Tagalog language

Not to be confused with the Australian Tagalag language.

Austronesian language

Tagalog
Wikang Tagalog ᜏᜒᜃᜅ᜔ ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔
Pronunciation	[tɐˈɡaːloɡ]
Native to	Philippines
Region	Manila, Southern Tagalog and Central Luzon
Ethnicity	Tagalog
Native speakers	22.5 million (2010)[1] 23.8 million total speakers (2019)[2] 45 million L2 speakers (as Filipino, 2013)[3]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Central Philippine Tagalog
Early forms	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Philippine Old Tagalog Classical Tagalog
Standard forms	Filipino
Dialects	Bataan Batangas Bulacan Lubang Manila Marinduque Tanay–Paete (Rizal-Laguna) Tayabas (Quezon)
Writing system	Latin (Tagalog/Filipino alphabet), Philippine Braille Baybayin (historical)
Official status
Official language in	Philippines (in the form of Filipino)
Recognised minoritylanguage in	Philippines (Regional language; apart from national standard of Filipino)
Regulated by	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-1	tl
ISO 639-2	tgl
ISO 639-3	tgl
Glottolog	taga1280  Tagalogic taga1269  Tagalog-Filipino
Linguasphere	31-CKA
Predominantly Tagalog-speaking regions in the Philippines.

Tagalog (/təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/, tə-GAH-log;^[4] Tagalog pronunciation: [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]) is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by the ethnic Tagalog people, who make up a quarter of the population of the Philippines, and as a second language by the majority.^[5][6] Its standardized form, officially named Filipino, is the national language of the Philippines, and is one of two official languages alongside English.

Tagalog is closely related to other Philippine languages, such as the Bikol languages, Ilocano, the Visayan languages, Kapampangan, and Pangasinan, and more distantly to other Austronesian languages, such as the Formosan languages of Taiwan, Malay (Malaysian and Indonesian), Hawaiian, Māori, and Malagasy.

Classification

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).^[7] 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 Waray-Waray, Hiligaynon and Cebuano.^[7]

Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto-Philippine schwa 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.

Proto-Philippine *r, *j, and *z merged with /d/ but is /l/ between vowels. Proto-Philippine *ŋajan (name) and *hajək (kiss) became Tagalog ngalan and halík.

Proto-Philippine *R merged with /ɡ/. *tubiR (water) and *zuRuʔ (blood) became Tagalog tubig and dugô.

History

Main article: Old Tagalog

The Tagalog Baybayin script

The word Tagalog is derived from the endonym taga-ilog ("river dweller"), composed of tagá- ("native of" or "from") and ilog ("river"). Linguists such as David Zorc and Robert Blust speculate that the Tagalogs and other Central Philippine ethno-linguistic groups originated in Northeastern Mindanao or the Eastern Visayas.^[8][9]

Possible words of Old Tagalog origin are attested in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription from the tenth century, which is largely written in Old Malay.^[10] The first known complete book to be written in Tagalog is the Doctrina Christiana (Christian Doctrine), printed in 1593. The Doctrina was written in Spanish and two transcriptions of Tagalog; one in the ancient, then-current Baybayin script and the other in an early Spanish attempt at a Latin orthography for the language.

Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, 1794.

Throughout the 333 years of Spanish rule, various grammars and dictionaries were written by Spanish clergymen. In 1610, the Dominican priest Francisco Blancas de San Jose published the "Arte y reglas de la lengua tagala" (which was subsequently revised with two editions in 1752 and 1832) in Bataan. In 1613, the Franciscan priest Pedro de San Buenaventura published the first Tagalog dictionary, his "Vocabulario de la lengua tagala" in Pila, Laguna.

The first substantial dictionary of the Tagalog language was written by the Czech Jesuit 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.^[11] 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^[12] reedited, with the last edition being in 2013 in Manila.^[13]

Among others, Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administración de los Santos Sacramentos (1850) in addition to early studies^[14] of the language.

The indigenous poet Francisco Balagtas (1788–1862) is regarded as the foremost Tagalog writer, his most notable work being the early 19th-century epic Florante at Laura.^[15]

Official status

Main article: Filipino language

Diariong Tagalog (Tagalog Newspaper), the first bilingual newspaper in the Philippines founded in 1882 written in both Tagalog and Spanish.

Tagalog was declared the official language by the first revolutionary constitution in the Philippines, the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato in 1897.^[16]

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.^[17] 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.^[18][19] 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.^[18] In 1939, President Quezon renamed the proposed Tagalog-based national language as Wikang Pambansâ (national language).^[19] Under the Japanese puppet government during World War II, Tagalog as a national language was strongly promoted; the 1943 Constitution specifying: The government shall take steps toward the development and propagation of Tagalog as the national language.".

In 1959, the language was further renamed as "Pilipino".^[19] Along with English, the national language has had official status under the 1973 constitution (as "Pilipino")^[20] and the present 1987 constitution (as Filipino).

Controversy

The adoption of Tagalog in 1937 as basis for a national language is not without its own controversies. Instead of specifying Tagalog, the national language was designated as Wikang Pambansâ ("National Language") in 1939.^[18][21] Twenty years later, in 1959, it was renamed by then Secretary of Education, José Romero, as Pilipino to give it a national rather than ethnic label and connotation. The changing of the name did not, however, result in acceptance among non-Tagalogs, especially Cebuanos who had not accepted the selection.^[19]

The national language issue was revived once more during the 1971 Constitutional Convention. The majority of the delegates were even in favor of scrapping the idea of a "national language" altogether.^[22] A compromise solution was worked out—a "universalist" approach to the national language, to be called Filipino rather than Pilipino. The 1973 constitution makes no mention of Tagalog. When a new constitution was drawn up in 1987, it named Filipino as the national language.^[19] The constitution specified that as the Filipino language evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. However, more than two decades after the institution of the "universalist" approach, there seems to be little if any difference between Tagalog and Filipino.

Many of the older generation in the Philippines feel that the replacement of English by Tagalog in the popular visual media has had dire economic effects regarding the competitiveness of the Philippines in trade and overseas remittances.^[23]

Use in education

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2018)

Upon the issuance of Executive Order No. 134, Tagalog was declared as basis of the National Language. On 12 April 1940, Executive No. 263 was issued ordering the teaching of the national language in all public and private schools in the country.^[24]

Article XIV, Section 6 of the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines specifies, in part:

Subject to provisions of law and as the Congress may deem appropriate, the Government shall take steps to initiate and sustain the use of Filipino as a medium of official communication and as language of instruction in the educational system.^[25]

Under Section 7, however:

The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein.^[25]

In 2009, the Department of Education promulgated an order institutionalizing a system of mother-tongue based multilingual education ("MLE"), wherein instruction is conducted primarily in a student's mother tongue (one of the various regional Philippine languages) until at least grade three, with additional languages such as Filipino and English being introduced as separate subjects no earlier than grade two. In secondary school, Filipino and English become the primary languages of instruction, with the learner's first language taking on an auxiliary role.^[26] After pilot tests in selected schools, the MLE program was implemented nationwide from School Year (SY) 2012–2013.^[27][28]

Tagalog is the first language of a quarter of the population of the Philippines (particularly in Central and Southern Luzon) and the second language for the majority.^[29]

Geographic distribution

No dumping sign along the highway in the Laguna province, Philippines.

