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Appendix:Spanish–Tagalog relations

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This appendix discusses the relations between the Spanish and Tagalog languages.

Loanwords

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Spanish loanwords in Tagalog

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Main article: :Category:Tagalog terms borrowed from Spanish

Owing to the 333 years of Spanish rule, Spanish loanwords forms the largest number of borrowings in Tagalog. 20.4% of Tagalog vocabulary used in everyday conversations come from Spanish (the percentage is slightly higher for Cebuano).

Most Tagalog loanwords from Spanish are phoneme-by-phoneme respellings of the original Spanish, but some earlier borrowings were corrupted or undergone sound change as they were assimilated into Tagalog, to the point their Spanish origin is no longer apparent to Tagalog speakers. Such examples (in standard spelling unless otherwise noted) are:

Some later borrowings from Spanish were also corrupted or undergone sound shifts that slightly hide their roots. Common changes were deletion of a syllable, sound shifts, or addition of prothetic letters:

There are also instances of Tagalog doublets from the same Spanish etymon. The first one is usually an early borrowing that undergone sound shifts or alterations upon borrowing (or reflected early modern Spanish pronunciation), while the second is a later borrowing from around the 19th century. These may have the same meaning or have completely different definitions.

Spanish spelling is generally phonemic, with good sound-to-spelling correspondences, and Tagalog spelling is also phonemic. Spanish-to-Tagalog spelling correspondences in loanwords (excluding corruptions or sound shifts) are:

  • C (before most consonants except H and before A, O and U) -> K (e.g. cama -> kama)
  • C (before E and I) -> S (e.g. cinturón -> sinturon)
  • F -> P (in most borrowings, e.g. familia -> pamilya), F (in newer borrowings, e.g. federalismo)
  • H -> disappears (in most borrowings, e.g. hielo -> yelo). Some Spanish borrowings keep this, especially early borrowings and some others (including borrowed derivative forms), reflecting a older pronunciation, or to avoid confusion with another similar word.
  • J -> H (e.g. cajón -> kahon).
  • LL -> Y (in pre-1800 borrowings e.g. caballo -> kabayo), LY (in post-1800 borrowings e.g. silla -> silya)
  • Ñ -> NY (baño -> banyo)
  • QU -> K (queso -> keso)
  • RR -> R (arresto -> aresto)
  • V -> B (in most loanwords, vaso -> baso), V (in newer borrowings)
  • X -> KS (in most loanwords, exacto -> eksakto)
  • Z -> S (in most borrowings, e.g. zapatos -> sapatos, alianza -> alyansa), Z (in newer borrowings)
  • I or U in a diphthong is either kept with the semivowels Y or W added between the vowels or replaced with Y (see Appendix:Tagalog spellings)

Due to this, Spanish continues to be a source for many borrowings in Tagalog even after the Spaniards left, the Philippines lost most of its Spanish speakers and English has been the next main source of loanwords. This is especially true for English words with a Latinate or Romance derivation where there is a Spanish word that is close in spelling (excluding pseudo-Hispanisms), and translations of concepts and technologies that appeared from the 20th century (when Spanish was still the predominant language of the Filipino elite).

Tagalog loanwords in Spanish

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Main article: :Category:Spanish terms borrowed from Tagalog

Spanish also borrowed some words from Tagalog, usually related to plants and animals native to the Philippines.

The following Tagalog-derived words are listed in the Diccionario de la Real Academía Española (DRAE).

Alphabet and spelling

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See also: Appendix:Tagalog alphabet and Appendix:Tagalog spellings

The first Latin-script orthography for Tagalog was based on Spanish. Called the abecedario, it has the following features:

  • /k/ is spelled C before A, O and U, and QU before E and I (e.g. acó for modern akó, aquin for akin)
  • /ɡ/ is spelled G before A, O and U, and GU before E and I. (e.g. guinto for modern gintó)
  • /h/ is spelled H, but is pronounced unlike in modern Spanish. Early modern Spanish pronounced the H.
  • /ŋ/ between vowels is spelled ÑG, NG̃, N͠G, GÑ. Tagalog intervocalic NG, without tilde in the G or N, could be pronounced as the consonant cluster /ng/ [ŋɡ], as in Spanish; this was also used in Tagalog words now spelled with NGG (e.g. pinggán was then pingán).
  • /u/ is often exchanged for O, especially in initial and medial syllables. U was generally used for /w/. (e.g. olán for modern ulán)
  • /w/ is spelled U (e.g. ualà for modern walâ, lauâ for lawà, ouac for uwák)
  • /au/ [aʊ̯] is spelled with AO (e.g. icao for modern ikáw)
  • Spanish loanwords are kept in original spelling, with possible exceptions such as with early assimilated loanwords.
  • CH, LL and RR are treated as their own letters.
  • /kh/ is spelled with C-H (e.g. lic-ha for modern likhâ), the hyphen indicating it is a consonant cluster and not a digraph.
  • Indication of stress is based on Spanish rules. Final glottal stops (which or which many not be accompanied by stress) are indicated by a grave or circumfixed accent, but they tend to be interchangeable across publications.

Similar orthographies were also developed for the other Philippine languages, most of which have commonalities with the Spanish-based Tagalog orthography.

The abecedario alphabet was since replaced by the 21-letter abakada, which adapted K and W and dropped C, F, J, Q, V, X, and Z (except in proper nouns or unadapted borrowings), but retained Ñ (comes before NG, and generally used in proper nouns). Abakada was since succeeded by the 28-letter modern Filipino alphabet which is the basic 26-letter Latin alphabet plus Ñ and NG.

Names

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Personal names

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See also: Appendix:Tagalog surnames, Category:Tagalog surnames from Spanish, Category:Tagalog given names from Spanish, and Category:Tagalog surnames in the Catálogo alfabético de apellidos

Most ethnic Tagalog given names (first names) and surnames (last names) are borrowed from Spanish or spelled in Spanish orthography. There are many Spanish-derived given names. The same applies to most Filipinos, except Muslim Filipinos or Moros.

Most Tagalogs bear Spanish or Iberian surnames. Most of these were either adopted upon conversion to Christianity such as surnames of religious roots, like dela Cruz or de la Cruz (reference to the cross as well as John of the Cross), Santos, delos Santos and de los Santos (references to the saints) and Tolentino (reference to Saint Nicholas of Tolentino), or introduced through a 1849 colonial decree, such as most other common Spanish-origin surnames such as Castillo, García, Hernández, Mendoza, Ramos, etc. Many of the religious-origin surnames were targeted for replacement for causing confusion among the Spanish colonial administrators, but most of which remained common. Other surnames which may or may not be in the 1849 decree are willingly adapted by prominent families (usually local nobles), as well as their patrons.

Tagalog also has its indigenous surnames, many of which are spelled in Spanish orthography or Spanish-based Tagalog orthography (e.g. the common Batangas Tagalog surnames Macatangay, Carandáng, Dimaculangan and Macaraig), but only a few of them date back before 1849. Many of these also have assimilated forms using only letters of the abakada (e.g. Katigbak, Liwag, Masangkay), or are spelled in a combination of Spanish and Tagalog rules (e.g. Pagcaliwagan, Macuha).

Filipino naming in general follow the Western order of first name-middle name-last name, but middle names usually refer to the maternal surname than a secondary first name, carrying on from the Spanish naming tradition. Western middle names in its general sense of secondary first name are treated as part of the first name in the Philippines.

Most Tagalog (and Filipinos in general) bear multiple first names, as similar with Spanish speakers.

Place names

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Many place names in Tagalog regions come from Spanish or spelled in Spanish orthography.

Spanish names of provinces, cities and municipalities of Tagalog origin

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Many names of provinces, cities and municipalities of Tagalog origin came via Spanish, most of which has been reborrowed into Tagalog. Unless otherwise noted or written with accents, the name is the one universally used across Spanish, Tagalog and English:

Provinces

Cities and municipalities

Since proper nouns do not need to be respelled phonemically, where marked, both the unassimilated and assimilated forms are valid. Common usage prefer the unassimilated reborrowing.

