Tagalog language

“ Yet those syllables which cost the children so many tears are of no use to them.
Those syllables are necessary only in the learning of Spanish, which language in my time only three boys in a thousand ever really learned. These three learned it in Manila, by hearing Spanish spoken, and by committing to memory book after book. I often wondered what was the use of learning it at all when in the end one spoke only Tagalog. But I kept my wonder to myself. I felt that to try to make reforms in the Philippines at that time would be to embark on a stormy voyage. ”

“ Besides these and Spanish, of which he was a master, he spoke Latin, Greek, Arab, Sanskrit, Hebrew, Swedish, Dutch, Catalan, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Tagalog, Visayan, and the Moro dialects of Dapitan. One of his papers, a scientific treatise on the Visayan language, was read before the Ethnographical Society of Berlin. He was associated with Dr. Meyer and Dr. Blumentritt in the annotation of a Chinese codicil of the Middle Ages. While at Dapitan he began to write a scientific Tagalog grammar and a treatise on the resemblances between Tagalog and Visayan speech. ”

“ A week after our arrival we were divided among various provinces in order to learn the languages, and be able to minister to the Indians. I remained in the province of Manila, where I learned [297] the Tagálog language in company with others without much difficulty. If the grammar or other handbook were studied in Europa with the earnestness with which we study languages there, any person would become learned in a very brief time. Within five months we were all confessing and preaching, and in one year we were very capable in both, and in discussing the affairs of the Indians with them. ”

“ All the dialects spoken by the Filipinos of Malay and Japanese descent have their root in the pure Malay language. After the expulsion of all the adult male Japanese Lake settlers in the 17th century, it is feasible to suppose that the language of the males who took their place in the Lake district and intermarried there, should prevail over the idiom of the primitive settlers, and possibly this amalgamation of speech accounts for the difference between the Tagálog dialect and others of these islands peopled by Malays. ”

“ Pickering, in his “Races of Man,” states that the Tagalog is still the chief language of Luzon, being in general use in all the interior towns.
In respect to religion, the more advanced of the tribes appeared to have arrived at the stage of intellectual progress when Nature worship begins to give place to a dim idea of a Supreme Being, a Maker of all things. This protecting genius, to whom they offered sacrifices, was called Bathalang Meicapal. These people had a vague conception of a future state in which the good were rewarded and the wicked punished. ”

“ Some of them are much given to writing on the ground in a squatting posture, which is the usual way both men and women sit.
421. The cultured languages, as already stated, are six in number—for one cannot reckon the languages of the Negritos and mountain people as such, since each settlement has its own distinct language, which results from the lack of human intercourse. Among the cultured languages, the chief and mother languages are considered the Tagálog, the Pampanga, and the Visayan; and even among these the Tagálog is considered the most polished and powerful. ”

“ Almost every language known to man may be heard on the streets and in the shops, and the Filipino, the Japanese, the Chinese, and the East Indian rub elbows with the American, the European, and the African as they all move along the crowded narrow streets.
Francisco found that he must depend upon his knowledge of the English language in order to make his way in Manila; he knew very [98] little Spanish, and his native tongue, Bicol, was almost useless. The Filipinos in this part of the islands speak a language called Tagalog (Tȧ-găl′-ȯg) , which is strikingly different from Bicol. ”

“ In other words, 75 per cent of the persons able to read could do so only in the Malay dialects.” ↑
17 Estadismo, chapter xiv (Retana’s ed.; note by Zamora) . ↑
18 Zúñiga (Estadismo, Retana’s ed., i, pp. 299, 300) , says of the natives of Tondo province: “The language of these Indians is somewhat corrupted, because a great number of Spanish words have been introduced. That is the only benefit which they have derived from living near Manila, since there are very few who know Spanish. In the suburbs themselves, as well as in Binondo and Santa Cruz, the Tagálog language is spoken. ”

