Tagalog language

Tagálog is the primary language spoken in 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.

Tagalog
Spoken in:	Philippines
Region:	Central & south Luzon
First language speakers:	22 million
Second language speakers:	50 million
Ranking:	58
Genetic classification:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Western Central Philippine Tagalog
Official status
Official language of:	Philippines (as Filipino)
Regulated by:	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language)
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tl
ISO 639-2	tlg
SIL	TLG

History

Since there are no written samples of Tagalog before the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century, very little is known about 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 adminstración 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 immediately 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, Hokkien Chinese, English, Malay, Sanskrit (via Malay), Arabic (via Malay), 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 nothern 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 pambansâ 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 named 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.

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: Caviteño, Ternateño, and Ermitaño. Ermitaño is said to be extinct, however a total of 210,000 speak Caviteño & Ternateño, according to the 2000 Census.

Sounds

Tagalog has 21 phonemes; 16 consonants and five vowels. Syllable strucutre 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: /a/, /i/, and /u/. This was later expanded to five vowels with the introduction of Spanish words.

They are:

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

There are four main diphthongs; /aI/, /oI/, /aU/, and /iU/.

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.

		Bilabial	Dental / Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	Voiceless	p	t		k	- [?]
Stops	Voiced	b	d		g
Affricates	Voiceless			(ts, tiy) [tS]
Affricates	Voiced			(diy) [dZ]
Fricatives			s	(siy) [S]		h
Nasals		m	n		ng [N]
Laterals			l
Flaps			r
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

/a/ is raised slightly in unstressed positions
Unstressed /i/ is usually pronounced [I] as in English "bit"
At the end of a word, /i/ can be pronounced as [I] or [E].
/e/ and /o/ can sometimes be pronounced as [i ~ I] and [u ~ U]
Unstressed /u/ is usually pronounced [U] as in English "book"
The diphthong /aI/ can also be pronounced [e ~ E ~ eI]
The diphthong /aU/ can also be pronounced [o ~ O]
/k/ has a tendancy to become [x] between vowels as in German "bach"
/r/ and /d/ are sometimes interchangeable
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 *e. In Bikol & Visayan, this sound merged with /u/ and [o]. In Tagalog, it has merged with /i/. For example, Proto-Philippine *delem (dark) is Tagalog dilím and Visayan & Bikol dulom.

Proto-Philippine *r, *j, and *z merged with /d/ but is /l/ between vowels. Proto-Philippine *ngajan (name) and *hajek (kiss) became Tagalog ngalan and halík.

Proto-Philippine *R merged with /g/. *tubiR (water) and *zuRuq (blood) became Tagalog tubig and dugô.

Grammar

Main article: Tagalog grammar

Writing System

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 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 balarilà; 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 accomdate words of Spanish and English origin.

The most recent reform of the alphabet occured 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 Ñ 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 pahilís: Used to indicate primary or secondary stress on a particular syllable. It is usually omitted on words that are stressed on the penultimate syllable; talagá.

Grave accent or paiwà: 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; mabutì.

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

Ng and Mga

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

Vocabulary

Tagalog vocabulary is composed mostly of words of Austronesian origin with borrowings from Spanish, Hokkien, English, Malay, Sanskrit, Arabic, Tamil, Persian, Kapampangan, languages spoken on Luzon, and others.

