Tagalog language. General information about the Tagalog language (Tagalog)
Tagalog belongs to the Indonesian branch of the Austronesian family of languages. It is also the most widely spoken language in the Philippines. It is dominant in Manila and Luzon. Since 1961, the official language of the Philippines has been Pilipino, which is based on Tagalog, and English. Languages related to Tagalog are Visayan, Ilok, Bicol. In fact, Tagalog is the native language of 15 million people, and the total number of speakers reaches 45 million. There are about 900,000 native speakers in the United States. The Philippines was under Spanish influence for almost three centuries, which left its mark on the language, now full of borrowings from Spanish, English and Malay.
Tagalog has been written for a thousand years and its grammar has remained unchanged. Over time, only new words were added. Tagalog has 15 consonants and 5 vowels.
Formal and informal address.
There is a particle in Tagalog po, which indicates politeness towards the person being addressed. So, for example, when you meet a friend on the street, you can safely say Magandang araw(literally: Beautiful day), however, if you want to greet a stranger or an older person, the address will change to Magandang araw po.
Students of Tagalog and those familiar with English will be pleased that the meaning of some words can be easily guessed. For example, bangko means "bank" sero zero, tiket ticket, and compyuter computer. But you shouldn’t rely too much on your knowledge of English. Word noon means "at this time" (noon (English) noon), and mama this is not mother at all, but “uncle” or “mister”.
Interesting grammar
The word order in Tagalog is similar to what we are used to. So, for example, "Big crocodile" would be Malaki ang buwaya. The plural is formed using a particle mga. For example, child ang bata, and children ang mga bata. Most nouns in Tagalog are neuter, but loanwords (from, say, Spanish) are masculine or feminine. But there is complete confusion with numerals in Tagalog. Native speakers often use numbers from Spanish and English. The situation is similar with dates. You can hear sa August one(on the first of August), unang araw ng Nobyembre(November 1st) or even a-primero ng Mayo(first of May). So, if you speak Tagalog and Spanish, it will be easier for you to navigate dates, prices, times or measures.
Tagalog language phonetic. This means that each letter has its own sound. Letter combinations are read as two sounds.
Tagalog language- (Wikang Tagalog) one of the main languages of the Republic of the Philippines and one of the most widely spoken languages in the Philippine Islands in terms of the number of speakers. Tagalog, or Filipino, is the main language of national media in the Philippines and the main language in education. Along with English, Tagalog is the official language of the country. Tagalog is widely spoken as the lingua franca throughout the country and in overseas Filipino communities.
The name of the Tagalog language comes from the name tag-log in which the word tag- means "resident" and log means "river", so the original meaning of this word was "river dweller". Currently, very little is known about the history of the language; not a single written monument of the language or text has survived before the capture of the Philippines by Spain. Some scholars hypothesize that the Tagalog language originated in the northeastern or eastern regions of the country.
Historical Tagalog font - baibain(not currently used).
The first known book in Tagalog is Doctrina Cristiana(Christian Doctrine), dated. This book was written in Spanish, accompanied by two versions of Tagalog: one in Tagalog script (baibain), and the other in Latin. During the Spanish possession of the islands, Catholic priests compiled grammars and dictionaries of the Tagalog language.
Poet Francisco Baltazar(1788-1862) is considered one of the best authors in the Tagalog language. His most famous work is the 19th century poem "Floranta and Laura" is the finest example of classic Tagalog. Outside the Philippines, Tagalog is also spoken within ethnic Filipino communities.
1. Classification
Tagalog belongs to the Central Philippine languages, a Malayo-Polynesian family within the Austronesian family of languages. This language is related to Indonesian, Malay, Fiji, Māori (New Zealand), Hawaiian, Malagasy (Madagascar), Polynesian, Tahitian (Tahiti), Chamorese (Guam), Tetumese (East Timor), and Paiwan speeches. (Eastern Taiwan).
Tagalog has many loanwords from Spanish, Chinese, English, Malay, Sanskrit, Arabic, as well as other languages of the Philippine Islands.
2. Official status
Tagalog received national status in 1937. A committee of the National Institute of Languages, after several weeks of study and research, declared it the national language of the Philippines, since it is spoken in different regions of the country. On December 30, President of the Republic Manuel Quezon declared Tagalog the national language of the country. The official status of the language was consolidated after the restoration of Philippine independence from the United States on July 4, 2010. From 1961 to 1987, Tagalog was also known as. Tagalog, the only one of the Philippines' 160 different languages, is taught in schools throughout the country.
