tagalog language

Taglog is one of the major languages of the Republic of the Philippines. Being part of the Austronesian languages, it is related to Indonesian, Malay, Fijian, Maori, Hawaiian, Malagasy, Samoan, Tahitian, Chamorro, Tetum, and the Austronesian languages of Taiwan.

History

The word Tagalog was derived from tag-log, from tag- meaning "native" and log meaning "river", thus, it means "resident beside the river." Since there are no written samples of Tagalog before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, very little is known about history of the language. However there is speculation among linguists that the ancestors of the Tagalogs originated, along with their Central Philippine cousins, from northeastern Mindanao or eastern Visayas. The first known book to be written in Tagalog is the Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine) of 1593. It was written in Spanish and two versions of Tagalog; one written in Baybayin and the other in the Latin alphabet. Throughout the 300 years of Spanish occupation, there have been grammars and dictionaries written by Spanish clergymen such as Vocabulario de la lengua tagala (1835) and Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la adminstracin de los Santos Sacramentos (1850). Poet Francisco "Balagtas" Baltazar (1788-1862) is often regarded as the Tagalog equivalent of William Shakespeare. His most famous work is the early 19th-century Florante at Laura.

Classification

Tagalog is a Central Philippine language within the Austronesian language family. It is closely related to the languages spoken in the Bicol and Visayas regions such as Bikol, Hiligaynon, Waray-Waray, and Cebuano. Languages that have made significant contributions to Tagalog are Spanish, Fukien Chinese, English, Malay, Sanskrit (via Malay), Arabic (via Malay/Spanish), and Northern Philippine languages such as Kapampangan spoken on the island of Luzon.

Geographic Distribution

The Tagalog homeland, or Katagalugan, covers roughly much of the central to southern parts of the island of Luzon - particularly in Aurora, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, and Rizal. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands of Lubang, Marinduque, and the northern and eastern parts of Mindoro. According to the Philippine Census of 2000, 21,485,927 out of 76,332,470 Filipinos claimed Tagalog as their first language. An estimated 50 million Filipinos speak it in varying degrees in proficiency. Tagalog speakers are to be found in other parts of the Philippines as well as throughout the world; it is the sixth most-spoken language in the United States.

Official Status

After weeks of study and deliberation, Tagalog was chosen by the National Language Institute, a committee composed of seven members who represented various regions in the Philippines. President Manuel L. Quezon then proclaimed Tagalog the national language or wikang pambans of the Philippines on December 31, 1937. This was made official upon the Philippines' restoration of independence from the United States on July 4, 1946. From 1961 to 1987, Tagalog was also known as Pilipino. In 1987, the name changed to Filipino. Since 1940, Tagalog has been taught in schools throughout the Philippines. It is the only one out of over 160 Philippine languages that is officially taught in schools.

Dialects

Ethnologue lists Lubang, Manila, Marinduque, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Tanay-Paete, and Tayabas as dialects of Tagalog. However, there appears to be four main dialects of which the aforementioned are a part; Northern, Central (including Manila), Southern, and Marinduque. While the dialects have their own peculiarities, they are generally mutually intelligible with each other. Perhaps the most divergent Tagalog dialect is the one spoken on Marinduque; it has many features found in Visayan languages such as different verbal affixes. Rural areas in the Tagalog-speaking areas tend to use conservative Tagalog, avoiding Spanish and English words in favor of native Tagalog ones. For example a rural Tagalog speaker might say maaari mo bang ipaunawa sa akin? (Could you explain it to me?) which sounds very dramatic to urban dwellers who would probably express the same phrase as pwede mo bang i-explain sa akin? or pwede mo bang ipaliwanag sa akin?

Code Switching

When talking about something modern or technical, educated speakers may suddenly switch to English. This is because many Filipinos are bilingual and Tagalog can be awkward in such situations. For example, while in the middle of speaking Tagalog, a person might say, "My computer is running windows at 2GHz and has 256 MB of RAM." Of course, such a sentence in and of itself is not Tagalog. The point is that Tagalog and Filipino culture allows code switching, while it would be totally inappropriate to do so in many other languages. Even in non-technical situations, Filipinos may speak English in conjunction with Tagalog for brevity, emphasis, or for phrases that lack a convenient analogue. This rapid, natural, and somewhat expected switch between languages can also be referred to as Taglish.

Derived Languages

Frequent contact between Tagalog speakers and Spanish speakers have given way to Philippine Creole Spanish or Chabacano. There are three known varieties of Chabacano which have Tagalog as their base: Caviteo, Ternateo, and Ermitao. Ermitao is said to be extinct, however a total of 210,000 speak Caviteo & Ternateo, according to the 2000 Census.

