I am a bit confused how Pinoys use the word dialect. Dialect in the science of linguistic means a slight variation in the same language. For example British English and American English are two dialects of the same language- it means slightly different grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation but it is English nonetheless.
A dialect must be "of something".
For example in Butuan and Cebu they speak Cebuano but there si a slightly different vocabulary. Same in Leyte. So , one can say that Leyte people speak a different dialect of Cebuano from Butuan people.

However Cebuano, Tagalog and Ilocano are not dialects; they are languages- they have their own literature and TV stations and newspapers and are generally not understood by other speakers.

Vernacular is a regional variation of a dialect- as in different parts of a big city people may have a slightly different vocabulary and pronuncuation.

I think that the Spaniards humiliated the natives by not seeing the local languages as of their own right and simply calling them "dialectos", but they are not.

I keep seeing quite educated people here and at work ( I work with highly educated Pinoys) that make that mistake all the time.

Is this information news to you? If not, how many languages are spoken in RP, vs. How many dialects?

Hi, I'm Rebecca. I just started college (in the Philippines) and i am already struggling. Filipino is not a major subject for the course i am taking, but still, i can't fail. I have been living here for about 6 years but i have learnt a dialect, not tagalog, the language Filipino is taught in. People always laugh when i answer wrong, but that isn't my problem. I don't know how i can get through this subject, and passing it.

HELP!

thanks

Next year, I will be enrolling for a Korean class. I really want to learn Korean and it's something that I love and want to learn.
But, I live in Canada and our two official languages are French and English.
You at least have to have 1 French credit to graduate High school. Also, in grade school they teach French every year.

I have been in Canada since Grade 4 and I am now in Grade 9.
I took French this semester and I am planning on taking the Grade 10 course next year as well. It is a benefit if I can speak/understand French here in Canada, and I will have a better chance at getting a job later on. I'm not really interested in French, and I'm just taking it for the benefit. However, this would mean that I would be taking Korean and French at the same time. I don't want to give up either of them.

Will it be alright to learn 2 languages at once?
If I do decide to take both courses, I would have French for 5 days (Mon-Fri.)
But, Korean classes for only 1 day. (Saturday)
What should I do?
Won't I learn French faster since I will have it everyday compared to Korean which I will only have for one day?

Also, if I don't take the Grade 10 French Course this year, I would not be able to take it in Grade 11 or 12, since I would need to have a Grade 10 Credit, my only choice would be to take it in summer school if I decide to take it in Grade 11.

Another thing, I heard it's good if I can find a native speaker of the language I'm trying to learn and get help from them and that it's also good to use the language a lot and surround yourself with it. But, I speak Tagalog a lot because of my friends and family, I don't want to forget how to speak my native language, like my little brother. (Since he was still very young when we moved here.) & Since I only know about an 9 year old's vocabulary of Tagalog and I don't know many 'deep' Tagalog words, I learn new words and sayings (dialect) from my friends who have just recently moved.

So won't it seem like I'm learning 3 languages at once?
Will it be easier to learn only one language rather than more than one at the same time?

[Sorry for writing a lot .. ]
Another thing I forgot to add, I feel like I'm surrounded my all three of the languages because:

Tagalog - I speak it everyday with my friends and family.

Korean - I listen to a lot of Korean music, watch dramas (Subbed of course), and TV shows.

French - Everything is translated into french here, for example on a milk package it would say MILK and under LAIT, stuff like that.

I've always been fascinated by the cultures of our archipelago. My dad is from Mindanao, speaking the Mindanao dialect of Bisaya, and my mom is from Palawan, speaking Cuyunin. I'm also a student of political science, mainly interested in Philippine politics, and I find the imposition of Tagalog as the national Filipino language absurd. This is not to say that I think Bisaya ought to be the national language; I just feel that the national tongue ought to know how to speak all or at least most of the languages spoken in the territory concerned.

