Tagalog phonology: glottal stop and stress

As I have promised before in previous posts, I am going to discuss to you people the glottal stops and word stressing in the Tagalog language. This would be quite hard. And I know that’s not an inviting start, yet I have to be honest.

As in most of my posts, this will extensively use IPA symbols so please refer to http://felipeaira.i.ph/blogs/felipeaira/2008/06/26/ipa-chart-for-tagalog/. This also contains audio files which may be only visible/audible in some browsers.

Introduction

The glottal stop is a sound that is very common to Philippine languages and also to other world languages yet this is not as common in the English language as, in most dialects of English, this is a very rare sound; so for the average anglophone, this would be quite hard.

The glottal stop is represented by the IPA symbol /ʔ/ (somewhat like a dotless question mark). In general English, the best example of a word where the glottal stop can be found is in the word “uh-oh” where the glottal stop exists between the separation of the vowels. Whilst in British English, the sound is more prevalent (e.g. British renditions of “battle” and “button” where the glottal stop replaces /t/; so this may be easier for you Englishmen.

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The stress or, sometimes called, accent or emphasis is, as its other name suggests, the syllable of the word on which an emphasis is given. The following audio files demonstrate stress in the English words “catholic” and “object” respectively. In the first audio file, “catholic” is first pronounced with the stress on the first syllable, secondly, on the second syllable, and, thirdly, on the last syllable. In the second audio file, “object” is first pronounced with the stress in the first syllable whilst the second pronunciation of it has its stress on the last syllable. On the side note, the second audio file also demonstrate the significance of stresses in English; although, most of the time, the stress of English words are in the first syllable, a great number of English nouns with the first syllable stressed that can be used also as verbs put their stresses on the last syllable when it is used as a verb (e.g. “This is an object.” to “I object this proposal.”).

Glottal stop

The glottal stop is a very significant sound in the Tagalog language. In many words, the mere absence of a glottal stop will determine the meaning of a word; this is because many Tagalog words differ in meaning depending on the stress and the presence of the glottal stop.

For non-native speakers, the glottal stop can be hard to produce and distinguish. However, for native speakers who use this all their life, the sound is easily distinguishable.

The glottal stop in Tagalog can exist before the word, in the middle of the word, and in the end of it. Perhaps the hardest of all to discern is the glottal stop before the word, even for native speakers. Examples of these words are “aso” [ˈʔaːso] (dog), “ikaw” [ʔiˈkaʊ] (you) and “Ingles” [ʔiŋˈglɛs] (English). Hear the next audio.

The glottal stop in the middle of Tagalog words is a lot easier to discern and create, and perhaps the easiest of all for two reasons: first, after every vowel that is followed by another vowel, a glottal stop exists between those two vowels (That is in most dialects as some renditions of Manila Tagalog omits intervocalic (between vowels) glottal stops.); secondly, a glottal stop that exists between a consonant and a vowel is always marked by a hyphen (-).

Examples of intervocalic glottal stops are “iuutang” [ˈiʔʉ̞ʔˌʉ̞ːtaŋ] (will owe someone on one’s behalf), “kain” [ˈkɐːʔen] (eat), “iuulam” [ˈiʔʉ̞ˌʔʉ̞ːlam] (will make as viand), and “saan” [ˈsɐʔan] (where; lit.: in what). Hear the next audio.

Examples of postconsonantal glottal stops are “pag-asa” [ˈpɐgˌʔaːsa] (hope; lit.: reliance) and “tag-init” [ˈtɐgˌʔiːnet] (summer; lit.: hot season). Hear the next audio.

Final glottal stops along with stresses usually determine the meaning of a Tagalog word, such as “basa” which can be pronounced as /ˈbɐːsa/ (read) or /bɐˈsaʔ/ (wet), “baba” which can be pronounced as /ˈbɐːba/ (chin) or /bɐˈbaʔ/ (underneath), and “tayo” which can be pronounced as /ˈtɐːjo/ (we/us) or /tɐˈyoʔ/ (stand). Hear the next audio.

Stress

Stressing would be even more significant than glottal stopping since, just as the glottal stop, stresses can determine the true meaning of a word written and almost pronounced at the way but the degree of which the stresses change the meaning of words is very greatly higher than that of the glottal stop.

As you may have noticed, the adding of the final glottal stop is linked with stressing; when the final glottal stop is added, the stress shifts to the last syllable. Well, that’s the case most of the time but not all the time (e.g. “ako” which can be pronounced as /ɐˈkʰo/ (I/me) or /ˈɐːkoʔ/ (claim)).

Knowing how a word is stressed is a lot easier than knowing if the word has a preposted or final glottal stop. Most Tagalog, as well as most other Philippine-languages, words are stressed on the second syllable. This also includes foreign derived terms especially the old ones like Spanish “libro” (book). Whilst a minority of Tagalog words are stressed on the first syllable, most of those have second-syllable-stressed counterparts, and are the words which change in meaning depending on the stress.

That rule applies especially to root words. Words created out of affix-root word combinations have different rules depending on the affix affixed.

If the affix itself can be understood in different ways, almost all of the time the affixed word can be stressed on different ways depending on the meaning of the affix used. Examples follow.

    Ka-

        Meanings:

           1. partner (comparable to English “-mate”)

               kamag-aral [kɐˈmɐgʔaˌɾaːl] (schoolmate)

            2. at a very high degree

               kaganda [ˈkɐːganˌdaː] (very beautiful)

    Ka-an & -an

        Words:

             1. kaharian [ˈkɐhɐˌɾiːʔɐn] (kingliness {degree}) or [kɐhɐˈɾiːʔɐn] (kingdom {physical domain})

             2. hugasan [hʉ̞ˈgɐːsan] (cleanse {imperative}) or [hʉ̞gɐˈsan] (cleaning place {physical})

             3. ikutan [iˈkʉ̞ːtan] (revolve upon {imperative}) or [ikʉ̞ˈtan] (revolving place {physical})

Greater significance of stresses can be found on verb roots. On a traditional Tagalog grammar point of view, the Tagalog language has one participle — the past participle. Almost all Tagalog verb roots have their stresses on the first syllable, just as how most English nouns are stressed, which is opposite to the stress of most Tagalog words which are in the second syllable. The past participle of Tagalog verb roots, which’s first syllable is stressed, are expressed through shifting its stress to the second syllable. See the following examples.

1. gamit: /ˈgɐːmet/ (use) vs. /gɐˈmet/ (used)
2. patay: /ˈpɐːtaɪ/ (kill) vs. /pɐˈtaɪ/ (killed)
3. halo: /ˈhɐːloʔ/ (mix) vs. /hɐˈloʔ/ (mixed)

As you may have noticed, stressed syllables, especially secondarily stressed ones, lengthen their vowels (vowel lengthening is expressed through IPA symbol /ː/); this will be discussed on future posts. However, verbs may be only discussed by me in the very far future.