A Comparative Analysis of the Filipino and Ifugao Languages
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Republic of the Philippines Commission on Higher Education BENGUET STATE UNIVERSITY La Trinidad, Benguet GRADUATE SCHOOL ______________________________________________________________________________ A Comparison of the Filipino and Ifugao Languages, a term papert submitted to Dr. Maribel Z. Palazo, Professor, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the course LE 387 (Structure of Philippine Languages ) by Julia Biligan and Anna Cris L. Gabol, Ph.D. LE students, Summer Term,2012). A COMPARISON OF THE FILIPINO AND IFUGAO LANGUAGES I. Introduction One distinctive feature of the Philippine archipelago is the richness of its varied languages. The land’s geography has been believed to be the main reason that diversifies the tongues of the people. This paper then attempts to make a comparison between one Philippine major language, Filipino, and a minor language, Ifugao. The first two parts of the paper presented the each language with their own features and the third part is a juxtaposition of the grammatical features of both languages. II. The Filipino Language The Filipino orthography The rules facing Pilipino orthography were formulated by the Philippine Institute of National Language shortly after the Tagalog language had been proclaimed the national language shortly after the Philippines by the then President Manuel L. Quezon. This Filipino orthography includes rules on the spelling of foreign words commonly used in Tagalog speech and the proper use of accents, elision, and the hyphen. Filipino spelling is perfectly phonetic, such that even the foreign words are spelled as they are commonly pronounced. In Pilipino orthography, all the letters are taken from the Roman alphabet; ng is considered Page 1 of 42 Tagalog Tagalog ( /təˈɡɑːlɒɡ/)Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV (CALABARZON and MIMAROPA) and of Metro Manila. Its standardized form, commonly called Filipino, is the national language and one of two official languages of the Philippines. Tagalog used to be written with the Baybayin alphabet, which probably developed from the Kawi script of Java, Bali and Sumatra, which in turn descended from the Pallava script, one of the southern Indian scripts derived from Brahmi. Today the Baybayin alphabet is used mainly for decorative purposes and the Latin alphabet is used to write to Tagalog. The name Tagalog derives from tagá-ílog, which means "resident beside the river". Little is known of the history of the language before the arrival of the Spanish in the Philippines during the 16th century as no earlier written materials have been found. Very little is known about the history of the language. However, according to linguists such as Dr. David Zorc and Dr. Robert Blust, the Tagalogs originated, along with their Central Philippine cousins, from Northeastern Mindanao or Eastern Visayas. The earliest known book in Tagalog is the Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine) which was published in 1593. It was written in Spanish and Tagalog, with the Tagalog text in both Baybayin and the Latin alphabet. Notable features Type of writing system: syllabic alphabet in which each consonant has an inherent vowel /a/. Other vowels are indicated either by separate letters, or by dots - a dot over a consonant changes the vowels to an /i/ or and /e/, while a dot under a consonant changes the vowel to /o/ or /u/. The inherent vowel is muted by adding a + sign beneath a consonant. This innovation was introduced by the Spanish. Direction of writing: left to right in horizontal lines. History Page 2 of 42 The Tagalog Baybayin script. The first written record of Tagalog is in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, written in the year 900, using fragments of the language along with Sanskrit, Malay, and Javanese. Meanwhile, the first known book to be written in Tagalog is the Doctrina Cristiana (Christian Doctrine) of 1593. It was written in Spanish and two transcriptions of Tagalog; one in the Baybayin script and the other in Latin script. Throughout the 333 years of Spanish occupation, there were grammar and dictionaries written by Spanish clergymen such as Vocabulario de la Lengua Tagala by Pedro de San Buenaventura (Pila, Laguna, 1613), Vocabulario de la lengua tagala (1835) and Arte de la lengua tagala y manual tagalog para la administración de los Santos Sacramentos (1850). Poet Francisco Baltazar (1788–1862) is regarded as the foremost Tagalog writer. His most notable work is the early 19th-century Florante at Laura. Historical changes Tagalog differs from its Central Philippine counterparts with its treatment of the Proto- Philippine schwa vowel *ə. In Bikol & Visayan, 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 *ŋɡajan (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. Official status Predominantly Tagalog-speaking regions in the Philippines. The color-schemes represent the 4 dialect zones of the language: Northern, Central, Southern, and Marinduque. Tagalog was declared the official language by the first constitution in the Philippines, the Constitution of Biak-na-Bato in 1897. 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. 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. 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. In 1939 President Quezon renamed the proposed Tagalog-based Page 3 of 42 national language as wikang pambansâ (national language). In 1959, the language was further renamed as "Pilipino". The 1973 constitution designated the Tagalog-based "Pilipino", along with English, as an official language and mandated the development and formal adoption of a common national language to be known as Filipino. The 1987 constitution designated Filipino as the national language, mandating that as it evolves, it shall be further developed and enriched on the basis of existing Philippine and other languages. However, in practice, Filipino is simply Tagalog. Article XIV, Section 7 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. The regional languages are the auxiliary official languages in the regions and shall serve as auxiliary media of instruction therein. 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 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. Tagalog and Filipino In 1937, Tagalog was selected as the basis of the national language of the Philippines by the National Language Institute. In 1939, Manuel L. Quezon named the national language "Wikang Pambansâ" ("National Language"). 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. In 1971, the language issue was revived once more, and a compromise solution was worked out—a "universalist" approach to the national language, to be called Filipino rather than Pilipino. When a new constitution was drawn up in 1987, it named Filipino as the national language. 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. Page 4 of 42 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, Indonesian, Malay, Tetum (of Timor), and Tao language (of Taiwan). It is closely related to the languages spoken in the Bicol and Visayas regions such as Bikol and the Visayan group including Hiligaynon and Cebuano. Languages that have made significant contributions to Tagalog vocabulary are especially Spanish and English. Dialects At present, no comprehensive dialectology has been done in the Tagalog-speaking