FOURTH LESSON. YCAAPAT NA PAGARAL. THE LIGAMENTS, AND THE VERB TO BE. As has been indicated in foregoing chapters, the Tagalog language is distinguished from other Malay dialects by the employment of certain endings or separate particles intended to link words, clauses and sentences to each other. The proper use of such connectives or linking-particles is more a matter of practice than of theory, as euphony, in many cases, determines whether they shall be used or not. Hereafter we give such explanations as may be useful at this stage; but this matter being both so important and abstruse, we refer the student to the sixty ninth lesson, where some further rules are given on the subject. The mutual relation between a substantive and its qualifying word should be indicated by a ligament added to, or following the first word, unless the second be a monosyllable. According as the first vocable, whether the substantive or the qualifying word, ends in n, one or two different vowels or a consonant (except n), the ligament employed should be g, ng or na, respectively. Examples: batang malicot or malicot na bata, "naughty boy"; iyong bahay or bahay mo, "your (sing.) house"; itong isà, "this other"; iyáng dalauàng libro, "those two books"; anong tauò?, "what person?"; árao na malinao, "clear day". The subject, be it a noun or a pronoun, of an active affirmative sentence should be linked to the verb by means of ay-i (1) if the subject precedes the verb; but not when this order is inverted. Examples: Acó,i, pungmásoc, pungmásoc acó, "I entered"; ang ibon ay hungmuhunì, hungmuhuni ang ibon, "the bird sings". Two clauses having mutual connection should likewise be linked by ay-i,. Example: Cun dumating si Pedro ay umalis ca, "if Peter arrives, go away". A clause serving as subject of an active affirmative sentence should be linked to the verb in the same way, when such clause precedes the verb, but, ordinarily, not when the order is inverted, as: ang pag-ibig sa Dios ay nagpapapuri sa tauo, or, nagpapapuri sa tauò ang pag-ibig sa Dios, "to love God ennobles man", or, "it ennobles man to love God". However, the ligament may be preserved even when the subject follows the verb, when for the sake of greater emphasis the verb is preceded by a relative pronoun or used in the participial sense in Tagalog, as: ang nagpapapuri sa tauò ay ang pag-ibig sa Dios, "what ennobles man is to love God". In compound active sentences the principal and the secondary sentence are linked to each other by means of at-t, when a conjunction of (1) The student is notified that ay-i, (pron. ah'-e, ee) is by some pronounced eh,-a-ay, or rather in a manner equally sharing of both sounds. cause is used, as: hiudi acó nacababasà sa pagca,t, ualá acóng salamin, "I cannot read, because I have no spectacles". When an interrogative word is used to start a sentence, the verbal ligament is replaced by the nominal one, which, in this case, stands for the article or the relative pronoun, as: ¿sinong nagnácao?, "who stole?”, ¿anóng sabì mo? "what do you say?"; literally, "who is he who stole", "what is that which you say?", it being indifferent to say, sinong or sino ang nagnàcao?, anong or ano ang sabi mo?; the latter forms are however preferable as being both more idiomatic and emphatic. The ligaments are not generally used before monosyllabic words or expletive particles, nor before the particles serving to establish the relation of case, for instance: damit sa árao árao, "daily wearing apparel"; lalaqui man, babaye man, "be it man or woman"; ang caloualhatian ó gloria baga, "bliss, that is to say, glory"; itô,i, caná Pedro, "this is for Peter and his family". The ligament is also dropped before the possessive pronouns if put after the nouns they qualify, as; salapi niyà, caniÿàng salapí; "his or her money". The numeral adjectives drop the ligament when they come before the restrictive prefix ca, as in ápat catauo "four persons only". No ligament is used between the subject and the verb if the former is preceded by some negative or prohibitive particle; for instance: Di acó cungmacáin, "I do not eat"; houag lumácad, "don't walk”; hindi camí magnanácao, "we are not thieves". The verbal ligament may also be dropped for euphony' sake if the word serving as the subjet ends in i. Ex. Ang pantali napatid; "the tying rope parted". We have said elsewhere that the a of ay and at may be dropped when coming after words ending in a vowel, and that if they end in n, both the n and the a may be dropped. This is not, however, the case when at and ay are followed by a monosyllabic word, as, for instance, in sa cagalingan at sa cabanalan; "for goodness and virtue"; ang calolóua, ay sa Dios, "the soul is for God". The preceding remarks refer to ligaments considered as euphonic characters; but they may, too, express by themselves essential and very important relations of other kind. Thus, to be, in its copulative sense, when it takes a noun or an adjective for predicate, is expressed by the ligament ay-i; and the endings g, ng or the particle na stand sometimes for relative pronouns and cannot, therefore, be dropped. "To be", whenever it asserts presence is translated by na and a noun of place in the local ablative case, or by prefixing na to any word demonstrative in character. His brother is bad, but mine is good. Ang capatid niyà,i, masamá; ñguní,t, (judicious). Is their ring a gold one? ang aqui,i, mabait. ¿Guintó baga ang canilàng singsing?. Oo, ang singsing nilá,i, guintó. Whenever "to be" is the copula and has no other value than to assert some attribute of the noun is not translated in Tagalog by any specific word, but the meaning may be conveyed in several ways. If a noun or an adjective is used as the predicate of another noun or pronoun, it is enough to insert ay-i between them to indicate the copula. As ay-i is not generally used in interrogative sentences when the subject comes after the verb, the relation is then expressed by some expletive or completive particle. Sometimes the ligaments or the arrangement of words serve to express the same relation of copula, as when a relative pronoun is understood, for instance: ang banal na tauo, "the virtuous man", or, "the man who is virtuous". FOURTH EXERCISE. Where is your father? My father is at home. Where is my brother's son? He is at church. Where is their daughter? Their daughter is at church. Where is our son? Our son is at school. Is the child here? No, the child is not here, he is in the country. Are your sister's children there (yonder)? My sister's children are not there (yonder.). Where are they? They are at home. Is it he? It is he. Is it you? (plural) It is not we. Are my mother's brothers there? My mother's brothers are not there, they are at John's. Is the mountain over there? Yes, it is over there. Is your ring a gold one? No, it is a silver one. Is your table a wooden one? No, my table is a glass one. Have your bishops any iron rings? No, they have no iron rings; they have some gold rings. Are our looking-glasses made of silver? No, Sir, they are made of glass. Have you any steel books? No, I have paper books. Have your sisters any wood pens? No, they have no wood pens, they have some steel pens. Have I any wooden hat? No, I have no wooden hat, I have two cotton ones. |