The Philippines - The Rough Guide to Southeast Asia on a Budget - page 591

in Mindanao to communist rule, and
there have been numerous bombings and
military stand-offs, as well as isolated
cases of tourists being kidnapped in
the west and far southwest areas of
Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago,
which is why we don't cover those areas.
For updates on the situation, you can

check foreign ministry, state department
and embassy websites.
You'll find the same con artists and
hustlers here that you'd find anywhere
else, but most Filipinos are amazingly
friendly and helpful. he most frequent
scams involve changing money on the
street (you'd have to be stupid to do this),

TAGALOG
There are more than 150 languages and dialects in the Philippines. Tagalog, also known as
Filipino or Pilipino, is spoken as a first language by 25 million people - mostly on Luzon - and
is the national language. Many English words have been adopted by Filipinos, giving rise to a
slang known affectionately as Taglish.
Tagalog has formal and informal forms of address , the formal usually reserved for people who
are significantly older. Honorifics are important to Filipinos; for your elders, use Mr or Mrs/Miss
before the surname, or just use Sir/Ma'am/Miss if you don't know their name. It's common to use
kuya / ate (elder brother/sister) to address people informally. The su x “po” indicates respect and
can be added to almost any word or phrase. The informal form of “I'm fine” is mabuti and the
formal mabuti-po ; o-po is a respectful “yes” and it's common to hear Filipinos say sorry-po for “sorry”.
STRESSES
Tagalog sounds staccato to the foreign ear, with clipped vowels and consonants. It has no
tones, and most words are spoken as they are written, though working out which syllable to
stress is tricky. In words of two syllables, the first syllable tends to be stressed, while in words
of three or more syllables the stress is almost always on the final or penultimate syllable; thus
Boracay is pronounced Bo- ra -kay or sometimes Bo-ra- kay , but never Bo -ra-kay. Sometimes a
change in the stress can drastically alter the meaning. Vowels that fall consecutively in a word
are always pronounced individually, as is every syllable; for example, tao meaning person or
people is pronounced ta-o, while oo for yes is pronounced oh-oh (with each vowel closer to
the “o” in “show” than in “bore”).
PRONUNCIATION
a as in “ a pple”
e as in “m e ss”
i as in “d i tto”, though a little more
elongated
o as in “b o re”
u as in “p u t”
ay as in “b uy ”
aw as in “m ou nt”
iw is the sound ee continued into the u
sound of “p u t”
oy as in “n oi se”
uw as in “q ua rter”
uy produced making the sound oo
and continuing it to the i sound
in d i tto
c as in “s k in”
g as in “ g et”
k as in “s k in” (unaspirated)
mga is pronounced ma ng
ng as in “si ng i ng”
p as in “s p eak” (unaspirated)
t as in “s t op” (unaspirated)

8

GREETINGS AND BASIC PHRASES
Hello/how are you? Ka mu s ta
Fine, thanks Ma bu ti, salamat
Goodbye Pa al am, or Bye
Good evening Magandang ga bi
Excuse me Iskyus (to get past)
Please Use the word paki
before a verb. For
example, upo means
sit, so “please sit” is
paki-upo paki
Thank you Sa la mat
Yes oo (oh-oh)
No Hindi
My name is … Ako si …
FOOD AND DRINK GLOSSARY
Vegetarian ako I'm vegetarian

Main dishes
Adobo Chicken and/or pork

simmered in soy

sauce and vinegar,

with pepper and

garlic