3. ABCs
Before the arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines in the 16th century, the Tagalog language used its own script - baibain. This writing system included 3 vowels and 14 consonants. Although it was used by a significant number of Tagalog speakers when the Spaniards arrived, the Latin alphabet gradually replaced the traditional script under the influence of the Spanish language.
Tagalog speech is now transmitted almost exclusively in the Latin alphabet. Until the 20th century, the Tagalog language was transmitted according to Spanish orthography and there were several written variants. With the accession of the Tagalog language to national status, scholars introduced a new alphabet, which consisted of 20 letters: ABKDEGHILMN NG OPRSTUW Y. In order to allow the transfer of Spanish and English loanwords, letters such as C, CH, F, J, Q, RR, V , X, and Z were added to the alphabet. In the city, the alphabet was slightly reduced from 33 to 28 letters:
| 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 |
4. Lexical composition
The vocabulary of Tagalog is mainly derived from words of Austronesian origin with some borrowings from
Tagalog language(self-name: Tagalog listen)) is one of the main languages of the Republic of the Philippines. It is one of the largest Philippine languages in terms of the number of speakers. Belongs to the Philippine zone of the Austronesian family of languages. The first document available in Europe about the Tagalog language is the writings of the Italian Antonio Pigafetta.
The Tagalog language, as well as its standardized variant “Filipino” (Pilipine), is the official language of the Republic of the Philippines. It is the leading language of public media in the Philippines. It is also the main language of instruction in the country's general education system. It currently shares the status of the language of official documents with English, and until 1987 it also shared with Spanish. Tagalog is a widely spoken language, or lingua franca, throughout the Philippine archipelago as well as in Filipino communities abroad. However, although Tagalog plays a leading role in these areas, in the areas of public administration and business, preference is given to English, even with limited knowledge of it.
There is an extensive literature in Tagalog (Filipino). Among contemporary writers writing in Filipino, Michael Corosa enjoys wide recognition.
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Territory
Tagalog is spoken in central Luzon; on the eastern coast of this island, including a number of areas in the province of Isabela; in the south and southeast of Luzon, where it reaches the provinces of Camarines Sur and Camarines Norte.
Dialects
At present, dialectology as a science has not developed in all Tagalog-speaking areas, although there are already dictionaries and descriptions of the grammar of the language written in dialects of the Tagalog language. Dialects such as Lubang, Manila, Marinduque, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Tanay-Paete and Tayabas are mentioned as varieties of Tagalog. However, the above adverbs are part of the four main dialects of the Tagalog language of the Philippine archipelago: northern, central, southern and Marinduque. There are a number of differences between these dialects, and here are some of them:
- Many Tagalog dialects, particularly the southern ones, retain a glottal stop in pronunciation after a consonant and before a vowel. This feature is lost in standard Tagalog. For example, words like “today” - ngayon, "night" - gabi, "sweets" - matamis, pronounced and written as ngay-on, gab-i, matam-is.
- Moro Filipinos who speak Tagalog pronounce the [r] sound instead of the [d] sound. For example, Tagalog words bundok- "mountain" dagat- “sea”, isda- “fish” is transformed among the Moros into bunrok, ragat, isra.
- Many southern dialects use the verb prefix na-(expressing the passive voice in Tagalog) instead of the active voice infix -um-. For example, Tagalog verb kumain"is" in the Tagalog-speaking provinces of Quezon and Batangas will be used as nakain. As a result, funny misunderstandings often arise between Filipinos. A man living in the southern Philippines asks a Tagalog man living in Manila: Nakain ka bang pating?, referring to the question of whether one has ever eaten a shark, but a Manila person will understand this in completely the opposite meaning, since, according to the official rules of Tagalog grammar, it should be translated as “Have you been eaten by a shark?”
- Many interjections used in speech by Filipinos are the so-called “distinctive sign” of a particular region. For example, interjections ala, eh mainly consumed by people who grew up in the province of Batangas.
- Perhaps the Marinducan dialect, which linguist Rosa Soberano proposes to divide into Western and Eastern, differs greatly from standard Tagalog. For example, consider verb conjugation. The Marinducan dialect retains imperative affixes, the same can be observed in Bisaya and Bicol, but in the Tagalog dialects this feature had already disappeared by the beginning of the 20th century - the imperative affixes merged with the stem. Let's look at a few examples below.
