Austronesian Alignment 

It's amazing how you simplified Austronesian alignment. I believe this is the biggest hurdle for people learning our languages in the Philippines

This is why as a Filipino, when I listen to Malay, it sounds like a fossilized form of our languages. Where the affixes kind of got merged with the root words, and severely simplified. It sounds almost "tense-less" to us. Like Chinese.

Tagalog is honestly has hardest austronesian allignment system. As a speaker of Dusun language from Sabah, we only use just 3 voices to construct the same sentence with shiftable focus. When we focus the man we'll use mong-/(um) We we focus the diamond we'll use -on When we focus the woman, we used -an For instance: 1. Momoli i kusai do butiya id kadai montok i tondu miampai hopod noribu dollar 2. Wolion o butia di kusai id kadai montok i tondu miampai hopod noribu dollar 3. Wolian i tondu di kusai do butiya id kadai miampai hopod noribu dollar And we usually use the third sentence style a lot when predicates of information is complete to convey

"Lalaki bili dyamante" kinda works in Tagalog, but for native speakers it sounds like baby talk. Babies learn to speak that way first before gradually picking up the proper affixes and the Austronesian alignment. By the time the are 4-5 years old the Austronesian alignment should be second nature for most toddlers.

YOU NAILED IT! I tell my Tagalog students that your verb changes depending on the focus of the sentence. That's why I tell them there's no "single translation" sometimes in Tagalog

This is the best video I’ve found on focus and alignment for Tagalog. The rotating rectangle is an insanely useful visual analog that surprisingly i haven’t seen before, and I’m totally keeping that in mind… as an americanized Filipino learning tagalog! Huge fan of your channel since the polynesian vids, excellent work as always

This should be in every book or tutorial on any of the Austronesian languages. Because it's very hard for speakers of Indo-European languages to learn Austronesian languages without first demystifying this concept. I think you can write better learning materials than those currently available right now in book stores. It should be in school curriculum too.

When i was young, I had never given a thought how complicated filipino subject was until I had to write the test. I remembered reading a classical story of “no li me tangere” in tagalog at the front of the class. The sentences was long and deep, I could not understand anything. Filipino subject is hard even for the native speaker that is why some filipino who is from other province and speaks regional filipino language uses English when he/she does not know how to say in tagalog.

This seems nightmarish to learn. Very likely productive for poetry.

thanks for making these videos, really cool to have non-indo-european linguistics content!

Tagalog learner here ❤ Claiming my first comment spot 🎉😅

This is amazing. Just to let you know, because Tagalog is so flexible that the English arrangment where the subject is mostly in the beginning that Tagalog can also do that without difficulty. However, in Tagalog, (but not the formalised) Verb no matter the form is always in the beginning of the sentence, never the sibject or the object. Converseation would be very easy if you do it that way.But also you can add introductory phrases before this Tagalog sentence structure. Like in “you know” in English for example.

is this why i get semi-passing grade in filipino?! 😭 also, $10000 can be translated to sampung-libong dolyares anyway, THE DEDICATION FOR AUSTRONESIAN LANGUAGE RESEARCH!! very admirable!!!

i have noticed that in the vernacular tagalog of most people here, we have stopped using a lot of the different verb forms! outside of an academic context, i've really only heard the first two circumfixed forms and the -han form. interestingly enough, while i would understand: 'ibinili ng lalaki ang babae ng diyamante' it would be a lot more natural for me to say 'binilhan ng lalaki ang babae ng diyamante.'

