Tagalog language

Tagalog
Wikang Tagalog ᜏᜒᜃᜅ᜔ ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔
Pronunciation	locally [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]
Native to	Philippines
Region	Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon
Ethnicity	Tagalog
Native speakers	22.5 million (2010)[1] 23.8 million total speakers (2019)[2] 45 million L2 speakers (as Filipino, 2013)[3]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Central Philippine Tagalog
Early forms	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Philippine Old Tagalog Classical Tagalog
Standard forms	Filipino
Dialects	Bataan Batangas Bulacan Lubang Manila Marinduque Tanay–Paete (Rizal-Laguna) Tayabas (Quezon)
Writing system	Latin (Tagalog/Filipino alphabet), Philippine Braille Baybayin
Official status
Official language in	Philippines (in the form of Filipino)
Recognised minority language in	Philippines (Regional language; apart from national standard of Filipino)
Regulated by	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tl
ISO 639-2	tgl
ISO 639-3	tgl
Glottolog	taga1280  Tagalogic taga1269  Tagalog-Filipino
Linguasphere	31-CKA
Predominantly Tagalog-speaking regions in the Philippines.

Tagalog (/təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/, tə-GAH-log;^[4] locally [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]; Baybayin: ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔ ) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority.^[5][6] Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages, alongside English.

Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, Ilocano, the Visayan languages, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Malay (Malaysian and Indonesian), Hawaiian, Māori, and Malagasy.

	A half-hour interview in Tagalog Menu 0:00 With Madam Jusay, 2014
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Classification[]

Tagalog is a Central Philippine language within the Austronesian language family. Being Malayo-Polynesian, it is related to other Austronesian languages, such as Malagasy, Javanese, Malay (Malaysian and Indonesian), Tetum (of Timor), and Yami (of Taiwan).^[7] It is closely related to the languages spoken in the Bicol Region and the Visayas islands, such as the Bikol group and the Visayan group, including Waray-Waray, Hiligaynon and Cebuano.^[7]

Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto-Philippine schwa vowel *ə. In most Bikol and Visayan languages, this sound merged with /u/ and [o]. In Tagalog, it has merged with /i/. For example, Proto-Philippine *dəkət (adhere, stick) is Tagalog dikít and Visayan & Bikol dukot.

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

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

History[]

The base consonants and vowels of the Baybayin script, the original writing system of tagalog

The word Tagalog is derived from the endonym taga-ilog ("river dweller"), composed of tagá- ("native of" or "from") and ilog ("river"). Linguists such as David Zorc and Robert Blust speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao or the Eastern Visayas.^[8][9]

Possible words of Old Tagalog origin are attested in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription from the tenth century, which is largely written in Old Malay.^[10] The first known complete book to be written in Tagalog is the Doctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine), printed in 1593. The Doctrina was written in Spanish and two transcriptions of Tagalog; one in the ancient, then-current Baybayin script and the other in an early Spanish attempt at a Latin orthography for the language.

Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, 1794.

Throughout the 333 years of Spanish rule, various grammars and dictionaries were written by Spanish clergymen. In 1610, the Dominican priest Francisco Blancas de San Jose published the "Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala" (which was subsequently revised with two editions in 1752 and 1832) in Bataan. In 1613, the Franciscan priest Pedro de San Buenaventura published the first Tagalog dictionary, his "Vocabulario de la lengua tagala" in Pila, Laguna.

The first substantial dictionary of the Tagalog language was written by the Czech Jesuit missionary Pablo Clain in the beginning of the 18th century. Clain spoke Tagalog and used it actively in several of his books. He prepared the dictionary, which he later passed over to Francisco Jansens and José Hernandez.^[11] Further compilation of his substantial work was prepared by P. Juan de Noceda and P. Pedro de Sanlucar and published as Vocabulario de la lengua tagala in Manila in 1754 and then repeatedly^[12] reedited, with the last edition being in 2013 in Manila.^[13]

Among others, Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administración de los Santos Sacramentos (1850) in addition to early studies^[14] of the language.