Mixed forms of speech
Today, Filipinos often mix languages. Now in the Philippines, English-Tagalog language hybrids, the so-called Taglish ( Taglish = Tagalog + English) and enhalog ( Engalog = English + Tagalog). The grammar of Taglish is predominantly Tagalog, while Engalog is predominantly English. An example from vocabulary: the word for homework in Tagalog is araling-pambahay or takdang aralin; in Taglish English is used homework. Taglish is also characterized by language code switching ( code-switching). In particular, Filipinos can even insert an English word into the middle of a Tagalog sentence, for example: Nasira ang computer ko kahapon!- “My computer broke yesterday!”; however, this phenomenon is typical for some other Asian languages, for example, Hindi (there is even a variant of the language called “Hinglish”, similar to Tanglish).
Code-switching is common in the Philippines and across all walks of life. The switching phenomenon can even be seen in interviews with politicians and Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. This is very common on television, radio; Almost all types of advertising are written in Taglish.
Some Filipinos, as well as Spaniards living in the Philippines, speak the Filipino-Spanish Creole Chabacano language. There are 3 dialects of Chabacano: Caviteño, Ternateño and the now obsolete Hermitaño. These dialects are mainly spoken in o. Mindanao, and also in some areas of Manila.
Linguistic characteristics
Phonology
Tagalog has 21 phonemes: 16 consonants and 5 vowels. The language has a fairly simple syllabic system. Each syllable consists of at least a consonant and a vowel.
Vowels
Before Spanish colonization, Tagalog had three vowel sounds: , , . Later, their number was increased due to the introduction of Spanish words into the vocabulary. By ear, words are perceived as different precisely due to vowel sounds that change a number of properties:
/a/ is a low middle vowel, non-labialized, close to the Russian stressed /a/ in the words “memory”, “war”; at the beginning of a word this sound is pronounced with more tension than in the middle or at the end;
/ε/ is a short, middle front, non-labialized vowel, close to the Russian stressed /e/, as in the word “cafe”;
/i/ - short vowel of the upper front row, non-labialized; pronounced like Russian /i/ in the words “steps”, “to drink”, but more tense;
/o/ - a long, mid-back vowel, labialized, pronounced more openly than the Russian /o/ in the words “year”, “hunger”; this sound usually occurs in the last syllable of a word, but in Spanish borrowings other positions are also possible: ito, optiko;
/u/ is a long vowel of the upper back row, labialized, close to Russian /u/ in the words “ear”, “storm”; As a rule, this sound does not occur in the last syllable of a word.
There are also four main diphthongs: /aI/, /oI/, /aU/, /iU/ and /Ui/.
Consonants
Below is a list of Tagalog consonants:
/l/ - postdental lateral smooth consonant; pronounced softer than Russian /l/ in the word “face”;
/k/ - postpalatal voiceless stop consonant sound, similar to Russian /k/, but articulated closer to the larynx;
/t/ - postdental (sometimes close to interdental) voiceless stop consonant, similar to Russian /t/;
/m/ - labiolabial nasal consonant, similar to Russian /m/;
/p/ - labiolabial stop consonant, similar to Russian /p/;
/b/ - labiolabial stop consonant, close to Russian /b/; at the end of a word and before voiceless consonants it is not deafened: buti- "good;
/s/ is a postdental voiceless fricative, close to Russian /s/; before the vowel /i/ it is strongly palatalized (softened): si(personal article);
/y/ is a middle language fricative, at the beginning of a syllable it is close to Russian /й/, at the end of a syllable it is close to /i/ and conveys a diphthong element: yeso- "chalk", siya- "he she it";
/n/ - postdental nasal consonant, close to Russian /n/: anak- "son";
/q/ is a glottal stop consonant, which has no correspondence either in Russian or in English, and is somewhat similar to the German strong attack; occurs at the end of a word after a vowel, in the position between vowels and at the junction of morphemes; does not have a letter image, the presence of this sound is indicated by accent marks (̀) and (ˆ); the presence of this sound in the middle of a word is indicated by the position of the vowels or a hyphen if it is followed by a vowel; a similar sound is heard at the beginning of the Russian word “this is when it begins a sentence;