Great video. A video about austronesian alignment systems was sorely lacking among the big linguistics youtubers, but you have filled the gap

"sa pamamagitan ng" can be just straight up "ng" non-focused instrumentals take up "ng"

it’s great to have all the relevant nouns in one sentence to explain the alignment system, but i think the beauty of it is that when only the relevant things are mentioned, the verb really has so much semantic weight. for example, the instrumental focus ‘ipambili’ can seem kind of obscure, but if you are asked: ‘why are you broke, where did the money go?’ you would respond: ‘ipinambili ko ang $10,000 ng dyamante kasi’ ‘’cause i used my $10,000 to buy a diamond’ also, verbs in subordinate clauses almost always refer to the topic they branch off of, so if we say: ‘he should have saved the money (he bought the diamond with)’ we would say: ‘dapat tinipid nya ang pera(ng ipinambili nya ng dyamante)’ in fact, the entire verb phrase can be substituted into the noun clause without the antecedent: ‘dapat tinipid nya ang (ipinambili nya ng dyamante)’ literally: ‘he should have saved what he bought the diamond with’

This is the best explanation I've seen so far of the Austronesian alignment. Thank you.

you simplified the concept of "Pokus ng Pandiwa". It was one of the hardest concepts in FIlipino when I was learning it formally in school. I always thought Indonesian and Malaysian Bahasa language dropped alot of the "panlapi" or the particles that we attach to the rootword of the verb to change its focus. This dropping of particles can also be observed as you move south of the Philippines. In fact, Cebuano has less particles than Tagalog. The nominal form of English wherein the sentence structure is Subject followed by the verb is what we call "hindi karaniwan" (not common). It's just amazing that the "karaniwan" or the common sentence construction that we regard in Tagalog is the Proto-Austronesian original form. makes alot of sense! Really enjoying your videos! :)

I'm glad that you didn't forget the Malagasy language even though it is thousand miles away from Maritime Southeast Asia. It's true that we still retain the Austronesian alignment. I still wonder how we have been able to do that since not only we were very isolated from any other Austronesian languages but also we had contact with Bantu languages from Africa.

Another well-made video from my favorite channel about Austronesian languages. Really appreciate the effort you've exerted to explain the complexities (or beauty?) of Austronesian alignment.

dude DUDE this is soooooooooooooooooooooooo nice i don't know i think even no conlanger ever thought about such things

In Filipino subject in elementary, we have a lesson called "Pokus ng Pandiwa" or Verb Focus. Its concept is the same as Austronesian alignment. I'm also confused as to whether Austronesian alignment is really another type of morphosyntactic alignment or not. Some linguists even suggested that languages of the Philippines use ergative-absolutive alignment. This is because the object-focused sentence "Binili ng lalaki ang diyamante sa mall para sa babae sa pamamagitan ng $10,000." (The man bought DIAMOND in the mall for the woman with $10,000.) sounds more intentional than the actor-focused sentence "Bumili ang lalaki ng diyamante sa tindahan para sa babae sa pamamagitan ng $10,000." (THE MAN bought diamond in the mall for the woman with $10,000.)

A side by side comparison of the sentences with different focuses could be a nice way to further convey the alignment. Nice video!

I’ve been trying to perfect my Cebuano Bisaya for a long time and this is one of my pain points. This video just simplified this concept so much. Thank you!!

Ah this...when I was learning Cebuano this is what we usually refer to as FOCUS. Yeah very complicated. It still confuses me sometimes, especially when you mix in ergativity. Was very confusing to me as someone who started learning at age 18. Sometimes I wish Philippine languages were more streamlined like Malay (would be way easier to learn), but a lot of the creativity and nuance of the Philippine languages comes from the subtleties of this alignment.

Thank you, this is such an amazingly good and clear explanation! I‘m a German ’hobby linguist‘ and I‘ve always been particularly interested in Austronesian languages. The famous “Austronesian alignment“ was always something rather difficult to wrap my head around and most explanations I found online have mostly been, in a way, quite cumbersome & even convoluted for me. This video really enlightened me so to speak…it all makes sense now 😊👍

Actually the phrase "Lalaki bili dyamante" makes sense. That's how old chinese or recent chinese migrants will say it hahahaha We call it "barok tagalog".

I'm trying to learn Tagalog currently and this helped so much so thanks a lot!

Been waiting for your new video. It's superb

Interesting! I didn't realise that tagalog is hard until now from malaysIan/Indonesian point of view even they have common words due to conjunctions and changes in verb depends on time and emphasis.. I'm native tagalog speaker from metromanila not from orher native tagalog speaker like batangas or cavite which they have different firns of verb like in metromanila "bumili" but in cavite is "nabili" Watching from UK

two posted videos within 12 hours? today is a good day :))

Found your channel randomly because of my intrest in lingustics, fair to say that you're underrated, good Sir!

