The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-07
THE TAGALOG LANGUAGE.
Explanation OF the Tongue Associated
With Ours by Expansion.
From the Educational Reriew.

From The Educational Reriew.
Taralog l. the principal dialect OF the Chris
tian and civilized Filipinos, who constitute
about 20 per cent OF the inhabitants of the
| Philippine Archipelago. Buckle quotes an
| opinion of " Won Humboldt that 1t il the
! most perfect form Of all the Malayo-Poly-
| nesan tongues According to Deniker 1T is
| largely super-cdng the other dialects. hav-
| ing already displaced Bicol in the north Of
| the Province OF Camarine. Bisayan on M6rin-
| duque Island sc" Perhaps II would be better
to say that dialcctic variety Is disappearing
under the influence OF closer intercourse and
common NATIONAL spirit. for Risayan.
| il0coan, 1aEalos. &c. are In fact a group
| OF related dialects srringing from "A siuge
| Mallyan stock Middle on. a Catholic priest
| who recently delivered lecture on this sub
| Jet before the Philobiblon Club Of Phia-
! dephia, says: THE various dialects 1re
| twcnty-~e,eu In number, all. however. akin
| In their common stock. Malay. oi WhiC b the
| idionIs OF Iatoi- az" daughters. yet with
,.oun,less shar!ly marked dinereh'es be-
PhiloloCi,t> ca ,sify 1agalog in the Malayo-
bol n"~ian family II radical clement, are
| t-1tlre - y sramnhti.tl structure;
! belongs to III" HrC!utiEativ" ciao, OF Ian
qua ie- ling eNcccdin ~ rich In drtrrmin ~,
| aided 20 roots, In u : present FORM II shows
the irfueuC" Of Spanish and Chi"c-" contact
| Its very lphabet j. latin instead OF the
| original Aruhc Except native scho lars and
| a few foreigners like Biumentritt and certain
| spanish monks. there are none competent
| to discuss = Ian :lIag - watch. for veal or woe.
has b, come pant OF American thought
The following statements are based on q
study OF Nj" o 70 Too 'co-Practico. ara
render, e. l. nguajr tara!o Luhli hed
| soin" twelve year and b> some att IiO.ted.
incorrt'tly. however, TO the siIt"d and la
FRS --phonolo ;y- ia Calog has the three
primitive !owcl-sound-. a, I. u. which are
Chara,t,rl,tic oG the European branch 81 the
Aryan family The other vowel, sounds. 2.
words Of II sran.h orisin: bit they are pro-
nounCcd like !. and u, respectively Tnere
e ~ co. and q no. T. d. ,hs "Gida@d
G0 n fn 9niy IN Gnn .on S''u7'
In ,sp"fkin; the natives use a ,,emi;ial.etto
ma "a i.t9n ton "a a. SS{S ei1d they
strndm4lfeatqrrot Tie lanfpasei- i. w.alth
application. radical be, ONES an adjective
e Ma j. rrehxed and an 9bntTact noun 4 ca
l. prefixed and an sufiiXed Tor example:
the fad,, Al 0ust good;
NAHUM !iiaqi. good man;
o'bITrrn, goodness.
The well-known name Of the Philippine
revolutionary society, C0npurdn. Is an alb
stra't noun OF this formation. and means
Tho 'su IN an added TO the name of thing
signifies the contaiuer OF that thing, thus;
GHiry bei,
The prefix mag With the duplication Of the
first syllable OF the name NJ q thing. denotes
the person who deals In or does that thing;
TIIl1IIc, winc-dealer.
The art icle Is infleXible. "a In English. The.
Suinher and gender are not rrammatical
The word manga - used TO denote pluraiity'
thus:
ana -anGi tauo. the ren.
Gender l. bI Sri or sex, and hence Il not
EXPRESSED rrammntirullv. except that when
\ word II conn on To both sexes. distinction
The pronouns are never suppressed They
Are nnpTron, and "xliiIh; ana even AVOID
example. we tucarinc the speaker and the
person gdlre~-odl. l. tpo:. but & the hearer
and SG odern GERMAN h rasa I!' u seS the
second person plural IN addressing others
of equal social standing, and the second
person singular for interiors or for intimate
The numcrnls are complete. IN" units being
by 'hc word i1bir h"'ore the corresponding
unit. and the mutt les by adding the word
poo n'ter the Unit ordi9lls are formed
M5l unlo. eiy4,ecn;
icI uIl6 eighth
Adjective. are rlrneralv formed by pre-
hxint ma TO IA" root, "a onigh lore ar" OF
uari,on i .Nprr--cd hv duplication - n
Of the first syllable or Of tie eatire radical.
Thus:
"r iSG best,
The verbs are active. passive, Iefc,iye and
aud and patty bv aaplisotnins one or more syiia.
bleS OF the root Thus
Iue ZOO, araI means study:
mdgdrd!, TO study,
nigi'atii acc. ! study;
Tho particle pGq prehxed 70 the root changes
the verb into substantive. thus
arg pIJ ara. the stutying.
From all this II will be seen that the Taga.
development But whether the dcvelop-
men' OF ianT,a se + an indey OF the mental
Is pa' poorly deV C ians Sr but the
Chinese have a literature and culture on
have been found among the American abort;
zines who were devoid Of both literature and
value and rank Of a ianrus se are re, determined
by what its users have made II do
That the, iliuinos have only ,NcGnt literG,,
T. not INDIGENOUS. must h. admitted bur that
they haye great cnpahtitie- must also be
to the Chinese should not be gainsait by any
one who T. not PREPARED to deny that three
ciyiiiIation &c can have beneficial result. Their
fondness. for ballads. music and drama II
speak OF the uucultured natives) indicates
the existence of soul which must find ex-
precision under favorable circumstances
The poverty OF their genius l.. to my mind.
sufficiently accounted for by the fact tn at they
have always been n subject race
Whether the attempt which IA now being
made to submrrge the archipelago under q
wave of ENGLISH education" be successful
or not the Tagaog language will probably
persist ] have been told by IN o'lCer OF
the first American troops Sent to the Philip
pine-,- who had many opportunities OF meet
iug Aguinnldo. thut the Filipino General
resented being addressed In Spani.h. and
said that his people had their own Ian riarc
which should be recognized This - lit Will
keen alive 'IaGulog a. 1t has kent II alive I'M
der 900 wears of spanish dominion
Tie Manila RcrJCimicntp NJ June %. 1902.
states that "A number Of rnthu-i t-ti' Young
filipinos have orCani2ed a Slosdld dc Rs
cr,'Oros Tf0Gi1s, and gives Il I of lagalog
works published by them The Sorrnnos
father md son tine latter being ~till alive
and up tn the American occupltior batug
principal Of the normal school IN Marilal.
have published u gool lagaloC-Spaut-h
Dictionary. II may Ice also eutioned that
there are several new .pnnerS published at
the present time either wholly or partly In
Iagalog.