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Is Tagalog dying? | ||
Tags: Tagalog | Language Importance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4561 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes  Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 41 of 56 25 April 2012 at 7:05am | IP Logged | ||
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clugston is hysterical. Linguistics is a wonderful field, and I'm sorry that I didn't stay the course and complete a PhD. In many ways, the most wonderful days of my life were those in grad school.
I think clugston underestimates the tremendous amount of practical knowledge about language learning you can find in this forum. Clugston brings back memories of cranky professors :) steve 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| pansitkanton Diglot Newbie Philippines Joined 4396 days ago 6 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English, Tagalog* Studies: Korean | Message 42 of 56 02 May 2012 at 5:04am | IP Logged | ||
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I agree on some points he raised, but I strongly disagree with the idea that many
Philippine languages have so much vitality. True enough Tagalog is alive as well as many major languages, but there are some under that umbrella that are on the brink of decline (or already on it) like Kapampangan and Pangasinan. I also don't know how these linguists he says are looking up to the language planning situation in the Philippines because IMO, it's one of the most oppressive, pathetic, ill-conceived in the world. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ArleneJoyce Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4317 days ago 6 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Tagalog, Ancient Greek | Message 43 of 56 15 July 2012 at 7:13am | IP Logged | ||
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As a native English speaker who lived in the Philippines for 15 months, I found I did
not need either Tagalog nor Filipino to "get by". Nearly everyone I encountered from the university faculty to the janitor in our apartment building spoke enough English to get by. But when I really wanted to fit in -- to understand the humor, the subtleties in the relationships between people, and the nuances in a highly-nuanced culture, Filipino was really needed, even in Manila. When I spent time in rural Nueva Ecija, Tagalog was imperative. Many people had English skills, but were much too shy to use them. If I spoke Tagalog first, especially because I spoke so poorly, people had much more confidence in speaking to me, even in English. And Tagalog is the only language many of the village elders speak. So if you want to spend any time in rural areas, and really make close friends, even in Manila, do spend your time learning Tagalog. Even my Ilocano friends took it as a compliment that I made an effort to earn Tagalog. Even though it was not their particular language, it was a sister language. There is one other major benefit of learning Tagalog. Many Filipinos expressed to me that they use English because it is harder to speak about technology, business, and administration in Filipino. They prefer to use English to text because it is shorter. But when they want to talk about feelings and family and the truly important things in life, you can actually hear the English disappear. For me, Tagalog is rich in its nuances about the relationships between people, and it reveals the cultural importance of interpersonal relationships in a way that other (European) languages I know do not. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Duke100782 Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Philippines https://talktagalog.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4284 days ago 172 posts - 240 votes Speaks: English*, Tagalog* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 44 of 56 08 September 2012 at 3:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Is Tagalog a dying language? A sober answer would be: No.
Is Tagalog the same as Filipino? Practically speaking, Yes. Is there a true form of Tagalog spoken in the rural areas far away from foreign influence? Is there a true form of (insert your mother tongue) in the rural areas far away from foreign influence? But indeed, the Tagalog spoken in some provinces, such as Lubang island which I visited in 2007, will give you a glimpse of what Tagalog must have sounded like a few decades ago. Edited by Duke100782 on 08 September 2012 at 3:21pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| pansitkanton Diglot Newbie Philippines Joined 4396 days ago 6 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English, Tagalog* Studies: Korean | Message 45 of 56 24 November 2012 at 6:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Interesting input, Duke100782.
I had a classmate in my masters class who is from Alabat, Quezon. She was insisting that their native speech is a different language from Tagalog. When she was asked to give out words commonly used, they are indeed quite far (and presumably archaic) from the Tagalog many know. However, when asked to construct a complete sentence, the syntax and inflection is obviously Tagalog. Aside from huge lack of linguistic study in the Philippines, dialectology is also a huge black hole in many of our languages. One very interesting area is how to reconcile the differences (and similarities) between Dabawenyo, which many say is a different language, Davao Cebuano, other Mindanao variants of Cebuano and Boholano, also contended to have already split from Cebuano. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| aodhanc Diglot Groupie Iceland Joined 6056 days ago 92 posts - 130 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish | Message 46 of 56 25 November 2012 at 10:00am | IP Logged | ||
So, are you saying that once Tagalog disappears in 10 - 15 years time, the Philippines will become a completely English-speaking country? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4561 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 47 of 56 26 November 2012 at 6:19am | IP Logged | ||
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I continue to be astounded by people predicting that Tagalog is dying.
Just walk down the street in Manila and listen to people talking. Just walk down the street in pretty much any of the the Tagalog provinces. Just turn on cable channel TFC, the Filipino channel, which broadcasts to an audience of Filipinos who live outside the Philippines, a group of Filipinos who speak English (and other languages) at a much higher level than the average Filipino back in country, and listen to what people are speaking. Tagalog is spreading to provinces where other Filipino languages are commonly spoken, so perhaps some of those languages are in decline. There are many languages in the Philippines; some are becoming rarer. Tagalog has tens of millions of native speakers. With tens of millions of native speakers, I don't see how the language could be in any danger of dying out. There are millions of native speakers of Tagalog who are under 15. I think many outsiders don't understand how normal it is in the Philippines for people to speak several languages. English when talking about computers, Ilocano when talking to grandma, Tagalog when talking to Susi (from the Visayas), and Kapampanga when talking with high school friends. Add this to the tremendous number of languages in the Philippines, and it can become difficult to figure out exactly what's going on. I think that we are a long time from when most Filipnos will be unable to understand what's going on in the soap opera, when the wife comes home and finds her husband with his girlfriend and yells, "Hayop! Layas!" steve Edited by sfuqua on 26 November 2012 at 6:20am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5177 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 48 of 56 05 December 2012 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
There are a lot of immigrants from the Philippines in my city. Going to the mall usually implies that I will hear Filipino (although to be honest, it could also be some other language of the Philippines). Admittedly, the people I hear are mostly older, say 50's and on. In any case, I wondered about learning Tagalog because of this important segment of population, but after hearing your description of the linguistic situation... I give up. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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