Hi good people! How are you today? I hope you all doing good!
Today, we’re gonna explore a comparison between Bahasa Indonesia and its neighborhood country which is Philippine. Philippine is a Southeast Asian country located in the western Pacific. Just as Indonesia, Philippine is an archipelago country, comprising more than 7.000 island. Its capital city is Manila. Philippine shared a border with Indonesia in its southern part in Celebes Sea.
Philippine use Tagalog as its national language. Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken by the most population of Philippine. When we compare Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog, it is different in terms of grammatical and sentence structure but still have several similarity in various words.
Is Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia similar? This is because Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog comes from the same origin which is Malayo-Polynesian language. Below are example of similarity between words in Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia.
Words that Have Same Meaning in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog
- Anak : Kids (Bahasa Indonesia), Kids (Tagalog)
- Balik : Come home (Bahasa Indonesia), Come Home (Tagalog)
- Mahal : Expensive (Bahasa Indonesia), Expensive (Tagalog)
- Murah : Cheap (Bahasa Indonesia), Cheap (Tagalog)
The word Anak in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog share the same meaning, which is kids. The second word, Balik, is also share the same meaning between both language. One of the well known phrase in Tagalog is Balik Bayan, means “going back to hometown”. Its the same meaning with Indonesian phrase, Balik Kampung. The word Mahal and Murah are also share same meaning which are expensive and cheap.
Some words in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog also look identical in its written form. Some words in Tagalog written with vowel “o” while in Bahasa Indonesia its written with “u” vowel. Below are example of identical words between Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog.
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Identical Words in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog
| Bahasa Indonesia | Tagalog | English |
| Aku | Ako | Me/I |
| Abu | Abo | Dust |
| Batu | Bato | Rock |
| Payung | Payong | Umbrella |
Is Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia similar? In the first example, we see that the word Aku and Ako has the same meaning, which is “me”. But, in bahasa Indonesia it use “u” vowel while in Tagalog it use “o”. Its the same with Abu and Abo, Batu and Bato as well as Payung and Payong. All words above have the same meaning, but words in Bahasa Indonesia use “u” vowel while words in Tagalog use “o” vowel.
Another similarity is some word in bahasa Indonesia use “i” while in Tagalog it use “oy” below aare example of similarity between word in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog.
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Other example of identical word in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog
| Bahasa Indonesia | Tagalog | English |
| Api | Apoy | Fire |
| Babi | Baboy | Pig |
| Mati | Matay | Dead |
The first example, the bahasa Indonesia word’s Api is called Apoy in Tagalog. Both word means fire. The use of “i” and “oy” is also visible in Babi and Baboy (pig) as well as Mati and Matay (dead). If we pronounce in english, the vowel “i” is like we said “e” in English. And, the pronounciation of the word “ay” is same as we pronoun “i” in English.
Even there is much similarity between words in bahasa Indonesia and tagalog, there are major differences between both language, especially when it comes to sentence. Below are example of sentence in bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog. You may also learn about: How to Learn Indonesian Consonant
Example of Sentence in Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog
|
Bahasa Indonesia |
Tagalog |
English |
| Selamat Pagi! | Magandang Umaga! | Good Morning! |
| Selamat Hari Natal! | Maligayang Pasko! | Merry Christmas! |
| Nanti aku balik lagi. | Babalik Ako. | I will be right back |
In the first example above, we see that the good morning greetings is totally different between bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog. In Bahasa Indonesia, it use Selamat Pagi, while in Tagalog people use Magandang Umaga. It’s also the same as second example. Merry christmas greetings in bahasa Indonesia is Selamat Hari Natal, while in Tagalog it’s Maligayang Pasko.
The only identical example is we can see in third example. The phrase “I will be right back” is expressed by Nanti aku balik lagi in bahasa Indonesia.While in Tagalog, it pronounce Babalik Ako. There is a similarity between the word “balik” and “aku/ako” in bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog. Both word translated as return/comeback (balik) and me/I (aku/ako).
From all example above, we can see that Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog has several identical words each other. Though Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog origin from the same Austronesian language, but both language are different in terms of sentence structures and grammatical. For Indonesian, Tagalog is not common and not as understandable as Bahasa Malaysia (see the comparison between Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Malaysia here).
Now you already know the comparison between Bahasa Indonesia and Tagalog in general. So, goodluck for your next step of learning and keep practicing!