/w/ is a labial fricative, at the beginning of a syllable it is close to the English /w/ in words woman, wine, has no correspondence in Russian; at the end of a syllable it becomes close to the vowel /u/ and conveys a diphthong element: watawat- "flag";
/d/ is a postdental weak voiced stop consonant, at the end of a word and before voiceless consonants it is not devoiced (in the intervocalic position it often turns into /r/: din- “too, (but siya rin- “he too) daw- "They say, silid- "room";
/r/ - trembling sonorant, articulated just above the teeth, the tip of the tongue vibrates two or three times; usually found in intervocalic position, at the beginning and at the end of a word, found, as a rule, in borrowings: Ruso- "Russian", pader- “wall”;
/g/ - velar voiced stop consonant, close to Russian /g/: gabi- "night";
/h/ is a dull guttural sound, when pronounced, air passes through a narrowed gap between the vocal cords. Close to English /h/ in words hiss, hint(but not Russian /x/). Usually occurs at the beginning of a syllable: hapon- "afternoon, liham- "letter";
/ŋ/ - velar nasal consonant, represented in writing by a digraph ng, close to English /ŋ/ in words king, singing; occurs in any position. During speech, it is important not to replace this sound with /n/ or the combination /ng/, as this may be perceived as a word with a different meaning, dating- “arrival”.
Accent
A stressed syllable in Tagalog is pronounced with more force than an unstressed one, and the duration of the stressed vowel increases. Typically, a Tagalog word has one stressed syllable: the last or penultimate syllable. However, in borrowed and derived words, stress may also fall on other syllables:
makina- "car".
The emphasis also has a semantic character:
pala- “shovel”;
palá- "OK".
Phonetic changes
1. The vowel /o/ in the flow of speech can sound like /u/:
Ganoon ba?- "Is not it?" - pronounced /ganum ba/.This change is not reflected in the spelling. At the same time, the change in the process of word formation (at the junction of morphemes), the transition /о/ > /u/, is reflected in the spelling:
upô- “sit”, but upuan- "chair".2. /d/ in intervocalic position can turn into /r/:
din- “too”, but siya rin- “he too.”3. Vowel /a/ in conjunction at and in a predicative connective ay fall out in the flow of speech if the preceding word ends in a vowel or n (n in this case it also drops out) and an apostrophe is placed:
maganda at mabait = maganda doesn't care- “beautiful and kind.”4. The vowel /i/ before /y/ sometimes drops out, which can also be reflected in spelling:
siya = sya- "He".5. Two vowels are contracted into one, or a diphthong into a monophthong:
Saan kayo?/san kayo/ - “Where are you going?”; Mayroon/meron/ - “Available.”Morphology
According to its typology, the Tagalog language belongs to the languages of the agglutinative type with developed affixation. Prefixation predominates, but in addition to prefixes, suffixes and infixes are also used. As in other Indonesian languages, the root morpheme is capable of functioning independently in a sentence as a word.
Word formation
Most Tagalog root words have two syllables, for example: tubig- “water”, buti- “good”. There are few monosyllable words. These mainly include unstressed function words that perform syntactic functions: ang, nang, sa- articles; at- “and” - conjunction; ay- a particle denoting a predicative connection; ba- interrogative particle. As well as monosyllabic enclitic words adjacent to the first stressed word in a sentence: na- "already", pa- "more", din (rin) - "Also", daw (raw) - “as they say”, etc.
In many cases, polysyllabic words contain components common to several words and, obviously, were affixes in the past. For example, la: lamikmik- “calmness”; lamuymoy- “soft, dim light”; ag: lagaslas- “the murmur of a stream, the rustle of leaves”; laguslos- “the sound of falling drops”; dalaga- "young woman"; halaman- "plant"; hi/hin/him: hinlalaki- “thumb”; himaymay- “fiber”; himulmol- “fringe on worn-out clothes.”
A large number of two-, three- and polysyllabic roots are formed by reduplication ( alaala- "memory"; paruparo- "butterfly").
In derived words, affixes are easily separable from the root and from each other. Roots and affixes do not undergo phonological changes when combined with each other.
Prefixes can form chains by sequentially adding one prefix to another: ikapagpalagay (i-ka-pag-pa-lagay) - “to be that which makes one believe, count.”