The indigenous poet Francisco Balagtas (1788–1862) is known as the foremost Tagalog writer, his most notable work being the early 19th-century epic Florante at Laura.^[15]

Official status[]

Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper), the first bilingual newspaper in the Philippines founded in 1882 written in both Tagalog and Spanish.

Tagalog was declared the official language by the first revolutionary constitution in the Philippines, the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato in 1897.^[16]

In 1935, the Philippine constitution designated English and Spanish as official languages, but mandated the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages.^[17] After study and deliberation, the National Language Institute, a committee composed of seven members who represented various regions in the Philippines, chose Tagalog as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.^[18][19] President Manuel L. Quezon then, on December 30, 1937, proclaimed the selection of the Tagalog language to be used as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.^[18] In 1939, President Quezon renamed the proposed Tagalog-based national language as Wikang Pambansâ (national language).^[19] Under the Japanese puppet government during World War II, Tagalog as a national language was strongly promoted; the 1943 Constitution specifying: The government shall take steps toward the development and propagation of Tagalog as the national language.".

In 1959, the language was further renamed as "Pilipino".^[19] Along with English, the national language has had official status under the 1973 constitution (as "Pilipino")^[20] and the present 1987 constitution (as Filipino).

Controversy[]

The adoption of Tagalog in 1937 as basis for a national language is not without its own controversies. Instead of specifying Tagalog, the national language was designated as Wikang Pambansâ ("National Language") in 1939.^[18][21] Twenty years later, in 1959, it was renamed by then Secretary of Education, José Romero, as Pilipino to give it a national rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing of the name did not, however, result in acceptance among non-Tagalogs, especially Cebuanos who had not accepted the selection.^[19]

The national language issue was revived once more during the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The majority of the delegates were even in favor of scrapping the idea of a "national language" altogether.^[22] A compromise solution was worked out—a "universalist" approach to the national language, to be called Filipino rather than Pilipino. The 1973 constitution makes no mention of Tagalog. When a new constitution was drawn up in 1987, it named Filipino as the national language.^[19] The constitution specified that as the Filipino language evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. However, more than two decades after the institution of the "universalist" approach, there seems to be little if any difference between Tagalog and Filipino.

Many of the older generation in the Philippines feel that the replacement of English by Tagalog in the popular visual media has had dire economic effects regarding the competitiveness of the Philippines in trade and overseas remittances.^[23]

Use in education[]

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Upon the issuance of Executive Order No. 134, Tagalog was declared as basis of the National Language. On 12 April 1940, Executive No. 263 was issued ordering the teaching of the national language in all public and private schools in the country.^[24]

Article XIV, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines specifies, in part:

Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.^[25]

Under Section 7, however:

The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.^[25]

In 2009, the Department of Education promulgated an order institutionalizing a system of mother-tongue based multilingual education ("MLE"), wherein instruction is conducted primarily in a student's mother tongue (one of the various regional Philippine languages) until at least grade three, with additional languages such as Filipino and English being introduced as separate subjects no earlier than grade two. In secondary school, Filipino and English become the primary languages of instruction, with the learner's first language taking on an auxiliary role.^[26] After pilot tests in selected schools, the MLE program was implemented nationwide from School Year (SY) 2012–2013.^[27][28]

Tagalog is the first language of a quarter of the population of the Philippines (particularly in Central and Southern Luzon) and the second language for the majority.^[29]

Extent of use[]

In the Philippines[]

No dumping sign along the highway in the Laguna province, Philippines.

A landslide and rockslide-prone area sign at Indang, Cavite.

Welcome arch to Palayan, Nueva Ecija.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of 2014, there were 100 million people living in the Philippines, where the vast majority have some basic level of understanding of the language. The Tagalog homeland, 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, Rizal, and Zambales. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands of Marinduque and Mindoro, as well as Palawan to a lesser extent. Significant minorities are found in the other Central Luzon provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac, Ambos Camarines in Bicol Region, and the Cordillera city of Baguio. Tagalog is also the predominant language of Cotabato City in Mindanao, making it the only place outside of Luzon with a native Tagalog speaking majority.^[30]

At the 2000 Philippines Census, it is spoken by approximately 57.3 million Filipinos, 96% of the household population who were able to attend school;^[31] slightly over 22 million, or 28% of the total Philippine population,^[32] speak it as a native language.

