'Minions can speak Filipino!'

MANILA, Philippines - A video of Minions, short, begoggled yellow henchmen from  the animated blockbuster Despicable Me franchise, has gone viral in the country as social media users say they speak Filipino.

"Minions can speak Filipino!" a Facebook page Trivia Mania posted on its Facebook page last June 29, endorsing a video of Minions changing a busted light bulb.

By Monday, the post has been shared over 11,000 times on the social network, with users trying to transcribe and make sense out of the characters' garbled words.

One said that one of the Minions transcribed the bulb as "Naluto na," and another said she heard them say "Ikot!" before they swung roundabout hanging from the bulb.

"That moment when you realize the Minions speak in Filipino. HAHA. Pinoys in the graphic industry," Twitter user Macky Camagay said.

Related story: Minions, everywhere! Philippines goes crazy for the yellow toys

User Rachel Torres also posted: "The first few lines of the Despicable Me 2 trailer of the Minions are in Filipino. It's translated as "Going down? Going down? Na na na."

Since the first Despicable Me film, fans have already speculated on the Minions' language, which many observed to contain English and French words.

Despicable Me 2 producer Chris Meledandri said, however, that the characters' language is "complex" as a result of a process that its creators developed to tweak the sound of their voices.

"The language is much more about sound than it is about any kind of meaning," Meledandri said.

A few English words, however, are sneaked into the Minions' dialogue to help viewers understand them. - Camille Diola