Suffixes -in And -an, as a rule, exclude each other when connecting to the root: patayin- “to be killed, to be killed”; tulungan- "mutual help"; however, in few cases sequences of these two suffixes can be formed ( -anan, -inan): silanganan(along with silangan) - "East"; inuminan- “source of drinking water”.
Infixes -um-, -in usually follow the initial consonant of the root or the first prefix that begins with a consonant. If the root begins with a vowel, l, y or w; affixes um, in are appended to it as prefixes.
There are two ways of word production in Tagalog:
by agglutinative addition of affixes;
by fusional change of morphemes.
These two methods can appear in word formation both in their pure form and in interaction with each other.
An important means of word production in Tagalog is also stress, or more precisely, the place of stress in a word and the presence or absence of a secondary stress.
Syntax
In general, modern linguists classify Tagalog as a language of ergative or ergative-absolutive structure.
Borrowing
The Tagalog vocabulary consists primarily of words of Austronesian origin, with loanwords from Spanish and English, as well as earlier lexemes from Chinese, Malaysian, Sanskrit, Arabic, and possibly Tamil and Persian.
For example, words mukha("face"), mahal("Expensive"), hari("tsar"), bathala("God"), asawa(“spouse”), ganda(“beautiful”) - borrowings from Sanskrit; words pansit("noodles"), lumpia(“pancakes”), petsay("cabbage"), ate("elder sister"), susi("key"), kuya(“elder brother”) - borrowings from the Chinese language; words alak("wine"), bukas("Tomorrow"), salamat("Thank you"), sulat("letter"), alamat(“fairy tale”) - borrowings from Arabic.
It is interesting that in modern English, in turn, one can find borrowings from the Filipino language. These are exotic words like abaka(abaca, Manila hemp), adobo(adobo is one of the national dishes of Philippine cuisine), jeepney(jeepney - Philippine fixed-route taxi), pancit(“noodles”), but most of these words are used today as part of the so-called vocabulary. "Filipino English" ( Filipino English).
Here are a few examples of borrowings in the Tagalog language that are deeply included in its vocabulary:
| Tagalog | Meaning | Source language | Original |
|---|---|---|---|
| tanghali | "day" | Malay | tengah hari |
| bagay | "thing" | Tamil(?) | /vakai/ |
| kanan | "right" | Malay | kanan |
| sarap | "delicious" | Malay | sedap |
| kabayo([kabayo]) | "horse" | Spanish | caballo |
| kotse | "car" | Spanish | coche |
From the history of the Tagalog language
The word "Tagalog" comes from " taga-ilog" - "someone from the river, living by the river" (" taga" - prefix of belonging to any locality, " ilog" - "river"). Very little is known about the history of the language, since there are no surviving written examples of the Tagalog language before the 16th century. The Spaniards came to the archipelago. However, linguists suggest that the first speakers of Tagalog came from the northeast of the island. Mindanao or eastern Bisayas.
The first book published in Tagalog was Christian Doctrine ( Doctrina Cristiana) 1593. It was written in Spanish and also in Tagalog in two variants - the Latin script and the ancient Tagalog syllabary "alibata" or "baybayin". More than 300 years of Spanish occupation in the Philippines produced grammars and dictionaries written by Spanish priests, such as Pedro de San Buenaventura's Dictionary of the Tagalog Language. Vocabulario de Lengua Tagala», Pedro de San Buenaventura), Pila, Laguna, 1613; "A Dictionary of the Tagalog Language" and "The Art of the Tagalog Language and a Manual of Tagalog for the Administration of the Holy Sacraments", 1850 (" Vocabulario de la lengua tagala" (1835) and " Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administracion de los Santos Sacramentos»).
One of the famous poets who wrote in Tagalog, Francisco "Balagtas" Balthazar (1788-1862), is considered the "William Shakespeare of Tagalog." His most famous work is the poem "Florante and Laura", first published in 1838.
Official language in the Philippines
The official language of the Philippines, now called Filipino, has gone through many stages to become the language it is today.
In 1936, the Institute of National Language was founded, which began the search for a single official language of the country. The Institute's workers began researching languages such as Tagalog, Ilocano, Bicol, Waray-Waray, Pangasinan, from which they sought to choose one, which was to form the basis of the country's national language. After seven months of work, the scientists chose Tagalog. Tagalog was at that time the most studied of the Philippine languages, and besides, there was a fairly large number of literary works in Tagalog.