The following regions and provinces of the Philippines are majority Tagalog-speaking (from north to south):

• Central Luzon Region
  • Aurora
  • Bataan
  • Bulacan
  • Nueva Ecija
  • Zambales
• Metro Manila (National Capital Region)
• Southern Luzon (Calabarzon and Mimaropa)
  • Batangas
  • Cavite
  • Laguna
  • Rizal
  • Quezon
  • Marinduque
  • Occidental Mindoro
  • Oriental Mindoro
  • Romblon
  • Palawan
• Bicol Region (While the Bikol languages have traditionally been the majority languages in the following provinces, heavy Tagalog influence and migration has resulted in its significant presence in these provinces and in many communities Tagalog is now the majority language.)
  • Camarines Norte
  • Camarines Sur
• Bangsamoro
  • Maguindanao (While Maguindanao has traditionally been the majority language of the province, Tagalog is now the main language of "mother tongue" primary education in the province and is the majority language in the regional center of Cotabato City.)^[33]

Tagalog speakers are also found in other parts of the Philippines and through its standardized form of Filipino, the language serves the national lingua franca of the country.

Outside of the Philippines[]

The instructions in a parking meter in San Francisco, California, include translations in Tagalog.

Tagalog serves as the common language among Overseas Filipinos, though its use overseas is usually limited to communication between Filipino ethnic groups. The largest concentration of Tagalog speakers outside the Philippines is found in the United States, wherein 2013, the United States Census Bureau reported (based on data collected in 2011) that it was the fourth most-spoken non-English language at home with almost 1.6 million speakers, behind Spanish, French (including Patois, Cajun, Creole), and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined). In urban areas, Tagalog ranked as the third most spoken non-English language, behind Spanish and Chinese varieties but ahead of French.^[34]

A study based on data from the United States Census Bureau’s 2015 American Consumer Survey shows that Tagalog is the most commonly spoken non-English language after Spanish in California, Nevada, and Washington.^[35]

Tagalog is one of three recognized languages in San Francisco, California, along with Spanish and Chinese, making all essential city services be communicated using these languages along with English.^[36] Meanwhile, Tagalog and Ilocano (which is primarily spoken in northern Philippines) are among the non-official languages of Hawaii that its state offices and state-funded entities are required to provide oral and written translations to its residents.^[37][38] Election ballots in Nevada include instructions written in Tagalog, which was first introduced in the 2020 United States presidential elections.^[39]

Other countries with significant concentrations of overseas Filipinos and Tagalog speakers include Saudi Arabia, Canada, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Malaysia.^{[citation needed]}

Dialects[]

Distribution of Tagalog dialects in the Philippines. The color-schemes represent the four dialect zones of the language: Northern, Central, Southern and Marinduque. While the majority of residents in Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur traditionally speak Bikol as their first language, these provinces nonetheless have significant Tagalog minorities. In addition, Tagalog is used as a second language throughout the country.

At present, no comprehensive dialectology has been done in the Tagalog-speaking regions, though there have been descriptions in the form of dictionaries and grammars of various Tagalog dialects. Ethnologue lists Manila, Lubang, Marinduque, Bataan (Western Central Luzon), Batangas, Bulacan (Eastern Central Luzon), Tanay-Paete (Rizal-Laguna), and Tayabas (Quezon and Aurora) as dialects of Tagalog; however, there appear to be four main dialects, of which the aforementioned are a part: Northern (exemplified by the Bulacan dialect), Central (including Manila), Southern (exemplified by Batangas), and Marinduque.

