Is Tagalog similar to Malay?
My love affair with Manila began in 2012.
The romance developed instantly. I was smitten by the clusters of flamboyant tricycles and slogan-screaming jeepneys that hogged every nook and cranny — even if it meant getting smothered in smoke. A kind of tough love, if you will.
And then there was Tagalog. The language transpires as a mesh of musical sounds that gently cascade into a stream of sentences.
It was beautiful, upbeat and casual. Most of all, it felt familiar to my Southeast Asian ear. Growing up in Malaysia with indigenous Sarawak roots, Malay was the school-taught language used to communicate across different racial groups. It can also be easily broken up, with its easy-to-use sentence structures, albeit with affixes of its own.
As I worked to adapt and fit in Manila, I began to easily spot some Malay words lurking within the Tagalog vocabulary.
Similarities between Tagalog and Malay
At a glance, Malay and Tagalog seem like two peas in a pod. Both languages share several similar nouns. This made prices easier to haggle — “mahal” (expensive) and “murah” (cheap) were the same words in both languages.
Here are other examples of almost-identical words:
White
- Malay: Putih
- Tagalog: Puti
Read
- Malay: Baca
- Tagalog: Basa
Lightning
- Malay: Kilat
- Tagalog: Kidlat
Four
- Malay: Empat
- Tagalog: Apat
Five
- Malay: Lima
- Tagalog: Lima
The use of genderless pronouns is also a shared commonality in both languages — where he/she is simply “dia” in Malay, while in Tagalog, it is “siya”.
Another surprising similarity is the use of certain phrases, such as “sayang”. “Sayang” in Malay and Indonesian means “love”. But it also connotes a sense of loss or an exclamation of an unfortunate situation, like the English “what a pity!”. While it does not mean “love” in the Philippines, the Tagalog “sayang” carries the same latter meaning.
Such language encounters with surprising similarities challenge the notion that the Catholic country is vastly different from the Muslim-majority Malaysia. Indeed the two share Sanskrit origins and root words as they are part of the same Austronesian language families, as are Indonesian languages like Javanese and Balinese. For example, the Sanskrit मुख (“mukha”) means “face” in both Tagalog (“mukha”) and Malay (“muka”).
With these similarities, it seemed only natural that I could find a sense of home in Tagalog. Yet why couldn’t I understand the language completely?
Tagalog and Malay: Same Same, but Different
There are a couple of noticeable differences between the two languages that make understanding Tagalog very difficult to learn as a Malaysian. This is unsurprising if we consider the different colonial powers, migration patterns and language evolution that occurred in the different countries.
Colonial Spanish occupation of 333 years meant that Tagalog is heavily marked with various Hispanic loanwords, such as “para” (stop), “pwede” (can) and “pero” (but). Even the Tagalog greeting, “kumusta?” (how are you?) is influenced by the Spanish “como estas?”. To add to the confusion, some loanwords have even changed their original Spanish meaning (also called “semantic shift”), such as the Spanish “barkada” (boat trip) to mean a clique of friends in Tagalog.
Meanwhile, Malay with its Islamic (Arabic/Persian) influence as well as colonial English and Portuguese past kept loanwords from these cultures, such as the Arabic “arnab” (rabbit) and Portuguese “bola” (ball). At the same time, its multiracial make-up as a result of the British colonial period paved way for more loanwords from languages like Tamil, Mandarin and Hokkien. For instance, the Tamil கப்பல் “kapal” (boat), Mandarin 茶碗 “cawan” (cup) and Hokkien 公司 “kongsi” (share) are still commonly used today.
Another major difference between the two is what makes understanding most challenging — the grammar rules. In Malay, grammar is relatively simple and does not involve conjugations and verb tenses. However, Tagalog has verb conjugations and affixes to show active and passive voice.
Using the same verb for “read”, these sentences with the Malay “baca” and Tagalog “basa” illustrate this:
I want to read:
- Malay: Saya mahu membaca.
- Tagalog: Gusto ko magbasa.
I will read:
- Malay: Saya akan membaca.
- Tagalog: Magbabasa ako.
I am reading:
- Malay: Saya sedang membaca.
- Tagalog: Ako ay nagbabasa.
I have read:
- Malay: Saya sudah membaca.
- Tagalog: Nabasa ko na.
The above example shows that a word is simply replaced in the Malay sentences to indicate past, present and future tenses, while the Tagalog sentences undergo major sentence changes depending on the tenses and intention of the speaker.
Additionally, not all phrases with the same words can translate to the same meaning. The famous Tagalog phrase for “I love you” is “mahal kita”, which would sound strange if said in Malaysia as it literally means, “we are expensive”! Both languages may thus have the same words, but connote different meanings altogether.
Embracing Connections with Language
It is not enough to merely compare the national languages of two countries to conclude their entire narrative. There is still plenty to uncover about the languages of Malaysia and the Philippines, each with over 100 languages. But when it comes to Malay and Tagalog, we can still appreciate how the two languages reflect their history, creative rendition and regional relationship just across the expansive sea.
At the same time, knowing the basic similarities and differences between the two languages offer a chance to recognise the beauty and quirks of both cultures. When my Filipino friends say, “ingat” (take care), this phrase sounds all the more sweeter to me, as in Malay, “ingat” is to “remember”. And remember this home away from home, I will.