A landslide and rockslide-prone area sign at Indang, Cavite.

Welcome arch to Palayan, Nueva Ecija.

Distribution of Tagalog speakers around the world.

  Countries with more than 500,000 speakers

  Countries with 100,000–500,000 speakers

  Countries where it is spoken by minor communities

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, as of 2014, there were 100 million people living in the Philippines, where the vast majority 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 of Marinduque and Mindoro, as well as Palawan to a lesser extent. Significant minorities are found in the other Central Luzon provinces of Pampanga and Tarlac, Ambos Camarines in Bicol Region, and the Cordillera city of Baguio. Tagalog is also the predominant language of Cotabato City in Mindanao, making it the only place outside of Luzon with a native Tagalog speaking majority.^[30]

At the 2000 Philippines Census, it is spoken by approximately 57.3 million Filipinos, 96% of the household population who were able to attend school;^[31] slightly over 22 million, or 28% of the total Philippine population,^[32] speak it as a native language.

The following regions and provinces of the Philippines are majority Tagalog-speaking (from north to south):

• Central Luzon Region
  • Aurora
  • Bataan
  • Bulacan
  • Nueva Ecija
  • Zambales
• Metro Manila (National Capital Region)
• Southern Luzon (Calabarzon and Mimaropa)
  • Batangas
  • Cavite
  • Laguna
  • Rizal
  • Quezon
  • Marinduque
  • Occidental Mindoro
  • Oriental Mindoro
  • Romblon
  • Palawan
• Bicol Region (While the Bikol languages have traditionally been the majority languages in the following provinces, heavy Tagalog influence and migration has resulted in its significant presence in these provinces and in many communities Tagalog is now the majority language.)
  • Camarines Norte
  • Camarines Sur
• Bangsamoro
  • Maguindanao (While Maguindanao has traditionally been the majority language of the province, Tagalog is now the main language of "mother tongue" primary education in the province and is the majority language in the regional center of Cotabato City.)^[33]

Tagalog speakers are also found in other parts of the Philippines and through its standardized form of Filipino, the language serves the national lingua franca of the country.

Tagalog also serves as the common language among Overseas Filipinos, though its use overseas is usually limited to communication between Filipino ethnic groups. The largest concentration of Tagalog speakers outside the Philippines is found in the United States, where in 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau reported (based on data collected in 2011) that it was the fourth most-spoken non-English language at home with almost 1.6 million speakers, behind Spanish, French (including Patois, Cajun, Creole), and Chinese (with figures for Cantonese and Mandarin combined). In urban areas, Tagalog ranked as the third most spoken non-English language, behind Spanish and Chinese varieties but ahead of French.^[34] Other countries with significant concentrations of overseas Filipinos and Tagalog speakers include Saudi Arabia, Canada, Japan, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Malaysia.

Dialects

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

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 Manila, Lubang, Marinduque, Bataan (Western Central Luzon), Batangas, Bulacan (Eastern Central Luzon), Tanay-Paete (Rizal-Laguna), and Tayabas (Quezon and Aurora) 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:

• Many Tagalog dialects, particularly those in the south, preserve the glottal stop found after consonants and before vowels. This has been lost in Standard Tagalog. For example, standard Tagalog ngayón (now, today), sinigáng (broth stew), gabí (night), matamís (sweet), are pronounced and written ngay-on, sinig-ang, gab-i, and matam-is in other dialects.
• In Teresian-Morong Tagalog, [ɾ] is usually preferred over [d]. For example, bundók, dagat, dingdíng, and isdâ become bunrók, ragat, ringríng, and isrâ, e.g. "sandók sa dingdíng" becoming "sanrók sa ringríng".
• In many southern dialects, the progressive aspect infix of -um- verbs is na-. For example, standard Tagalog kumakain (eating) is nákáin in Quezon and Batangas Tagalog. This is the butt of some jokes by other Tagalog speakers, for should a Southern Tagalog ask nákáin ka ba ng patíng? ("Do you eat shark?"), he would be understood as saying "Has a shark eaten you?" by speakers of the Manila Dialect.
• Some dialects have interjections which are considered a regional trademark. For example, the interjection ala e! usually identifies someone from Batangas as does hane?! in Rizal and Quezon provinces.

Perhaps the most divergent Tagalog dialects are those spoken in Marinduque.^[35] 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.

One example is the verb conjugation paradigms. While some of the affixes are different, Marinduque also preserves the imperative affixes, also found in Visayan and Bikol languages, that have mostly disappeared from most Tagalog early 20th century; they have since merged with the infinitive.

Manila Tagalog	Marinduqueño Tagalog	English
Susulat silá 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."
Tútulungan ba kayó ni Hilario?	Atulungan ga kamo ni Hilario?	"Is Hilario going to help you?"

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

Code-switching with English

Main article: Taglish

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 changing language in mid-sentence. Such code-switching is prevalent throughout the Philippines and in various languages of the Philippines other than Tagalog.

Code-mixing also entails the use of foreign words that are "Filipinized" by reforming them using Filipino rules, such as verb conjugations. Users typically use Filipino or English words, whichever comes to mind first or whichever is easier to use.

Magshoshopping kami sa mall. Sino ba ang magdadrive sa shopping center?	We will go shopping at the mall. Who will drive to the shopping center?

City-dwellers are more likely to do this.

The practice is common in television, radio, and print media as well. Advertisements from companies like Wells Fargo, Wal-Mart, Albertsons, McDonald's, and Western Union have contained Taglish.

Phonology

Main article: Tagalog phonology

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

Tagalog has 33 phonemes: 19 of them are consonants and 14 are vowels. Syllable structure is relatively simple, being maximally CrVC, where Cr only occurs in borrowed words such as trak "truck" or sombréro "hat".^[36]

Vowels

Tagalog has ten simple vowels, five long and five short, and four diphthongs.^[36] Before appearing in the area north of the Pasig river, Tagalog had three vowel qualities: /a/, /i/, and /u/. This was later expanded to five with the introduction of words from central and northern Philippines, such as the Kapampangan, Pangasinan and Ilocano languages, as well as Spanish words.

Table of the five general Tagalog vowel phonemes

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩		o̞ ⟨o⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

• /a/ an open central unrounded vowel roughly similar to English "father"; in the middle of a word, a near-open central vowel similar to Received Pronunciation "cup"; or an open front unrounded vowel similar to Received Pronunciation or California English "hat"
• /ɛ/ an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to General American English "bed"
• /i/ a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "machine"
• /o/ a mid back rounded vowel similar to General American English "soul" or Philippine English "forty"
• /u/ a close back rounded vowel similar to English "flute"

Nevertheless, simplification of pairs [o ~ u] and [ɛ ~ i] is likely to take place, especially in some Tagalog as second language, remote location and working class registers.

