Doce Y Media Translation Essay

Wikang Tagalog
Native toPhilippines
RegionCentral, Metro Manila and Southern Luzon
EthnicityTagalog people

Native speakers

28 million (2007)[1]
45 million L2 speakers (2013)[2]
Total: 70+ million (2000)[3]

Language family

Early forms

Standard forms


  • Bataan
  • Batangas
  • Bulacan
  • Lubang
  • Manila
  • Marinduque
  • Tanay–Paete
  • Tayabas
  • Mindoro

Writing system

Latin (Tagalog/Filipino alphabet),
Philippine Braille
Baybayin (historical)
Official status

Official language in

 Philippines (in the form of Filipino)

Recognised minority
language in

 Philippines (Regional language; apart from national standard of Filipino)
Regulated byKomisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-1
ISO 639-2
ISO 639-3 – inclusive code
Individual code:
 – Filipino
Glottolog  Tagalogic[4]

Predominantly Tagalog-speaking regions in the Philippines. The color-schemes represent the four dialect zones of the language: Northern, Central, Southern, and Marinduque The majority of residents in Camarines Norte and Camarines Sur speak Bikol as their first language but these provinces nonetheless have significant Tagalog minorities. In addition, Tagalog is used as a second language across the Philippines.





Main article: Old Tagalog

The word Tagalog is derived from the endonymtaga-log ("river dweller"), composed of tagá- ("native of" or "from") and ilog ("river"). Linguists such as Dr. David Zorc and Dr. Robert Blust speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao or the Eastern Visayas.[7][8]



The first substantial dictionary of the Tagalog language was written by the CzechJesuit missionary Pablo Clain in the beginning of the 18th century. Clain spoke Tagalog and used it actively in several of his books. He prepared the dictionary, which he later passed over to Francisco Jansens and José Hernandez.[9] Further compilation of his substantial work was prepared by P. Juan de Noceda and P. Pedro de Sanlucar and published as Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala in Manila in 1754 and then repeatedly[10] reedited, with the last edition being in 2013 in Manila.[11]

Among others, Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administración de los Santos Sacramentos (1850) in addition to early studies[12] of the language.

The indigenous poet Francisco Baltazar (1788–1862) is regarded as the foremost Tagalog writer, his most notable work being the early 19th-century epicFlorante at Laura.[13]

Historical changes[edit]

Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto-Philippineschwa vowel *ə. In most Bikol and Visayan languages, this sound merged with /u/ and [o]. In Tagalog, it has merged with /i/. For example, Proto-Philippine *dəkət (adhere, stick) is Tagalog dikít and Visayan & Bikol dukot.



Official status[edit]

Main article: Filipino language


In 1935, the Philippine constitution designated English and Spanish as official languages, but mandated the development and adoption of a common national language based on one of the existing native languages.[15] After study and deliberation, the National Language Institute, a committee composed of seven members who represented various regions in the Philippines, chose Tagalog as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.[16][17] President Manuel L. Quezon then, on December 30, 1937, proclaimed the selection of the Tagalog language to be used as the basis for the evolution and adoption of the national language of the Philippines.[16] In 1939, President Quezon renamed the proposed Tagalog-based national language as wikang pambansâ (national language).[17] In 1959, the language was further renamed as "Pilipino".[17] The 1973 constitution designated the Tagalog-based "Pilipino", along with English, as an official language and mandated the development and formal adoption of a common national language to be known as Filipino.[18] The 1987 constitution designated Filipino as the national language mandating that as it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages.[19][20]



— [19]


— [19]


It is the first language of a quarter of the population of the Philippines (particularly in Central Luzon) and a second language of the majority.[24]


Tagalog is a Central Philippine language within the Austronesian language family. Being Malayo-Polynesian, it is related to other Austronesian languages, such as Malagasy, Javanese, Malay (Malaysian and Indonesian), Tetum (of Timor), and Yami (of Taiwan).[25] It is closely related to the languages spoken in the Bicol Region and the Visayas islands, such as the Bikol group and the Visayan group, including Hiligaynon and Cebuano.[25]


At present, no comprehensive dialectology has been done in the Tagalog-speaking regions, though there have been descriptions in the form of dictionaries and grammars of various Tagalog dialects. Ethnologue lists Lubang, Manila, Marinduque, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Tanay-Paete (Rizal-Laguna), and Tayabas as dialects of Tagalog; however, there appear to be four main dialects, of which the aforementioned are a part: Northern (exemplified by the Bulacan dialect), Central (including Manila), Southern (exemplified by Batangas), and Marinduque.

Some example of dialectal differences are:


Perhaps the most divergent Tagalog dialects are those spoken in Marinduque.[26] Linguist Rosa Soberano identifies two dialects, western and eastern, with the former being closer to the Tagalog dialects spoken in the provinces of Batangas and Quezon.


Manila TagalogMarinduqueño TagalogEnglish
Susulat siná María at Esperanza kay Juan.Másúlat da María at Esperanza kay Juan."María and Esperanza will write to Juan."
Mag-aaral siya sa Maynilà.Gaaral siya sa Maynilà."[He/She] will study in Manila."
Maglutò ka na.Paglutò."Cook now."
Kainin mo iyán.Kaina yaan."Eat it."
Tinatawag tayo ni Tatay.Inatawag nganì kitá ni Tatay."Father is calling us."

Northern and central dialects form the basis for the national language.