Some example of dialectal differences are:

• Many Tagalog dialects, particularly those in the south, preserve the glottal stop found after consonants and before vowels. This has been lost in Standard Tagalog. For example, standard Tagalog ngayón (now, today), sinigáng (broth stew), gabí (night), matamís (sweet), are pronounced and written ngay-on, sinig-ang, gab-i, and matam-is in other dialects.
• In Teresian-Morong Tagalog, [ɾ] is usually preferred over [d]. For example, bundók (mountain), dagat (sea), dingdíng (wall), and isdâ (fish) become bunrók, ragat, ringríng, and isrâ, e.g. "sandók sa dingdíng" ("ladle on a wall" or "ladle on the wall", depending on the sentence) becoming "sanrók sa ringríng".
• In many southern dialects, the progressive aspect infix of -um- verbs is na-. For example, standard Tagalog kumakain (eating) is nákáin in Quezon and Batangas Tagalog. This is the butt of some jokes by other Tagalog speakers, for should a Southern Tagalog ask nákáin ka ba ng patíng? ("Do you eat shark?"), he would be understood as saying "Has a shark eaten you?" by speakers of the Manila Dialect.
• Some dialects have interjections which are considered a regional trademark. For example, the interjection ala e! usually identifies someone from Batangas as does hane?! in Rizal and Quezon provinces.

Perhaps the most divergent Tagalog dialects are those spoken in Marinduque.^[40] Linguist Rosa Soberano identifies two dialects, western and eastern, with the former being closer to the Tagalog dialects spoken in the provinces of Batangas and Quezon.

One example is the verb conjugation paradigms. While some of the affixes are different, Marinduque also preserves the imperative affixes, also found in Visayan and Bikol languages, that have mostly disappeared from most Tagalog early 20th century; they have since merged with the infinitive.

Northern and central dialects form the basis for the national language.

Taglish (Englog)[]

Taglish and Englog are names given to a mix of English and Tagalog. The amount of English vs. Tagalog varies from the occasional use of English loan words to changing language in mid-sentence. Such code-switching is prevalent throughout the Philippines and in various languages of the Philippines other than Tagalog.

Code-mixing also entails the use of foreign words that are "Filipinized" by reforming them using Filipino rules, such as verb conjugations. Users typically use Filipino or English words, whichever comes to mind first or whichever is easier to use.

City-dwellers are more likely to do this.

The practice is common in television, radio, and print media as well. Advertisements from companies like Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, McDonald's, and Western Union have contained Taglish.

Phonology[]

Tagalog has 33 phonemes: 19 of them are consonants and 14 are vowels. Syllable structure is relatively simple, being maximally CrVC, where Cr only occurs in borrowed words such as trak "truck" or sombréro "hat".^[41]

Vowels[]

Tagalog has ten simple vowels, five long and five short, and four diphthongs.^[41] Before appearing in the area north of the Pasig river, Tagalog had three vowel qualities: /a/, /i/, and /u/. This was later expanded to five with the introduction of words from central and northern Philippines, such as the Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Ilocano languages, as well as Spanish words.

• /a/ an open central unrounded vowel roughly similar to English "father"; in the middle of a word, a near-open central vowel similar to Received Pronunciation "cup"; or an open front unrounded vowel similar to Received Pronunciation or California English "hat"
• /ɛ/ an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to General American English "bed"
• /i/ a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "machine"
• /o/ a mid back rounded vowel similar to General American English "soul" or Philippine English "forty"
• /u/ a close back rounded vowel similar to English "flute"

Nevertheless, simplification of pairs [o ~ u] and [ɛ ~ i] is likely to take place, especially in some Tagalog as second language, remote location and working class registers.

The four diphthongs are /aj/, /uj/, /aw/, and /iw/. Long vowels are not written apart from pedagogical texts, where an acute accent is used: á é í ó ú.^[41]

The table above shows all the possible realizations for each of the five vowel sounds depending on the speaker's origin or proficiency. The five general vowels are in bold.

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. Loanword variants using these phonemes are italicized inside the angle brackets.

• /k/ between vowels has a tendency to become [x] as in loch, German Bach, whereas in the initial position it has a tendency to become [kx], especially in the Manila dialect.
• Intervocalic /ɡ/ and /k/ tend to become [ɰ], as in Spanish agua, especially in the Manila dialect.
• /ɾ/ and /d/ were once allophones, and they still vary grammatically, with initial /d/ becoming intervocalic /ɾ/ in many words.^[41]
• A glottal stop that occurs in pausa (before a pause) is omitted when it is in the middle of a phrase,^[41] especially in the Metro Manila area. The vowel it follows is then lengthened. However, it is preserved in many other dialects.
• The /ɾ/ phoneme is an alveolar rhotic that has a free variation between a trill, a flap and an approximant ([r~ɾ~ɹ]).
• The /dʒ/ phoneme may become a consonant cluster [dd͡ʒ] in between vowels such as sadyâ [sadˈd͡ʒäʔ].

