Discovering Some Unexpected Links To The Past
Whenever I talk to Spanish speakers, I always find some words that are similar to words that I use in Chavacano or Tagalog. Since I write all articles about Chavacano in my Chavacano blog, this article is about some unexpected Tagalog words that may have its origins from Spanish.
When asked about which words in Tagalog come from Spanish, most Filipinos would commonly think of kitchen utensils as well as names of the months and days of the week. Common answers will include: kutsilyo, kutsara, tinedor, plato, baso, lunes, martes, miyerkules, huwebes, biyernes, and sabado. Don't ask me why the word for 'Sunday' isn't domingo.
I have always suspected that most Spanish words which are found in the Tagalog language are a result of that language being deficient. This can be evidenced by most modern inventions and probably things that were brought by the Spanish being called by their Spanish names in Tagalog. A few examples would be relo/relos, telepono, radyo, sipilyo, sapatos, pantalon, mesa, silya, sinturon, etc. I know, who would have thought that tables and chairs were such breakthrough inventions a few centuries ago?
In modern times, the same phenomenon can be seen by our adoption of terms such as mouse, keyboard, computer, and cellphones. So it is only logical to conclude that the things that we use Spanish words for were brought by the Spanish or were invented at a time when Spanish still had a big influence on the Tagalog language.
However, some words like umpisa (probably from empezar), intindi (probably from entender), mas, pero, gusto are more of a mystery because these are words that one would think would be present in any language. While other words exist for some of them (such as ngunit and subalit for pero and nais for gusto), they are only used in literature and formal discourse. What could be the source of this? Perhaps it was born from Filipinos speaking Spanish after a fashion in the past? For example, today it is very common to use the phrase wait lang instead of sandali lang or saglit lang. I think it started with office workers using it all the time even in public transportation. Today, it is not uncommon to hear bus conductors also use this term. If the phrase wait lang gains ground and replaces the Tagalog equivalent, could our descendants be also perplexed why we use the English word wait in Tagalog?
A few months ago, I was watching an episode of a Mexican telenovela when a word that was used by one of the actors caught my attention. They were using the Tagalog word tutal in exactly the same way that we use it (to say anyway or since).
Is the Tagalog word tutal of Spanish origin? I did some research on this word but couldn't find anything that would confirm my suspicion. I tried asking a (Argentinian) Spanish speaker about it and he said that they indeed use this word in the same exact manner we use it in Tagalog and he is fairly certain that it is in use in Standard Spanish.
I gave him the following sentence (in my crude Spanish) and asked him if they made sense to him:
Puedes recoger a mi hija de la escuela? Total vas al supermercado que esta al lado de la escuela.
*Puwede mo bang kunin ang anak ko sa eskuwela tutal naman pupunta ka sa supermarket na nasa gilid lang ng eskuwelahan.
Total tienes mucho dinero, por qué no donas a la iglesia?
*Tutal marami ka namang pera, bakit hindi ka magbigay ng pera sa simbahan?
In another lifetime, I was once asked by a Mexican if the Filipino contestants that are sent to the Miss Universe pageant were retocadas. I never thought anything about it since we use the same term in Tagalog. It wasn't until a few days ago that I thought of asking some Spanish speakers. The first set of Spanish speakers I asked spoke the Spanish found in Spain. One of them said that it could be used for people who underwent minor plastic surgeries but the other one said that it is mostly used for photos (as in a photo being photoshopped). I then asked someone from Argentina (same guy as before) about it and he said that they do use this term for people who had plastic surgery. I asked him if it was used in all of Latin America but he said that he couldn't answer that question.
Anyway, it does not matter. Here is the mystery: although plastic surgery is a modern invention, I think it only became common in the nineties so it is perplexing to me why we adopted the Spanish term for it since during that time I'm pretty sure there were no more novel Spanish words entering into the Tagalog language. Was it just a coincidence? Perhaps old journalists with some knowledge of Spanish and a preference for it decided to use the term and people picked up on it?
Tagaloglang gives the following examples of the words retokada and retoke:
Even though the links between Philippine languages and the Spanish language are undeniable, I am still at awe whenever I discover words that I did not know we shared. The amount of connection that has been lost through the demise of the Spanish language in the country is unfortunate as it denies us of an important link to our past.
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