Have Your Ever Heard of Tagalog?

Let's first establish that Tagalog is a language spoken in The Philippines, and is an official language of the country's over 100 million people, along with English and Filipino. The term Tagalog came from ”taga ilog,” which means the people who lived next to the Pasig River during the Spanish inhabitation of the Philippines. The Pasig River is a large river that connects Manila Bay and Laguna de Bay. 

In 1937, the Philippine president at the time, Manuel L. Quezon, declared that Tagalog would be the national language. The most interesting thing is that the suggestion for making it a national language came from a foreigner. 

In 1924, a naturalized American citizen of Lebanese heritage named Najeeb Saleeby, suggested the institution of a national language, chosen amongst one of the languages spoken in the country.

In modern day, Tagalog incorporates many "loan words" from languages such as Spanish, with approximately 30% of the language being of Spanish-language origin. English is also prominent part of Tagalog that is used in everyday life. Many words appear as phonetic spellings of the English terms, such as drayber (driver), basketbol (basketball), bistek (beefsteak), boksing (boxing), iskul (school), iskolar (scholar), cabinet (cabinet) and many more.

Are you interested in English to Tagalog translation? Please get in touch with us and we'll be happy to help!

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