Pocket Tagalog Dictionary: Tagalog-English English-Tagalog

By Renato Perdon

It's never a good idea to be overly-relient on technology while traveling! Look up words quickly and easily with this great little Tagalog dictionary.

Intended for use by tourists, students, and business people traveling to The Philippines Pocket Tagalog Dictionary is an essential tool for communication and a great way to learn Tagalog. It features all the essential Tagalog vocabulary appropriate for beginning to intermediate students. It's handy pocket format and easy-to read type will make any future trip to The Philippines much easier. In addition to being an excellent English to Tagalog dictionary and Tagalog to English dictionary Pocket Tagalog Dictionary contains important notes on the Tagalog language, Tagalog grammar and Tagalog pronunciation. All Filipino words are written in English and Tagalog so that in the case of difficulties the book can simply be shown to the person the user is trying to communicate with.

This dictionary contains:

• The 3,000 most commonly used words in the Tagalog language.
• Tagalog-English and English-Tagalog sections.
• An introduction to and history of the Tagalog language.
• Information on Tagalog grammar.
• A guide to pronouncing Tagalog correctly.

Other books from this bestselling series you might enjoy are: Pocket Vietnamese Dictionary, Pocket Cambodian Dictionary, Pocket Thai Dictionary, Pocket Indonesian Dictionary, and Pocket Malay Dictionary.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Periplus Editions
• Release date: Sep 4, 2012
• ISBN: 9781462909834

Book preview

PERIPLUS

Pocket

TAGALOG

Dictionary

Compiled by

Renato Perdon

Published by Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd., with editorial offices at 61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12, Singapore 534167.

Copyright © 2002 Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4629-0983-4 (ebook)

Previously published in 2002 as Pocket Filipino Dictionary

Distributed by:

Asia-Pacific

Berkeley Books Pte Ltd

61 Tai Seng Avenue #02-12

Singapore 534167

Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

www.periplus.com

Japan

Tuttle Publishing

Yaekari Building, 3F

5-4-12 Osaki, Shinagawa-ku

Tokyo 141-0032, Japan

Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

North America, Latin America & Europe

Tuttle Publishing

364 Innovation Drive

North Clarendon, VT 05759-9436, USA

Tel: [phone]; Fax: [phone]

Email: [e-mail]

www.tuttlepublishing.com

11 10 09       10 9 8 7

Printed in Singapore

Contents

Introduction

Pronunciation

Tagalog-English Dictionary

English-Tagalog Dictionary

Introduction

This Pocket Dictionary is an indispensable companion for visitors to the Philippines and for anyone in the early stages of learning the Filipino language, which is based on Tagalog. It contains all the 3,000 or so Filipino words that are most commonly encountered in colloquial, everyday speech.

For the sake of clarity, only the common Filipino equivalents for each English word have been given. When an English word has more than one possible meaning, with different Filipino equivalents, each meaning is listed separately, with a clear explanatory gloss. The layout is clear and accessible, with none of the abbreviations and dense nests of entries typical of many small dictionaries.

Filipino has been the national language of the Philippines since 1987, replacing Pilipino, the national language of the Philippines being developed since 1937. In 1987 a new national alphabet was adopted including the additional letters c, f, j, ñ q, v, x, and z, used mainly in the spelling of words assimilated from various foreign languages, especially English and Spanish.

Filipino is based on Tagalog, one of the major languages of the Philippines, which is spoken on the island of Luzon, in the area including the capital Manila. Other important languages of the Philippines are Cebuano in the south of the country and Ilocano in the north, but Filipino has been generally recognized as an important instrument of national unity. The Philippine population now exceeds 76 million, and more than half of these people live in large cities and use Filipino daily as a means of communication in business, government, and social life.

There is an extensive oral tradition in Tagalog consisting especially of poetic forms preserving an indigenous folklore and mythology, and since the 19th century the language has also been the vehicle for a modern literary tradition, including the greatest popular epic in Tagalog literature Florante at Laura by Francisco C. Baltazar (Balagtas).

Tagalog is a member of the Eastern Austronesian group of languages, and as such has some structural similarities with Malay. It is written in the roman alphabet and unlike many other languages of South-east Asta is not tonal. Correct pronunciation of Filipino words depends on the stress, which normally falls on the syllable before last, in which case it is unmarked, e.g. buhay ('life').

Sometimes it falls on the last syllable and is marked with an acute accent, e.g. buhay ('alive').

A number of words have a written grave accent on the last syllable, to indicate that the final vowel has a glottal stop, e.g. bata ('boy'), binata ('single male'), labi ('lips').

One of the most striking features of Filipino to a speaker of English, is its use of infixes (syllables inserted within a word stem) as well as prefixes and suffixes. Verb tenses are formed by a complex system of reduplication and affixation.

Filipino is full of loan words from foreign languages, the majority of them from Spanish and English. Many of those taken from English have been omitted from the Filipino-English section of the dictionary, as they are easily understood by most English speakers.

Pronunciation

The national language of the Philippines is called Filipino. It is based on Tagalog, one of the major languages of the country.

Learning to speak in Filipino will not be a difficult exercise. Anyone with a knowledge of English or Spanish pronunciation will easily become familiar with the standard pronunciation of Filipino words.

Since its adoption in 1987, the new Filipino alphabet consists of 28 letters: a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z.

The original twenty letters of the old alphabet (a, b, k, d, e, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y) form part of the new alphabet. The additional letters (c, f, j, ñ, q, v, x, z) are mainly used in the spelling of words assimilated from various foreign languages, especially English and Spanish.

The user of this dictionary should not be worried by making an error in communicating with native speakers. You will learn so much from the interactions.

Practice in proper pronunciation is a big help. The imitated pronunciation should be read as if it were English (except ñ which comes from Spanish), and bearing in mind the following main points:

Consonants

b as in bat

b  baboy (pig)

c as in census

c  sinag (ray)

d as in day

d  dinig (heard)

f as in food

f  Filipino (Filipino)

g as in give

g  gamot (medicine)

h as in hit

h  higop (gulp)

j as in jam

j  jambori; also dyambori (jamboree)

or he or ho when followed by e or o

but in the case of words recently borrowed from English, as in jeep

k as in king

k  kamera (camera)

I as in level

I  lason (poison)

m as in mature

m  mata (eyes)

n as in nut

n  numero (number)

ñ as in Spanish mañana

ny Señor (Mr)

ng as in England

ng  ngipin (teeth)

p as in patriot

p  pera (money)

q as in question

q  quento; also kuwento (story)

r as in rat

r  radyo (radio)

s as in start

s  silya (chair)

t as in time

t tasa (cup)

v as b

v barnis (varnish)

but in the case of words recently borrowed from English, as in veto w as in way

w wika (language)

x as in x-ray

x extra; also ekstra (extra)

y as in yard

y yate (yacht)

z as s

z soo (zoo)

but in the case of words recently borrowed from English, as in