The four diphthongs are /aj/, /uj/, /aw/, and /iw/. Long vowels are not written apart from pedagogical texts, where an acute accent is used: á é í ó ú.^[36]

Table of all possible realizations of Tagalog vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩		u ⟨u⟩
Near-close	ɪ ⟨i⟩		ʊ ⟨u⟩
Mid	ɛ̝ ⟨e⟩		o̞ ⟨o⟩
Open-mid	ɛ ⟨e⟩		ɔ ⟨o⟩
Near-open		ɐ ⟨a⟩
Open	a ⟨a⟩	ä ⟨a⟩

The table above shows all the possible realizations for each of the five vowel sounds depending on the speaker's origin or proficiency. The five general vowels are in bold.

Consonants

Below is a chart of Tagalog consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word. Loanword variants using these phonemes are italicized inside the angle brackets.

Tagalog consonant phonemes^[36]

	Bilabial		Alveolar/Dental		Post-alveolar/Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m		n		ɲ ⟨ny, niy⟩		ŋ ⟨ng⟩
Stop	p	b	t	d			k	ɡ	ʔ
Affricate			(ts)		tʃ ⟨ts, tiy, ty, ch⟩	dʒ ⟨diy, dy, j⟩
Fricative			s		ʃ ⟨siy, sy, sh⟩				h ⟨h, j⟩
Approximant				l		j ⟨y⟩		w
Rhotic				ɾ ⟨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.
• Intervocalic /ɡ/ and /k/ tend to become [ɰ], as in Spanish agua, especially in the Manila dialect.
• /ɾ/ and /d/ were once allophones, and they still vary grammatically, with initial /d/ becoming intervocalic /ɾ/ in many words.^[36]
• A glottal stop that occurs in pausa (before a pause) is omitted when it is in the middle of a phrase,^[36] especially in the Metro Manila area. The vowel it follows is then lengthened. However, it is preserved in many other dialects.
• The /ɾ/ phoneme is an alveolar rhotic that has a free variation between a trill, a flap and an approximant ([r~ɾ~ɹ]).
• The /dʒ/ phoneme may become a consonant cluster [dd͡ʒ] in between vowels such as sadyâ [sadˈd͡ʒäʔ].

Glottal stop is not indicated.^[36] Glottal stops are most likely to occur when:

• the word starts with a vowel, like aso (dog)
• the word includes a dash followed by a vowel, like mag-aral (study)
• the word has two vowels next to each other, like paano (how)
• the word starts with a prefix followed by a verb that starts with a vowel, like mag-aayos ([will] fix)

Stress and final glottal stop

Stress is a distinctive feature in Tagalog. Primary stress occurs on either the final or the penultimate syllable of a word. Vowel lengthening accompanies primary or secondary stress except when stress occurs at the end of a word.

Tagalog words are often distinguished from one another by the position of the stress and/or the presence of a final glottal stop. In formal or academic settings, stress placement and the glottal stop are indicated by a diacritic (tuldík) above the final vowel.^[37] The penultimate primary stress position (malumay) is the default stress type and so is left unwritten except in dictionaries.

Phonetic comparison of Tagalog homographs based on stress and final glottal stop

Common spelling	Stressed non-ultimate syllable no diacritic	Stressed ultimate syllable acute accent (´)	Unstressed ultimate syllable with glottal stop grave accent (`)	Stressed ultimate syllable with glottal stop circumflex accent (^)
baka	[ˈbaka] baka ('cow')	[bɐˈka] baká ('possible')
pito	[ˈpito] pito ('whistle')	[pɪˈto] pitó ('seven')
bayaran	[bɐˈjaran] bayaran ('pay [imperative]')	[bɐjɐˈran] bayarán ('for hire')
bata	[ˈbata] bata ('bath robe')	[bɐˈta] batá ('persevere')	[ˈbataʔ] batà ('child')
sala	[ˈsala] sala ('living room')		[ˈsalaʔ] salà ('sin')	[sɐˈlaʔ] salâ ('filtered')
baba	[ˈbaba] baba ('father')	[baˈba] babá ('piggy back')	[ˈbabaʔ] babà ('chin')	[bɐˈbaʔ] babâ ('descend [imperative]')
labi			[ˈlabɛʔ]/[ˈlabiʔ] labì ('lips')	[lɐˈbɛʔ]/[lɐˈbiʔ] labî ('remains')

Grammar

Main articles: Tagalog grammar and Austronesian alignment

Writing system

See also: Filipino orthography

This article contains Baybayin script. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Baybayin characters.

Tagalog, like other Philippines languages today, is written using the Latin alphabet. Prior to the arrival of the Spanish in 1521 and the beginning of their colonization in 1565, Tagalog was written in an abugida—or alphasyllabary—called Baybayin. This system of writing gradually gave way to the use and propagation of the Latin alphabet as introduced by the Spanish. As the Spanish began to record and create grammars and dictionaries for the various languages of the Philippine archipelago, they adopted systems of writing closely following the orthographic customs of the Spanish language and were refined over the years. Until the first half of the 20th century, most Philippine languages were widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography.

In the late 19th century, a number of educated Filipinos began proposing for revising the spelling system used for Tagalog at the time. In 1884, Filipino doctor and student of languages Trinidad Pardo de Tavera published his study on the ancient Tagalog script Contribucion para el Estudio de los Antiguos Alfabetos Filipinos and in 1887, published his essay El Sanscrito en la lengua Tagalog which made use of a new writing system developed by him. Meanwhile, Jose Rizal, inspired by Pardo de Tavera's 1884 work, also began developing a new system of orthography (unaware at first of Pardo de Tavera's own orthography).^[38] A major noticeable change in these proposed orthographies was the use of the letter ⟨k⟩ rather than ⟨c⟩ and ⟨q⟩ to represent the phoneme /k/.

In 1889, the new bilingual Spanish-Tagalog La España Oriental newspaper, of which Isabelo de los Reyes was an editor, began publishing using the new orthography stating in a footnote that it would "use the orthography recently introduced by ... learned Orientalis". This new orthography, while having its supporters, was also not initially accepted by several writers. Soon after the first issue of La España, Pascual H. Poblete's Revista Católica de Filipina began a series of articles attacking the new orthography and its proponents. A fellow writer, Pablo Tecson was also critical. Among the attacks was the use of the letters "k" and "w" as they were deemed to be of German origin and thus its proponents were deemed as "unpatriotic". The publishers of these two papers would eventually merge as La Lectura Popular in January 1890 and would eventually make use of both spelling systems in its articles.^[39][38] Pedro Laktaw, a schoolteacher, published the first Spanish-Tagalog dictionary using the new orthography in 1890.^[39]

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.^[39] The new orthography was however not broadly adopted initially and was used inconsistently in the bilingual periodicals of Manila until the early 20th century.^[39] 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.^[39]

In 1937, Tagalog was selected to serve as basis for the country's national language. In 1940, the Balarílà ng Wikang Pambansâ (English: Grammar of the National Language) of grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced the Abakada alphabet. This alphabet consists of 20 letters and became the standard alphabet of the national language.^[40] The orthography as used by Tagalog would eventually influence and spread to the systems of writing used by other Philippine languages (which had been using variants of the Spanish-based system of writing). In 1987, the ABAKADA was dropped and in its place is the expanded Filipino alphabet.