Glottal stop is not indicated.^[41] Glottal stops are most likely to occur when:

• the word starts with a vowel, like aso (dog)
• the word includes a dash followed by a vowel, like mag-aral (study)
• the word has two vowels next to each other, like paano (how)
• the word starts with a prefix followed by a verb that starts with a vowel, like mag-aayos ([will] fix)

Stress and final glottal stop[]

Stress is a distinctive feature in Tagalog. Primary stress occurs on either the final or the penultimate syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress except when stress occurs at the end of a word.

Tagalog words are often distinguished from one another by the position of the stress and/or the presence of a final glottal stop. In formal or academic settings, stress placement and the glottal stop are indicated by a diacritic (tuldík) above the final vowel.^[42] The penultimate primary stress position (malumay) is the default stress type and so is left unwritten except in dictionaries.

Grammar[]

Writing system[]

This article contains Baybayin script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Baybayin characters.

Tagalog, like other Philippines languages today, is written using the Latin alphabet. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1521 and the beginning of their colonization in 1565, Tagalog was written in an abugida—or alphasyllabary—called Baybayin. This system of writing gradually gave way to the use and propagation of the Latin alphabet as introduced by the Spanish. As the Spanish began to record and create grammars and dictionaries for the various languages of the Philippine archipelago, they adopted systems of writing closely following the orthographic customs of the Spanish language and were refined over the years. Until the first half of the 20th century, most Philippine languages were widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography.

In the late 19th century, a number of educated Filipinos began proposing for revising the spelling system used for Tagalog at the time. In 1884, Filipino doctor and student of languages Trinidad Pardo de Tavera published his study on the ancient Tagalog script Contribucion para el Estudio de los Antiguos Alfabetos Filipinos and in 1887, published his essay El Sanscrito en la lengua Tagalog which made use of a new writing system developed by him. Meanwhile, Jose Rizal, inspired by Pardo de Tavera's 1884 work, also began developing a new system of orthography (unaware at first of Pardo de Tavera's own orthography).^[43] A major noticeable change in these proposed orthographies was the use of the letter ⟨k⟩ rather than ⟨c⟩ and ⟨q⟩ to represent the phoneme /k/.

In 1889, the new bilingual Spanish-Tagalog La España Oriental newspaper, of which Isabelo de los Reyes was an editor, began publishing using the new orthography stating in a footnote that it would "use the orthography recently introduced by ... learned Orientalis". This new orthography, while having its supporters, was also not initially accepted by several writers. Soon after the first issue of La España, Pascual H. Poblete's Revista Católica de Filipina began a series of articles attacking the new orthography and its proponents. A fellow writer, Pablo Tecson was also critical. Among the attacks was the use of the letters "k" and "w" as they were deemed to be of German origin and thus its proponents were deemed as "unpatriotic". The publishers of these two papers would eventually merge as La Lectura Popular in January 1890 and would eventually make use of both spelling systems in its articles.^[44][43] Pedro Laktaw, a schoolteacher, published the first Spanish-Tagalog dictionary using the new orthography in 1890.^[44]

In April 1890, Jose Rizal authored an article Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagalog in the Madrid-based periodical La Solidaridad. In it, he addressed the criticisms of the new writing system by writers like Pobrete and Tecson and the simplicity, in his opinion, of the new orthography. Rizal described the orthography promoted by Pardo de Tavera as "more perfect" than what he himself had developed.^[44] The new orthography was however not broadly adopted initially and was used inconsistently in the bilingual periodicals of Manila until the early 20th century.^[44] The revolutionary society Kataás-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng̃ mg̃á Anak ng̃ Bayan or Katipunan made use of the k-orthography and the letter k featured prominently on many of its flags and insignias.^[44]

In 1937, Tagalog was selected to serve as basis for the country's national language. In 1940, the Balarílà ng Wikang Pambansâ (English: Grammar of the National Language) of grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced the Abakada alphabet. This alphabet consists of 20 letters and became the standard alphabet of the national language.^[45] The orthography as used by Tagalog would eventually influence and spread to the systems of writing used by other Philippine languages (which had been using variants of the Spanish-based system of writing). In 1987, the ABAKADA was dropped and in its place is the expanded Filipino alphabet.

