The Letters /Bb/ and /Gg/

Originally published: June 7, 2012 Thursday
Updated: January 9, 2015

Assalamu Alaykum. This is the 2nd lesson on “Tausūg 101: Learning Bahasa Sūg” by Anak Iluh. For more lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.

Among the 17 commonly used consonants we have in Bahasa Sūg, two letters are notable of having a “special ruling” on articulating their sounds. These are the letters /Bb/ and /Gg/. Both letters can be pronounced with (1) their regular distinct sounds and (2) their special “spirant” sounds. The following rules must be learnt by anyone who wants to learn to speak Bahasa Sūg fluently.

We first published this article in July 2012 and we have found out that this lesson actually agree with the guideline by Dr. Bangahan’s “Bahasa Sūg Phonetics and Orthography” which again, we will follow for this lesson.

The rules are simple: look for the letters /Bb/ and /Gg/ and find out what precede them in a word or a sentence. 

The Distinct /Bb/ and /Gg/

Rule #1: When the letters Bā’ and Gā’ are placed in the BEGINNING or in the END of a word, they will be pronounced with their regular ‘solid’ or distinct /Bb/ and /Gg/ sounds. This is known as “Bā’ mahantap” for /Bb/ and “Gā’ mahantap” for /Gg/. Examples of these words are:

Bā’ mahantap	Gā’ mahantap
basi’ (iron/metal)	gadja (elephant)
badju’ (cloth/shirt)	gallang (bracelet)
saub (cover/lid)	niyug (coconut tree)
ukab (open)	hulug (fall)

Rule #2: The same rule applies when these letters are placed in the MIDDLE of a word and then follows or is followed by another consonant or a glottal stop (‘). We retain the distinct /Bb/ and /Gg/ sounds such as in:           

Bā’ mahantap	Gā’ mahantap
dagbus (face)	siyagnat (hooked)
sambut (catch)	si’gub (burp)
sa’bu (already)	bugtu’ (broken, for strings)

The Aspirant /Bb/ and /Gg/

Rule #3: The special rule (the aspirant sound), applies when the two letters are in BETWEEN TWO VOWEL sounds. When this happens, the two letters will take their “spirant” form or sound; meaning they will have a bit of “softer” sound and should not have a “stopping”, bursting distinct sound. 

The letter /Bb/ will be pronounced with a slight opening of the lips letting air to smoothly and freely pass during the pronunciation. This is called the “Bā’ mahangin”. It would have the sound /v/ as in LEVITATE, but not /V/ in VIOLET. But it should also be noted that the letter /Vv/ should never be used to replace the aspirant /Bb/ sound. Listening to the recordings I have prepared would make this clearer.

The letter /Gg/ would then sound like the Huruf Ghain /Gh/ in Arabic and not with the distinct /Gg/ sound. This is called the “Gā’ mahangin” sound.

Bā’ mahangin	Gā’ mahangin
(vowel)+/b/+(vowel)	(vowel)+/g/+(vowel)
Labay (Pass by, v.)	Bagay (Friend)
Lubid (Rope)	Tagad (Wait, v.)
Tabang (Help, v.)	Higad (Side)
Habay-Habay (Amulet)	Tagaynup (Dream)
Sabun (Soap)	Agap (Parrot)

(Please download the audio copy of these examples or watch the video I prepared. See the links at the end of this post.)

Rule #4: Now what about if we attach affixes (prefixes, suffixes) to these words? The following rules should be followed. Notice that they are exactly the same as those in single words.

4a) When adding a prefix ending with a vowel to a word beginning with /Bb/ or /Gg/, the letters /Bb/ and /Gg/ will take the aspirant forms. Attaching a suffix beginning with a vowel sound will also have the same effect.

Sinūg word	+ prefix / suffix	new word
biskay (fastness)	ma+	mabiskay (fast, adj.)
gituk (tickle)	ma+	magituk (tickling)
ukab (open)	+an	ukaban (to open)
hulug (fall)	+un	hulugun (to drop)

On the new word the letters /Bb/ and /Gg/ are now in between tow vowel sounds; and following the third rule, they will take the aspirant forms.

4b) When words beginning with letters /Bb/ and /Gg/ are attached with prefixes with another consonant, the distinct sounds Bā’ mahantap and Gā’ mahantap are retained. There are no suffixes attached to words ending with /Bb/ and /Gg/.