I love languages and learn them really quickly. It'd be great if you guys can refer me to a tutor (preferably not expensive) or at least to books I can study

Thanks!

ayaw nalang oy... basta kabaw langka nga ganahan ko nimo. pero murag kabaw ko ma unsa ta.

i believe this is the visayin dialect of the filipino language. thanks a bunch if you are able to translate

my mom grew up speaking tagalog (a dialect of the filipino language--she can still speak it), but speaks english now (fluently and almost without an accent). i asked her one day if she thought in tagalog, and she realized that she did. i'm wondering if this is the same for the majority of people who grow up speaking a language other than english.

Need help! getting tiresome of being looked at like a dollar sign cause being unable to speak tagalog already know quite a few bad words and such so if its towards me or around i know what they mean but the rest is way to hard...translators online are horrible and not really reliable per-say and waray-waray speaking is making it harder to learn learning more expressions and such from the main base language but not the dialect language >.>

With the whole emphasizing the "r" heavily in waray but tagalog dont see any of that one bit any kind of help is needed! Very determined to be semi fluent or try to be fluent in tagalog! >.<

any topic will do..as long as it is in tagalog dialect.

I know that the main language in the Philippines is tagalog and is widely taught around but shouldnt tagalog speaking pinoys learn other dialects like visaya?
Most visayas and other different dialect speaking pinoys can speak tagalog fluently but tagalog speaking pinoys can't speak other dialects.Almost 2/3 of people in the Philippines can speak up to 2 dialects or 3 even.
Aren't the tagalog speak pinoys are at disadvantage?

P.s Im a pinoy too,alam ko mg tagalog lol

the word is "bagulan" i grew up hearing this word a lot...lol probably because it describes me. it means naughty. does anyone know what dialect of tagalog this word belongs to? my boyfriend speaks tagalog but says he hasn't heard this word before. my family speaks both tagalog and visayan. thank you. =)

This is actually a spin-off from Coqui's question. He did raise some very interesting points and it's a topic deserving of our thoughts and opinions.

We all know that Filipino (our national language) is largely based on Tagalog, the prevalent language/dialect in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. But we do have other dialects that are widely spoken by large numbers of people, like Cebuano and Ilocano.

So why Tagalog? Does it mean it is better than the others? Thank you for your answers.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100110170425AAGAeCc&show=7#profile-info-UhKxohnxaa

Is there any sofware available where I can enter any Tagalog word and hear it spoken in this dialect?

I'm Mexican, with Filipino-American blood. And when my cousins from the Philippines come over, I can't understand them when they talk in Tagalog! Oh, and that other dialect they always speak, what was that? Ilocano, or something? Does anyone know any Ilocano?

It's the main language of the Philippines, but more people in all of the Philippines know English and another dialect rather than Tagalog and English. Also, English is the main language for education. In terms of the rest of the world, is Tagalog a useless language? Why would anyone want to learn it? (Other than culture because that usually relates to Filipinos).

If so, which dialect have you learned to speak. How long did it take you to learn the dialect?

I already speak English and Spanish (Mexican dialect) fluently, and I want to learn another language. I have a lot of Filipino friends, and have been told that filipinos are basically asian mexicans. So, is it a difficult language to learn?

Are there places where I could learn it?
ok, so, in no way did that answer my question. i know they are not mexican. its just a joke, since my mom is mexican, and the girl i was talking to is filipino.

With the tagalog dialect. I'm full pinoy, rasied in a western culutre, english speaker naman. ang Gusto ko ay magsita atska magsulat in tagalog. Naparakis lang ako magsulat. I am not good at it yet, but at least im trying. Anyways, Meron ba, a class that will teach tagalog around Chicago? I haven't searched, but if there is, that would be great, because I just don't want to understand it fully and speak it, I want to write it correctly. Alam ko na, it's better that I speak it first, but I want the full package and start speaking and writing fluently within A year. I'm so committed, it's my new years resolution! please help me be good at it!
Just for some additional information about me... Bibili na ako ng Rosetta Stone, and I wasnt born in chicago, I was born in the philippines, naalis ako sa philippines when i was 3.

