Tagalog (also known as “Filipino,” the national language of the Philippines)
Native Speakers: 14 million; L2 Speakers: 25 million
Philippines
Official: Philippines (as “Filipino”)
Austronesian, Philippine
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.”
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.
Latin alphabet
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.
At Latitude Prime, we offer Tagalog translation, Tagalog interpretation, and Tagalog localization services in numerous specialized subject areas and multiple dialects. Whether you need to translate a birth certificate from Tagalog to English, need a Tagalog interpreter for a business meeting in Manila, or want to localize your website into Tagalog (Filipino) to market your products or services in the Philippines, Latitude Prime has the customized language solution to meet all of your Tagalog language needs.
