[1] This prefix does not seem, however, to be genuine in the language, so that the Chinese have mistaken the first syllable Ta for their own word (adjective preposed) ta “great”, and dropped it with their usual contempt for foreign nations. But all this is conjectural.
[2] apparently Sanskrit ... some such sound as ... Vaisadja.—Parker (China, London, 1901.)—C.
The Tagalog Tongue
By Jose Rizal
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.