Filipino or Tagalog? Is there really a difference? Sometimes, we just shrug this question off. It's easy to say these two don't have a difference since native speakers of these languages will not be strangers when they talk. They will understand each other completely.
But technical translations demand more literal transfers. Consequently whether to use Filipino or Tagalog becomes a conscious question. When source words are without exact equivalents in Tagalog, here is where Filipino becomes useful. In a sense, one often resorts to using Filipino when "pure Tagalog" expressions can't be found. A translation therefore can be a mixture of Filipino or Tagalog, assuming that there is a clear line that distinguishes them from each other.

Tagalog is not a dialect but a major language in the Philippines. Within the Tagalog region, there are many dialects such as the variations found in Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Mindoro, Palawan, Quezon, Rizal and Batangas provinces. Ninety percent of native Tagalog speakers are born and bred and grew up in these provinces.

Filipino is based on Tagalog. Without Tagalog, I doubt if there will ever be a clear identification of the Filipino language. On second thought, maybe, Filipino will be based on Cebuano, or Ilocano, or Bicolano, or Ilongo which are also major languages. Some Cebuanos are sometimes jealous because majority of the so-called Filipino words and expressions are actually Tagalog.

Dialect- Linguistics. a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially.

Like English in the UK and in the US; or Spanish in Spain and in Argentina. They speak the same language but different dialect.

Now how could these be similar?

(good morning)

Tagalog: Magandang umaga
Ilocano: Naimbag nga bigatyo
Hiligaynon/Ilonggo: Maayong buntag
Kapampangan: Mayap ayabak

They clearly differ in phonology, grammar, and VOCABULARY. I think the Commission on the Filipino Language should have known better before declaring each indigenous "dialects" as dialects. It just makes most Filipinos unaware of what a dialect really is.

Do you agree?

Andal Ampatuan Jr's lawyer argued that his client does not speak nor understand Tagalog or English, and asked that the trial must be done or arguments must be translated to the dialect known to his client.

And so I assume his lawyer converses with him only in the Maguindanao dialect?

I was born in Bacolod, Philippines. I moved to the US when I was eleven, and I speak fluent english and ilonggo/hiligaynon (the dialect spoken where I lived). I would like to learn to speak Filipino, but how hard would it be for me to master the language?

I know that there are many dialects spoken in the Philippines but I was wondering if most the people there speak Tagalog. I would like to know this because I will be living there for the next two years and I would like to know what language to spend most my time studying. I heard that Ilacano is the dialect that most of the people will speak in the area that I will live in on the northern end of Luzon. Is this right? So should I try to study Ilacano as well?

I really need to speak the tagalog dialect. Eto ba ang story ko. I was born in the Philippines, nalalis ako when I was 3 years old. So all my life I was raised in Chicago. I returned back to the philippines in October this year, it has been 6 years since my last visit. Now, I want to return back there ksi, maxado magsaya ko. Bumalik ko sa pinas in December, but I want to make sure when I return back. matatas lang ko magtagalog. Sorry, I'm trying hard to correctly write the Tagalog Dialect. I feel embarassed that I have to speak english to everyone, when I am a full blooded filipino. I feel like when I was there, everyone expects me to speak tagalog tagala. Mahirap naman magsilta Eh.. now, I'm napakratis lang ko every day, I watch TFC, I work on Rosetta stone, I read the english tagalog dictonary, and I chat in tagalog with pinoy kabigan. At least I try. Even though my wrting is not good. But I want to know if I keep up what I do, will I be fluent by next year?

I just notice since few days ago that there are too many new accounts like mine who are asking almost the same questions every day. So let's see if these answerers and askers can translate this into English or their own language/ dialect.. I hope

"Kapag wala ang pusa naglalaro ang mga daga."

and

"Bato-bato sa langit, ang tamaan 'wag magagalit."

Thanks!

I would like to know the meaning in tagalog dialect or filipino language the english phrase "so to speak".

Filipino spouse, do you teach and talk to your children (multiracial) with your native language (Tagalog) or dialect? If not, why?

Tagalog is a language since it have different structure from other Malayo-Polynesian language such as Bahasa, Cebuano, Tausug, Ilokano, Bicol, etc... Will you call Filipino a Tagalog dialect? Or is it the other way around? Since they got the same structure but sometimes use a different set of intonations and vocabulary.