Baybayin

Main article: Baybayin

Tagalog was written in an abugida (alphasyllabary) called Baybayin prior to the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, in the 16th century. This particular writing system was composed of symbols representing three vowels and 14 consonants. Belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts, it shares similarities with the Old Kawi script of Java and is believed to be descended from the script used by the Bugis in Sulawesi.

Although it enjoyed a relatively high level of literacy, Baybayin gradually fell into disuse in favor of the Latin alphabet taught by the Spaniards during their rule.

There has been confusion of how to use Baybayin, which is actually an abugida, or an alphasyllabary, rather than an alphabet. Not every letter in the Latin alphabet is represented with one of those in the Baybayin alphasyllabary. Rather than letters being put together to make sounds as in Western languages, Baybayin uses symbols to represent syllables.

A "kudlit" resembling an apostrophe is used above or below a symbol to change the vowel sound after its consonant. If the kudlit is used above, the vowel is an "E" or "I" sound. If the kudlit is used below, the vowel is an "O" or "U" sound. A special kudlit was later added by Spanish missionaries in which a cross placed below the symbol to get rid of the vowel sound all together, leaving a consonant. Previously, the consonant without a following vowel was simply left out (for example, bundok being rendered as budo), forcing the reader to use context when reading such words.

Example:

vowels ᜔ a ᜀ i e ᜁ u o ᜂ

b b ᜊ᜔ ba ᜊ bi be ᜊᜒ bu bo ᜊᜓ

k k ᜃ᜔ ka ᜃ ki ke ᜃᜒ ku ko ᜃᜓᜓ

d/r d/r ᜇ᜔ da/ra ᜇ di/ri de/re ᜇᜒ du/ru do/ro ᜇᜓ

g g ᜄ᜔ ga ᜄ gi ge ᜄᜒ gu go ᜄᜓ

h h ᜑ᜔ ha ᜑ hi he ᜑᜒ hu ho ᜑᜓ

l l ᜎ᜔ la ᜎ li le ᜎᜒ lu lo ᜎᜓ

m m ᜋ᜔ ma ᜋ mi me ᜋᜒ mu mo ᜋᜓ

n n ᜈ᜔ na ᜈ ni ne ᜈᜒ nu no ᜈᜓ

ng ng ᜅ᜔ nga ᜅ ngi nge ᜅᜒ ngu ngo ᜅᜓ

p p ᜉ᜔ pa ᜉ pi pe ᜉᜒ pu po ᜉᜓ

s s ᜐ᜔ sa ᜐ si se ᜐᜒ su so ᜐᜓ

t t ᜆ᜔ ta ᜆ ti te ᜆᜒ tu to ᜆᜓ

w w ᜏ᜔ wa ᜏ wi we ᜏᜒ wu wo ᜏᜓ

y y ᜌ᜔ ya ᜌ yi ye ᜌᜒ yu yo ᜌᜓ

Latin alphabet

Abecedario

Until the first half of the 20th century, Tagalog was widely written in a variety of ways based on Spanish orthography consisting of 32 letters called 'ABECEDARIO' (Spanish for "alphabet"):^[41][42]

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	Ng	ng
B	b	Ñ	ñ
C	c	N͠g / Ñg	n͠g / ñg
Ch	ch	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	Q	q
F	f	R	r
G	g	Rr	rr
H	h	S	s
I	i	T	t
J	j	U	u
K	k	V	v
L	l	W	w
Ll	ll	X	x
M	m	Y	y
N	n	Z	z

Abakada

Main article: Abakada alphabet

When the national language was based on Tagalog, grammarian Lope K. Santos introduced a new alphabet consisting of 20 letters called ABAKADA in school grammar books called balarilà:^[43][44][45]

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	N	n
B	b	Ng	ng
K	k	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	R	r
G	g	S	s
H	h	T	t
I	i	U	u
L	l	W	w
M	m	Y	y

Revised alphabet

Main article: Filipino alphabet

In 1987, the Department of Education, Culture and Sports issued a memo stating that the Philippine alphabet had changed from the Pilipino-Tagalog Abakada version to a new 28-letter alphabet^[46][47] to make room for loans, especially family names from Spanish and English:^[48]

Majuscule	Minuscule	Majuscule	Minuscule
A	a	Ñ	ñ
B	b	Ng	ng
C	c	O	o
D	d	P	p
E	e	Q	q
F	f	R	r
G	g	S	s
H	h	T	t
I	i	U	u
J	j	V	v
K	k	W	w
L	l	X	x
M	m	Y	y
N	n	Z	z

ng and mga

See also: ng (digraph)

The genitive marker ng and the plural marker mga (e.g. Iyan ang mga damit ko. (Those are my clothes)) are abbreviations that are pronounced nang [naŋ] and mangá [mɐˈŋa]. Ng, in most cases, roughly translates to "of" (ex. Siya ay kapatid ng nanay ko. She is the sibling of my mother) while nang usually means "when" or can describe how something is done or to what extent (equivalent to the suffix -ly in English adverbs), among other uses.

• Nang si Hudas ay nadulás.—When Judas slipped.
• Gumising siya nang maaga.—He woke up early.
• Gumalíng nang todo si Juan dahil nag-ensayo siya.—Juan greatly improved because he practiced.

In the first example, nang is used in lieu of the word noong (when; Noong si Hudas ay madulas). In the second, nang describes that the person woke up (gumising) early (maaga); gumising nang maaga. In the third, nang described up to what extent that Juan improved (gumaling), which is "greatly" (nang todo). In the latter two examples, the ligature na and its variants -ng and -g may also be used (Gumising na maaga/Maagang gumising; Gumaling na todo/Todong gumaling).

The longer nang may also have other uses, such as a ligature that joins a repeated word:

• Naghintáy sila nang naghintáy.—They kept on waiting" (a closer calque: "They were waiting and waiting.")

pô/hô and opò/ohò

The words pô/hô and opò/ohò are traditionally used as polite iterations of the affirmative "oo" ("yes"). It is generally used when addressing elders or superiors such as bosses or teachers.

"Pô" and "opò" are specifically used to denote a high level of respect when addressing older persons of close affinity like parents, relatives, teachers and family friends. "Hô" and "ohò" are generally used to politely address older neighbours, strangers, public officials, bosses and nannies, and may suggest a distance in societal relationship and respect determined by the addressee's social rank and not their age. However, "pô" and "opò" can be used in any case in order to express an elevation of respect.

• Example: "Pakitapon naman pô/ho yung basura." ("Please throw away the trash.")

Used in the affirmative:

• Ex: "Gutóm ka na ba?" "Opò/Ohò". ("Are you hungry yet?" "Yes.")

Pô/Hô may also be used in negation.

• Ex: "Hindi ko pô/hô alam 'yan." ("I don't know that.")

