Joi Barrios - Survival Tagalog: How to Communicate without Fuss or Fear--Instantly! (Tagalog Phrasebook)

CONTENTS
PART 1 PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 PART 5 Published by Tuttle Publishing, an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd. www.tuttlepublishing.com Copyright 2012, 2016 Joi Barrios All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Barrios, Joi.
Survival Tagalog : how to communicate without fuss or fear--instantly! / Joi Barrios. : 16 cm.
ISBN 978-0-8048-3942-6 (pbk.)
1. : 16 cm.
ISBN 978-0-8048-3942-6 (pbk.)
1.

Tagalog language--Conversation and phrase books--English. 2. Tagalog language--Spoken Tagalog. I. Title.
PL6055.B379 2012
499.21183421--dc23
2012002071 This edition ISBN 978-0-8048-4559-5; ISBN 978-1-4629-1037-3 (ebook) Distributed by: North America, Latin America & Europe
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INTRODUCTION A, B, C ... the Tagalog and Filipino Alphabets The Tagalog language has only twenty letters, a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w and y . the Tagalog and Filipino Alphabets The Tagalog language has only twenty letters, a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w and y .

However, the Filipino language, as it is used today, has 28, because of the addition of 8 letters, c, f, j, , q, v, x, and n . The Unfamiliar Letters and Ng Two letters in the alphabet may be unfamiliar to you. First, this is the Spanish . Pronounce it the way it is pronounced in Spanish. For example, the word for pineapple is pia , also spelled as pinya . When spelled with an , it is pronounced PIN-ya , with the accent on the first syllable (approximating a more Spanish sound).

When spelled with the letters n and y , pinya , it is pronounced pi-NYA , with the accent on the second syllable. You will find that in most cases, the spelling and pronunciation has been adapted to Filipino/Tagalog, but you can still find the letter used in names and in other words. Second, the letter ng may be pronounced as nang when used alone as a word, or pronounced as a singular sound ng when it occurs at the end of a word (for example, lutang , pronounced lu-tang , meaning float) or when its followed by a vowel (for example, sanga , pronounced sa-NGA , accent on the second syllable, meaning branch).

See It, Say It: Pronunciation Guidelines & Tips For Filipino/Tagalog, we read a word the way it is spelled, and we spell it the way we read. There are no long vowel sounds. Basic Sounds Let us pair off the letter b with the vowel a .

Remember the language only has short vowel sounds...no long vowels, no extended vowels, and no aspirated sounds. Now practice saying these syllables: ba be bi bo bu To guide you, here are some words as well as comparisons to sounds in the English language. Note that the accents in the vowels indicate that the stress is on the first syllable. ba in byad (payment) with the ba close to the a in baccarat (card game) be in bnda (bandage) with the be close to the be in bend bi in bbe (duck) with the bi close to bee (the insect) bo in bte (bottle) with the bo close to bought bu in bkas (tomorrow) with the bu in boom Now try it with the other letters:

ka	ke	ki	ko	ku
da	de	di	do	du
ga	ge	gi	go	gu
ha	he	hi	ho	hu
la	le	li	lo	lu
ma	me	me	mo	mu
na	ne	ni	no	nu
pa	pe	pi	po	pu
ra	re	ri	ro	ru
sa	se	si	so	su
ta	te	ti	to	tu
wa	we	wi	wo	wu
ya	ye	yi	yo	yu

Diphthongs There are five Tagalog diphthongs (groups of letters that make a single sound): iw, ay, aw, oy, and uy . When you see these, remember that the pronunciation is very different from the way you would pronounce it in English. For example:

DIPHTHONG	WORD	MEANING
ay	lamay	funeral wake
(la my)

With the accent on the first syllable, pronounce the second syllable like English word my.

Do not pronounce it the way the word may (meaning can) is pronounced in English. Another example is the diphthong aw :

DIPHTHONG	WORD	MEANING
aw	bataw	bean pod

With the accent on the first syllable, pronounce the aw here in a way close to the sound taw in the English word towel. Dont pronounce it the way you would the English word raw. Similarly, the three other diphthongs are pronounced the same way. Try them:

WORD	MEANING
iw	aliw	fun (accent on the second syllable)
oy	kumunoy	quicksand (accent on the third syllable).
uy	kasuy	cashew

Two Vowels but Not Diphthongs You may also find some words with two vowels together that are not diphthongs, but which you may mistake for suchif English is your native language, then you might naturally tend to read these as diphthongs (or as letters with a single sound).Two Vowels but Not Diphthongs You may also find some words with two vowels together that are not diphthongs, but which you may mistake for suchif English is your native language, then you might naturally tend to read these as diphthongs (or as letters with a single sound).

Instead, pronounce them as the separate sounds they are. For example:

uy

kasuy

cashew

WORD	MEANING
ae	babae	pronounced ba-ba-e	woman
ai	mabait	pronounced ma-ba-it	good person
kain	pronounced ka-in	to eat
ao	baon	pronounced ba-on	something you bring when you travel

Thus, when you see these vowels together, you simply need to break the word into syllables. Understanding Interchangeable Letters and Sounds As you learn the language and listen to native speakers, you might find something puzzlingpeople interchange the letters d and r , and the vowels e and i , and o and u . For example, some people say madami (many); others will say marami . People may say either lalaki or lalake (man) and either babae or babai (pronounced ba-ba-e ) (woman). Why is this so? This may be because in the ancient Tagalog script, the baybayin , there was only one symbol for d / r , and for e / i and o / u .

Today, with the standardization of spelling and grammatical rules, there are guidelines now for the use of d / r . However, you will find that when Filipinos speak, they are less conscious of the rules and will interchange, for example, the word daw (also) with raw . Similarly, the words babae (woman) and lalaki (man) each have that standardized spelling; however, in spoken Filipino the e / i sounds are interchangeable for these words. Stresses Now lets turn to stresses: what syllable should you emphasize when you say a word? Tagalog language books used to actually show printed stress marks, but now, if you read newspapers or literature, no stress marks can be found. Here are some important points to remember: 1. For most words with three or four syllables, the stress is usually on the second to the last syllable.