One of the two official languages of the Philippines is English. The Philippines was never really part of the British Empire (except for two years, 1762 - 1764), but it was an American colony for half a century. Consequently, unlike most other countries that have adopted English as a common language (such as India, Nigeria, or South Africa), Philippine English is based on American English. But like other countries that have adopted English as a common language, Filipino English does have some terms that are not used in the original language (in this case, standard American English). One of these terms is "Pinoy."
Pinoy means "Filipino," i.e. a person from the Philippines (if used as a noun), or pertaining to the Philippines or Filipinos (if used as an adjective). As such the word Pinoy should be capitalized.
The difference between the terms "Pinoy" and "Filipino" is that the former is a colloquial expression and is never used in formal documents. However, being shorter and handier than "Filipino," it is commonly used in everyday speech and, for example, the sports pages of the newspapers: "The Pinoy cagers once again managed to disappoint despite being favorites."
Perhaps the term can be thought of as the equivalent of "Ozzie" (for Australians) or "Kiwi" (for New Zealanders).
Just as the female counterpart to the word Filipino is the term Filipina, Pinoy's feminine counterpart is "Pinay" and refers to a female person from the Philippines. A Filipina might say something like: "I grew up in Chattanooga, but I'm a Pinay. I was born in Manila."
While "Pinoy" is pronounced exactly as it is spelled ("pin" + "oy"), the word "Pinay" is pronounced as follows: "pin" + "eye".
The plural forms are "Pinoys" and "Pinays," respectively. Example: "In regional sports news, the top-seeded Pinoys were eliminated by the Thais in basketball, but the Pinays triumphed over the Malaysians in beach volleyball."
The word Pinoy has spawned some derivative neologisms. "Chinoy" (sometimes spelled "Tsinoy") refers to a Filipino-Chinese person, and "Chinay" (or "Tsinay") refers to (you guessed it) a female Filipino-Chinese person.
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Contributor's Note
No comments about the Pinoy basketball team, please!
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