Sinūg word	+ prefix / suffix	new word
bugsay (oar)	mag+	magbugsay (fast, adj.)
guling (fry)	nag+	nag-guling (fried something)

 Rule #5: The last one is about finding these words in a sentence with other words. We will follow the same rules with a slight difference:

5a) In a sentence, when a word beginning with /Bb/ or /Gg/ is preceded by another word ending with a consonant sound or a glottal stop (‘), the distinct Bā’ mahantap or Gā’ mahantap will be retained.

Sentence with words beginning in Bā’ mahantap or Gā’ mahantap	English
Masawa in bulan.	The moon is bright.
Kiyta’ ku in gadja.	I saw the elephant.

5b) In a sentence, when these words on the other hand, are preceded by another word ending with a vowel sound, they will take the aspirant Bā’ mahangin or Gā’ mahangin.

Sentence with words beginning in Bā’ mahangin or Gā’ mahangin	English
Didtu kami limingkud ha bangka’.	We sat there at the boat.
Simakat kami ha gadja.	We rode an elephant.

5c) In a sentence, when a word ends with letters /Bb/ or /Gg/, they will always take the distinct Bā’ mahantap or Gā’ mahantap regardless of the kind of letters the next word begins with.

Sentence with words ending in Bā’ mahantap or Gā’ mahantap	English
Naukab in lawang.	The door was opened.
Nahulug in sāmin.	The mirror fell.
Yari in saub garapun.	Here is the container lid.
Sulug kaw badju’.	Wear some clothes.

Comparing with Tagalog

                The special sounds of /Bb/ and /Gg/ sounds are found to be unique in Bahasa Sūg. There is indeed a great difference in pronouncing these sounds in Bahasa Sūg compared to that in Tagalog, where these sounds are more distinctly pronounced regardless of their positions. Comparisons are seen in the following examples:

Tagalog (The sounds /B/ and /G/ are more pronounced)	Bahasa Sūg (The sounds are spirantized; softened)
Bagay (Things)	Bagay (Friends)
Agap (To hasten, v.)	Agap (Parrot)
Libutan (to encircle)	Libutan (to encircle)
Mahaba (long)	Mahaba’ (long)

                                               

                A little confused now? Hehe. It is really hard to understand this if we will stick with the written examples only. We have to listen to their actual pronunciations to better understand them. And so, to easily understand this special ruling, please listen to the audio file I have prepared for this lesson. You can download them in this link: DOWNLOADS- I was finally able to make a video as well. Check it out here:

==video==

In summary, we learned:

1. There are two ways to pronounce the letters /Bb/ and /Gg/: the distinct mahantap type and the aspirant mahangin type;

2. In root-words or words with affixes, whenever the /Bb/ and /Gg/ sounds are PRECEDED or are FOLLOWED by another CONSONANT SOUND or a GLOTTAL STOP (‘), they will be pronounced with their distinct Bā’ mahantap or Gā’ mahantap sounds;

3. In root-words or words with affixes, whenever the /Bb/ and /Gg/ sounds are placed IN BETWEEN TWO VOWEL SOUNDS, they will be pronounced with their aspirant, soft Bā’ mahangin or Gā’ mahangin sounds;

4. When found in sentences, words BEGINNING with /Bb/ or /Gg/ and PRECEDED by words ending in VOWELS, the aspirant /Bb/ or /Gg/ mahangin will be used; and lastly

5. When found in sentences, words BEGINNING with /Bb/ or /Gg/ and PRECEDED by words ending in consonants or a glottal stop, the distinct /Bb/ or /Gg/ mahantap will be retained. The same thing happens with words ENDING with /Bb/ or /Gg/ regardless of the beginning of the next word.

Most non-Tausūg and non-Arabic speakers would have a hard time learning these rules. Yet nevertheless, it would only take a little patience and a lot of practice to master their correct sounds. It’s really fun if you will only put your heart in it, right?

This ends our second lesson.

I hope we have achieved something today. Our next topic will be on the other special letters: “The Transforming Letters /Dd/, /Rr/, etc.”, which will be posted hopefully next Thursday. We have at least one week to practice what we have learned today, the special sounds of /B/ and /G/. You can always ask questions in our page Tausug101 or email me at anakiluhmd@gmail.com.