Baybayin[]

Tagalog was written in an abugida (alphasyllabary) called Baybayin prior to the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, 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 Kawi 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, Baybayin gradually fell into disuse in favor of the Latin alphabet taught by the Spaniards during their rule.

There has been confusion of how to use Baybayin, which is actually an abugida, or an alphasyllabary, rather than an alphabet. Not every letter in the Latin alphabet is represented with one of those in the Baybayin alphasyllabary. Rather than letters being put together to make sounds as in Western languages, Baybayin uses symbols to represent syllables.

A "kudlit" resembling an apostrophe is used above or below a symbol to change the vowel sound after its consonant. If the kudlit is used above, the vowel is an "E" or "I" sound. If the kudlit is used below, the vowel is an "O" or "U" sound. A special kudlit was later added by Spanish missionaries in which a cross placed below the symbol to get rid of the vowel sound all together, leaving a consonant. Previously, the consonant without a following vowel was simply left out (for example, bundok being rendered as budo), forcing the reader to use context when reading such words.

Example:

Latin alphabet[]

Abecedario[]

Until the first half of the 20th century, Tagalog was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography consisting of 32 letters called 'ABECEDARIO' (Spanish for "alphabet").^[46][47] The additional letters from the 26-letter English alphabet are: ch, ll, ng, ñ, n͠g / ñg, and rr.

Abakada[]

When the national language was based on Tagalog, grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced a new alphabet consisting of 20 letters called ABAKADA in school grammar books called balarilà.^[48][49][50] The only letter not in the English alphabet is ng.

Revised alphabet[]

In 1987, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports issued a memo stating that the Philippine alphabet had changed from the Pilipino-Tagalog Abakada version to a new 28-letter alphabet^[51][52] to make room for loans, especially family names from Spanish and English.^[53] The additional letters from the 26-letter English alphabet are: ñ, ng.

ng and mga[]

The genitive marker ng and the plural marker mga (e.g. Iyan ang mga damit ko. (Those are my clothes)) are abbreviations that are pronounced nang [naŋ] and mangá [mɐˈŋa]. Ng, in most cases, roughly translates to "of" (ex. Siya ay kapatid ng nanay ko. She is the sibling of my mother) while nang usually means "when" or can describe how something is done or to what extent (equivalent to the suffix -ly in English adverbs), among other uses.

• Nang si Hudas ay nadulás.—When Judas slipped.
• Gumising siya nang maaga.—He woke up early.
• Gumalíng nang todo si Juan dahil nag-ensayo siya.—Juan greatly improved because he practiced.

In the first example, nang is used in lieu of the word noong (when; Noong si Hudas ay madulas). In the second, nang describes that the person woke up (gumising) early (maaga); gumising nang maaga. In the third, nang described up to what extent that Juan improved (gumaling), which is "greatly" (nang todo). In the latter two examples, the ligature na and its variants -ng and -g may also be used (Gumising na maaga/Maagang gumising; Gumaling na todo/Todong gumaling).

The longer nang may also have other uses, such as a ligature that joins a repeated word:

• Naghintáy sila nang naghintáy.—They kept on waiting" (a closer calque: "They were waiting and waiting.")

pô/hô and opò/ohò[]

The words pô/hô and opò/ohò originated from the word "Panginoon." and "Poon." ("Lord."). It is a polite response to affirmative, Awon. Which later adapted as Oo from Cebuano. It is generally used when addressing elders or superiors such as bosses or teachers.

"Pô" and "opò" are specifically used to denote a high level of respect when addressing older persons of close affinity like parents, relatives, teachers and family friends. "Hô" and "ohò" are generally used to politely address older neighbours, strangers, public officials, bosses and nannies, and may suggest a distance in societal relationship and respect determined by the addressee's social rank and not their age. However, "pô" and "opò" can be used in any case in order to express an elevation of respect.

