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Re: Questions about Tagalog

From:Andre Militante <yatland@...>
Date:Thursday, April 22, 2004, 17:35
Hi all,

I've been a member of this list for the past three
years, but since I'm a native speaker of Tagalog, I
feel the need to stop lurking and say something about
this language.

--- David Peterson <ThatBlueCat@...> 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.>> > > Chances are, if it looks like it came from Spanish, > it probably did, when it > comes to Tagalog. There are lots of > loan words.
"Kumusta" is definitely from Spanish. It's a corruption of Como éstas. Tagalog has a ton of loan words from Spanish.
> > <<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. >
Actually, yes. Tagalogs put a glottal stop between two vowels that are written together. Tagalogs even exhibit this tendency when reading something in English.
> <<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/. >
"Para sa anak kong si Roy" is perfectly correct. I can't really explain why there should be a "-ng" after the word "ko", but if I were to say, "Para sa anak ko si Roy", I'd feel I said something incomplete. To add an "ng" gives me a sense of fluidity in my speech. Without the "ng", the sentence feels a little choppy. Andre Militante __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢ http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash

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Chris Bates <christopher.bates@...>