Hmm....Tagalog is an Austronesian language, but the examples you gave are so radically different from her Austronesian cousins -viz Malay.
Daniel wrote:
Natutulog ka.
Malay: Anda tidur.
Daniel wrote:
Nakikita mo ang aso
Malay: Anda tengoh anjing.
Yes, both Malay and Tagalog belong to the Austronesian family of languages. However, Tagalog is a member of a branch called Meso-Philippine part of the Malayo-Polynesian group which in turn is part of the Austronesian family. Malay belongs to the Outer Hesperonesian group and Nuclear Malayo-Polynesian group which in turn is part of the Malayo-Polynesian group part of the Austronesian family.
Because of that, Malay and Tagalog both share many cognates:
MALAY - TAGALOG - ENGLISH:
ajar - aral - teach/learn
tolong - tulong - help
makan - kain - eat
lelaki - lalaki - man
anak - anak - child
sakit - sakit - pain/ill/sick
sedap - sarap - delicious/tasty
surat - sulat - write/letter
aku - ako - I
engkau - ikaw - you
dia - siya - he/she/it
pulau - pulo - island
pintu - pinto - door
tangis - tangis - weep/cry
tengah hari - tanghali - afternoon
luar hati - luwalhati - glory
batik - batik - spot
muka - mukha - face/page
cerita - salita - speak/talk
beli - bili - buy/sell
kami - kami - we
Malay and Tagalog uses the affixes in the same way. They both have this ability where they can add affixes to a root to give it extra meanings. For example:
TAGALOG:
1.
aral - study/learn
paaralan - school (place where teaching and learning take place)
mag-aral - to learn
2.
laki - big/large (root)
malaki - big/large (adj.)
malalaki - big/large (adj. plural)
lumaki - to become/grow big
Lumalaki siya. - He is growing bigger.
3.
aklat - book
aklatan - library (place of books)
4.
bundok - mountain
kabundukan - (group of) mountains
tagabundok - from the mountains
5.
ganda - beauty
maganda - beautiful
gumanda - to become beautiful
napakaganda - very beautiful
6.
sulat - letter/write
sumulat - to write
magsulat - to write often
magsulatan - to write to each other
sulatin - to be written
pansulat - for writing (ie. Pansulat ang lapis. - The pencil is for writing.)
palasulat - always writing
sulatan - to write to someone/to write on something
I'm quite surprised that Malay has a very simple way of forming time aspects. You just use separate words like "akan", "sedang" and "sudah":
Saya akan makan. - I will eat.
Saya sedang makan. - I eat. / I am eating.
Saya sudah makan. - I ate. / I have eaten.
In Tagalog:
Kakain ako. - I will eat.
Kumakain ako. - I eat. / I am eating.
Kumain ako. - I ate. / I have eaten.
Conjugation:
root: kain
infinitive: kumain (add -um- infix after initial consonant)
past tense: kumain (see above)
present tense: kumakain (repeat initial syllable of root before adding -um-)
future: kakain (simply repeat initial syllable)
The thing is that in Malay the time words can be omitted if context is made clear but in Tagalog, the conjugated verb forms must be retained.
What makes the Tagalog verbal conjugation even more complicated is the fact that there are around 100 verbal affixes, which means that a Tagalog verb can have up to 100 different forms (and not all of them are regular)! And you have to bear in mind that the initial consonant of the verb may have to undergo certain sound changes according to spelling rules. For example, the initial "s" or "p" may be dropped before taking a prefix.
So you have:
kanin - to be eaten
Kinain ko ang manok. - I ate the chicken.
Kinakain ko ang manok. - I eat/am eating the chicken.
Kakanin ko ang manok. - I will eat the chicken.
makain * - to be able to eat
Nakain ko ang manok. - I was able to eat the chicken.
Nakakain ko ang manok. - I can/am able to eat the chicken.
Makakain ko ang manok. - I will be able to eat the chicken.
makakain * - to be able to eat
Nakakain ako ng manok. I- was able to eat (some) chicken.
Nakakakain ako ng manok. - I can/am able to eat (some) chicken.
Makakakain ako ng manok. - I will be able to eat (some) chicken.
* If you put the stress accent on the first syllable of the prefix ma- and the second syllable of maka- then the meaning is "to do something by accident". For example:
Makákain ako ng manok. - I ate chicken by mistake (because I'd thought it was something else) _________________ Zoriona tximelata bat bezalakoa da: bilatzen baduzu, hegaldatuko besterik ez da, baina gelditzen bazara, dator eta zure sorbaldan jartzen da.
I must say that I am very impressed by your explanation. Your grasp of Malay also strikes me as able and competent.
I'd like to say that my knowledge of standard Malay or Bahasa Melayu Baku is rudimentary at best as I am more used to speaking a Malay creole or Pasar Melayu on the streets. For example 'engkau' for you would be truncated to 'kau'. We'd mostly do away with 'sedang' to express an action in the present continuous tense. In fact, Pasar Melayu was actually the lingua franca in the plural society of Singapore and Malaysia during colonial times. _________________ Hillary Clinton is an acquired taste which I have clearly yet to acquire.
English has an odd usage of the Present Progressive ("am/are/is X-ing") in that it has become the "default" form for the Present Tense with active verbs, with the Simple Present form having an habitual meaning. So we say "I am running today" but "I run every morning".
And about that "-ing" ending; it is actually a fusion of 2 Old English endings, the "-unge" gerund ending and the "-ende" present participle ending. In Old English to say "I was hunting" you could either say "Ic wæs on huntunge" or "Ic wæs huntende. a few hundred years later this had become something like "I was a-hunting" and "I was huntin".
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