{"id":481,"date":"2012-05-19T13:50:22","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T13:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/?p=481"},"modified":"2012-05-19T14:01:14","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T14:01:14","slug":"wika-notes-01a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/iraia.net\/blog\/2012\/05\/19\/wika-notes-01a\/","title":{"rendered":"Wika Notes 01a"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tagalog lessons with an attitude<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Note 1: I\u2019m starting a new series\u2014or rather, resuming an old series\u2014on Tagalog. I dedicate this series to my increasing number of foreign friends who want to learn, are starting to learn, or have acquired some fluency in, Tagalog. It\u2019s also for my fellow Filipinos who want to refresh and deepen their knowledge of the language. I decided to resume this series (I started it in 2001, through an e-group named Wika) because I wanted to explore novel and more interesting ways of learning it than the usual boring lectures and drills.<\/h5>\n
Note 2: Take notice that I call the language Tagalog, not Filipino or Pilipino. For hundreds of years, the people speaking it as native tongue were called Tagalog. At present, the Philippines has more than a hundred languages, from Ivatan to Tausug. Thus I prefer to talk about Philippine languages (in the plural) rather than the Philippine language (in the singular). We do have an officially-proclaimed and widely-accepted language called Pilipino or Filipino, but it\u2019s nothing more than modernized Tagalog. Call it Pilipino (or Filipino) if you will, but I\u2019m calling it Tagalog. That doesn\u2019t make me less patriotic than you. Gets?<\/h5>\n

Our lesson for today is on Tagalog\u2019s basic pronunciation rules. Many teachers and books will offer you a dizzying and often dogmatic list of rules on how to pronounce Tagalog words and syllables. Many of them, I won\u2019t take seriously. They are just making it harder for you to learn Tagalog basics by nitpicking about the finer points of phonetics. I, on the other hand, suggest that you stick only with my seven simple guidelines. I provide more details under each guideline, but you can skip them if you want.<\/p>\n

Guideline 1. In native Tagalog, there are only three basic vowels,<\/strong> a<\/em><\/strong>, i<\/em><\/strong>, and<\/strong> u<\/em><\/strong>. Pronounce a<\/em><\/strong> as in Eng. \u201cfa<\/em><\/strong>ther\u201d; i<\/em><\/strong> as in Eng. \u201cski<\/em><\/strong>p\u201d; and u as in Eng. \u201ctoo<\/em><\/strong>k\u201d.<\/p>\n

a. a<\/em><\/strong> is pronounced \u201cah\u201d (phonetic \u00e4<\/em><\/strong>), as an English speaker would pronounce it in \u201cfa<\/em><\/strong>ther.\u201d<\/p>\n

b.<\/strong> The usual pronunciation of i<\/em><\/strong> is \u201cee\u201d (phonetic i<\/em><\/strong>) as one would pronounce \u201cski<\/em><\/strong>p\u201d in English. But there\u2019s a range of acceptable pronunciation of i <\/em><\/strong>that includes e<\/em><\/strong> (\u201ceh\u201d or phonetic e<\/em><\/strong>), as prounounced in English \u201cpe<\/em><\/strong>t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some Tagalog teachers would insist that i<\/em><\/strong> and e<\/em><\/strong> are different vowels, but I say they are a range of phonetically similar vowels that are interchangeable because they merely represent one basic vowel. You can pronounce it as lalaki<\/em><\/strong> or lalake<\/em><\/strong> (Tag. \u201cmale\u201d), babai<\/em><\/strong> or babae<\/em><\/strong> (Tag. \u201cfemale\u201d) but Tagalog people will still be able to understand you. The tendency, however, is for the e<\/em><\/strong> sound to predominate over the i<\/em><\/strong> when the vowel is at the end of the word. Generally, though, you shouldn\u2019t worry much whether you pronounce the vowel as i<\/em><\/strong> or e<\/em><\/strong>. Native speakers will get you right.<\/p>\n

c.<\/strong> The usual pronunciation of u<\/em><\/strong> is \u201coo\u201d (phonetic u<\/em><\/strong>), same as in English \u201ctoo<\/em><\/strong>k.\u201d But, as in point b, there\u2019s a range of acceptable sounds of u<\/em><\/strong> that includes o<\/em><\/strong> (phonetic \u00f4<\/em><\/strong>, as in English \u201cpaw<\/em><\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, some Tagalog teachers would strictly differentiate between u<\/em><\/strong> and o<\/em><\/strong>, but the range of sounds between u<\/em><\/strong> and o<\/em><\/strong> merely represent one basic vowel, with the tendency for o<\/em><\/strong> to predominate when pronounced at the end of a word. Again, don\u2019t get hung up over u<\/em><\/strong> or o<\/em><\/strong>\u2014they\u2019re basically the same vowel. You can pronounce it as suut<\/em><\/strong> or suot<\/em><\/strong> (Tag. \u201cwear\u201d), butu<\/em><\/strong> or buto<\/em><\/strong> (Tag. \u201cbone\u201d or \u201cseed\u201d), and Tagalog speakers will still get you right.<\/p>\n

Guideline 2. Modern Tagalog also recognizes the vowels e and o.<\/strong> These are used to capture similar sounds mostly in foreign loan words.<\/p>\n

a.\u00a0<\/strong>e<\/em> is strictly pronounced as \u201ceh\u201d (phonetic e<\/em><\/strong>), and distinct from i<\/em><\/strong> (\u201cee\u201d or phonetic i<\/em><\/strong>). A lot of Spanish loan words oblige Tagalog speakers to strictly distinguish e<\/em><\/strong> and i<\/em><\/strong> to avoid confusion. Thus, mesa<\/em><\/strong> (Sp. \u201ctable\u201d) is different from misa<\/em><\/strong> (Sp. \u201cHoly Mass\u201d). However, if there is no room for confusion, pronouncing e<\/em><\/strong> as i<\/em><\/strong> in loanwords has also become acceptable, as in pandesal<\/em><\/strong> or pandisal<\/em><\/strong> (Sp. \u201csalt bread\u201d), bandera<\/em><\/strong> or bandila<\/em><\/strong> (Sp. \u201cbanner\u201d).<\/p>\n

b.\u00a0<\/strong>o<\/em> is strictly pronounced as \u201cawe\u201d (phonetic \u00f4<\/em><\/strong>), and distinct from u<\/em><\/strong> (\u201coo\u201d or phonetic u<\/em><\/strong>). Again, a lot of Spanish and English loan words oblige Tagalog speakers to distinguish the two. Thus, bote<\/em><\/strong> (Sp. \u201cbottle, can\u201d) is different from buti<\/em><\/strong> (Tag. \u201cgood\u201d), although such instances are great opportunities for Tagalog speakers to play with puns. Ask someone, for example, what the expression \u201cDaanin sa maboteng<\/em><\/strong> usapan\u201d means.<\/p>\n

Guideline 3. In Tagalog, 16 native consonants are recognized: B, K, D, G, H, L, M, N, Ng, P, R, S, T, W, Y, and the unvoiced glottal stop. <\/strong>All 16 native consonants are pronounced in standard phonetic ways.<\/p>\n

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