I am still struggling with trying to learn Tagalog. So I thought I would share some of my thoughts with the world!
I have been using a book which i thought was quite good and am (strongly?) motivated by the fact that we go to a Tagalog Mass every Sunday.
In order to help me understand, I have the Ordinary of the Mass in Tagalog, with English translations of some parts, and the reading and prayers for the Sunday in both languages in a loose leaf folder.
All this has done is confirm my deep suspicion that it is impossible to translate from one language to another.
For example, the Tagalog word for "Lord" is "Panginoon" pronounced "pang - in - no- on" (Tagalog has no dipthongs, double vowels are sounded as two vowels) except in all the Psalms where "Lord" is rendered "Poon" - what happened to the "angin"?
Understanding spoken Tagalog is made more difficult by the fact that Filipinos speak it very fast, so it sounds like a machine gun. But I now have a theory as to why they do this.
My theory is two fold:
1) Tagalog has a lot of multi syllabled wiords, by which I mean words with 4 or more syllables, so they have to rush through those words; and
2)Tagalog takes a lot more words than English to say anything.
Again an example:
The doxology from the Eucharistic parayer in English goes:
"Through him, with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory and honour is yours, almighty Father, for ever and ever." 26 words, 37 syllables
The Tagalog reads thus:
"Sa pamamagitan ni Kristo, kasama niya, at sa kanya ang lahat ng parangal at papuri ay sa iyo, Diyos Amang makapangyarihan, kasama ng Espiritu Santo magpasawalang hanggan."
27 words, 59 syllables
One more example, I won't bother with the count this time:-
"May all of us who share in the body and blood of Christ be brought together in unity by the Holy Spirit"
"Isinasamo naming kaming magsasalu-salo sa Katawan at Dugo ni Kristo ay mabuklod sa pagkakaisa sa pamamagitan ng Espiritu Santo"
Then there are the words that don't actually mean anything, ng, na for example. If you leave them out it is bad Tagalog and the Filipinos will have difficulty understanding you, but they don't actually have any meaning.
You may gather from all this that my language skills have not progressed very far!!!!