You explain so well. Cheers !

WOW! This was really a great video! Thank you for explaining this subject very clearly. This phenomenon is also present in BAHASA SUG (Tausug) as follows: Focus on Agent: - Namiy in usug intan ha dagangan para ha babai ha halga' $10,000. Focus on patient (direct object): - Biniy sin usug in intan ha dagangan para ha babai ha halga' $10,000. Focus on location: - In piyagbiyhan sin usug sin intan amuna in dagangan para ha babai ha halga' $10,000. Focus on indirect object: - Biniyhan intan sin usug ha dagangan in babai ha halga' $10,000. Focus on instrument: - $10,000 in halga' piyagbiyhan sin biniy intan ha dagangan sin usug para ha babai. Learn more at Tausug101 :)

Thank you for this fantastic video!

Wonderful explanation!

Maybe Sundanese have lost this. But i'll try to compare. Sundanese is actually SVO. But let's try with verb in the very front of sentence:. ENG:The man bough the diamond at the mall for the woman with 10k 1. Tagalog: Buy:Bili Bumili *ang* Lalaki *ng* Diyamante *sa* Mall *para sa* Babae *sa* Pamamagitan Sundanese: Buy:Beuli Mangmeuli *anu* Lalaki *keun* Berlian *di* Mall *ka/jang* Awéwé *ku* Sapuluhrébu 2. Tagalog: Binili *ng* Lalaki *ang* Diyamante *sa* Mall *para sa* Babae *sa* Pamamagitan Sundanese: Dibeuli *anu* Berlian *ku* Lalaki *di* Mall *ka/jang* Awéwé *ku* Sapuluhrébu 3. Binilhan *ng* Lalaki *ng* Diyamante *ang* Mall *para sa* Babae *sa* Pamamagitan Sundanese: Dipibeuli *anu* Mall *ku* Lalaki *keun* Berlian *ka/jang* Awéwé *ku* Sapuluhrébu 4. Tagalog: Ibinili *ng* Lalaki *ng* Diyamante *sa* Mall *ang* Babae *sa* Pamamagitan Sundanese: Dipangmeuli *anu* Awéwé *ku* Lalaki *keun* Berlian *di* Mall *ku* Sapuluhrébu 5. Tagalog: Ipinambili *ng* Lalaki *ng* Diyamante *sa* Mall *para sa* Babae *ang* Pamamagitan Sundanese: Kabeuli *anu* Sapuluhrébu *ku* Lalaki *keun* Berlian *di* Mall *ka/jang* Awéwé I think it's interisting that it's not impossible to be understood! Attention: It's not the correct structure (at least in current Sundanese) nor the ideal way of speaking, but i think it's not impossible to understand the sentence for Sundanese and has simmiliarities with that Austronesian allighment. What's your opinion?

In Filipino we have at least 5 types of affixes or "panlapi" because of this alignment. Unlapi- prefix Gitlapi- infix Hulapi- suffix Kabilaan- side by side affix Laguhan- circumfix Others are doubled We simply call it in Filipino as "pokus na pandiwa". The focuses are.. Tagaganap- actor Layon- objective Kaganapan- locative Tagatanggap- beneficative Gamit- instrumental sanhi- causative direksyon- directive

I really love and appreciate ur videos. Such a gem. ❤❤

Every time you say something in Tagalog, it’s perfect pronunciation! As a Native Tagalog speaker, I never heard about it explained like this until now. This is so good! I agree with the comments about the Bahasa languages sounding like a broken Austronesian language. I always felt that way from the first time I heard Indonesian/ Malaysian. I thought it’s like a pidgin, a simplified baby talk of the original language of our people. Possible explanation is Indonesians and Malaysians are originally from the Philippines and Taiwan, but through the Austronesian Expansion developed a much simpler version of the language, possibly for trade and commerce. I hope one day all Austronesian bloodlines can speak Tagalog as the Lingua Franca of our cherished race.

