Tagalog Translation & Interpretation Services
Tagalog language
Providing Professional Translation, Interpretation, and Localization services in Tagalog and more than 300 other languages and dialects.
Autonym(s)
Tagalog (also known as “Filipino,” the national language of the Philippines)
Number of Speakers
Native Speakers: 14 million; L2 Speakers: 25 million
Geographic Distribution
Philippines
Official or Recognized Status
Official: Philippines (as “Filipino”)
Classification
Austronesian, Philippine
Features
Follows a verb-subject-object (VSO) word order, with a high degree of flexibility. Pronouns are inflected for number and verbs are inflected for focus, aspect, and voice, using affixes added to the root verb. Verbs are conjugated for time by using aspect instead of tense. Tagalog utilizes a “trigger system” of alignment wherein instead of using two voices (transitive/active and intransitive passive), Tagalog has two transitive voices. Tagalog vocabulary is derived from Austronesian roots but has borrowed many loanwords from other languages, such as Spanish (the former colonial ruler of the Philippines), consisting of 13.33% of Tagalog vocabulary. Other languages that have contributed loanwords include Malay, English, Chinese, Tamil, and Sanskrit. Another unique feature of Tagalog is the use of “code-switching” with English, known colloquially as “Taglish.”
Dialects
The standardized form of Tagalog is Filipino, the national language of the Philippines. The four principal dialects of Tagalog are: Northern (Bulacan), Central (including Manila), Southern (Batangas), and Marinduque.
Writing System
Latin alphabet
U.S. Distribution
Tagalog (Filipino) is the third most widely spoken foreign language in the United States (after Spanish and Chinese), totaling roughly 1.3 million speakers. Filipino-Americans also represent the second-largest group of Asian-Americans.
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