SGP's Learning Tagalog/Filipino Log

Magandáng umaga: good morning.

Good/beautiful on its own would be magandá.

The root is gandá, beauty.

Some learning web sites could write it as "Magandáng umaga".

If these two underlines are for stress (emphasis), then I wonder what the difference between "a" and "á" is.

Or is the underline used for long vowels instead?

Returning a greeting can be done by repeating it and adding "sa iyó".

"sa" means "to" (as in "to you"). It also is used for several other meanings. Because prepositions don't always translate too well.

I also should focus on the differences between informal and formal speech. People from the Philippines are said to be very polite. And at the same time, I could think of something else as well. This is about the cultural differences between the different countries concerning when informal speech is used. Some are much more open, in that regard, than others.

Charlyn wrote:

Hi SGP! Yes, the underline one is used for long vowels. Yes, your right about the uses of 'sa'.

Hi Charlyn!

So the underline is for long vowels. And I never saw it outside of some learning material. So it seems that it is something additional only.

And as for the "á" (as opposed to "a" without an accent), it is for stress/emphasis, isn't it?

The underline is for stress, accent mark for gottal stop.

Hi again SGP. Yes, Leo is correct. The underline is for stress while accent mark is for gottal stop.  

We only have five vowels - a, e, i, o u. So everytime you see the letter "a" in any word, it sounds the same. Same goes for all the other vowels. The underlined parts were the correct stressed syllables but the diacritical marks didn't make sense to me.

Here are the closest equivalent soudns to English (Merriam-Webster Phonetic Alphabet)

Filipino a - sounds like Italian a. Ex: father

Filipino e - sounds like short e. Ex: net

Filipino i - sounds like short i. Ex: fit

Filipino o - sounds like circumflex o. Ex: saw

Filipino u - sounds like long u. Ex: pool

This is why a lot of Filipino speakers have difficulty with tense sounds -- our language only has 1 (Filipino u).

the vowels are the same as Spanish

Magandang umaga sa'yo (sa iyo) SGP.

 "Sa'yo" is the shortened of "sa iyo" and that is the usual word we use in our conversation.

Also, the usual or natural thing that we say in returning a greeting is we just add the word "din", though "Magandang umaga sa iyo" is okay.

Someone: Magandang umaga! (Good morning!)

Me: Magandang umaga din! (Good morning too!)

leosmith wrote:

the vowels are the same as Spanish

Yep. We don't use the accent marks they do though. The only "special" character we have is n+~. Lol. I'm on my phone and just realized I can't type it.

Maybe the learning mats have it as a guide for learners?

First, thank you all for your input. It was far more than I expected.

And it possibly would take a little bit of time until I fully comprehend it.

(But no additional explanations on what you wrote up to now would be even remotely required!)

Also, I'd just like to briefly mention that while I do really like Tagalog, there is a certain reason why my learning process wouldn't be supposed to be as fast as the learning process of someone who dedicates all of his learning time to a single language. (What a loooong sentence, SGP!).

Here's why:

Currently queued to be learned in rotation:

(1) Spanish, French, Swahili, Japanese, Esperanto,

Jamaican Patois, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Dutch, toki pona.

(2) Wolof, Akan, Ewe (a.k.a. Efe), Ga (all African), Sinhala, and Tagalog/Filipino.