Binaliktad

In urban areas, the phenomena of binaliktad (reversed) is also common. Equivalents in other languages are vesre and verlan. The following are some examples:

Erpat from pater (father)
Ermat from mater (mother)
Sanpits from pinsan (cousin)
Yosi from sigarilyo (cigarettes)
Todits from dito (here)
Wetpu from pwet (buttocks)
Dehins from hindi/hinde (No, not) (Hind is commonly, though by no means always, pronounced /hind/.)
Jeproks (well-dressed casually) from the Projects (The name of a middle class residential area in Quezon City)
Japorms from porma (well-dressed)

Sounds

Tagalog has 21 phonemes; 16 consonants and five vowels. Syllable structure is relatively simple. Each syllable contains at least a consonant and a vowel.

Vowels

Before the arrival of the Spanish, Tagalog had three vowel phonemes: , , and . This was later expanded to five vowels with the introduction of Spanish words. They are:

an open front unrounded vowel similar to English "father"
an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to English "bed"
a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "machine"
a close-mid back rounded vowel similar to English "forty"
a close back unrounded vowel similar to English "flute"

There are four main diphthongs; , , , and .

Consonants

Below is a chart of Tagalog consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

olspan=2\|	Bilabial	Dental / Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
owspan=2 \| Stops	Voiceless	p	t	\|k \| -
oiced	b	d	\|g \|
rowspan=2 \| Affricates	Voiceless	\| \|(ts, tiy) \| \|
oiced	\| \|(diy) \| \|
colspan=2 \| Fricatives	\|s \|(siy) \| \|h
colspan=2 \| Nasals	m	n	\|ng \|
colspan=2 \| Laterals	\|l \| \| \|
colspan=2 \| Flaps	\|r \| \| \|
colspan=2 \| Semivowels	w	\|y \| \|

Stress

Stress is phonemic in Tagalog. Primary stress occurs on either the last or the next-to-the syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress except when stress occurs at the end of a word.

Phonology

is raised slightly in unstressed positions
Unstressed is usually pronounced as in English "bit"
At the end of a word, can be pronounced as or .
and can sometimes be pronounced as and
Unstressed is usually pronounced as in English "book"
The diphthong at the beginning or middle of the word can also be pronounced
The diphthong at the beginning or middle of the word can also be pronounced
has a tendency to become between vowels as in German "bach"
and are sometimes interchangeable as and are allophones in Tagalog.
A glottal stop that occurs at the end of a word is often omitted when it's in the middle of a sentence.

Historical Sound Changes

Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto-Philippine schwa vowel . In Bikol & Visayan, this sound merged with and . In Tagalog, it has merged with . For example, Proto-Philippine (dark) is Tagalog dilm and Visayan & Bikol dulom. Proto-Philippine , , and merged with but is between vowels. Proto-Philippine (name) and (kiss) became Tagalog ngalan and halk. Proto-Philippine merged with . (water) and (blood) became Tagalog tubig and dug.

Grammar

Main article: Tagalog grammar

Writing System

Baybayin

Main article: Baybayin

Tagalog was written in an abugida called Baybayin prior to the arrival of the Spaniards in the 16th century. This particular writing system was composed of symbols representing three vowels and 14 consonants. Belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts, it shares similarities with the old Kavi script of Java and is believed to be descended from the script used by the Bugis in Sulawesi. Although it enjoyed a relatively high level of literacy, the script gradually fell into disuse in favor of the Latin alphabet during Spanish colonial rule.

Latin Alphabet

Until the first half of the 20th century, Tagalog was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography. When Tagalog became the national language, grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced a new alphabet consisting of 20 letters called ABAKADA in school grammar books called balaril; A B K D E G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y. The alphabet was again expanded in 1976 to include the letters C, CH, F, J, Q, RR, V, X, and Z in order to accommodate words of Spanish and English origin. The most recent reform of the alphabet occurred in 1987. The number of letters was reduced from 33 to 28; A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ng O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z.

Diacritics

Diacritics are normally not written in practice. However, they are usually used in dictionaries or in textbooks suited to those learning the language. There are three kinds of diacitics used in Tagalog:

Acute accent or pahils: Used to indicate primary or secondary stress on a particular syllable. It is usually omitted on words that are stressed on the penultimate syllable; talag.

Grave accent or paiw: Placed only on the last syllable. It indicates that there is a glottal stop at the end of the word and that penultimate syllable receives stress; mabut.

Circumflex accent or pakupy: Placed only on the last syllable. It indicates that the final syllable of a word receives stress while there is a glottal stop that follows; samp.

