Filipino, English, Chinese Languages and Globalization
Linguists classify Tagalog (and Pilipino, Filipino and
Cebuano) as belonging to the Austronesian family of over
1200 living languages which spread from Taiwan down to
New Zealand, across the Pacific to the Hawaiian Islands
and Easter Island off the coast of Chile. In the other
direction they spread as far East as Madagascar which
was settled by people from what today we call Indonesia.
The Summer Institute of Linguistics counts 171 languages
in the Philippines branch of this language group. The
relatively large number of languages reflects something
called `tribal fission' and is more marked in
Indonesia where the geography was more challenging .
Early
tribal settlers from what we call Malaysia today
migrated to the Philippines and became isolated from
each other by distance and geography.
Tagalog is thought to be quite young and (contrary to
what you may read by some southern nationalists in the
press who maintain that it is an imposition of the
northern islands on the south and use it to support
vague theories of Manila imperialism) probably
originated in the Visayas only about 1000 years ago.
Linguists, philologists and etymologists are now able to
study languages and - rather like looking at DNA - get
some idea of the origins of the language. Other than
Spanish and Malay the following may amuse you:
Chinese: the Hokkien Chinese came first to the
Philippines as traders but many stayed on and had a big
influence on local languages: food - siapao, tokwa to
gambling - juteng, huweteng - and commerce: `suki'.
Sanskrit: Words such as `dalita' came from the Sanskrit
`dhrta' (borne) thru Malay derita (to endure) before
evolving to the Tagalog word where it means `great
suffering'. Interestingly, both `dalita' and `'dukha'
which mean 'suffering' in Malay - Sanskrit also refer to
poverty and the poor in Tagalog. Thus we have the
equation of lack of money being equal to suffering. Try
telling a Philippine that `money doesn't make you happy'
and you are likely to be met with an incredulous stare.
Arabic: This too had an influence partially through the
Islamic religion and, perhaps, via the Spanish thanks to
the 600 year occupation of Spain (Andalucia - Al Andalus)
by the Arabs. A common word is `yayah' from the Arabic
`ayah'. The Tagalog `aqala' (hunch, idea) comes from the
Arabic where it means `intelligence'.
Nahuatl: ( Mexican language) gave the Philippinos `nanay'
and `tatay' and reflected the galleon trade between
Spain and the Philippines via Mexico. One suspects there
was also a trade in the gene pool as well. Other words
that traveled from Mexico are: `tocayo', sombrero' and,
if I remember correctly: tobacco, maize and papaya.
Going back to recent developments, modern Filipino seems
to have adopted a huge number of English `connectors'.
Just log onto any Pilipino chat room to hear or see the
use of `but', `and' `then' etc. I hear `then' commonly
in the spoken word to mean `carry on' of what happened
next'.
I suspect that the huge number of returning OFWs, the
increase in the use of the internet and the
globalization of international commerce will continue to
play a huge role in the evolution of Filipino and we
will see a still greater influence and more borrowing
from English. But, who knows, in 50 years, perhaps the
wheel will turn full circle
and Chinese will see a re-emergence.
[Ron Turley]
Tip on Pronunciation Philippine
Dialects, Tagalog, Visayan, Cebuano, Ilocano, Ilongo,
Waray, others
The general rule is any Philippine dialect you attempt
to read is always pronounced phonetically. You read it
the way you see it. Exactly the way you read it in
Japanese (which I have studied in High School and
College). Words usually are read in "blends." And, what
I mean by that is if you have
a b k d e g h i l m n ng p r s t u w y
You say the consonants and short vowel sounds together:
NO LONG
VOWELS the way they teach you in ENGLISH regardless of
whether it's a, e, i, o, u
a ba ka da e ga ha i la ma na (ng or nga) pa ra sa ta u
wa ya.
You can at least trust that the source of the tip is
coming from someone who has a knack for language. I have
studied, as I mentioned, Japanese, Spanish, a little bit
of German, was a college graduate in International
Business (foreign language was the requirement to
graduate), and currently studying Latin and Russian.
Oh, another handy tip. When you pronounce words
phonetically, you want to really open that mouth and
work those mouth muscles (which are conditioned to speak
foreign language). I used to have a Japanese teacher in
high school who, after an hour of translating
vocabularies for us in English, always complained of her
facial muscles being tired of speaking in English. That
is true of any language. It's a workout in and of
itself.
[Arlene]
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