Linguistic Commonality flow from Tamil Sanskrit to Tagalog through

Linguistic Commonality flow from Tamil Sanskrit to Tagalog through Malay Indonesian Language G.C. James Choi, Ph.D.1 The aim of this research is to re-find the linguistic influence to Philippines by Malay language; to re-find Malay language influence to Philippines language Tagalog and the linguistic relationship between Bahasa Indonesia and Malay language and each interaction with Sanskrit and Tamil language. This research is divided into three parts: First part is introduction for the Tamil and Sanskrit influence to Tagalog and thanks to Dr. Santarita of UP Diliman, Asian Studies for his help; Second part is Malay and Indonesian language influence to Tagalog, thanks to Mr. Kristanto from Indonesia Embassy in the Philippines; and Third part, Malay influence to Bicol and Hiligaynon language. As early as 250,000 years ago, people from the Malayan Archipelago began trickling into what is now known as the Philippine Islands. Coming during the Ice Age, they are believed to have crossed on a land bridge that no longer exists. These people were followed 15,000 years ago by a Mongoloid people from Southeast Asia who also crossed on the land bridge. These groups possibly formed the basis for most of the approximately 100 different languages spoken today in the Philippines, although there is no archeological evidence of these people. Spanning from 7000 BC to 2000 BC larger groups of people began migrating from China and Vietnam. The largest migration took place in the Third Century BC, when people from the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelago began pouring onto this group of beautiful, tropical islands. These immigrants, speakers from the Austronesian Language Family, surely cemented the basis for the various Philippine languages, of which Tagalog is extremely important2 (Encarta). Tamil/Sanskrit Influence One of the first non-Austronesian languages to have a major impact on the Tagalog language was Sanskrit. Two routes by which Sanskrit could have impacted Tagalog, as well as the other languages spoken in the Philippines, are through direct trade, and through indirect culture movements traveling from India through the Malaysian Peninsula and on into the Philippines. Beginning in the Fifth Century AD, trade in Southeast Asia erupted, and the interaction between the countries in this region of the world was boosted immensely. Traders sailed all over the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea to barter their goods. As a sideeffect of this interaction, the languages interacted as well. One of these languages was Sanskrit, a language of India. As the traders mingled, words were borrowed and loaned throughout the region. The second way in which Sanskrit impacted Tagalog was through culture movements which slowly worked their way down through the Archipelago and into the island groups. The spread of Hindu was a major culture movement. With it, Hindu brought many new customs into these countries. New words had to be borrowed and created to allow for the new customs and traditions (Francisco, 1-5). 1

Dr. G.C. James Choi is currently the Chief Secretary, in-house Scholar, and Chief-Editor of Forgotten People Magazine and SEACOM Journal since 2012 of SEACOM Research Center and a visiting professor at Bulacan State University and professor of Contemporary Problem in Southeast Asia in Graduate School of Bulacan State University. He finished his Bachelor’s Degree major in Malay-Indonesian Language at University of Foreign Studies at Seoul, Korea and Masters and Doctorate Degree at Bulacan State University, major in Social Studies. He stayed 34 years in Southeast Asia, 10 years in Malaysia, 10 years in Singapore, 12 years in Philippines, 1 year in Vietnam and Indonesia 2

Encarta. (1997). Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia.CD-ROM 1

Because if the manner in which the syntax of Tagalog is constructed, the grammatical structure of the language was fully preserved. Morphologically, Tagalog is constructed of roots of one or two syllables, to which affixes (there are more than 20) are attached. With the addition of these affixes, the roots are changed into verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and countless other derivations. This format is what saved Tagalog from being more drastically altered. It allowed new roots to be borrowed into the language, and then be altered using Tagalog affixes. Thus, one borrowed root word could be changed into countless words coming from the same borrowed root, but using affixes from Tagalog3 (Aspillera, viii). There appear to be about 336 words in Philippine languages that are recognizably Sanskrit in origin and 50 percent of these have definitive provenance in Sanskrit. (Francisco, 1988) William Henry Scott even gave an actual statistical count of Sanskrit words in Philippine languages. He found out that some 150 separate Sanskrit words are identified as the origin of Philippine terms majority are in Tagalog and the rest in Bisaya, Ilocano and Sulu (Tausog). Some of these are bakti, guro, bangsa, bichara, dukha, guna, hina, pana, saksi and suchi.4 (Scott, 1968) As words entered Tagalog from Sanskrit, they were often altered phonetically or semantically. Phonetic alterations included change in vowel length, change in vowel quality, changes in consonants, loss of aspiration, and haplology. The following is a list of phonetic alterations in Tagalog words borrowed from Sanskrit5 (Francisco, 71-109): Vowel length: Tagalog pána < Sanskrit bäna, 'arrow' (¨ shows length) Vowel Quality: Tagalog kati < Sanskrit koti, 'ten millions' Consonantal Changes: Tagalog dalága < Sanskrit därika, 'young girl' Loss of Aspiration: Tagalog dalá < Sanskrit dhära, 'bear a burden' Haplology: Tagalog sakáli < Sanskrit sahakala, 'perhaps' Semantic alterations included narrowing, widening, synecdoche, amelioration, and pejoration. The following is a list of semantic alterations found in Tagalog words borrowed from Sanskrit 6(Francisco, 109-120): Narrowing: Tagalog tála, 'the morning star, Venus'