Ng and Mga

The genitive marker ng and the plural marker mga are abbreviations that are pronounced nang /naN/ and mang /ma"Na/.

Vocabulary

Tagalog vocabulary is composed mostly of words of Austronesian origin with borrowings from Spanish, Min Nan Chinese (also known as Hokkien or Fujianese), English, Malay, Sanskrit, Arabic, Tamil, Persian, Kapampangan, languages spoken on Luzon, and others, especially other Austronesian languages.

Tagalog Words of Foreign Origin Chart

  Tagalog words of foreign origin

For the Min Nan Chinese borrowings, the parentheses indicate the equivalent in standard Chinese.

eaning	language of origin	original spelling
asl	pray	Spanish	rezar
abayo	horse	Spanish	caballo
ilya	chair	Spanish	silla
otse	car	Spanish	coche
abn	soap	Spanish	jabn
els	watch	Spanish	reloj
sismis	gossip	Spanish	chismes
yera, gera	war	Spanish	guerra
sinelas	slippers	Spanish	chinelas
apatos	shoes	Spanish	zapatos
arina	flour	Spanish	harina
ugl	gambling	Spanish	jugar
aryo	village	Spanish	barrio
enyor	Mr., Sir	Spanish	Seor
enyora	Mrs., Madame	Spanish	Seora
werte	luck	Spanish	suerte
ars	nurse	English
olpen	ballpoint pen	English
rayber	driver	English
raysikel	tricycle	English
umpia	spring roll	Min Nan Chinese	潤餅 (春捲)
iopao	steamed buns	Min Nan Chinese	燒包 (肉包)
anst	noodles	Min Nan Chinese	便食 (麵)
us	key	Min Nan Chinese	鎖匙
uya	older brother	Min Nan Chinese	哥亜 (哥仔)
te	older sister	Min Nan Chinese	亜姐 (阿姐)
wisit	annoyance	Min Nan Chinese	無衣食
aky	wooden shoes	Min Nan Chinese	木履
ikaw	earrings	Min Nan Chinese	耳鈎 (耳環)
anan	right	Malay	kanan
ulong	help	Malay	tolong
anghali	afternoon	Malay	tengah hari
alamhat	grief	Malay	dalam + hati
uwalhat	glory	Malay	luwar + hati
uryn	durian	Malay	durian
ambutan	rambutan	Malay	rambutan
atik	spot	Malay	batik
arp	delicious	Malay	sedap
sa	hope	Sanskrit	आशा
alit	speak	Sanskrit	चरितँ
alit	news	Sanskrit	वार्ता
arma	karma	Sanskrit
lak	liquor	Persian	الكل
angga	mango	Tamil	mankay
agay	thing	Tamil	/vakai/
ukom	judge	Arabic	حكم
alamat	thanks	Arabic	سلامة
akit	why	Kapampangan	obakit
kyt	climb	Kapampangan	akyt
t	and	Kapampangan	at
undk	mountain	Kapampangan	bunduk
uwag	don't	Pangasinan	ag
so	dog	Luzon languages	aso
ayo	we (inc.)	Luzon languages

Austronesian Comparison Chart

Below is a chart of Tagalog and thirteen other Austronesian languages comparing twelve words; the first twelve languages are spoken in the Philippines and the other two are spoken in Indonesia and in Hawai'i.

ne	two	three	four	person	house	dog	coconut	day	new	we (inc.)	what
b>Tagalog	isa	dalawa	tatlo	apat	tao	bahay	aso	niyog	araw	bago	tayo	ano
b> Bikol	saro	duwa	tulo	apat	tawo	harong	ayam	niyog	aldaw	ba-go	kita	ano
b> Cebuano	usa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	iro	lubi	adlaw	bag-o	kita	unsa
b> Tausug	hambuuk	duwa	tu	upat	tau	bay	iru'	niyug	adlaw	ba-gu	kitaniyu	unu
b> Kinaray-a	sara	darwa	tatlo	apat	taho	balay	ayam	niyog	adlaw	bag-o	kita, taten	ano
b> Kapampangan	metung	adwa	atlu	apat	tau	bale	asu	ngungut	aldo	bayu	ikatamu	nanu
b> Pangasinan	sakey	duara	talora	apatira	too	abong	aso	niyog	agew	balo	sikatayo	anto
b> Ilokano	maysa	dua	tallo	uppat	tao	balay	aso	niog	aldaw	baro	datayo	ania
b> Ivatan	asa	dadowa	tatdo	apat	tao	vahay	chito	niyoy	araw	va-yo	yaten	ango
b> Ibanag	tadday	dua	tallu	appa'	tolay	balay	kitu	niuk	aggaw	bagu	sittam	anni
b> Gaddang	antet	addwa	tallo	appat	tolay	balay	atu	ayog	aw	bawu	ikkanetem	sanenay
b> Tboli	sotu	lewu	tlu	fat	tau	gunu	ohu	lefo	kdaw	lomi	tekuy	tedu
b> Indonesian	satu	dua	tiga	empat	orang	rumah	anjing	kelapa	hari	baru	kita	apa
b> Hawaiian	'ekahi	'elua	'ekolu	'ehā	kanaka	hale	'īlio	niu	ao	hou	kākou	aha