Vocabulary and borrowed words

See also: List of loanwords in Tagalog

Tagalog vocabulary is composed mostly of words of native Austronesian origin - most of the words that end with the diphthongs -iw, (e.g. saliw) and those words that exhibit reduplication (e.g. halo-halo, patpat, etc.). However it has a significant number of Spanish loanwords. Spanish is the language that has bequeathed the most loanwords to Tagalog.

In pre-Hispanic times, Trade Malay was widely known and spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia.

Tagalog also includes many loanwords from English, Indian languages (Sanskrit and Tamil), Chinese languages (Hokkien, Cantonese, Mandarin), Japanese, Arabic and Persian.

Due to trade with Mexico via the Manila galleons from the 16th to the 19th centuries, many words from Nahuatl (Aztec) and Castilian (Spanish) were introduced to Tagalog.

English has borrowed some words from Tagalog, such as abaca, barong, balisong, boondocks, jeepney, Manila hemp, pancit, ylang-ylang, and yaya. However, the vast majority of these borrowed words are only used in the Philippines as part of the vocabularies of Philippine English.^{[citation needed]}

Other examples of Tagalog words used in English

Example	Definition
boondocks	meaning "rural" or "back country," was imported by American soldiers stationed in the Philippines following the Spanish–American War as a phonologically nativized version of the Tagalog bundok, which means "mountain."
cogon	a type of grass, used for thatching. This word came from the Tagalog word kugon (a species of tall grass).
ylang-ylang	a tree whose fragrant flowers are used in perfumes.
Abaca	a type of hemp fiber made from a plant in the banana family, from abaká.
Manila hemp	a light brown cardboard material used for folders and paper usually made from abaca hemp.
Capiz	also known as window oyster, is used to make windows.

Tagalog has contributed several words to Philippine Spanish, like barangay (from balan͠gay, meaning barrio), the abacá, cogon, palay, dalaga etc.

Tagalog words of foreign origin

Main article: List of loanwords in Tagalog

Cognates with other Philippine languages

Tagalog word	Meaning	Language of cognate	Spelling
bakit	why	Kapampangan	obakit
akyat	climb/step up	Kapampangan	ukyát/mukyat
bundok	mountain	Kapampangan	bunduk
at	and	Kapampangan Pangasinan	at tan
aso	dog	Kapampangan Pangasinan	asu aso
huwag	don't	Pangasinan	ag
tayo	we (inc.)	Pangasinan	sikatayo
ito, nito	this, its	Ilocano	to
ng	of	Cebuano Hiligaynon Waray Kapampangan Pangasinan	sa sang han ning na
araw	sun; day	Visayan languages Kapampangan Pangasinan	adlaw aldo agew
ang	definite article	Visayan languages Bicolano	ang an

Austronesian comparison chart

Below is a chart of Tagalog and a number of other Austronesian languages comparing thirteen words.

English	one	two	three	four	person	house	dog	coconut	day	new	we (inclusive)	what	fire
Tagalog	isa	dalawa	tatlo	apat	tao	bahay	aso	niyog	araw	bago	tayo	ano	apoy
Tombulu (Minahasa)	esa	zua (rua)	telu	epat	tou	walé	asu	po'po'	endo	weru	kai, kita	apa	api
Central Bikol	saro	duwa	tulo	apat	tawo	harong	ayam	niyog	aldaw	ba-go	kita	ano	kalayo
Rinconada Bikol	əsad	darwā	tolō	əpat	tawō	baləy	ayam	noyog	aldəw	bāgo	kitā	onō	kalayō
Waray	usa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	ayam/ido	lubi	adlaw	bag-o	kita	anu/nano	kalayo
Cebuano	usa/isa	duha	tulo	upat	tawo	balay	iro	lubi	adlaw	bag-o	kita	unsa	kalayo
Hiligaynon	isa	duha/dua	tatlo	apat	tawo	balay	ido	lubi	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kalayo
Aklanon	isaea, sambilog, uno	daywa, dos	tatlo, tres	ap-at, kwatro	tawo	baeay	ayam	niyog	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kaeayo
Kinaray-a	sara	darwa	tatlo	apat	tawo	balay	ayam	niyog	adlaw	bag-o	kita	ano	kalayo
Tausug	hambuuk	duwa	tu	upat	tau	bay	iru'	niyug	adlaw	ba-gu	kitaniyu	unu	kayu
Maranao	isa	dowa	t'lo	phat	taw	walay	aso	neyog	gawi'e	bago	tano	tonaa	apoy
Kapampangan	metung	adwa	atlu	apat	tau	bale	asu	ngungut	aldo	bayu	ikatamu	nanu	api
Pangasinan	sakey	dua, duara	talo, talora	apat, apatira	too	abong	aso	niyog	ageo	balo	sikatayo	anto	pool
Ilocano	maysa	dua	tallo	uppat	tao	balay	aso	niog	aldaw	baro	datayo	ania	apoy
Ivatan	asa	dadowa	tatdo	apat	tao	vahay	chito	niyoy	araw	va-yo	yaten	ango	apoy
Ibanag	tadday	dua	tallu	appa'	tolay	balay	kitu	niuk	aggaw	bagu	sittam	anni	afi
Yogad	tata	addu	tallu	appat	tolay	binalay	atu	iyyog	agaw	bagu	sikitam	gani	afuy
Gaddang	antet	addwa	tallo	appat	tolay	balay	atu	ayog	aw	bawu	ikkanetam	sanenay	afuy
Tboli	sotu	lewu	tlu	fat	tau	gunu	ohu	lefo	kdaw	lomi	tekuy	tedu	ofih
Kadazan	iso	duvo	tohu	apat	tuhun	hamin	tasu	piasau	tadau	vagu	tokou	onu	tapui
Malay/Indonesian	satu	dua	tiga	empat	orang	rumah	anjing	kelapa/nyiur	hari	baru/baharu	kita	apa	api
Javanese	siji	loro	telu	papat	uwong	omah	asu	klapa/kambil	hari/dina/dinten	anyar/enggal	kita	apa/anu	geni
Acehnese	sa	duwa	lhèë	peuët	ureuëng	rumoh/balèë	asèë	u	uroë	barô	(geu)tanyoë	peuë	apuy
Lampung	sai	khua	telu	pak	jelema	lamban	asu	nyiwi	khani	baru	kham	api	apui
Buginese	se'di	dua	tellu	eppa'	tau	bola	asu	kaluku	esso	baru	idi'	aga	api
Batak	sada	dua	tolu	opat	halak	jabu	biang	harambiri	ari	baru	hita	aha	api
Minangkabau	ciek	duo	tigo	ampek	urang	rumah	anjiang	karambia	ari	baru	kito	apo	api
Tetum	ida	rua	tolu	haat	ema	uma	asu	nuu	loron	foun	ita	saida	ahi
Māori	tahi	rua	toru	wha	tangata	whare	kuri	kokonati	ra	hou	taua	aha	ahi
Tuvaluan	tasi	lua	tolu	fá	toko	fale	kuri	moku	aso	fou	tāua	ā	afi
Hawaiian	kahi	lua	kolu	hā	kanaka	hale	'īlio	niu	ao	hou	kākou	aha	ahi
Banjarese	asa	dua	talu	ampat	urang	rumah	hadupan	kalapa	hari	hanyar	kita	apa	api
Malagasy	isa	roa	telo	efatra	olona	trano	alika	voanio	andro	vaovao	isika	inona	afo
Dusun	iso	duo	tolu	apat	tulun	walai	tasu	piasau	tadau	wagu	tokou	onu/nu	tapui
Iban	sa/san	duan	dangku	dangkan	orang	rumah	ukui/uduk	nyiur	hari	baru	kitai	nama	api
Melanau	satu	dua	telou	empat	apah	lebok	asou	nyior	lau	baew	teleu	nama	apui

Religious literature

The Ten Commandments in Tagalog.

