including one titled, “Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations.”
The exhibit documents “the U.S. government’s use in the 19th century of coercive treaties to dispossess Native Americans of their lands, to the 20th century, when Indian Nations successfully fought court and legislative battles for federal recognition of their treaty rights,” the museum’s website (nmai.si.edu) states.
Andy Johnston with Fast Copy News Service wrote this column. Do you have a question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phone and city).
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