Bahasapil
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| Bahasapil | |
|---|---|
| Bahasapil | |
| Native to | Philippines |
| Ethnicity | Filipino (Bahasapillan) |
Native speakers | 40,000-60,000[1] |
Austronesian
| |
| Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
The Bahasapil language is an Austronesian language spoken in the south Philippines, most notably on Mindanao.
History
[edit]The Bahasapil language is thought to have initially formed as a pidgin language during the slave trading between the Bengal region of (then) India and the Philippines. There was a large but unknown number of South Asian Filipinos, as the majority of the slaves imported into the archipelago were from Bengal[2] and Southern India, adding Dravidian speaking South Indians and Bengali speaking Bengalis into the ethnic mix. It is thought that over time, the Dravidian speaking South Indians declined and that the number of Bengali speakers increased. This resulted in higher cultural diversity, and it is thought that the languages of Tagalog and Bengali merged into one, overtime becoming the modern Bahasapil. Thus, it is referred to as Bahasapil, a language related to Tagalog but with Bengali influences.
Bahasapil has helped to integrate Islam in the Philippines, the minority Muslim community of Bengali people integrated into the existing Muslim population of the Philippines in Mindanao.[3] Bahasapillan Muslims have experienced the prejudice against minority Muslim populations in the Philippines.[4]
Phonology
[edit]Bahasapil phonology is very similar to that of Tagalog[5], the notable difference that Bahasapil does not have any glottal consonants is because of its history, as it was influenced by Bengali (which only has 1 glottal consonant), it is thought that over time as the language developed, glottal consonants were lost.
Although there are some slight differences in consonants, the vowels are identical in Bahasapil and Tagalog, the vowels haven’t been influenced greatly by Bengali as it also shares some vowels in common with Tagalog.
| Labial | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Velar | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | p b | t d | t͡ʃ d͡ʒ | k g |
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |
| Fricative | s | ʃ | ||
| Sonorant | l | j | w | |
| Rhotic | ɾ |
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Mid | ɛ | ɔ |
| Open | a | |
Grammar
[edit]Nouns
[edit]Personal pronouns
[edit]| Person | Nominative case | Accusative case | Genitive case | Reflexive |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st, singular | amo | amoba | amokan | amoten |
| 2nd, singular | itu | ituba | itukan | ituten |
| 3rd, singular | esi | esiba | esikan | esiten |
| 1st, plural | ata | ataba | atakan | ataten |
| 2nd, plural | itu | ituba | itukan | ituten |
| 3rd, plural | tila | tilaba | tilakan | tilaten |
Plural nouns
[edit]In Bahasapil, nouns are made plural using the plural particle na which is added as a suffix. This particle can be applied to any noun to make it plural.
Beti: woman
Betina: women
Verbs
[edit]Verb order
[edit]Bahasapil, like both Bengali and Tagalog, follows a SOV (Subject-Object-Verb) sentence structure. Bahasapil also lacks a specific word for ‘to be’ in the present tense, in other tenses, it is sig.
Negative verbs
[edit]Verbs are made negative using the particle ng, it always precedes the verb that it affects as a separate word.
Amo ituba kasat: I see you.
Amo ituba ng kasat: I don’t see you.
References
[edit]- ^ "Factsheet on Islam in Mindanao | Philippine Statistics Authority". rsso11.psa.gov.ph. Retrieved 2025-02-20.
- ^ Bosma, Ulbe (2019), Campbell, Gwyn; Stanziani, Alessandro (eds.), "Trafficking, Slavery, Peonage: Dilemmas and Hesitations of Colonial Administrators in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia", The Palgrave Handbook of Bondage and Human Rights in Africa and Asia, New York: Palgrave Macmillan US, pp. 113–135, doi:10.1057/978-1-349-95957-0_6, hdl:1871.1/eb780e3a-60b2-4f2f-a086-6a29d9cb7221, ISBN 978-1-349-95957-0, retrieved 2025-02-20
- ^ Stark, Jan (2003-04-01). "Muslims in the Philippines". Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs. 23: 195–209. doi:10.1080/13602000305937.
- ^ Bernardo, Allan B. I. (2024-05-01). "Polyculturalism and attitudes towards cultural minorities in the Philippines". International Journal of Intercultural Relations. 100: 101969. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2024.101969. ISSN 0147-1767.
- ^ Llamzon, Teodoro A. (1966). "Tagalog Phonology". Anthropological Linguistics. 8 (1): 30–39. ISSN 0003-5483. JSTOR 30029139.