Piil: An intro to Verbs

February 18, 2013  Monday

         Bismillah. This is an Introductory post for “Part 3: Verbs” in Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Súg. For the list of past lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons

         Piil the TauSúg term for Verbs comes from the Arabic “Fi’lun” or “Fi’il” (Faa-‘Ain-Laam) which means “Action” or simply put, “Verbs”. These terms are involved in actions that had been done before (past), that is being done (present), and will be done in the future (future).

         In learning any languages, learning the verbs and their different forms is perhaps one of the hardest things to do (at least for me). There are just a lot of things to consider in changing the verbs done in the present to its past tense, then the future, and so on.  This of course is also applicable to our beloved Bahasa Súg. Really, a single post like this would be enough for us to realize how complicated the Tausug Verbs and their constructions, forms and applications are. That’s why we have this “Introduction”, hopefully to make things less complicated, In shaa Allah.

         Let’s look at some examples of Piil in Bahasa Súg:

	Bahasa Súg	English
Root word	Kaun	To eat
Past	Kimaun aku tinapay.	I ate bread.
	Kiyaun ku in tinapay.	I ate the bread.
	Nakakaun aku tinapay.	I have eaten bread.
Present	Kimakaun aku tinapay.	I am eating bread.
	Kiyakaun ku in tinapay.	I am eating the bread.
	Nagkakaun aku tinapay.	I am eating bread.
Future	Kumaun aku tinapay.	I will eat bread.
	Kaunun ku in tinapay.	I will eat the bread.
	Makakaun da aku tinapay.	I will soon eat bread.

                Here, we have the root word Kaun which means “To eat” and the some of the forms it can take. If we want to use the Past form of the word Kaun, we can choose from the different past forms it has. Among those are Kimaun and Kiyaun which both means “ate” or Nakakaun which means “have eaten”.  On the other hand, to use it in Present form, we can either use Kimakaun, Kiyakaun or Nagkakaun. Same goes with the Future forms, Kumaun, Kaunun, and Makakaun.

                Tricky isn’t it?

The examples we have above are nothing but a few of the many different forms a Tausug Piil can have, depending on how it is used. This only shows how complicated the Piil  are. For a complete list of the different forms of Piil in BahasaSúg (all 43 of them!), you can download the file “Manga kapiil-piilan: Different forms of Verbs in Bahasa Sug” at the end of this post.

Before we begin learning the Piil here are some things we have to know first:

Root Words

         Tausug Piil, just like any verbs in other languages follow certain rules in word construction. They can change from one form to the other, together with their meanings, depending on how they are used in a sentence.  And one enormous factor that can help a beginner in mastering the different forms of the verbs is by knowing which part of the word is actually the Root Word (Piil Puunan*) and which is not. Of course, because the root words of each verb can always be different, knowing the Not-Root-Words (the affixes or Hurup gaganap) will be helpful. 

The Affixes used in Piil

         Affixes according to wikipedia are “units of words” attached to root words to form a new word. There are many affixes used in constructing Piil in Bahasa Sug. These are prefixes, infixes and suffixes added to the root words of a verb that changes their meanings. Here is a list of the common affixes added to Piil in Bahasa Sug:

Prefixes (added at the beginning)	Infixes (added in between)	Suffixes (added at the end)
Im-	-im-	-un/-hun
Iy-	-iy-	-an/-han
Um-	-um-	-a/-ha
Na-/Ma-		-i/-hi
Naka-/Maka-
Nag-/Mag-/Pag-
Nang-/Mang-
Pa-/Piya-/
Ka-/Kiya-
Ha-/Hika-

                By simply removing these affixes in a verb, one will be able to identify the root word and thus the meaning of the verb itself. Soon we will learn that a Piil mayexhibit attachment ofone of the affixes above singularly like Imiyan, Kumita’,and Bassahun; or with two or more affixes as in Piyabaytaan, and Naglingugan.  Familiarize with these “affixes” and things will be easier on the next lessons to come, In shaa Allah.

Changes in Sounds

         Another unique thing that is mostly found in Piil in Bahasa Sugis how letters (or sounds) can change from one form to the other. We have already learned about how the letter /D/ can change into the sound of /R/ in lesson 3##link##. In learning the verbs, there are a few more changes similar with that of letters /D/ and /R/ that we must be familiar with. They are the following:

The Letters B and P can change to /M/: Verbs starting with letters B and P will have the sound of /M/ in some form of verbs like: Bayta’ to Namayta’; Patay to Miyatay; and so on.

The Letters S and T can change to /N/: Verbs beginning with letters S and T can also take the sound of /N/ just like in Sukna’ to Nanukna’ and Taykud  to Nanaykuri.

The Letter K can change to /Ng/: Verbs starting with K like Kita’ and Kaykit can change and take the sound of /Ng/ as in Nangita’ and Nangaykit, respectively.

And of course, the Letter D can change to /R/. As learned in Lesson 3.

                POINT OF INFORMATION: The abovementioned changes don’t always happen every time the verb with the corresponding letter changes forms. There are only certain conditions when these changes are done which we will soon learn in the succeeding lessons.