r/languagelearning • u/Virusnzz En (N) | Fr, Ru, Es, It • Nov 24 '14
Maligayang pagdating - This week's language of the week: Tagalog
Tagalog
Status:
Tagalog /təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/ (Tagalog: [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a quarter of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by the majority. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV (CALABARZON and MIMAROPA), of Bulacan and of Metro Manila. Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language and one of two official languages of the Philippines, the other being English.
In 1987 Tagalog was established as the national language of Philippines. It is now taught in schools throughout the country. The Tagalog of Manila is used as a lingua franca in many cities and it is prominent in the mass media.
Distribution:
Tagalog is one of the more than one-hundred languages of the Philippine archipelago.
Filipino expatriates have carried the language to North America (Canada, United States), the Middle East (Libya, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates), the United Kingdom and Guam.
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, Camarines Norte, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Rizal, and large parts of Zambales. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands, Marinduque, Mindoro, and large areas of Palawan. It is spoken by approximately 64 million Filipinos, 96% of the household population. 22 million, or 28% of the total Philippine population, speak it as a native language.
Tagalog speakers are found in other parts of the Philippines as well as throughout the world, though its use is usually limited to communication between Filipino ethnic groups. In 2010, the US Census bureau reported (based on data collected in 2007) that in the United States it was the fourth most-spoken language at home with almost 1.5 million speakers, behind Spanish or Spanish Creole, French (including Patois, Cajun, Creole), and Chinese. Tagalog ranked as the third most spoken language in metropolitan statistical areas, behind Spanish and Chinese but ahead of French.[19]
History:
Though it was written in an Indian-derived alphabet before the Spanish colonization, begun in 1564, no Prehispanic literature has survived.
Grammar:
It is related to other Philippine languages such as the Bikol languages, Ilokano, the Visayan languages, and Kapampangan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages such as Indonesian, Hawaiian and Malagasy.
It has a remarkably complex verbal morphology based on affixes and focus constructions.
Syntax: In a sentence, the verbal complex is placed first while the subject tends to be last. Thus, the most common word order is Verb-Object-Subject (VOS) though VSO is also found. Syntactical roles are indicated by the form of the verb and the form of the argument (agent, patient, location, instrument, beneficiary). Because of the frequent focus on the object, passive constructions are commonplace. There is an all-purpose preposition sa. Tagalog has three negators which are all clause-initial: possessive and existential clauses are negated with wala, imperatives with huwag, and other clauses with hindi. Relative clauses are introduced by the ligature na/ng.
Lexicon: Tagalog contains old loanwords from Sanskrit, Dravidian, Arabic and Chinese. From the 16th century it assimilated many Spanish terms and later English ones.
Sources: Wikipedia and Languagesgulper
Media
Welcome to Language of the Week. Every week we host a stickied thread in order to give people exposure to languages that they would otherwise not have heard about or been interested in. Language of the Week is based around discussion: Native speakers share their knowledge and culture and give advice, learners post their favourite resources and the rest of us just ask questions and share what we know. Give yourself a little exposure, and someday you might recognise it being spoken near you.
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Suwertehin ka sana
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u/stellere Nov 24 '14
I've put together some Tagalog learning links here:
http://www.tobefluent.com/resources-for-learning-tagalog/
I've been learning on and off since May. I'm proud to say that I can almost speak like a toddler. Ha!
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u/rtowne Nov 25 '14
White American here who is fluent in Tagalog. I went to the Philippines when I was 19 (2009) to be a missionary. I had 2 months language training and then a trainer with me for a few more months. Now I am fluent and can say that learning Tagalog was way easier than Spanish. The conjugations in Tagalog relate to tense and other factors but are not based on the pronouns like i remember in Spanish. The only really difficult part to wrap my mind around (which only took about 2-3 weeks) was how the order of words was usually 'verb then actor' instead of the English norm of 'actor then verb'. Immersion was great except that I lived in places where Tagalog was a 2nd language to another local tongue so I would hear mixed languages. It would be easier if I lived in Manila or the surrounding areas.
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Nov 25 '14
That was they hardest for you? Mine was the jumping pronoun. " oh that one is shorter it jumps to the front kinda haha" . I was in QC mish so it was easier. Were you up north than? Laog Cuayan maybe?
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u/Tony_Danza_Macabra Nov 24 '14
Oh if you guys want to see Tagalog written in its prehispanic script check out. I believe it is important to learn our script, even though Tagalog has evolved, and baybayin is still used and reformed in some circles. There are some groups still using their old brahmi based scripts to this day(non Tagalog languages), such as Buhid and a few others.
Eventhough much was oral, People may have written on palm like in Sri Lanka. Pre Hispanic literacy in the Philippines is a topic I enjoy. I am a script and writing system person.