Contribution to other languages

Tagalog itself has contributed a few words into English. The word boondocks which means 'rural' or 'back country', was imported by American soldiers stationed in the Philippines from the Tagalog bundok, which means "'mountain." Another word is cogon, which is a type of grass, used for thatching. This word came from the Tagalog word kugon. There is also ylang-ylang, which is a type of flower known for its fragrance. Abaca is a type of fiber made from a banana plant, from abak. Manila is a light brown cardboard material used for folders and paper usually made from abaca. Capiz, also known as window oyster, is used to make windows. A yo-yo is a toy. Tagalog has contributed several words to the Spanish, like barangay (from balagay meaning barrio), the abaca, cogon, yoyo, etc.

Examples

Common Phrases

English: Inggls (ing-GLES)
Filipino: Pilipino (pih-lih-PIH-noh)
Tagalog: Tagalog (tah-GAH-log)
Hello: kumust (koo-mus-TAH)
Good-bye: paalam (pa-AH-lam)
Please: Depending on the nature of the verb, either pak- (pah-KEE) or mak- (mah-KEE) is attached as a prefix to a verb. ng (ngah) is optionally added after verb to increase politeness.
Thank you: salamat (sah-LAH-mat)
That one: iyan (ee-YAN)
How much?: magkano? (mag-KAH-noh?)
Yes: oo (O-awe) has neutral pronunciation
No: hind (hin-DEH)
Sorry: pasensya p (pah-SEN-shah PO)
Because: kas (kah-SEH)
Hurry!: Dal! (dah-LEE), Bils! (bih-LEASE)
I don't understand: Hind ko maintindihan (hin-DEE koh ma-in-TIN-dih-HAN)
Where's the bathroom?: Nasan ang banyo? (NA-sa-AN ang BAN-yoh?)
Generic toast: Mabuhay! (mah-BOO-high) - "long live"
Do you speak English? Marunong ka bang magsalit ng Inggls? (mah-ROO-nohng kah bang mag-sah-li-TAH nahng eeng-GLESS?)

Proverbs

Here are some proverbs in Tagalog. Ang hind marunong lumingn sa pinanggalingan ay hind makararatng sa paroroonan.
"He who does not look back from where he came will never reach his destination." Ang isd ay hinuhuli sa bibig. Ang tao, sa salit.
"Fish are caught by the mouth. People, by their word." Ang hind magmahl sa kaniyng wik ay mahigt pa sa hayop at malansng isd.
"He who doesn't love his language is worse than an animal or smelly fish." (Jos Rizal) Nasa Dyos ang aw, nasa tao ang gaw.
"God has compassion, man has action." Magbir lamang sa lasng, huwg sa bagong gising.
"Joke around with someone who is drunk, not with someone who just woke up. Magsama-sama at malaks, magwatk-watk at babagsk.
"United we stand, divided we fall."

Resources for Learning Tagalog

Conversational Tagalog by Teresita V. Ramos ISBN 0824809440
Intermediate Tagalog by Teresita V. Ramos ISBN 0824807766
Learn Filipino: Book One by Victor Eclar Romero ISBN 1932956417
Lonely Planet Filipino Tagalog (TravelTalk) ISBN 1591253640
Lonely Planet Pilipino Phrasebook ISBN 0864424329
Tagalog/English English/Tagalog Standard Dictionary by Carl R. Galvez Rubino ISBN 0781809614
Tagalog Reference Grammar by Paul Schachter and Fe T. Otanes ISBN 0520017765
Tagalog Slang Dictionary by R. David Zorc and Rachel San Miguel ISBN 9711181320
Teach Yourself Tagalog by Corazon Salvacion Castle ISBN 0071434178
UP Diksyonaryong Filipino by Virgilio Armario (ed.) ISBN 9718781986, and ISBN 9718781994
English-Tagalog and Tagalog-English Dictionary by Maria Odulio De Guzman ISBN 9710807137
New Vicassan's English-Pilipino Dictionary ISBN 9712704241