“ Another tribe of people, the Zambales, are to be found toward the center of Luzon. Few Igorrotes, Ilocanes, and Negritos live in the province of Zambales or Pangasinan. Pampanga Province also has its own tribe and a different dialect. Tagalog is spoken around Manila, in Laguna Province, in Batangas, and the Camarines; Visayan is the language of the southern islands.
A monotonous sameness is the characteristic of most of the small Filipino towns. In seeing one you have seen all ”

“ Many of the Bicols are energetic and capable, and they seem to be possessed of a rather keen sense of humour, which their neighbours lack.
Two things tend to keep the several peoples apart. The first is the present lack of any common medium of communication. There are more quite sharply distinct dialects than there are peoples. The Visayans, for instance, speak Cebuano, Ilongo and Cuyuno. The language difficulty is of least importance among the [935] peoples immediately north of Manila where the use of Tagálog is generalized to a considerable extent, but even here it is serious. ”

“ Calaganes.—A small Malayan people who live on the Casilaran Creek (Bay of Davao, Mindanao) . Partly converted to Christianity.
Calamiano.—Buzeta and Bravo understand by Calamiano a Visaya dialect which was made up of Tagalog mixed with Visaya and spoken by the Christians of northern Palawan (Paragua) and Calamianes islands. Pere Fr. Juan de San Antonio has preached in Calamiano and composed in it a catechism. The existence of the Calamiano language should therefore be unassailable, but A. Marche has declared that it does not exist. ”

“ Ibarra could not keep back his smile.
“You laugh,” replied the teacher, also smiling. “I confess that I did not feel like smiling at that time. I felt the blood rush to my head, and a thunderbolt seemed to dazzle my brain. I saw the priest far off, very far from me. I started toward him to reply. The sacristan mayor interposed and said very seriously, in Tagalog: ‘You want to stop wearing borrowed clothes. Be content to speak in your own language and do not spoil Spanish, which is not meant for you. ”

“ The principal language is Tagalog, but Spanish is spoken to some extent. Malolos is served by the Manila & Dagupan railway, and is a trade centre of considerable importance. The cultivation of rice is an important industry. ”

“ At the coming of the Spaniards the Tagalogs, like the remaining native peoples of the archipelago, were met with in the depths of the savage ages, and were to a certain extent, of cannibalistic tendencies.
The average Tagalog is not wanting in courage, a fact he has often displayed, but this courage is never seen to advantage except when the indian is under the leadership of a person of exceptional valor or a strict disciplinarian. ”

“ Santiago’s speech which I had observed were general in Tagalog.
The former of these limitations was fully overcome when I asked Mr. Santiago to tell me connected stories. In addition to fortunate endowments of a more general kind Mr. Santiago possesses, as I found, that vivacity of intellect and freedom from irrelevant prepossessions which we seek and so rarely find in people whose language we try to study. This latter quality may be due in part to the fact that, as Mr. ”

“ Another modification, the most marked, originated from the crossing of the Malay-Negrito-Indonesian [124] with the Chinee, the Chinee being marked by the increase in stature, the elevation of the skull and other minor marks.
During the last three centuries this hybrid Tagalog has undergone another small and gradual change by reason of a limited crossing with Spanish blood. This latter mixture however is insignificant in extent but always produces a superior type. As a people the Tagalogs number about one and a half millions, and inhabit the regions around about Manila. ”

“ At the time of the Spanish occupation in the sixteenth century the Visayas of the central islands and part of Mindanao were the most advanced among the native tribes, but this distinction is now claimed for the Tagalogs, who form the bulk of the population in Manila and other parts of Luzon, and also in Mindanao, and whose language is gradually displacing other dialects throughout the archipelago. Other civilised tribes are the Ilocano, Bicol, Pangasinan, Pampangan and Cagayan, all of Luzon. ”