I will try this in my version of Cebuano man - bumili - nagpalit / ningpalit (?) diamond - binili - gipalit mall - binilhan - gipalitan (?) woman - ibinili - gipalitan (?) $10,000 - ipinagbili - gipampalit (?) kinda funny since "palit" in Tagalog means "exchange". There must be some shift right there. As a person who can comprehend Tagalog as my second language, binilhan ang mall is correct in my mind but binilhan ang babae also feels correct even though ibinili ang babae sounds more accurate. I love languages, but it is my weakness too. I cannot even speak my native tongue properly. I guess I have to relearn everything.

Great explanation. Thanks!

Why did Austronesian languages beyond the Philippines, Borneo and Sulawesi simplify sentences? Could you shed light on this? Thanks.

Great video, new subscriber here, bring us more closer, good job

Have you been in the Island of Marindoque, Philippines? Ancient Tagalog speakers there do not observe that focus or alignment. It has been mocked or known as Tagalog Barok (Barok is a fictional character whose language pattern does not have tenses and verb focus or alignment).

It's funny when I first learn how Bahasa works, I find it amusing because they work how baby or toddler talk in the Philippines due to its simplicity compared to Tagalog. Not that it's a bad thing tho since even us native speakers of Tagalog sometimes having a hard time passing Filipino subject HAHAHAHA

13:43 As a Filipino native, this is not uncommon at all. Quite often, in fact. For example, in ordinary conversations this verb/focus would be used in conversation in which the topics such as the action and doer are clear to both speaker and listener, but the object (in your case, diamond ) is forgotten by, or previously unknown to the listener, but not the speaker, hence the speaker introduces, reminds, corrects, or emphasizes the listener that *that* is the thing, not something else. Also in emphasis, by focusing on the diamond, it implies its traits: value, beauty, specialness, worth, etc. Ex: Tagalog John 3:16 “Gayon na lamang ang pag-ibig ng Diyos sa sanlibutan, kaya *ibinigay* niya ang kanyang bugtong na Anak", emphasizes Anak as the object (implying valuable sacrifice), for reasons explained by former clause (pag-ibig/love). This form can accord special ontological significance to subjects/events, making it more frequent in religious liturgical prose, formal speeches, or poems. Your pronunciation of Tagalog is fine by the way! Thanks for providing additional language resources.

So fun! I can imagine how stressful this is for learners, though.

Fascinating

14:33 it should be 'Binilhan sa mall' since 'Binilhan ang mall' means you bought the mall something. Great vid, love the diagram - made it easier to grasp the concept of Pokus ng Pandiwa or Verb Focus in our language.

It’s kinda sad that most Filipinos, specifically the Tagalogs, don’t speak formal Tagalog as much anymore. Even I, a native Tagalog speaker often use ‘binilhan’ instead of ‘ibinili’. And in the rare chance I say ‘ibinili’, I remove the ‘i-‘ prefix. It’s refreshing to see formal Tagalog again after so many years of not encountering it. The last time I’ve been in touch with it was back in high school.

Thank you for this video, this is very helpful! A little off topic, but maybe you are one of few that might know. I remember reading about an Indonesian or Malaysian language that was strikingly similar to Waray-Waray of the Philippines, and I think the example they gave was Our Father from the Bible. I can't seem to remember or find which language it was. Do you have any clue?

@languagestolearn8155 To really put the focus into the actor-focused example, change it from "bUMili ang lalaki ng diyamante" into "NAMili ang lalaki ng diyamante." Where NAM- is actually NAN- (assimilated to the initial B of bili, following prefix-assimilation rules similar to the ones used in Malay) ... which in turn is the past-conjugated form of the MAN- prefix ... which Malay speakers know as the ME- prefix. Moreover, that final N in the MAN- prefix is the object/possessive marker prefix N- ... which is often added right before the 'upgrade' topic marker ANG to form NANG ... which recent spelling reforms have officially contracted to the NG form. Therefore, the super-actor-focused sentence above could be translated into: "That particular man was the doer of the buying of the diamond." In contrast, your original form translates in the more neutral form: "The man bought the diamond."

