Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis

by Leonard Bloomfield

For details about these words see Syntax.

48. Opposed to the rule in § [46] are also certain words (particles) which we may call pretonics. Their treatment is often regular: that is, the pretonic as well as the following word keeps 10its accent, or the pretonic loses its accent before a following word; but sometimes the pretonic keeps its accent and the following word, if oxytone, is unaccented:

máy sakìt, may sakìt having sickness, i. e. sick, but also máy sakit. Only máy and nása actually appear with this accentuation.

15The other pretonics are so classed because they share with these two words the peculiarity that an enclitic belonging to the phrase follows not the pretonic word, but the first orthotonic word:

Máy katawàn sya ŋ pára ŋ táo. He has a body like a human 20being. (siyà he, enclitic follows not máy, which is pretonic, but katawàn body, the first orthotonic word of the predicate).

The pretonics are the particles báwat, káhit, kapàg, kinà, maŋà, máy, nagìŋ (together with its other forms, § [250]), nása (together with its other forms, § [212]), nì nor (not ni of), ninà, 25pagkà, sinà, tagà (tigà). See Syntax.

49. A final syllable ending in glottal stop (§ [14]) often receives a higher degree of stress than a corresponding syllable with a different final.

If the syllable ending in glottal stop has not the word-accent, 30it often receives an accent resembling the secondary accent on a non-final syllable; this is especially common if the glottal stop is lost before another word in the phrase: páreʾ, párèʾ priest, Párì Hwàn Father Juan.

If the syllable has a word-accent and the glottal stop is lost 35in the phrase, its accent is often spoken like a primary word-accent on an open syllable: Walá sya. He has none (walàʾ), Naglálarú sya. He is playing (naglálaròʾ).

If, however, the glottal stop is lost before t, y, or ŋ, this heightening of accent does not take place, since the syllable is then 40treated as ending in t, y, or ŋ: Syà y walà ŋ aklàt (i. e. walàŋ-ʾak-làt), Sya y wala ŋ aklàt. He has no book or no books.