Thus, on December 30, 1939, “a language based on Tagalog” and called “Pilipin” (later “Filipino”) was recognized as the national language of the Republic.
Until the second half of the 20th century, Tagalog writing had numerous variations based on the rules of Spanish orthography. When Tagalog became the national language, Filipino linguist and grammarian Lope C. Santos created a new alphabet of 20 letters, called "abacada" in Balarila school grammars (after the first four letters of the Tagalog alphabet):
Aa, Bb, Kk, Dd, Ee, Gg, Hh, Ii, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ngng, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Ww, Yy.
Later, the so-called “Pilipino” (the same Tagalog, but with ordered spelling and grammar) was declared the official language, and in 1976 the letters Cc, Chch, Ff, Jj, Qq, Rr, Vv, Xx, Zz were added to the alphabet , to make it easier to write Spanish and English borrowings.
Nowadays, Tagalog as the state language is called “Filipino” - according to the official version, it is a special language, the basis of which is Tagalog interspersed with vocabulary from other languages. In 1987, the Filipino alphabet was reduced to 28 letters:
Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ññ, Ngng, Oo, Pp, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, Zz.
Diacritics
In everyday writing, diacritics are not used, be it printed matter or private correspondence. Diacritics is taught inconsistently in schools, and many Filipinos do not know how to use accent marks. However, they are usually used in textbooks and dictionaries intended for foreigners.
There are three types of diacritics in Tagalog:
Strong accent pachylis ( pahilis):
used to indicate secondary or primary stress on one of the syllables. When the penultimate syllable is stressed, the sign is usually omitted: talaga, bahay;
Paiva (indicated by the gravis sign):
only on the last syllable. Indicates a glottal stop at the end of a word with stress on the penultimate syllable: malumì;
Circumflex or pakupyâ:
only over the last syllable; denotes a stressed last syllable with a glottal stop: sampû.
Writing ng and mga
Possessiveness indicator ng and the multiplicity indicator mga, despite the laconic writing, are read as naŋ(nang) and maŋa(manga).
Text
Samples of Tagalog text (with diacritics): Proverbs and sayings.
Nasa Dyós ang awà, nasa tao ang gawâ.- “Trust in God, but don’t make a mistake yourself.”
Magbirò lamang sa lasíng, huwág lang sa bagong gisíng.- “It’s better to joke with a drunk than with someone who has just woken up.”
Aanhín pa ang damó kung patáy na ang kabayo?(Why grass when the horse is already dead?) - “When you take off your head, you don’t cry over your hair.”
Habang may buhay, may pag-asa.(As long as there is life, there is hope) - “Hope dies last.”
Ang isdâ ay hinuhuli sa bibíg. Ang tao, sa salitâ.(A fish is caught by the mouth, but a man is caught by his word). - “The word is not a sparrow; if it flies out, you won’t catch it.”
Tagalog is the language of the modern Philippines. Do you want to know where Tagalog is spoken, in which country the Tagalog language is most widespread and what are its features? This article will answer all your questions.
Where is Tagalog spoken?
Tagalog is one of the main languages. More than 50 million people living in the Philippines, mainly in the southern part (the largest island of the Philippine archipelago), speak Tagalog. Other dialects found here include Cebuano, Ilocano, Waray-Waray, Hiligaynon, Pangasinan, Bicol, Maranao, Maguindanao, Tausug and Kapampangan. However, the official language, Filipino, is based on Tagalog. Since 1940, Filipino has been taught in schools throughout the country.
Tagalog is also spoken in other countries. Thus, in Great Britain it ranks sixth among all languages used in this country.
Origin
The name of the Tagalog language "Tagalog" comes from the words "taga-ilog", which literally translates as "from the river". Tagalog is an Austronesian language that belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch. During the four centuries of colonial rule, the Tagalog language was heavily influenced by several other languages, such as Malay and Chinese, and later also Spanish, and this influence is strongly manifested in Tagalog words and writing.
Writing
The first book in Tagalog was Christian Doctrine, published in 1593. The first Tagalog grammar rules and dictionaries were created by Spanish clerics during the 300-year occupation of the Philippines. Although it is sometimes believed that in ancient times each province in the Philippines had its own alphabet, 16th-century Spanish writers wrote that at the time of the Philippines' contact with Spain, the use of writing was found only in Manila, the current capital of the state. Writing spread to other islands later, already in the mid-16th century.
