The Tagalog language has developed a unique vocabulary since its inception from its Austronesian roots. According to lexographer Jose Villa Panganiban, "of the 30,000 root words in the Tagalog language, there are close to 4,000 from Spanish, 3,200 from Malay, 1,500 from English, 1,500 from both Hokkien (Min Nan) and Yue Chinese dialects, 300 from Tamil and Sanskrit, 200 from Arabic, and a few hundred altogether from other languages". Some linguists claim that borrowings from Malay and Chamorro cannot be ascertained at this time, as words from the Old Austronesian language and those from Malay and Chamorro are still ambiguous and too similar to be distinguished.

Spanish

Spanish has bequeathed the most loanwords to Tagalog. According to linguists, Spanish (5,000) has even surpassed Malayo–Indonesian (3,500) in terms of loan words borrowed. About 40% of informal conversational Tagalog is practically made up of Spanish loanwords. An example is the sentence below, wherein Spanish–derived words are in italics (original in parentheses):

"Puwede (Puede) ba akong umupo sa silya (silla) sa tabi ng bintana (ventana) habang nasa biyahe (viaje) tayo sa eroplano (aeroplano)?" ("May I sit on the chair near the window during our voyage in the aeroplane?")

Most have retained their original spelling, pronunciation, and definition such as basura, delikadesa ("delicadeza" in Spanish), and demokrasya ("democracia"), or as in the examples, a close, indigenised variant.

Others have morphed like 'ku(ha)nin' (Sp.: 'coja' + Tag. '–nin'), which has inconspicuously developed into another pure Tagalog–sounding word. Another one is maamong kordero (from Sp. amo & cordero). Combined together, it conveys the description of a meek, tame, harmless human with Tagalog adjective prefix and suffix added. The compound word batya't palo–palo, a must word in the laundry business where many Spanish words proliferate. The words were taken from the Spanish batea for "washing tub" and palo for "stick" or "beater", something a typical Filipino might think had no Spanish provenance at all. Others are umpisa (empieza), pulubi (pobre), pader (pared).

Some have acquired an entirely new meaning, such as kursonada (corazonada, originally meaning '"hunch"), which means "object of desire"; sospechoso is the "suspicious person" and not the "suspect" as in the original; imbyerna (invierno) once meant 'winter' but is now a word for "bummer"; insekto ("insecto"), which still means "insect" but also refers to a "pesty clownish person"; or even sigue, a Spanish word for "continue" or "follow", which is now widely understood to mean "all right" or "go ahead".

Others use Spanish prefixes and/or suffixes, combined from Tagalog or other languages, without which the word can not be completed and convey its meaning. For example, pakialamero (from Tag. pakialam, "to meddle" and the Sp. suffix –ero, masculine subject); same as majongero ("mahjong", a Chinese word and the Sp. suffix –ero). Daisysiete is a corruption and portmanteau of the English "daisy" and the Spanish diecisiete ("seventeen"), now meaning a sweet and sexually desirable underaged (below 18, hence the number) female. Bastusing katawán (Sp.: basto & Tag.: katawan) is an example of a two-word term for a bombshell body

Even after the Spanish era, Tagalog is still being influenced by Spanish as new words are coined, albeit along its own terms, viz., alaskadór ("Alaska" + Sp. suffix '–ador'); barkada (from Sp.: barca,"boat" to "clique"); bérde ("verde"="green", nuanced to "toilet humour" or "blue joke"); which are not readily understood in Spain or any Latin American country. In a strange twist, even if Filipinos have a chance to Tagalized words using foreign words, currently English—their most accessible influence—they coin words in a uniquely Hispanizing way i.e. "boksingero" (from Eng. "boxing") instead of using the Spanish "boxeador". Or "basketbolista" (from Eng. "basketball"), instead of borrowing from Spanish "baloncesto" to make it say "baloncestista" or "baloncestador" (although basketball "básquetbol" in many Latin American countries).

Here are the examples of Spanish–derived Tagalog words in the following format: Word (Etymology – Original Definition/s if different from Nuanced Definition. = Derivative Definition if Compound Words) – Nuanced Definition. Shared Definition precedes Nuanced Definition if both exist.