Religious literature remains one of the most dynamic contributors to Tagalog literature. The first Bible in Tagalog, then called Ang Biblia^[49] ("the Bible") and now called Ang Dating Biblia^[50] ("the Old Bible"), was published in 1905. In 1970, the Philippine Bible Society translated the Bible into modern Tagalog. Even before the Second Vatican Council, devotional materials in Tagalog had been in circulation. There are at least four circulating Tagalog translations of the Bible

• the Magandang Balita Biblia (a parallel translation of the Good News Bible), which is the ecumenical version
• the Bibliya ng Sambayanang Pilipino
• the 1905 Ang Biblia is a more Protestant version
• the Bagong Sanlibutang Salin ng Banal na Kasulatan (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures)

When the Second Vatican Council, (specifically the Sacrosanctum Concilium) permitted the universal prayers to be translated into vernacular languages, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines was one of the first to translate the Roman Missal into Tagalog. The Roman Missal in Tagalog was published as early as 1982.

Jehovah's Witnesses were printing Tagalog literature at least as early as 1941^[51] and The Watchtower (the primary magazine of Jehovah's Witnesses) has been published in Tagalog since at least the 1950s. New releases are now regularly released simultaneously in a number of languages, including Tagalog. The official website of Jehovah's Witnesses also has some publications available online in Tagalog.^[52] The revised bible edition, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, was released in Tagalog on 2019^[53] and it is distributed without charge both printed and online versions.

Tagalog is quite a stable language, and very few revisions have been made to Catholic Bible translations. Also, as Protestantism in the Philippines is relatively young, liturgical prayers tend to be more ecumenical.

Examples

Lord's Prayer

In Tagalog, the Lord's Prayer is known by its incipit, Amá Namin (literally, "Our Father").

Amá namin, sumasalangit Ka,
Sambahín ang ngalan Mo.
Mapasaamin ang kaharián Mo.
Sundín ang loób Mo,
Dito sa lupà, gaya nang sa langit.
Bigyán Mo kamí ngayón ng aming kakanin sa araw-araw,
At patawarin Mo kamí sa aming mga salâ,
Para nang pagpápatawad namin,
Sa nagkakasalà sa amin;
At huwág Mo kamíng ipahintulot sa tuksó,
At iadyâ Mo kamí sa lahát ng masamâ.
[Sapagkát sa Inyó ang kaharián, at ang kapangyarihan,
At ang kaluwálhatian, ngayón, at magpakailanman.]
Amen.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Pángkalahatáng Pagpapahayag ng Karapatáng Pantao)

Bawat tao'y isinilang na may layà at magkakapantáy ang tagláy na dangál at karapatán. Silá'y pinagkalooban ng pangangatwiran at budhî na kailangang gamitin nilá sa pagtuturingan nilá sa diwà ng pagkakapatiran.	All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.[54]

Numbers

The numbers (mga bilang) in Tagalog language are of two sets. The first set consists of native Tagalog words and the other set are Spanish loanwords. (This may be compared to other East Asian languages, except with the second set of numbers borrowed from Spanish instead of Chinese.) For example, when a person refers to the number "seven", it can be translated into Tagalog as "pito" or "siyete" (Spanish: siete).

Number	Cardinal	Spanish loanword (Original Spanish)	Ordinal
0	sero / walâ (lit. "null") / awán	sero (cero)	-
1	isá	uno (uno)	una
2	dalawá [dalaua]	dos (dos)	pangalawá / ikalawá
3	tatló	tres (tres)	pangatló / ikatló
4	apat	kuwatro (cuatro)	pang-apat / ikaapat (In standard Filipino orthography, "ika" and the number-word are never hyphenated.)
5	limá	singko (cinco)	panlimá / ikalimá
6	anim	sais (seis)	pang-anim / ikaanim
7	pitó	siyete (siete)	pampitó / ikapitó
8	waló	otso (ocho)	pangwaló / ikawaló
9	siyám	nuwebe (nueve)	pansiyám / ikasiyám
10	sampû [sang puwo]	diyés (diez)	pansampû / ikasampû (or ikapû in some literary compositions)
11	labíng-isá	onse (once)	panlabíng-isá / pang-onse / ikalabíng-isá
12	labíndalawá	dose (doce)	panlabíndalawá / pandose / ikalabíndalawá
13	labíntatló	trese (trece)	panlabíntatló / pantrese / ikalabíntatló
14	labíng-apat	katorse (catorce)	panlabíng-apat / pangkatorse / ikalabíng-apat
15	labínlimá	kinse (quince)	panlabínlimá / pangkinse / ikalabínlimá
16	labíng-anim	disisaís (dieciséis)	panlabíng-anim / pandyes-sais / ikalabíng-anim
17	labímpitó	dissisyete (diecisiete)	panlabímpitó / pandyes-syete / ikalabímpitó
18	labíngwaló	dissiotso (dieciocho)	panlabíngwaló / pandyes-otso / ikalabíngwaló
19	labinsiyám	disinuwebe (diecinueve)	panlabinsiyám / pandyes-nwebe / ikalabinsiyám
20	dalawampû	bente / beinte (veinte)	pandalawampû / ikadalawampû (rare literary variant: ikalawampû)
21	dalawampú't isá	bente'y uno (veintiuno)	pang-dalawampú't isá / ikalawamapú't isá
30	tatlumpû	trenta / treinta (treinta)	pantatlumpû / ikatatlumpû (rare literary variant: ikatlumpû)
40	apatnapû	kuwarenta (cuarenta)	pang-apatnapû / ikaapatnapû
50	limampû	singkuwenta (cincuenta)	panlimampû / ikalimampû
60	animnapû	sesenta (sesenta)	pang-animnapû / ikaanimnapû
70	pitumpû	setenta (setenta)	pampitumpû / ikapitumpû
80	walumpû	otsenta / utsenta (ochenta)	pangwalumpû / ikawalumpû
90	siyamnapû	nobenta (noventa)	pansiyamnapû / ikasiyamnapû
100	sándaán	siyento (cien)	pan(g)-(i)sándaán / ikasándaán (rare literary variant: ika-isándaan)
200	dalawandaán	dos siyentos (doscientos)	pandalawándaán / ikadalawandaan (rare literary variant: ikalawándaán)
300	tatlóndaán	tres siyentos (trescientos)	pantatlóndaán / ikatatlondaan (rare literary variant: ikatlóndaán)
400	apat na raán	kuwatro siyentos (cuatrocientos)	pang-apat na raán / ikaapat na raán
500	limándaán	kinyentos (quinientos)	panlimándaán / ikalimándaán
600	anim na raán	sais siyentos (seiscientos)	pang-anim na raán / ikaanim na raán
700	pitondaán	siyete siyentos (setecientos)	pampitóndaán / ikapitóndaán (or ikapitóng raán)
800	walóndaán	otso siyentos (ochocientos)	pangwalóndaán / ikawalóndaán (or ikawalóng raán)
900	siyám na raán	nuwebe siyentos (novecientos)	pansiyám na raán / ikasiyám na raán
1,000	sánlibo	mil (mil)	pan(g)-(i)sánlibo / ikasánlibo
2,000	dalawánlibo	dos mil (dos mil)	pangalawáng libo / ikalawánlibo
10,000	sánlaksâ / sampúng libo	diyes mil (diez mil)	pansampúng libo / ikasampúng libo
20,000	dalawanlaksâ / dalawampúng libo	bente mil (veinte mil)	pangalawampúng libo / ikalawampúng libo
100,000	sangyutá / sandaáng libo	siyento mil (cien mil)
200,000	dalawangyutá / dalawandaáng libo	dos siyento mil (doscientos mil)
1,000,000	sang-angaw / sangmilyón	milyón (un millón)
2,000,000	dalawang-angaw / dalawang milyón	dos milyón (dos millones)
10,000,000	sangkatì / sampung milyón	dyes milyón (diez millones)
100,000,000	sampúngkatì / sandaáng milyón	syento milyón (cien millones)
1,000,000,000	sang-atos / sambilyón	bilyón (un billón (US),[55] mil millones, millardo[56])
1,000,000,000,000	sang-ipaw / santrilyón	trilyón (un trillón (US),[57] un billón[55])