Tagalog Words of Foreign Origin Chart

Tagalog	meaning	language of origin	original spelling
dasál	pray	Spanish	rezar
kabayo	horse	Spanish	caballo
silya	chair	Spanish	silla
kotse	car	Spanish	coche
sabón	soap	Spanish	jabón
relós	watch	Spanish	reloj
tsismis	gossip	Spanish	chismes
gera	war	Spanish	guerra
tsinelas	slippers	Spanish	chinelas
sapatos	shoes	Spanish	zapatos
harina	flour	Spanish	harina
sugál	gambling	Spanish	jugar
baryo	village	Spanish	barrio
Senyor	Mr., Sir	Spanish	Señor
Senyora	Mrs., Madame	Spanish	Señora
nars	nurse	English
bolpen	ballpoint pen	English
drayber	driver	English
traysikel	tricycle	English
militari	military	English
meyor	mayor	English
ekspiryens	experience	English
lumpia	spring roll	Hokkien	春餅
syopaw	steamed buns	Hokkien	燒飽
pansít	noodles	Hokkien	使食
susì	key	Hokkien	鎖匙
kuya	older brother	Hokkien	哥亜
ate	older sister	Hokkien	亜姐
bwisit	annoyance	Hokkien	無衣食
bakyâ	wooden shoes	Hokkien	木履
hikaw	earrings	Hokkien	耳鈎
kanan	right	Malay	kanan
tulong	help	Malay	tolong
tanghali	afternoon	Malay	tengah hari
duryán	durian	Malay	durian
rambutan	rambutan	Malay
batik	spot	Malay	batik
saráp	delicious	Malay	sedap
asa	hope	Sanskrit	आशा
salitâ	speak	Sanskrit	चरितँ
balità	news	Sanskrit	वार्ता
karma	karma	Sanskrit
alak	liquor	Farsi	الكل
bagay	thing	Tamil	/vakai/
hukom	judge	Arabic	حكم
salamat	thanks	Arabic	سلامة
bakit	why	Kapampangan	obakit
akyát	climb	Kapampangan	akyát
at	and	Kapampangan	at
bundók	mountain	Kapampangan	bunduk
huwag	don't	Pangasinan	ag
aso	dog	Luzon languages	aso
tayo	we (inc.)	Luzon languages

Austronesian Comparison Chart

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

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

Tagalog has contributed balangay to Spanish, meaning barrio.

Examples

Common Phrases

English: Ingglés [ʔɪŋˈglɛs] (ing-GLES)
Filipino: Pilipino[ˌpiːliˈpiːno] (pih-lih-PIH-noh)
Tagalog: Tagalog [tɐˈgaːlog] (tah-GAH-log)
Hello: kumustá [kʊmʊsˈta] (koo-mus-TAH)
Good-bye: paalam [pɐˈʔaːlam] (pa-AH-lam)
Please: Depending on the nature of the verb, either pakí- [pɐˈki] (pah-KEE) or makí- [mɐˈki] (mah-KEE) is attached as a prefix to a verb. ngâ [ŋaʔ] (ngah) is optionally added after verb to increase politeness.
Thank you: salamat [sɐˈlaːmat] (sah-LAH-mat)
That one: iyan [ʔiˈjan] (ee-YAN)
How much?: magkano? [mɐgˈkaːno] (mag-KAH-noh?)
Yes: oo [ˈoːʔo] (O-awe) [o has neutral pronunciation]
No: hindî [hɪnˈdɛʔ] (hin-DEH)
Sorry: pasensya pô [pɐˈsɛːnʃa poʔ] (pah-SEN-shah PO)
I don't understand: Hindî ko maintindihan [hɪnˈdiː ko mɐʔɪnˌtɪndiˈhan] (hin-DEE koh ma-in-TIN-dih-HAN)
Where's the bathroom?: Nasaán ang banyo? [ˌnaːsɐˈʔan ʔaŋ ˈbaːnjo] (NA-sa-AN ang BAN-yoh?)
Generic toast: Mabuhay! [mɐˈbuːhaɪ] (mah-BOO-high) [literally - "long live"]
Do you speak English? Marunong ka bang magsalitâ ng Ingglés? [mɐˈruːnʊŋ ka baŋ mɐgsaliˈtaː naŋ ʔɪŋˈglɛs] (mah-ROO-nohng kah bang mag-sah-li-TAH nahng eeng-GLESS?)

Proverbs

Here are some proverbs in Tagalog.

Ang hindî marunong lumingón sa pinanggalingan ay hindî makararatíng sa paroroonan.
"He who does not look back from where he came will never reach his destination."

Ang isdâ ay hinuhuli sa bibig. Ang tao, sa salitâ.
"Fish are caught by the mouth. People, by their word."

Ang hindî magmahál sa kaniyáng wikà ay mahigít pa sa hayop at malansáng isdâ.
"He who doesn't love his language is worse than an animal or smelly fish." (José Rizal)

Nasa Dyos ang awà, nasa tao ang gawâ.
"God has compassion, man has action."

Magbirô lamang sa lasíng, huwág sa bagong gising.
"Joke around with someone who is drunk, not with someone who just woke up.

Magsama-sama at malakás, magwaták-waták at babagsák.
"United we stand, divided we fall."

External Links

Resources for Learning Tagalog

Conversational Tagalog by Teresita V. Ramos ISBN 0824809440
Intermediate Tagalog by Teresita V. Ramos ISBN 0824807766
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, 9718781994