For Download link: (feel free to share it with others)

Letters Bb and Gg

The file includes:

·         Tausūg word samples for regular /B/ and /G/--Audio file

·         Tausūg word samples for special /B/ and /G/--Audio file

·         Comparisons between Tagalog and Tausūg samples—Audio file

·         New Tausūg words for Lesson 2 and Proper way of writing the special letters /B/ and /G/--pdf file

(Audio files are in MP3 format, so you can always listen to them in your MP3s, ipods or iphones :-)

Salama Kasilasa!

Anak Iluh

Adjectives Using Sipat

          Bismillah. This is the second part of Lesson 10 in “Tausūg 101: Learning Bahasa Sūg” by Anak Iluh. For more lessons, please check out the page on “List of Lessons”.

          Last time we have introduced the common Tausūg Sipat (Adjectives), their usual structures and some of their irregular forms. Today we will talk about how a sipat is used in a sentence (At least just the easy ones, for now). Let’s begin the lesson by observing the following examples first:

Bahasa Sūg	English
bāy (our favorite example haha)	House
(1) Bāy malaggu’	Big house
(2) Malaggu’ bāy	Big house
(3) In bāy malaggu’	The house is big.
(4) Malaggu’ in bāy	The house is big.

          The first two examples are the usual way of directly describing an object (bāy, “house”) using a sipat (malaggu’, “big”). The last two examples are the ‘complete’ form of sentences as we added the noun marker in, which is the equivalent of the English article “the” (remember that noun-markers must always be placed before the noun it identifies). There are times that interchanging the orders of the two (object and sipat) does not affect the construction of the sentence whatsoever. But there are also times that one form (say examples 1 and 3, wherein the object comes before the sipat) is more preferred than the other form (examples 2 and 4, which is the opposite).

          Again, there are no grammar rules yet as how to call these forms; so for the sake of this lesson and for us to have something to use in this site only, we will make our own ‘names’ to call them. [A friendly reminder, these are not official names or rules of grammars in Bahasa Sūg. We just want to make things easier for our readers in this site. If you happen to find any mistakes here, please do inform us that we may correct them immediately. Magsukul]

          The first form is shown in examples (1) and (3) wherein the object (bāy) comes before the sipat (malaggu’). We will call this form the Object-Sipat Form or O-S Form (weird huh?). Examples (2) and (4) will be the other forms: the Sipat-Object Form or S-O Form, wherein the object comes after the sipat thus the name. We will be using the two names throughout the lesson, in sha Allah.  

Bahasa Sūg		English
O-S Form	S-O Form
badju’ malummi’	malummi’ badju	dirty shirt
sapi’ matambuk	matambuk sapi’	Fat cow
babai malingkat	malingkat babai	beautiful girl
tinapay mapasu’	mapasu’ tinapay	hot bread

Using sipat with possessive pronouns

          So, how do we say “My big house” or “His dirty shirt” in Bahasa Sūg? Again, (as we always do) let us learn from these examples:

Bahasa Sūg		English
O-S Form	S-O Form
bāy ku malaggu’	malaggu’ báy ku	my big house
badju’ niya malummi’	malummi’ badju niya	his dirty shirt
sapi’nila matambuk	matambuk sapi’nila	their fat cow

          Remember that we have learned in lessons 6 about dependent possessive pronouns (genitive form). These pronouns cannot stand alone and thus they must always come after an object. In OS Form, we observe that the pronouns ku, niya, and nila are placed after their respective objects, and before the sipats. In the SO Form, because the object already comes in the end, the pronouns are simply attached to the phrases.

Note: For all of these examples we have, the OS Form is more preferably used in conversations and is more accepted. Although they basically mean the same, the O-S Form is more, uhm, clear and easily understood. As for the reasons why… We unfortunately don’t know. Hehe. The S-O Form simply feels awkward to say or hear; there’s this “something’s missing here” feeling, so avoid using the S-O form alone with pronouns in conversing, if possible.

Lesson 9: Conjunctions I

          Bismillah. This is the 9th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons. There is a short quiz at the end of this lesson.

          In the previous lesson, we have learned the three noun markers “in”, “hi” and “hinda”. We have differentiated the three markers on how they are used as indicators of nouns (“in” for proper nouns and “hi/hinda” for common nouns). These three noun markers actually have their other form: they can also exist and function as conjunctions! In this lesson, we will discuss the conjunction forms of these three articles and their usage. Apparently, all of the three conjunctions we are about to tackle, are forms equivalent of the same, common term: the conjunction “of”.