“ For the scholar unacquainted with Latin, the most serviceable work for learning Tagal is the Essay on Tagal Grammar (Manila, 1878) , composed by the Recoleto missionary and linguist, Toribio Minguella de la Merced, whose Grammar (in the same language) for the use of children (Manila, 1886) was adopted for schools by the Spanish government.
While another helpful work for the study of that same dialect is the Tagal catechism, by the Augustinian, Luis de Amezquita, a popular booklet, first printed in 1666, and (in its thirteenth edition) in 1880, at Manila. ”

“ It is unsafe to attempt to trace a story with only three examples as data: but it appears to me not unreasonable to suppose that our Tagalog story is a refined, pious, Christianized modernization of the Visayan form represented by “The Two Wives and the Witch;” and that the Visayan form, in turn, goes back to some Indian or Malayan moral tale of two wives, rivals for the affection of their husband. The Bengali tale can hardly be the direct source of our Visayan form, but it appears to be fairly closely related to that source. ”

“ Aspirated consonants have arisen in the hving IN languages in the following ways :
I. They are found in WB's formed by the doubling of roots having h as their initial and an explosive as their final, as in Old Javanese hathat, "to take care", Bisaya hagliag, "texture". These cases are not numerous.
II. A few languages, like Tagalog, allow the combination of most of the consonants with a subsequent h, and consequently also that kind of combination which we call the aspirates. Hence in Tagalog a word like bugháw, " blue ",is just as permissible as a word like panhik, "to ascend". ”

“ The inhabitants of the island of Luçon call themselves Tagals, as do likewise all the inhabitants of the Philippines—they appear to derive their origin from the Malays, and exhibit features of their character—their language, though different from that of the Malays, has its pronunciation and its sweetness. All these islands seem to be inhabited by the same people, among whom their customs alone have been subjected to change. In Manila, such has been the intercourse with the Chinese and other nations, that they have become a mixed race. ”

“ Tagalog women traders.It was difficult to procure the necessary means of transport for my baggage on the return journey to Paracale, the roads being so soaked by the continuous rains that no one would venture his cattle for the purpose. In Mambulao the influence of the province on its western border is very perceptible, and Tagalog is understood almost better than Bicol; the Tagalog element being introduced amongst the population by women, who with their families come here, from Lucban and Mauban, in the pursuit of trade. They buy up gold, and import stuffs and other wares in exchange. ”

“ The Filipino is fastidious and dainty—in his own way. He will shudder at the uncouth Tagalog who toasts locusts over a hot fire and eats them, and that evening will go home and eat a handful of damp guinimos, the littlest of fish. He takes an infinite amount of care of his white clothes, and swaggers about the streets immaculate; but just as soon as he gets home, the suit comes off and is reserved for future exhibition purposes. The women pay comparatively small attention to their personal adornment. Their hair is combed straight back upon their heads. ”

“ Just as in Italia the Tuscan, Lombard, and Sicilian languages resemble one another, and in España the Castilian, Portuguese, and Valencian—for they all recognize one origin (namely, the Roman) , although they are, strictly speaking, quite distinct among themselves—so it happens in the languages of these Philipinas Islands. The principal cultured languages found here at the conquest were six, namely, the Tagálog, the Visayan, the Pampanga, the Cagayan, the Ilocan, and the Pangasinan. ”

“ That country can never prosper which is divided by a feeling of race difference, or by jealousies that make hard feeling among its people.
It is because the United States has learned these things by experience that it has opened public schools in the Philippine Islands. It seeks to have all the people learn English, because only by means of a common language can the Americans and the Filipinos come to understand one another; only by means of such a language can the different peoples among the Philippines come into real harmony. ”

“ In fact, as a rule, every community that is under one rajah, and this is generally but one village, has its own peculiar dialect, which is so different from the dialects of every adjoining village, that all are obliged to learn Malay in order to carry on any trade or hold any communication with their nearest neighbors. The bahasa is never a written language, and appears to be constantly changing, for, at the city of Amboina, the natives have completely lost their dialect since the foreigners settled among them, and now can only speak with each other in Malay. ”