• Example: "Pakitapon naman pô/ho yung basura." ("Please throw away the trash.")

Used in the affirmative:

• Ex: "Gutóm ka na ba?" "Opò/Ohò". ("Are you hungry yet?" "Yes.")

Pô/Hô may also be used in negation.

• Ex: "Hindi ko pô/hô alam 'yan." ("I don't know that.")

Vocabulary and borrowed words[]

Tagalog vocabulary is composed mostly of words of native Austronesian origin - most of the words that end with the diphthongs -iw, (e.g. saliw) and those words that exhibit reduplication (e.g. halo-halo, patpat, etc.). However it has a significant number of Spanish loanwords. Spanish is the language that has bequeathed the most loanwords to Tagalog.

In pre-Hispanic times, Trade Malay was widely known and spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia.

Tagalog also includes many loanwords from English, Indian languages (Sanskrit and Tamil), Chinese languages (Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin), Japanese, Arabic and Persian.

Due to trade with Mexico via the Manila galleons from the 16th to the 19th centuries, many words from Nahuatl (Aztec) and Castilian (Spanish) were introduced to Tagalog.

English has borrowed some words from Tagalog, such as abaca, barong, balisong, boondocks, jeepney, Manila hemp, pancit, ylang-ylang, and yaya. However, the vast majority of these borrowed words are only used in the Philippines as part of the vocabularies of Philippine English.^{[citation needed]}

Tagalog has contributed several words to Philippine Spanish, like barangay (from balan͠gay, meaning barrio), the abacá, cogon, palay, dalaga etc.

Tagalog words of foreign origin[]

Cognates with other Philippine languages[]

Austronesian comparison chart[]

Below is a chart of Tagalog and a number of other Austronesian languages comparing thirteen words.

Religious literature[]

The Ten Commandments in Tagalog.

Religious literature remains one of the most dynamic contributors to Tagalog literature. The first Bible in Tagalog, then called Ang Biblia^[54] ("the Bible") and now called Ang Dating Biblia^[55] ("the Old Bible"), was published in 1905. In 1970, the translated the Bible into modern Tagalog. Even before the Second Vatican Council, devotional materials in Tagalog had been in circulation. There are at least four circulating Tagalog translations of the Bible

• the Magandang Balita Biblia (a parallel translation of the Good News Bible), which is the ecumenical version
• the Bibliya ng Sambayanang Pilipino
• the 1905 Ang Biblia, used more by Protestants
• the Bagong Sanlibutang Salin ng Banal na Kasulatan (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures), exclusive to the Jehovah’s Witnesses

When the Second Vatican Council, (specifically the Sacrosanctum Concilium) permitted the universal prayers to be translated into vernacular languages, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines was one of the first to translate the Roman Missal into Tagalog. The Roman Missal in Tagalog was published as early as 1982.

Jehovah's Witnesses were printing Tagalog literature at least as early as 1941^[56] and The Watchtower (the primary magazine of Jehovah's Witnesses) has been published in Tagalog since at least the 1950s. New releases are now regularly released simultaneously in a number of languages, including Tagalog. The official website of Jehovah's Witnesses also has some publications available online in Tagalog.^[57] The revised bible edition, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, was released in Tagalog on 2019^[58] and it is distributed without charge both printed and online versions.

Tagalog is quite a stable language, and very few revisions have been made to Catholic Bible translations. Also, as Protestantism in the Philippines is relatively young, liturgical prayers tend to be more ecumenical.

Examples[]

Lord's Prayer[]

In Tagalog, the Lord's Prayer is known by its incipit, Amá Namin (literally, "Our Father").