English

English has been used in everyday Tagalog conversation. This kind of conversation is called Taglish. English words borrowed by Tagalog are mostly modern and technical terms, but English words are also used for short usage (many Tagalog words translated from English are very long) or to avoid literal translation and repetition of the same particular Tagalog word. English makes the second largest vocabulary of Tagalog after Spanish. In written language, English words in a Tagalog sentence are written as they are, but they are sometimes written in Tagalog phonetic spelling. Here are some examples:

Note that the first syllable of loanwords from Spanish that start with /aw/ are also sometimes pronounced and spelled /o/ (e.g. 'otonomiya' rather than 'awtonomiya') due to the predominance of English pronunciation.
Also note, that Filipinos do a lot of code-switching. Which means, using English terms and phrases in the middle of a speech/conversation done in Tagalog.

Example 1:

English: "My birthplace is in Manila, Philippines. It is very hot but still quite nice over there."

Tagalog: "Ang pinanganakán ko ay sa Maynila, Pilipinas. Ang init-init doón, ngunit maganda naman."

'Code-switched: 'Ang birthplace ko ay sa Manila, in the Philippines. It is very hot doón pero maganda."

Example 2:

English: "I am going to school now. The driver will arrive soon and I will not be late for my Biology class."

Tagalog: "Ako'y pupunta na sa eskwela. Malapit nang dumating ang tsuper kaya hindî ako mahuhulí sa klase sa Biolohiya."

Pure Tagalog: "Ako'y papasok na sa paaralan. Ang magpapatakbo ng sasakyan ay malapit na kaya hindi ako mahuhuli sa aral ng Haynayan." (no loanwords as much as possible, rarely used in actual conversation)

Code-switched: "Papasok na ako sa school. Malapit na ang driver kaya hindi ako male-late sa Biology class ko." (colloquial, often used)

Filipinos politicians and celebrities are known for code-switching. A severe, oft-ridiculed form of code-switching is Konyo English.

Chamorro

Filipino language and culture is very similar to that of the Chamorro people on Guam and the Northern Marianas Islands, with many Philippine languages having similarities with the Chamorro language. These include numerous Spanish loanwords in both languages owing to a common history and religion as part of the Spanish East Indies until 1898. This shared colonial experience resulted in intermarriages between Filipinos and Chamorros that continue until the present, since it was to Guam that Filipino rebels were exiled by the Spanish rule of the Philippines.

This close relationship between Filipinos and Chamorros was expressed by Governor of Guam Ricardo J. Bordallo who said: "The Filipinos are akin to the Guamanians historically, culturally and linguistically, more so than any other people in Asia." Filipinos thus brought along with them latent lexical and cultural influences from India, China, and Arabia as well as present-day Malaysia and Indonesia as a product of ancient trade relations with these realms. These are only a few words from the many cognates between the two languages, with substantial borrowings from Spanish:

Malay and Indonesian

Tagalog is an Austronesian language and is thus closely related to Malay dialects in Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. Because of this close relationship, there are many cognates between the two languages stretching back many millennia. Many cognates were re-borrowed into the language when Old Malay became the official language of trade and documentation during the pre-colonial era of Philippine history, as evidenced by the Laguna Copperplate Inscription of 900 AD and accounts of Pigafetta at the time of the Spanish arrival in the country five centuries later. This is a small sample of the thousands of cognates present between Tagalog and Malay.

Sanskrit

The question has been raised about the origin of some words in the various dialects of the Philippines and their possible connection to ancient Buddhist and Hindu culture in the region.^[1][2]

Tamil

Arabic

Persian

Chinese

During the time when several Kingdoms existed in the area of what is now Luzon (in reference to the Luzon Empire or Kingdom of Tondo), diplomatic ties were established with the Ming dynasty. Contact also reached as far as the Sultan of Sulu. As a result, many Chinese words were adopted, such as:

Japanese

During the era of several kingdoms in Luzon and the Visayas, trade was established with other Southeast- and East Asian countries (especially Japan and China).^[3] Borrowings from Japanese were most likely from this trade, such as:

References

External links

• Seasite