Languagle #64: Tagalog
Kung walang tiyaga, walang nilaga
"Without perseverance, there is no stew."
What it means
No effort, no reward. Nilaga is a simple boiled meat and vegetable soup, and you only get to eat it if you have the patience to cook it. The two key words rhyme in Tagalog (tiyaga, 'perseverance', and nilaga), which is a big part of why the saying sticks.
How to say it
koong wa-lang tee-ya-ga, wa-lang nee-la-ga
Every vowel is said clearly, as in Spanish, and ng is the ng in 'singer', even at the start of a word.
Word by word
- Kung koong: if
- walang wa-lang: there is no (wala, none)
- tiyaga tee-ya-ga: perseverance, patience
- nilaga nee-la-ga: boiled stew (laga, to boil)
Tiyaga and nilaga rhyme. Nilaga is a slow-boiled soup of meat and vegetables, a Filipino home favourite.
Where it was written down
A traditional proverb, in Tagalog a salawikain, passed down by word of mouth.
Similar sayings
- Slovak: Bez práce nie sú koláče. Without work there are no cakes. Another proverb that pays you in food. (Languagle #11)
How to recognise Tagalog
Tagalog uses the plain Latin alphabet, with few or no accents in everyday writing. Look for ng and mga (said ma-NGA), which turn up constantly, and short words like ang, sa, na and ay. Doubled syllables are common too. Malay and Indonesian also have ng, but use yang and dan where Tagalog has ang and at.
About the Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by around 30 million people, mainly in Manila and the surrounding provinces of Luzon, and as a second language by most other Filipinos. Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, is based on it. It has absorbed many words from Spanish and English. Before Spanish colonisation it was written in Baybayin, a script of its own; today it uses the Latin alphabet.