Filipino Heritage Language Learners’ Problems (Reading,Writing, Speaking) Markers Cases Focus Aspects (conjugation of verbs) Linkers Word order Affixation Pronunciation & Spelling

“I get confused over which linker I should use.” ---Heritage Language Learner

M arkers CASE MARKERS PROPER NAMECOMMON NOUN singularpluralsingularplural Nominative sisinaangang mga Genetive The chicken of the woman (post) nininangng mga Dative The woman’s chicken (pre) kaykinasasa mga Benefactive (for) para kaypara kinapara sapara sa mga

Some Characteristics of the Language

1. The word order is as follows: PREDICATE MARKER (NM)/ GM DOERMARKER (GM)/ (NM) OBJECT/ SUBJECT AFNaglutoangbabaengmanok. cookedwomanchicken. OFNilutongbabaeangmanok. cookedbywomanchicken.

2. Filipino has 7 Focuses or Subjects all preceded by Nominative Markers (NM) Actor Focus (AF) Object Focus (OF) Benefactive (BF) Locative FOCUS (LF) Directional Focus (DF) Causative Focus (CF) Instrumental Focus (IF)

FOCUS PREDICATENMSUBJECTGMOBJECT/ DOER BM (for) BENEFICIARY AF Nagluto cooked angbabae woman ngmanok chicken para sa for bata. child OF Niluto was cooked angmanok chicken ng by babae woman para sa for bata.* child. BF Ipinagluto cooked for angbata child ng by babae. LF Pinaglutuan the place where cooking took place angkaldero pot ng by babae. DF Pinuntahan went to ang Vons ng by babae CF Ikinatuwa made happy (was the cause of happiness) ang pagluluto ng babae Woman’s cooking ng of bata. IF Ipinambili was used to buy ang pera money ng by babae. *The *The preferred word order is ”Niluto ng babae ang manok.”

ANG VS. NG The Uses of ANG

PREDICATENMSUBJECT Naglutoangbabae. cooked.(The)woman ANG is used to mark the subject/topic/focus of the sentence

ANG is used in an identificational sentence to indicate definiteness. NMDOERDEFINITE MARKER VERB Angbabaeangnagluto. (It was the)woman(who)cooked.

PSEUDO VERB DOERNMSUBJECT Gustong bataangbaboy. Likeby child(in general)pork. ANG is used to denote ‘in general’ in a ‘like/dislike’ sentence.

VERB+PakiSOFTENER PARTICLE NMOBJECT/ SUBJECT Pakiabotngaangmanok. Please pass(the)chicken. ANG is used in formal writing. In conversation, it is replaced by ‘yung,’ conversational form of the demonstrative pronoun iyon meaning “yonder,” far from both listener and speaker.

The Uses of NG

NG is used to mark the Direct Object. PREDICATESUBJECT/ DOER GMDIRECT OBJECT Naglutoang babaengmanok. cooked(The)womanchicken.

NG is used to denote possession. PREDICATEDOERSUBJECTGMOWNER Niluto ng babaeang manok nglalake. was cookedby (the) woman. (The) chicken ofman

PREDICATEGMDOERSUBJECT Nilutongbabaeang manok. was cookedbywoman(The) chicken. NG marks the DOER of passive verbs.

PSEUDO VERB DOERGMOBJECT Gustong babaengmanok. Likes (d)by woman(specifically)chicken. NG is used to denote ‘specifically’ in a ‘like/dislike’ sentence.

In a request sentence indicated by paki, ANG and NG are interchangeable: VERBSOFTENER PARTICLE MARKERSUBJECT/ OBJECT Pakiabotngaangmanok. Please pass(the)chicken. Pakiabotngangmanok. Please passchicken.

Why the Difficulty? L1 interferes with the learning of target language. There are NO MARKERS in English There are no FOCUSES in English according to one student. ANG, the subject marker is mistaken for THE, which in English would be the same article in front of the DIRECT OBJECT. E.g. Mary cooked the chicken. Possessives are not used as DOERS in English The word order does not change but the markers do, i.e. PREDICATEDOEROBJECT Nagluto ang babae ng manok. Niluto ng babae ang manok. As noted in the previous examples, both ANG and NG have several uses and sometimes they are interchangeable. HL have fossilized notions of the language as opposed to FL who are tabula rasa.

Misuse of Markers Provokes Laughter Discouraging Heritage Language Learners FOCUS ` PREDICATENMSUBJECTGMNOUN AFNaglutoangbabaengmanok. cookedwomanchicken. OFNilutoangmanokngbabae.* was cookedchickenbywoman If the markers are interchanged: AFNaglutoangmanokngbabae. cooked(The)chicken.woman OFNilutoangbabaengmanok. was cooked(The)womanbychicken. *The preferred WORD ORDER is “Niluto ng babae ang manok. “Cooked by woman (the) chicken.”

Affixes Compound the problem because there are several affixes used just to make a word an ACTOR FOCUS verb. Um-, mag-, ma-, magpa-, mang-, makapag-, maki-, maka-, magka-, mapa- There are more affixes used for the passive verbs because this is the normal way of speaking in our language, with the predicate before the subject.

Nag lutoang babae. The woman cooked. Nagpa lutoang babae. The woman asked someone to cook. Nakilutoang babae. The woman cooked in someone else’s kitchen. Papag lutuinang babae. Make the woman cook. Nakapaglutoang babae. The woman was able to cook. Nakalutoang babae. The woman was able to cook.. Pakilutoang babae. Please cook the woman. Na lutoang babae. The woman was cooked. Napa lutoang babae. The woman cooked accidentally. Ipa lutoang babae. Ask someone to cook the woman. Ipinaglutoang babae. Someone cooked for the woman. Ipanglutoang babae. Use the woman for cooking. Pa lutuinang babae. Ask the woman to cook. Lutuin ang babae. Cook the woman Ilutoang babae. Cook the woman. To Illustrate:

Remedy Constant repetition and correction Immersion Worksheets on these structures More practice in 4 modalities Student has to take charge of her/his own learning; the teacher facilitates and guides lwng

References: Aspillera, Paraluman S. Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non- Tagalogs. (Boston, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing), Ramos, Teresita V. Conversational Tagalog, A Functional- Situational Approach. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), __________& Maria Lourdes S. Bautista. Handbook of Tagalog Verbs Inflections, Modes, and Aspects. (UH), Santiago, Alfonso O. at Norma G. Tiangco. Makabagong Balarilang Filipino. (Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store), 1991.