Number	English	Ordinal Spanish	Cardinal
1st	first	primer, primero, primera	una / ika-isá
2nd	second	segundo/a	ikalawá
3rd	third	tercero/a	ikatló
4th	fourth	cuarto/a	ika-apat
5th	fifth	quinto/a	ikalimá
6th	sixth	sexto/a	ika-anim
7th	seventh	séptimo/a	ikapitó
8th	eighth	octavo/a	ikawaló
9th	ninth	noveno/a	ikasiyám
10th	tenth	décimo/a	ikasampû
1⁄2	half	medio/a, mitad	kalahatì
1⁄4	one quarter	cuarto	kapat
3⁄5	three fifths	tres quintas partes	tatlóng-kalimá
2⁄3	two thirds	dos tercios	dalawáng-katló
1+1⁄2	one and a half	uno y medio	isá't kalahatì
2+2⁄3	two and two thirds	dos y dos tercios	dalawá't dalawáng-katló
0.5	zero point five	cero punto cinco, cero coma cinco,[58] cero con cinco	salapî / limá hinatì sa sampû
0.005	zero point zero zero five	cero punto cero cero cinco, cero coma cero cero cinco, cero con cero cero cinco	bagól / limá hinatì sa sanlibo
1.25	one point two five	uno punto veinticinco, uno coma veinticinco, uno con veinticinco	isá't dalawampú't limá hinatì sa sampû
2.025	two point zero two five	dos punto cero veinticinco, dos coma cero veinticinco, dos con cero veinticinco	dalawá't dalawampú't limá hinatì sa sanlibo
25%	twenty-five percent	veinticinco por ciento	dalawampú't-limáng bahagdán
50%	fifty percent	cincuenta por ciento	limampúng bahagdán
75%	seventy-five percent	setenta y cinco por ciento	pitumpú't-limáng bahagdán

Months and days

Months and days in Tagalog are also localised forms of Spanish months and days. "Month" in Tagalog is buwán (also the word for moon) and "day" is araw (the word also means sun). Unlike Spanish, however, months and days in Tagalog are always capitalised.

Month	Original Spanish	Tagalog (abbreviation)
January	enero	Enero (Ene.)
February	febrero	Pebrero (Peb.)
March	marzo	Marso (Mar.)
April	abril	Abríl (Abr.)
May	mayo	Mayo (Mayo)
June	junio	Hunyo (Hun.)
July	julio	Hulyo (Hul.)
August	agosto	Agosto (Ago.)
September	septiembre	Setyembre (Set.)
October	octubre	Oktubre (Okt.)
November	noviembre	Nobyembre (Nob.)
December	diciembre	Disyembre (Dis.)

Day	Original Spanish	Tagalog
Monday	lunes	Lunes
Tuesday	martes	Martes
Wednesday	miércoles	Miyérkules / Myérkules
Thursday	jueves	Huwebes / Hwebes
Friday	viernes	Biyernes / Byernes
Saturday	sábado	Sábado
Sunday	domingo	Linggó

Time

Time expressions in Tagalog are also Tagalized forms of the corresponding Spanish. "Time" in Tagalog is panahon or oras.

Time	English	Original Spanish	Tagalog
1 hour	one hour	una hora	Isang oras
2 min	two minutes	dos minutos	Dalawang sandali/minuto
3 sec	three seconds	tres segundos	Tatlong saglit/segundo
	morning	mañana	Umaga
	afternoon	tarde	Hapon
	evening/night	noche	Gabi
	noon	mediodía	Tanghali
	midnight	medianoche	Hatinggabi
1:00 am	one in the morning	una de la mañana	Ika-isa ng umaga
7:00 pm	seven at night	siete de la noche	Ikapito ng gabi
1:15	quarter past one one-fifteen	una y cuarto	Kapat makalipas ikaisa Labinlima makalipas ikaisa Apatnapu't-lima bago mag-ikaisa
2:30	half past two two-thirty	dos y media	Kalahati makalipas ikalawa Tatlumpu makalipas ikalawa
3:45	three-forty-five quarter to/of four	tres y cuarenta y cinco cuatro menos cuarto	Tatlong-kapat makalipas ikatlo Apatnapu't-lima makalipas ikatlo Labinlima bago mag-ikaapat
4:25	four-twenty-five thirty-five to/of four	cuatro y veinticinco	Dalawampu't-lima makalipas ikaapat Tatlumpu't-lima bago mag-ikaapat
5:35	five-thirty-five twenty-five to/of six	cinco y treinta y cinco seis menos veinticinco	Tatlumpu't-lima makalipas ikalima Dalawampu't-lima bago mag-ikaanim