Tagalog place names from Spanish

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Many place names in Tagalog come from Spanish, which includes the ubiqitous names Santa Cruz, Santo Niño, San Roque, San Juan and Poblacion. Names of prominent individuals (usually their surname) are also a source of some other common names, (e.g. Magallanes after Ferdinand Magellan, San Fernando after Ferdinand VI of Spain, Rizal after José Rizal, Plaridel after Marcelo H. del Pilar, Quezon after Manuel L. Quezon, Roxas from Manuel Roxas). Like with Spanish-derived personal names, these are written without accents (except the tilde in Ñ, which is retained) and are normally not respelled into native Tagalog orthography unlike loanwords.

The name of the Philippines in Tagalog, Pilipinas, is borrowed from Spanish Filipinas, so are Pilipino (demonym) and Filipino (Standard Tagalog as national language, or a synonym of Tagalog).

Pseudo-Hispanisms

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Main article: :Category:Tagalog pseudo-loans from Spanish

While most Tagalog loanwords come from Spanish, some of these are not really Spanish, but as pseudo-Hispanisms, also known as "siyokoy" words (as referred to by writer Virgilio S. Almario who also served as head of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino), usually in the form of English-Spanish hybrid words which has been attributed to increasing illiteracy in standard Spanish in the Philippines and the desire by speakers to sound like speaking Spanish. Linguistic prescription aside, these words can alternatively be seen as assimilation of English loanwords by using Spanish influence. Examples are:

The Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino provides better guidance on the treatment of English loanwords as they enter Tagalog, and is covered at Appendix:Tagalog orthography#Loanwords. KWF also provide ways to deal with pseudo-Hispanisms:

  • Use equivalent actual Spanish loanword (e.g. imahen for imahe)
  • Borrow the English (image)
  • Use an existing native word (e.g. larawan for imahe)

Linguistic prescription aside, some words deemed pseudo-Hispanic are included in the major monolingual Tagalog dictionaries such as UP Diksiyonaryong Filipino (and its online equivalent Diksiyonaryo.ph) and the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino's Diksiyonaryo ng Wikang Filipino.

Some common Tagalog words may be considered to be pseudo-Hispanisms under their common usage at present but can be attributed to other linguistic phenomenon such as semantic borrowing and semantic drift. One example is kolehiyo, which acquired its most common sense of "college" during the American colonial era; it already existed with its original meaning in Spanish of "secondary school". Some commonly used Spanish loanwords may be seen as mere borrowings from English by some Filipinos out of historical ignorance.

Affixes

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Tagalog (and other major Philippine languages, like Cebuano) also have borrowed affixes from Spanish to create new words from existing roots. Some examples are:

Semantic shifts and false friends

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Some Spanish borrowings have gained new definitions as they entered Tagalog, and also resulted in false friends. Below are several Spanish borrowings that acquired a new meaning as they entered Tagalog, including cases where the Spanish loanword is corrupted.

Spanish Definition Tagalog loanword New definition Spanish equivalent of the Tagalog Note
barcada boatload barkada group of friends; clique
vida life bida main character; protagonist personaje principal; protagonista
chica girl tsika gossip chisme Equivalent Spanish term for "gossip" also borrowed into Tagalog as tsismis
corazonada hunch kursonada object of desire; something liked
impacto impact impakto evil spirit causing madness Tagalog is from Latin in pactus
jurado jury hurado judge/jury (in contests only)
paño cloth, wipe panyô handkerchief pañuelo Equivalent Spanish term for "handkerchief" also borrowed into Tagalog as panyuwelo
resistencia resistance resistensiya (medicine) immunity, immune system inmunidad, sistema inmunitario
seguro sure, secure siguro maybe tal vez
siempre always siyempre of course por supuesto, claro
sustancia substance sustansiya nutrients nutriente, nutritiva Ellipsis from sustancia nutritiva.
Language relations

Ancient Greek–English · Cebuano–Hiligaynon · Cebuano–Tagalog · Cebuano–Waray-Waray · Chavacano–Spanish · English–Esperanto · English–French · Esperanto–French · Esperanto–German · French–Italian · Indonesian–Malay · Kapampangan–Tagalog · Malay–Tagalog · Spanish–Tagalog

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