Re: Questions about Tagalog

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



	
		
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