Re: Questions about Tagalog

Christopher/David Peterson wrote:


Christopher wrote:

<<1) Kumustá ("Hello", "How are you?"). Does this come from borrowing
"Comó Está?" from spanish? It seemed possible since the Spanish
controlled the Philipines for a few hundred years, and I think tagalog
only used to have three vowels, so that might explain some of the vowel
changes.>>

Right on all counts.

>Chances are, if it looks like it came from Spanish, it probably did, when
>it
comes to Tagalog.   There are lots of
loan words.

Another clue:  the -st- cluster; the only time native words have such a
cluster is in "reduplicated monosyllables" of the type "tastas".  Another
sign of a loan is /r/ in any position other than intervocalic.


<<2) When two vowels are written together in tagalog, should there be a
glottal stop between them? Accents mark if a word ends in a glottal
stop, but the book I was reading doesn't make clear if for instance
Paalam "goodbye" should have a glottal stop between the a's.>>

>No.   The glottal stop isn't used that way, is it?   Just word-finally.
Not 100% sure, but I think there would be.  The base is /alam/ = [?alam],
the [?] is automatic but not phonemic (nor written) in initial position, and
like vowels in succession are usually kept distinct-- with [?] in this case.

Not all modern written Tag. bothers to indicate final /?/, but good
dictionaries do:
V+grave accent: final /?/ with penultimate stress
V+circumflex: final /?/ with final syl. stress
(Acute accent: simply indicates final stress (no /?/) )


<<3) Can anyone explain the use of a ligature in this? "para sa anak kong
si Roy" (sorry if my memory has messed it up.. I think that's right). I
believe kong is ko-ng, but I don't understand why the book I was reading
inserts a ligature here... I'm very vague on exactly when they're
required to be honest... I mean, I understand some cases, but I'm not
sure about this one.>>

>I don't know what that means, but the /ng/ marker is a clitic that attaches
to the previous word in most (if not
all) circumstances.   I can't remember the particulars, but most of the
particles attach to previous words.   Of
course, /ng/ shouldn't be used there, 'cause it's a proper name: That's why
there's /si/.

Does the phrase mean 'for my son/child Roy' with Roy in apposition? That
might be the reason for the ligature in this case.  Unfortunately I don't
have a Tag. grammar, just a dictionary, which isn't very helpful here.

Reply