Tagalog is a local dialect used in the Philippines.
I have encountered a lot of foreigners who visit my country for leisure or business purposes. Most of them are very eager to learn the basics of our language. They wanted to communicate with the locals and show their respect.
Have you been in the Philippines?
What did you learn about my country?
What other things would you like to know more about?
Do you know how to speak Tagalog and do you know how it works?
Share your thoughts about the Tagalog Language and let's learn how interesting it is.
Hi Emily! Nice to know you know a bit of Tagalog. :) Though Tagalog is heavily Spanish-influenced it, along with numerous Philippine languages already existed way before Europeans arrived to the islands. Tagalog had its own written script, the Baybayin (erroneously referred to as alibata before) that was thoroughly documented by the friars. It eventually fell into disuse in favor of the Latin alphabet, but there are some places in the Philippines like Mindoro where they use the pre-colonial writing script (in Mindoro, they use Surat Mangyan) to this day.
@Emily
Thanks for leaving a comment.
Actually you are correct. There is a big influence of Spanish language in our culture. But basically we still use our own local language with a touch of English (Taglish - Tagalog-English). We use the Spanish terms to tell the time like 2PM is alas dos.
A little trivia, the word Tagalog means "Taga ilog" TAGA - from the ILOG - river (people residing next to the river). Based from history, most locals used to live near a river and make a living from catching fresh water fish, planting crops and so on.
Maraming Salamat po (Thank you so much) @Emily
