Tagalog slang

Pinoy Kasi
Tagalog slang

By Michael Tan
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 01:40:00 03/27/2009

Filed Under: Language, Books, Human Interest

This morning, i had “thinapay” for breakfast, the term meaning very thin bread, a sign of difficult economic times.

“Thinapay” is one of the entries in “Pinoy Dyok-syo-nar-yo: The Completest Edition” by Ferdinand Aguas, with illustrations by Ace Cada. While eating the thinapay, I realized it’s been a long time since I did a column on language and I thought I should feature this different kind of dictionary.

The compilation is obviously meant to be mainly for entertainment but it gives some interesting insights into Filipino culture. For starters, the palm-sized book reminds us how dynamic languages are. What we call “Filipino” — a mix mainly of Tagalog words but with many influences from outside, as well as other Philippine languages — continues to evolve, perhaps at a much faster rate than ever before.

The last time there was a good compilation of colloquial Tagalog was in 1993, when De La Salle University published Tagalog Slang Dictionary (compiled by David Zorc and Rachel San Miguel and edited by Annabelle Sarra and Patricia Afable). Tagalog Slang Dictionary is extensive, with hundreds of entries, and it includes the etymology or origins of the words. As slang goes, many of the words are no longer in use now (e.g., “baguio” to mean talented, successful, competent, and even sexy) but others have persisted, even becoming part of mainstream Tagalog and Pilipino (e.g., “t.y.” for thank you or to mean something that is free).

Agglutination

Rereading Tagalog Slang Dictionary reminded me of the tendency, in the 1970s, to create new words by inverting syllables. Thus, “yosi” came from playing around with the first and last syllables of “sigarilyo.” “Erap” was actually derived from an inverted “pare.” It was quite a feat for young Filipinos to conduct a conversation with these transposed syllables and I remember friends who could convert every word in a sentence into their inverted slang equivalents. The inversion seemed almost natural for the 1970s, a period of youthful rebellion, a linguistic counter-culture that literally turned languages on their head.

The 300 entries in “Pinoy Dyoksyonaryo” reflect a less daring form of language transformation: agglutination. There are many languages in the world that use agglutination, which means combining two or more “morphemes” or language units that have meanings. German is an example, with their kilometric agglutinated words (a short example is “kindergarten,” combining “kinder,” or children, and “garten,” or garden). Filipino languages are full of agglutinative words (the persistent summer rains bring to my mind “bahaghari,” a rainbow described as a king’s G-string).

Agglutination seems to have picked up locally, producing many amazing and amusing new words. Thus: “yosi” from the 1970s has since given rise to “yosiga” to refer to a “siga” (a person with a swagger) who is always smoking; “yosipit” for a cigarette that one sticks over the ear (“ipit”); and “yostik,” which is a safety device made by tying a lit cigarette to a stick and using this to light a firecracker!

Since there are so many terms in “Dyoksyonaryo,” I thought I’d focus on terms related to the body. There were quite a few, which show an almost obsessive interest in anatomy and physiology.

For example, “puhok” refers to the short hair (“buhok”) around a whorl (“puyo”). You can see there’s more than agglutination involved as we coin new words. Filipinos love punning or playing on the sounds in words so it shouldn’t be surprising that “buhok” produced “puhok.” Or that we would come up with “newnal” to refer to a new mole. Talking about moles, a “nunalong” is a mole (“nunal”) on the nose (“ilong”), while a “himulmole” refers to the hair on a mole, derived from “himul” (lint) and the English “mole.” See how agglutination can produce mestizo terms, a combination of English and Tagalog?

Terms like “puhok” and “himulmole” suggest a compulsion with body hair. “Bagote” for example means a new (“bago”) mustache (“bigote”). Some years ago I was surprised to learn from my students that there was a term “burnik,” which refers to anal hair. No one seems to be able to explain how the term came about, unlike “karug,” which refers to the hair between the umbilicus and the pubic area. My informants explain that it means “karugtong ng bulbul.”

Skins and scents

Modern technologies give us new terms like “thumbteks,” the thumb used to text messages, and “spawis,” the perspiration (“pawis”) you get in a spa.

A number of slang terms reflect our vulnerabilities to, and fear of skin infections and afflictions. Who would have thought we would come up with “pidimpol” to refer to a pimple on a dimple? “Bigsa” is a big boil, smaller compared to a “kurikingkong,” a large (as in King Kong) “kurikong.” And if someone has the skin sores called “galis,” he should make sure it doesn’t worsen to the point where they become “galisgis” or “galis” that resembles fish scales (“kaliskis”).

Filipinos scrutinize bodies. “Bikinini” refers to bikini marks. Careful, too, Filipinos have noticed, and coined a term, “dumidorant,” to refer to deodorant residues left on the armpit.

We are also very conscious about “tinga” or food residues on the teeth. “Ngitinga” is a smile that exposes all your “tinga” and “dungisngis” is to laugh (“ngisngis”) showing a dirty (“dungis”) mouth. No wonder we have the slang terms “tingador” (a fork or “tinidor” used to remove the “tinga”), “tingadoro” (a person who is always cleaning his teeth) and a “tingago” (to remove “tinga” secretly or “patago”).

We also have very specific terms for some body movements, including “kendilaro” to play (“laro”) with candy in your mouth. “Kabayog” refers to the movements (“yugyog”) while on a horse (“kabayo”), which I can imagine might take on more sensual meanings in the future.

We have generated all kinds of terms for physiological functions and body sensations. “Pinoy Dyoksyonaryo” now has “hilikopter,” which is to snore like a helicopter. “Kilitirik” refers to the way we roll our eyes upwards (“tirik”) when we are tickled (“kiliti”). “Kilig,” a kind of titillated feeling, has always been an intriguing word and it has now spawned a new term, “kilipag,” to refer to the “kilig” feeling they get after they make “pagpag.” (This is a family newspaper so foreigners will have to ask their Filipino friends to explain or demonstrate.)

The slang terms tell us we’re quite comfortable with our bodies, what with our lavish and terribly graphic descriptions. Consider “cutetot,” referring to a gentle (cute) passing of wind (“utot”), but beware, the term is meant to be an understatement because the “cutetot” is said to be deadly.

Talking about deadly smells, I did notice that “Pinoy Dyoksyonaryo” is quite sparse with olfactory terms, perhaps because we already have so many. But give it to the Filipino to agglutinate two of the more terrible terms to produce, hold on to your seats, “panghit.”

Have more new Tagalog slang terms to share? Write Ferdinand Aguas at pinoydyoksyonaryo@gmail.com. And can others begin to compile slang terms in Cebuano, Ilokano and other Philippine languages?

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Email: mtan@inquirer.com.ph