Batangas Tagalog

Batangas Tagalog, more properly Batangan, is a dialect of the Tagalog language spoken primarily in the province of Batangas, Philippines, as well as some parts of Quezon, Laguna, and Mindoro island. The dialect is distinctively characterized by a very strong accent and its vocabulary and grammar is more closely related to ancient or old-style Tagalog. It is not customary in colloquial Batangan to speak in Taglish or to infuse English terms as the custom is with Manila Tagalog.

Grammar

The most recognizable difference is the use of the passive past tense in place of the present progressive. In Manila, this is done by inserting the infix -um- after the first syllable then by repeating the first syllable. In the Batangan dialect however, this form is done by putting the prefix na- to the word.



This conjugation of the verb is becomes funny because as what was mentioned above, this would mean the passive past to Manileños. When someone asks "Nasaan si Pedro?" (Where is Peter?), one would promptly answer 'Nakain ng isda!', which translates to "He's eating a fish!". However, to those unfamiliar with this kind of usage, the statement could easily be taken to mean "He was eaten by a fish!". However, a Batangueño can distinguish between the two seemingly identical forms.

Morphology

Another undeniable character of the Batangan Tagalog is the use of the verb ending '-i' instead of '-an mo', especially in the command form. This only happens when the...
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