I just can't help but notice that there are many words in Melayu/Indonesian with 'R' which then becomes an 'L' in Tagalog. Ribu - Libo - Thousand Arak - Alak - Wine Terung - Talong - Eggplant Surat - Sulat - Write or ✉️ Rasa - Lasa - Taste Haraga - Halaga - Worth Receh - Leche - 😂 Can you guys think of more as I'm sure there are more that I definitely missed.

My worst hurdle when trying to figure out Tagalog grammar 😅 I'm trying to figure out the correct sentence structure for "the mall"/binilhan because the way my head interprets it, binilhan isn't a verb anymore but rather a general description of "a place [of buying]." My English brain would try to make a convoluted sentence like "Ang mall ay isang binilhan ng diyamante..." When a real life conversation would probably bypass binilhan entirely and just say "Saan siya bumili?" "Sa mall." 😂 Open to correction. This is really fascinating to visualize!

there was a joke in the etymolomemes or its mother fb group where an admin admitted that he finds austronesian alignment and split-ergativity the same. how are the both morphosyntactic alignments different from one another?

This is such a fun display of a complicated alignment system.. do you know why the later austronesian languages/region lost this? Is it bcoz of foreign language influence or cultural/geographical changes that don’t require topic emphasis that much?.. thanks

Pleased Yoda is with this language!!!

I'm interested in Sulawesi Languages and Māori can you find out which language in Sulawesi is the closest to Māori?

Would you be able to do a video about the lapita culture’s initial push into Melanesia/ western Polynesia? And is it still generally accepted that a second wave of Melanesian migrants settled in the remote Melanesian islands?

This is why filipinos are good at changing the subject XD

So for sentences where both "man" and "diamond" are both preceded with ng, could they theoretically mean "the diamond bought the man"?

hmmm... the example kinda amiss with the regular tagalog structure. > Ang lalaki ay bumili ng dyamante sa mall para sa babae sa halagang sampung libong dolyar > Ang diamante'y binili ng lalaki sa mall para sa babae sa halagang sampung libong dolyar > Ang mall ang pinagbilhan ng lalaki ng diamante para sa babae sa halagang sampung libong dolyar > Ang babae'y binilhan ng lalaki ng diamante sa mall sa halagang sampung libong dolyar if you are using $10k as focus, this sentence could be used but still sounds weird for me > Ang sampung libong dolyar ay ipinambili ng diamante ng lalaki sa mall para sa babae. if i were to say it, i would construct the sentence like this though > Sampung libong dolyar ang halagang ginastos ng lalaki para bilhin ang diamante sa mall na ibibigay niya para sa babae.

I think the upgraded noun goes straight after the verb (does it?) but am not clear on the order of the four downgraded nouns. I'd like to have seen a complete sentence for each of the five options. Thanks for this vid; I'm a novice Tagalog student.

ITS LIKE IF YOU PUT THE CASES ON THE VERB (kinda) I GET IT

i had a bad day until i found this video

How long did you studied tagalog?

Gin bakal sang lalaki ang brillante para sa baybayi sa presyo nga dies mil.

Melanau has this, but it's really falling out of use - I can demonstrate using the Melanau Dalat dialect. Word: dipeh = keep/put kou = me (obviously) asak = clothing dagen = inside lemari = cupboard Mipeh kou asakkou dagen lemari = I put my clothes inside a cupboard Nipeh kou asakkou dagen lemari = My clothes are put by me inside a cupboard Demipeh kou asakkou dagen lemari = The cupboard is where I put my clothes Denipeh kou asakkou dagen lemari = The cupboard is where my clothes are put by me

I wonder why in bugis language the word "kita" means "you"

Actually, I would say "Binilhan ng lalaki ang babae ng diamante" (The man bought the woman a diamond) instead "Ibinili". I've always thought that "binilhan" meant "bought for someone" 😅

They thought Austronesian languages are easy because they don't have multiple forms for each noun. Sike, we have multiple forms for each verb hahahaha

Sawijining dinten, wonten piyantun kakung wonten ing mall tumbas inten kagem piyantun setri kanthi $10.000,00.