Amá namin, sumasalangit Ka,
Sambahín ang ngalan Mo.
Mapasaamin ang kaharián Mo.
Sundín ang loób Mo,
Dito sa lupà, gaya nang sa langit.
Bigyán Mo kamí ngayón ng aming kakanin sa araw-araw,
At patawarin Mo kamí sa aming mga salâ,
Para nang pagpápatawad namin,
Sa nagkakasalà sa amin;
At huwág Mo kamíng ipahintulot sa tuksó,
At iadyâ Mo kamí sa lahát ng masamâ.
[Sapagkát sa Inyó ang kaharián, at ang kapangyarihan,
At ang kaluwálhatian, ngayón, at magpakailanman.]
Amen.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights[]

This is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Pángkalahatáng Pagpapahayag ng Karapatáng Pantao)

Numbers[]

Numbers (mga bilang) in Tagalog follow two systems. The first consists of native Tagalog words and the other are Spanish loanwords. (This may be compared to other East Asian languages, except with the second set of numbers borrowed from Spanish instead of Chinese.) For example, when a person refers to the number "seven", it can be translated into Tagalog as "pito" or "siyete" (Spanish: siete).

Months and days[]

Months and days in Tagalog are also localised forms of Spanish months and days. "Month" in Tagalog is buwán (also the word for moon) and "day" is araw (the word also means sun). Unlike Spanish, however, months and days in Tagalog are always capitalised.

Time[]

Time expressions in Tagalog are also Tagalized forms of the corresponding Spanish. "Time" in Tagalog is panahón or oras.

Common phrases[]

*Pronouns such as niyo (2nd person plural) and nila (3rd person plural) are used on a single 2nd person in polite or formal language. See Tagalog grammar.

Proverbs[]

Ang hindî marunong lumingón sa pinánggalingan ay hindî makaráratíng sa paroroonan. (José Rizal)
One who knows not how to look back from whence he came, will never get to where he is going.

Unang kagat, tinapay pa rin. It means :"First bite, still bread." or "All fluff no substance."

Tao ka nang humarap, bilang tao kitang haharapin.
(A proverb in Southern Tagalog that made people aware the significance of sincerity in Tagalog communities. It says, "As a human you reach me, I treat you as a human and never act as a traitor.")

Hulí man daw (raw) at magalíng, nakáhahábol pa rin.
If one is behind but capable, one will still be able to catch up.

Magbirô ka na sa lasíng, huwág lang sa bagong gising.
Make fun of someone drunk, if you must, but never one who has just awakened.

Aanhín pa ang damó kung patáy na ang kabayo?
What use is the grass if the horse is already dead?

Ang sakít ng kalingkingan, ramdám ng buóng katawán.
The pain in the pinkie is felt by the whole body.
(In a group, if one goes down, the rest follow.)

Nasa hulí ang pagsisisi.
Regret is always in the end.

Pagkáhabà-habà man ng prusisyón, sa simbahan pa rin ang tulóy.
The procession may stretch on and on, but it still ends up at the church.
(In romance: refers to how certain people are destined to be married. In general: refers to how some things are inevitable, no matter how long you try to postpone it.)

Kung 'dî mádaán sa santóng dasalan, daanin sa santóng paspasan.
If it cannot be got through holy prayer, get it through blessed force.
(In romance and courting: santóng paspasan literally means 'holy speeding' and is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. It refers to the two styles of courting by Filipino boys: one is the traditional, protracted, restrained manner favored by older generations, which often featured serenades and manual labor for the girl's family; the other is upfront seduction, which may lead to a slap on the face or a pregnancy out of wedlock. The second conclusion is known as pikot or what Western cultures would call a 'shotgun marriage'. This proverb is also applied in terms of diplomacy and negotiation.)

See also[]

• Dambana
• Abakada alphabet
• Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
• Filipino alphabet
• Old Tagalog
• Filipino orthography
• Tagalog Wikipedia

References[]

Further reading[]

• Tupas, Ruanni (2015). "The Politics of "P" and "F": A Linguistic History of Nation-Building in the Philippines". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 36 (6): 587–597. doi:10.1080/01434632.2014.979831. S2CID 143332545.

External links[]

For a list of words relating to Tagalog language, see the Tagalog language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Tagalog edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Tagalog

Tagalog language repository of Wikisource, the free library

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Filipino.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tagalog language.

• Tagalog Dictionary
• Tagalog verbs with conjugation
• Tagalog Lessons Dictionary
• Tagalog Quotes
• Patama Quotes
• Tagalog Translate
• Tagalog Forum
• Kaipuleohone archive of Tagalog