Tagalog belongs to the agglutinative branch of languages. For a long
time it was believed to be one of the dialects of Malay, through that
language having been the first of the family known to Europeans. But
later studies, by comparing the Malay-Polynesian idioms with one
another, have succeeded in showing how slight is the basis for this
supposition. The conjugation of the Tagalog verbs, far from being
derived from the Malay verbs, contains in itself every form of that's
and besides some from other dialects.
Although in Tagalog as at present spoken and written (slightly
different from ancient Tagalog), there are to be found many Sanscrit,
Spanish and Chinese words, nevertheless the structure of the language
still retains its own distinctive character. These foreign words are
stitched to the fabric much as gems are set in jewels; they could
come off and something else be substituted without the framework
losing its form.
Like every other language, Tagalog has its alphabet; composed of five
vowels and fourteen consonants.
The vowels are: A, E, I, O, U.
A is pronounced clear and full as in all other languages. The same
may be said of I and U.
E and O only are found in the last syllable, or in the next to the
last when that begins with the same vowel. In these cases E or O can
be likewise represented by I or U, since the sounds of these final,
or penultimate, vowels partake of both sounds. For example, in mabuti
or mabute, the final I or E sounds like the final Y of the English
words pity and beauty, where Y has a sound intermediate between E and
I; leeg or liig is pronounced with a vowel which resembles E as much
as it does I.
In the same way, O in the words dulo, ubod, look, has the value of
a vowel intermediate between O and U.
The consonants are: B, D, G, G, H, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, Y.