You actually forgot the "AY"

Please create a word 10 dollars in tagalog. It is so weird when it mixed with english

No offense, but if you "make" sentences in Tagalog or any other Philippine language (like directly translate Malay/Indonesian sentences word for word) without Austronesian Alignment, it sounds to us like baby talk/caveman talk. That's why you really ought to learn how to conjugate verbs according to the focus and keep track of which elements of the sentences you want to emphasize and which elements you want to keep in the background. As complicated as Austronesian alignment is, it allows our language(s), in many cases, to be more efficient in encoding information and context just by way of conjugation. The way I think about this, we are a very story-oriented people and, by divine intervention or by pure coincidence, we have been given this feature in our language(s) that allows us to be efficiently creative, informative, and nuanced in regards to speaking and writing. This is in no way criticism to Malay/Indonesian languages who have lost this feature, but rather a sharing of perspective as to how we deal with this complicated but wonderful feature of our language(s). If you are a learner of any Philippine language, kudos to you for taking interest. It means so much to us that you have found in you a sense of appreciation to our people, country, culture, and tradition to dedicate your time and learn to speak with us in our own language. If you're struggling with Austronesian alignment, I hope this video helped you immensely as it has by far the best coverage of the topic. Shout out to the creator who has done a wonderful job in presenting this subject. Most of us couldn't have a done better job doing ourselves. The amount of research and knowledge is phenomenal. The accent is also great for someone who's not a native speaker of Tagalog. I am not a linguist so I struggle with explaining the topic myself because we don't really think about this through since this comes naturally to us. I am also a language learner and I find native speakers to be not much help so sometimes it's best to learn from other learned speakers as they develop analogies and strategies to deal with new linguistic concepts they encounter in their target language. In the case of this video, the upgrade/downgrade analogy is so smart. We never really think about it that way but it is more or less accurate. Thank you so much for this! I hope your channel gets more views.

Born in southeast asia: 🥳 Born in the only SEA country that adopts austronesian alignment wholesale: 🥲 Why can't filipino be easy to learn 😭 this video really helps explain why it's such a struggle

I can't really see your point. I'm no language expert, but I'll try to find an analog of this in Indonesian. Here is an extreme and meandering way to produce what I think is the same effect in Indonesian. We never speak like this though. Normally we only speak in the first form. Seorang pria　*_membeli_*　intan 　di mall　untuk seorang wanita　dengan seratus juta rupiah. Intan itu　*_dibeli_*　seorang pria　di mall　untuk seorang wanita　dengan seratus juta rupiah. Di mall　*_terbelilah_*　intan　oleh seorang pria　untuk seorang wanita　dengan seratus juta rupiah. Seorang wanita　*_dibelikan_*　intan　oleh seorang pria　di mall　dengan seratus juta rupiah. Dengan seratus juta rupiah　*_dibelilah_*　intan　oleh seorang pria　di mall　untuk seorang wanita. To do this I need to keep the object, the diamond/intan, right after the verb. I had the most difficulty forming the 3rd and 5th example. I believe "terbelilah" and "dibelilah" could be interchangeable but that might be just my lack of expertise. Also, pay attention to how we use "di" differently and accentuate that difference by our use of a space after it. di- connected to the principle verb is called an "awalan", literally meaning "starter", is used to conjugate verbs in collaboration with "akhiran"s (lit. "ender"), meanwhile di separated as a word on its own, is named a "kata depan" lit. "fronting word" which is only used to indicate a noun of time and place. vocab: Pria: Man Intan: Diamond Mall: Mall Wanita: Woman Seratus Juta Rupiah: 10,000 US dollars in IDR Seorang: A (person) Di : At a / At the (place/time) Untuk: For (someone/something) Oleh: By (someone/something) Dengan: With (something)

"Bumili ang lalaki sa mall ng diyamante sa mall sa isang babae na nagkakahalaga ng sampung libong dolyar"