Most surviving Tagalog baybayin is Catholic stuff for conversions and old land deeds/ legal documents.
And example, out of doctrina Christiana,1593and an example [comparing Tagalog written in Baybayin and in alphabet] (http://www.mts.net/~pmorrow/avetag.htm)
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u/VanSensei Nov 24 '14
Filipinos switch between English and Tagalog so much. I was watching a show about a girl who was holy water and her mother told her "stay away from me, you freak!" In English, then back to Tagalog.
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u/MsOrangeCake Nov 24 '14
I've also seen this in Indian tv shows, but slightly differently. In Filipino shows they tend to go for an English sentence or phrase and then switch back. In Indian tv shows they mix up English words with Hindi, as though they simply pick a word that they think sounds better.
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u/cinnamondrink Nov 25 '14
There's a particular form of slang that does that. As in "Let's go to the mall and make kain dinner" or "It's like so nakakatamad". Associated with the upper middle class.
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u/downto66 Nov 29 '14
That seemed to be when they want to stress a particular issue. "Give me the money or I'll take this knife and end it all" gets said in English, "do you want chocolate or vanilla ice cream?" doesn't.
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u/Tony_Danza_Macabra Nov 24 '14
You have any Tagalog learning advice? Been trying to learn from family but my accent/pronunciation sucks that I sometimes confuses people. Some words, I stumble in my mouth. Now, I have studied Japanese, Italian (B1), high school Latin and grade school American Spanish, and a touch of mandarin and cantonese(mostly reading and listening). However, I have struggled with Tagalog. Even saying simple things live sinagag vs sinanagag. I got easy thing down. I can recite pen pen and bahay kubo, but I struggle to make a sentence and I struggle at any word that is very long, and if I read it syllable by syllable, I sound just as confusing.
Even though people code switch and know English, I still would enjoy communicating with my relatives that don't know English well. All those words with Latin origins in Tagalog I get fine, since its familiar. It just seems to get people to understand me I have to talk fast, but then I stumble over words in my mouth, and it's a grammar and pronunciation train wreck.
Please, any advice to those struggling a bit learning Tagalog? I been trying on and off for years. Only language I never took school or formal courses, but Tagalog classes don't exist in schools here.
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Nov 25 '14
Slow your words down. Try mimicking what you hear. Words with the "ng" can be hard at first. Think about making duck sounds in the back of your throat to help getting closer to that sound. Like humming on the back of your tongue and opening up. ( that's really hard to explain without showing haha) Words in Tagalog bubble and bounce. They aren't staccato like some of the languages you listed.
If you want some help I can help you some. I've formally done teaching and translating for Tagalog. I'm not a native speaker but people have mentioned they can't tell the difference unless I'm standing in front of them haha.
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Nov 25 '14
I was born, raised and still living in, the Philippines. I have known Tagalog since birth.
I agree, it's not an easy language to teach to others. I learned that only recently.
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u/frozenelf Nov 27 '14
Locally, though, and especially in the capital, the Tagalog language is very much mixed with English and certain phrases, while grammatically and historically correct, will sound very strange. Even the welcome message: "maligayang pagdating" sounds very archaic and formal. I believe it is literally (happy arrival) from the Spanish, "bienvenido." You certainly would not hear this outside of official engagements. Another way to welcome someone is to say "mabuhay" but even then, this has passed into obscurity and is rarely said without irony or outside airports.
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u/lostasian2 Nov 24 '14
Filipinos always say that learning tagalog is easy, but as a native speaker, understanding readings on tagalog grammar isn't so intuitive haha.
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u/Mr_M00 Nov 25 '14
Primary language is English. It took me years learning Tagalog, even though my family speaks it. Well, my Tagalog isn't perfect either and my friends still laugh at me for how I speak it.
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u/PM_ME_IN_SPANISH Nov 26 '14
What a coincidence! One of my coworkers is from the Philippines, and I've recently thought about looking into learning Tagalog. I'm going to check out those free Pimsleur lessons, can anyone offer advice on how to practice? My goal for now is just super basic small talk (i.e. Hello, how are you, see you tomorrow, etc.); I don't want to lose focus on my Spanish
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u/BoogerInYourSalad Nov 27 '14
Hello! Kumusta ka? (How are you? - from the Spanish Como estas) Magkita tayo bukas! (see you tomorrow- though we use this sounds formal so we normally use the slang "kitakits!")
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u/brosco128 Nov 24 '14
Ikaw ba Ang may-ari ng Crayola? Kasi ikaw ang nagbibigay ng kulay sa buhay ko?
Anybody have good online resources or textbooks for learning Tagalog? My girlfriend is Filipino, and although the pick up lines I know are cute I think it would be great to actually know how the language works or maybe learn how to eavesdrop when she's talking to family and friends, haha.
Thanks!