Tagalog has its own writing system, based on the ancient Baybayin script (from the Tagalog "baybay", meaning "to write"), which uses a syllabary alphabet. This alphabet was in use until the 17th century, when it was finally Latinized by the Spanish colonialists. Even the modern alphabet has undergone changes several times, gradually introducing more and more sounds from Spanish and English. Nowadays, you can sometimes still find the use of the Baybayin script, but mainly only for decorative purposes, although in history there have been attempts to revive its use.
Borrowing
Tagalog has thousands of loanwords, particularly from Spanish. Taglish is also very common in the Philippines, especially in modern areas. It is a peculiar mixture of Tagalog and English. In spoken and written Tagalog, along with words of Spanish origin, English words are often used (often written in a completely different way from the rules of Tagalog pronunciation). Some of these have their equivalents in Tagalog, but they are mainly used only in formal and literary speech. However, many borrowed words still have no analogues in Tagalog. This is largely due to the fact that many things and concepts did not exist in the country before the arrival of Westerners.
Below are some examples of loanwords in Tagalog:
However, despite all the borrowings, the richness of the Tagalog language remains unchanged. Foreign words are not simply incorporated into the language without changes. By borrowing words from other languages, Tagalog adapts them to its culture using a complex system of word formation, which allows any borrowed noun to be turned into a verb or vice versa.
Dictionary
Below are a few words and sentences that will help you maintain a simple conversation in Tagalog and help you navigate a foreign country.
The official language of the Philippines (Tagalog Pilipino) was created on the basis of Tagalog, in addition to which it has been the official language of the country (since 1961). In total, there are about 45 million native speakers of Tagalog in the world, 15 million consider this language their native language. About a million people who speak Tagalog live in . The language has many borrowings from English and other languages. The grammar of the language has not changed for more than a thousand years; the alphabet has 15 consonants and 5 vowels.
History of the Tagalog language
Modern Tagalog is widely used in communication among residents of the entire Philippine archipelago, but in business and government, English is used mainly.
The authentic name of the language “Tagalog” is translated as “living by the river.” There is very little reliable data on the origin of the language; the first written evidence dates back to the arrival of the Spaniards in the archipelago in the 16th century. Linguists are of the opinion that the birthplace of the Tagalog language was an island or the Bisayas.
At the end of the 16th century, the first book in Tagalog appeared, Doctrina Cristiana. A second version of this edition was published in Spanish. The Tagalog version is written using the ancient Tagalog syllabary "alibata" or "baybayin". The Spaniards, who ruled the Philippines for more than three hundred years, compiled textbooks and dictionaries of the Tagalog language. The authors of these works were priests, and the content of the books related mainly to the conduct of divine services. In the 19th century, Francisco “Balagtas” Balthazar, a famous poet who is called the Tagalog Shakespeare, wrote in Tagalog.
Since 1936, the National Language Institute began operating in the Philippines, whose task was to determine the official language of the country. Several languages of the archipelago were examined, and Tagalog was chosen as the most studied and functional. In addition, many literary works have already been created in this language. At the end of 1939, it was decided to recognize Tagalog, called “Pilipino,” as the national language, but this option did not suit everyone. The opponents were the “Cebuanos,” who proposed the Cebuano language as the official language, the number of speakers of which slightly exceeded the number of Tagalog speakers. The struggle continued until the 50s of the last century. A compromise was reached after excluding many borrowings from the vocabulary and replacing them with words of Philippine origin. The country's Constitution has a clause according to which the state language is based on Tagalog with the inclusion of words from other languages of the archipelago.
- The polite particle “po” in Tagalog indicates a special attitude towards the interlocutor. So, you can address a friend with the phrase: “Magandang araw” (beautiful day), but to a stranger or a person of advanced age you say: “Magandang araw po.”
- There are many similarities in Tagalog and English: bangko - bank, sero - zero, tiket - ticket, kompyuter - computer. However, there are also some pitfalls, for example, noon in Tagalog means “at this time”, not “noon”, and mama means master or uncle.
- The plural in Tagalog is formed using the particle “mga”: ang bata – child, ang mga bata – children.
- Nouns are predominantly neuter, words of feminine or masculine gender are usually borrowed.
- Filipinos are free with numerals. English, Spanish or Tagalog words may be used when talking about prices, dates, times, etc.
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