Geographic distribution[edit]

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of 2014 there were 100 million people living in the Philippines, where almost all of whom will have some basic level of understanding of the language. The Tagalog homeland, Katagalugan, covers roughly much of the central to southern parts of the island of Luzon—particularly in Aurora, Bataan, Batangas, Bulacan, Cavite, Laguna, Metro Manila, Nueva Ecija, Quezon, Rizal, and Zambales. Tagalog is also spoken natively by inhabitants living on the islands, Marinduque, Mindoro, and Palawan. It is spoken by approximately 64 million Filipinos, 96% of the household population;[27] 22 million, or 28% of the total Philippine population,[28] speak it as a native language.






Taglish and Englog are names given to a mix of English and Tagalog. The amount of English vs. Tagalog varies from the occasional use of English loan words to outright code-switching, where the language changes in mid-sentence. Such code-switching is prevalent throughout the Philippines and in various languages of the Philippines other than Tagalog.



City-dwellers, the highly educated, and people born around and after World War II are more likely to do this.



Main article: Tagalog phonology



Tagalog has ten simple vowels, five long and five short, and four diphthongs.[31] Before appearing in the area north of Pasig river, Tagalog had three vowel qualities: /a/, /i/, and /u/. This was later expanded to five with the introduction of words from Northern Philippine languages like Kapampangan and Ilocano and Spanish words.

Closei ⟨i⟩u ⟨u⟩
Midɛ ⟨e⟩o̞ ⟨o⟩
Opena ⟨a⟩



Closei ⟨i⟩u ⟨u⟩
Near-closeɪ ⟨i⟩ʊ ⟨u⟩
Midɛ̝ ⟨e⟩ ⟨o⟩
Open-midɛ ⟨e⟩ɔ ⟨o⟩
Near-openɐ ⟨a⟩
Opena ⟨a⟩ä ⟨a⟩




Nasalm ⟨m⟩n ⟨n⟩ɲ ⟨ny, niy⟩ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Stopp ⟨p⟩b ⟨b⟩t ⟨t⟩d ⟨d⟩k ⟨k⟩g ⟨g⟩ʔ
Affricate(ts ⟨ts⟩)tʃ ⟨ts, tiy, ty, chdʒ ⟨diy, dy, j
Fricatives ⟨s⟩ʃ ⟨siy, sy, shx ⟨-k-⟩h ⟨h, j
Approximantl ⟨l⟩j ⟨y⟩w ⟨w⟩
(ɰ ⟨-g-⟩)
Rhoticɾ ⟨r⟩
  • /k/ between vowels has a tendency to become [x] as in loch, German "Bach", whereas in the initial position it has a tendency to become [kx], especially in the Manila dialect.
  • A glottal stop that occurs in pausa (before a pause) is omitted when it is in the middle of a phrase,[31] especially in the Metro Manila area. The vowel it follows is then lengthened. However, it is preserved in many other dialects.

Glottal stop is not indicated.[31] Glottal stops are most likely to occur when:


Lexical stress[edit]

Lexical stress, coupled with glottalization, is a distinctive feature in Tagalog. Primary stress normally occurs on either the final or the penultimate syllable of a word. Long vowel accompany primary or secondary stress unless the stress occurs at the end of a word.

Tagalog words are often distinguished from one another by the position of the stress and the presence of the glottal stop. In general, there are four types of phonetic emphases, which, in formal or academic settings, are indicated with a diacritic (tuldík) above the vowel. The penultimate primary stress position (malumay) is the default stress type and so is left unwritten except in dictionaries. The name of each stress type has its corresponding diacritic in the final vowel.

LexiconStressed non-ultimate syllableStressed ultimate syllableUnstressed ultimate syllable with glottal stopStressed ultimate syllable with glottal stop
baka[ˈbaka] [ˈbaxa] ('cow')[bɐˈka] [bɐˈxa] ('possible')
pito[ˈpito] ('whistle')[pɪˈto] ('seven')
kaibigan[ˈkaɪbɪɡan] ('lover') / [kɐɪˈbiɡan] ('friend')
bayaran[bɐˈjaran] ('pay [imperative]')[bɐjɐˈran] ('for hire')
bata[ˈbata] ('bath robe')[bɐˈta] ('persevere')[ˈbataʔ] ('child')
sala[ˈsala] ('living room')[ˈsalaʔ] ('sin')[sɐˈlaʔ] ('filtered')
baba[ˈbaba] ('father')[baˈba] ('piggy back')[ˈbabaʔ] ('chin')[bɐˈbaʔ] ('descend [imperative]')
labi[ˈlabɛʔ]/[ˈlabiʔ] ('lips')[lɐˈbɛʔ]/[lɐˈbiʔ] ('remains')


Main articles: Austronesian alignment and Tagalog grammar

Writing system[edit]

See also: Filipino orthography




In April 1890, Jose Rizal authored an article Sobre la Nueva Ortografia de la Lengua Tagalog in the Madrid-based periodical La Solidaridad. In it, he addressed the criticisms of the new writing system by writers like Pobrete and Tecson and the simplicity, in his opinion, of the new orthography. Rizal described the orthography promoted by Pardo de Tavera as "more perfect" than what he himself had developed.[33] The new orthography was however not broadly adopted initially and was used inconsistently in the bilingual periodicals of Manila until the early 20th century.[33] The revolutionary society Kataás-taasan, Kagalang-galang Katipunan ng̃ mg̃á Anak ng̃ Bayan or Katipunan made use of the k-orthography and the letter k featured prominently on many of its flags and insignias.[33]



Main article: Baybayin



















Хотела бы, Джабба, но я должна следить за своей талией. - Ну да? - Он хмыкнул.  - Давай я тебе помогу. - Ах ты, пакостник. - Не знаю, что ты такое подумала.


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