Common phrases

English	Tagalog (with Pronunciation)
Filipino	Pilipino [ˌpiːliˈpiːno]
English	Inglés [ʔɪŋˈɡlɛs]
Tagalog	Tagalog [tɐˈɡaːloɡ]
Spanish	"Espanyol/Español/Kastila"
What is your name?	Anó ang pangalan ninyo/nila*? (plural or polite) [ɐˈno aŋ pɐˈŋaːlan nɪnˈjo], Anó ang pangalan mo? (singular) [ɐˈno aŋ pɐˈŋaːlan mo]
How are you?	kumustá [kʊmʊsˈta] (modern), Anó po áng lagáy ninyo/nila? (old use)
Knock knock	tao po [ˈtaːʔopoʔ]
Good morning!	Magandáng umaga! [mɐɡɐnˈdaŋ uˈmaːɡa]
Good noontime! (from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.)	Magandáng tanghali! [mɐɡɐnˈdaŋ taŋˈhaːlɛ]
Good afternoon! (from 1 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.)	Magandáng hapon! [mɐɡɐnˈdaŋ ˈhaːpon]
Good evening!	Magandáng gabí! [mɐɡɐnˈdaŋ ɡɐˈbɛ]
Good-bye	paálam [pɐˈʔaːlam]
Please	Depending on the nature of the verb, either pakí- [pɐˈki] or makí- [mɐˈki] is attached as a prefix to a verb. ngâ [ŋaʔ] is optionally added after the verb to increase politeness. (e.g. Pakipasa ngâ ang tinapay. ("Can you pass the bread, please?"))
Thank you	Salamat [sɐˈlaːmat]
This one	ito [ʔiˈto], sometimes pronounced [ʔɛˈto] (literally—"it", "this")
That one (close to addressee)	iyan [ʔiˈjan]
That one (far from speaker and addressee)	iyon[ʔiˈjon]
Here	dito ['di:to], heto ['hɛ:to] ("Here it is")
Right there	diyan [dʒan], hayan [hɑˈjan] ("There it is")
Over there	doon [doʔon]
How much?	Magkano? [mɐɡˈkaːno]
Yes	oo [ˈoːʔo] opò [ˈʔo:poʔ] or ohò [ˈʔo:hoʔ] (formal/polite form)
No	hindî [hɪnˈdɛʔ] (at the end of a pause or sentence), often shortened to dî [dɛʔ] hindî pô (formal/polite form)
I don't know	hindî ko álam [hɪnˈdiː ko aːlam] Very informal: ewan [ʔɛˈʊɑn], archaic aywan [ɑjˈʊɑn] (closest English equivalent: colloquial dismissive 'Whatever')
Sorry	pasensya pô [pɐˈsɛːnʃa poʔ] (literally from the word "patience") or paumanhin po, patawad po [pɐtaːwad poʔ] (literally—"asking your forgiveness")
Because	kasí [kɐˈsɛ] or dahil [dɑˈhɪl]
Hurry!	dalí! [dɐˈli], bilís! [bɪˈlis]
Again	mulí [muˈli], ulít [ʊˈlɛt]
I don't understand	Hindî ko naiintindihan [hɪnˈdiː ko nɐʔɪɪnˌtɪndiˈhan] or Hindi ko nauunawaan [hɪnˈdiː ko nɐʔʊʊnawaʔˌʔan]
What?	Anó? [ɐˈno]
Where?	Saán? [sɐˈʔan], Nasaán? [ˌnaːsɐˈʔan] (literally - "Where at?")
Why?	Bakít? [bɑˈkɛt]
When?	Kailan? [kɑjˈlɑn], [kɑˈɪˈlɑn], or [kɛˈlɑn] (literally—"In what order?/"At what count?"")
How?	Paánó? [pɑˌɐˈno] (literally—"By what?")
Where's the bathroom?	Nasaán ang banyo? [ˌnaːsɐˈʔan ʔaŋ ˈbaːnjo]
Generic toast	Mabuhay! [mɐˈbuːhaɪ] (literally—"long live")
Do you speak English?	Marunong ka báng magsalitâ ng Inglés? [mɐˈɾuːnoŋ ka baŋ mɐɡsaliˈtaː naŋ ʔɪŋˈɡlɛs] Marunong po bâ kayóng magsalitâ ng Inglés? (polite version for elders and strangers) Marunong ka báng mag-Inglés? (short form) Marunong po ba kayóng mag-Inglés? (short form, polite version for elders and strangers)
It is fun to live.	Masayá ang mabuhay! [mɐˈsaˈja ʔaŋ mɐˈbuːhaɪ] or Masaya'ng mabuhay (contracted version)

*Pronouns such as niyo (2nd person plural) and nila (3rd person plural) are used on a single 2nd person in polite or formal language. See Tagalog grammar.

Proverbs

Ang hindî marunong lumingón sa pinánggalingan ay hindî makaráratíng sa paroroonan. (José Rizal)
One who knows not how to look back from whence he came, will never get to where he is going.

Unang kagat, tinapay pa rin. It means :"First bite, still bread." or "All fluff no substance."

Tao ka nang humarap, bilang tao kitang haharapin.
(A proverb in Southern Tagalog that made people aware the significance of sincerity in Tagalog communities. It says, "As a human you reach me, I treat you as a human and never act as a traitor.")

Hulí man daw (raw) at magalíng, nakáhahábol pa rin.
If one is behind but capable, one will still be able to catch up.

Magbirô ka na sa lasíng, huwág lang sa bagong gising.
Make fun of someone drunk, if you must, but never one who has just awakened.

Aanhín pa ang damó kung patáy na ang kabayo?
What use is the grass if the horse is already dead?

Ang sakít ng kalingkingan, ramdám ng buóng katawán.
The pain in the pinkie is felt by the whole body.
(In a group, if one goes down, the rest follow.)

Nasa hulí ang pagsisisi.
Regret is always in the end.

Pagkáhabà-habà man ng prusisyón, sa simbahan pa rin ang tulóy.
The procession may stretch on and on, but it still ends up at the church.
(In romance: refers to how certain people are destined to be married. In general: refers to how some things are inevitable, no matter how long you try to postpone it.)

Kung 'dî mádaán sa santóng dasalan, daanin sa santóng paspasan.
If it cannot be got through holy prayer, get it through blessed force.
(In romance and courting: santóng paspasan literally means 'holy speeding' and is a euphemism for sexual intercourse. It refers to the two styles of courting by Filipino boys: one is the traditional, protracted, restrained manner favored by older generations, which often featured serenades and manual labor for the girl's family; the other is upfront seduction, which may lead to a slap on the face or a pregnancy out of wedlock. The second conclusion is known as pikot or what Western cultures would call a 'shotgun marriage'. This proverb is also applied in terms of diplomacy and negotiation.)

See also

• Dambana
• Abakada alphabet
• Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
• Filipino alphabet
• Old Tagalog
• Filipino orthography
• Tagalog Wikipedia

References

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Further reading

• Tupas, Ruanni (2015). "The Politics of "P" and "F": A Linguistic History of Nation-Building in the Philippines". Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. 36 (6): 587–597. doi:10.1080/01434632.2014.979831. S2CID 143332545.

External links

For a list of words relating to Tagalog language, see the Tagalog language category of words in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Tagalog edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Tagalog

Tagalog language repository of Wikisource, the free library

Wikivoyage has a phrasebook for Filipino.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tagalog language.

• Tagalog Dictionary
• Tagalog verbs with conjugation
• Tagalog Lessons Dictionary
• Tagalog Quotes
• Patama Quotes
• Tagalog Translate
• Tagalog Forum
• Kaipuleohone archive of Tagalog