# Manila



## إسكندراني

Greetings all.

Does Manilla mean anything in Filipino? I heard somewhere that it might originally be Arabic - could this be true?

Thanks


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## Pretty_Gaella

Manila began as a Muslim settlement at the mouth of the Pasig River along the shores of Manila Bay. 
The name came from the term *Maynilad,* literally from two Filipino words, "*may*," meaning there is, and " *nilad*," the name of a flowering shrub (a type of mangrove). 
So, It simply means "*there is nilad*"
I've read before that the origin of the word Manila may be associated to Amanillah an Arabic word. It was even discussed to a famous website (which you can check) But it is only a theory and there's no specific evidence about it. 

Ngumiti tayo at maging masaya
Smile and be Happy everyone!


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## rempress

I agree with Pretty_Gaella. In addition, Manila is the English equivalent of Maynila. Therefore it's more logical to believe that it came from the word Maynilad.


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## mataripis

I think the term Maynila/Menila means  "the passage". I based it in Dumaget language which was also the language of ancient Maynila(from  Photo exhibit of 17th century, Dumaget people used to live around Manila). The Dumaget word for "route/passage" is "Sela" or "Selaan" and maybe the term "Menela" came from this ethnic word.


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## rempress

That's new Metaripis. Never heard of that before.


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## Pretty_Gaella

Hi mataripis!
Just like what rempress said, I never heard of it. 
However it was a clever and historical analyzation
I just want to emphasize and in addition to my previous post that:

The city of Manila was established in 1571 when the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived and made it the capitol of the colony Felipinas. When Manila became the seat of the colonial government of Spain, The city became known by the name given, "Manila", by its Tagalog inhabitants, as Maynila, first recorded as Maynilad. 


So I therefore conclude that before Dumaget people used to live around Manila in the 17th century, Manila became MayNilad then Manila before anything else


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## mataripis

rempress said:


> That's new Metaripis. Never heard of that before.


 Most names of places in the Philippine archipelago are in ethnic terms of this Dumaget language.(they were the first inhabitants of this archipelago and the reason behind the development of many languages here) I believe familiarizing in many words of Dumaget, many words unknown/undeciphered might be understood by the historians.



Pretty_Gaella said:


> Hi mataripis!
> Just like what rempress said, I never heard of it.
> However it was a clever and historical analyzation
> I just want to emphasize and in addition to my previous post that:
> 
> The city of Manila was established in 1571 when the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legaspi arrived and made it the capitol of the colony Felipinas. When Manila became the seat of the colonial government of Spain, The city became known by the name given, "Manila", by its Tagalog inhabitants, as Maynila, first recorded as Maynilad.
> 
> 
> So I therefore conclude that before Dumaget people used to live around Manila in the 17th century, Manila became MayNilad then Manila before anything else


 Yes. I mentioned the photo exibit dated 17th century because i cannot believe that the inhabitants of Manila were Tagalog with kinky hair and language not just tagalog but a form of dumaget (ancient tagalog?). I mean before Tagalog become brown skin race, they were already here with multiple languages and that was the basis of giving names to many places in this archipelago.It is more possible that the term Manila(Menehla)(s in Tagalog become h as in nasan= nahan) will give us the meaning " someone is coming/arriving/passing through" because the Look ng Maynila (Manila bay) is one of the busiest route in southeast asia. The port(Daungan) is one station(himpilan) for many boats(daong).


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