Re: Questions about Tagalog

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.

<<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.

<<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/.

-David
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