The Conjunction “sin”

          The Tausug conjunction “sin” corresponds to the English conjunction “of” and the Tagalog “ng” which basically denotes possession. And just like the article “in”, “sin” is only used with common (improper) nouns or objects. Maybe we can say, “sin” is the conjunction form of “in”. Let us study the examples below:

Format: <Noun 1> + sin + <Noun 2>

Langguage	Example 1	Example 2
Tausug	Lawang sin báy.	Taumpa’ sin bagay ku.
Tagalog	Pintuan ng bahay.	Sapatos ng kaibigan ko.
English	(The) door of the house.	(The) shoe of my friend.

*NOTE: There are other forms and usage of the word “sin” in a sentence, but for now, we will only focus on this form.

          In Example 1, the first noun Lawang (Door) is followed by our conjunction “sin”; then by the second common noun Báy (House, which is a common noun). When this kind of word order happens (that is, “sin” is in between two nouns), the first noun or object <Noun 1> will basically become a part or property of the second noun or object <Noun 2>. This is what we mean by “possession”; Noun 1 is possessed by Noun 2. So in the example “Lawang sin báy”, we are informed that the object Lawang is indeed part of the common noun, Báy. 

          Same principles govern the second example, but in here we are now using a common, personal noun Bagay (Friend) instead of an object. The first noun Taumpa’ (Shoe) is a ‘possession’ of the second noun, Bagay.

Conjunctions “hi” and “hinda”

          Remember in lesson 8, we have discussed the primary forms of “hi” and “hinda” as noun markers. This time we will meet their other forms (although without changing spellings) as equivalents of the possessive conjunction “of”.  

          Also following their Noun-marker forms, the conjunctions “hi” and “hinda” are both used with proper nouns (esp. names of persons) or identified objects only. And because they also function as equivalents of the conjunction “of”, they also denote possession. These two are the same as the Tagalog conjunctions “ni” and “nina”. Here are a few examples:

Also following the same format:

<Noun 1> + hi + <Name 2> for singular n.

<Noun 1> + hinda + <Name 2> for plural n.

Langguage	Singular	Plural
Tausug	Báy hi Omar.	Bagay hinda Sandra.
Tagalog	Bahay ni Omar.	Kaibigan nina Sandra.
English	(The) house of Omar.	(A) Friend of Sandra (and others).

LESSON 7: The Pronouns III (Oblique Form)

                Bismillah. This is the 7th lesson on “Tausug 101: Learning Bahasa Sug” by Anak Iluh. For lists of lessons, please go to: Lists of Lessons.


                We are done with the first two forms of pronouns in Bahasa Sug: the Nominative (lesson 5) and the Genitive (lesson 6) pronouns. Today, we will discuss the third and last form of pronouns: the Oblique form.
                Oblique Pronouns are also known as “Independent, Possessive Pronouns”. These are another form of possessive pronouns (which state ownership) like the genitive pronouns; but they are able to stand on their own (thus the name independent) and are also used as subject of the verb in a sentence. Here are the Oblique Pronouns in Bahasa Sug:

OBLIQUE PRONOUNS    (INDEPENDENT, POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS)  in BAHASA SUG
1st Person (speaker)	Singular	Káku’
	Dual	Kátu’
	Plural (including the listener)	Kátu’ niyu
	Plural (excluding the listener)	Kámu’
2nd Person (to listener)	Singular	Kaymu
	Plural	Kaniyu
3rd Person (absent)	Singular	Kaniya
	Plural	Kanila

(Please try to compare this table with the previous tables given in lessons 5 and 6)

                This is the equivalent of Tagalog Language’s “Sa Akin, Sa Iyo, Sa Kaniya…” and the English’s “Mine, Yours, Him/Hers, and Theirs”. Examples in Tausug conversation:

As expressing possession:

                Káku’ in kahawa ini.                       This coffee is mine.
                Kaymu in tinapay.                           The bread is yours.
                In mga saying yaun, kanila.        Those bananas are theirs.
                (Note: This lesson was made while the author is feeling hungry, really hungry.=)

And as subject of the verb:

Miyadtu aku kanila.       =      I went to them. (kanila is the subject of the verb miyadtu)
Nagbayta’ siya káku’     =        He said to me. (kaku’, “me” is the direct object of the verb    nagbayta, “was told”)

                Because there is nothing left to explain, this will end our lesson number 7. For more examples and new Tausug words for your vocabulary, pls go to the download link below and click download. Keep inviting more friends to learn Bahasa Sug with you. It’s more fun if you have a partner :-)

                Here’s another short Tausug conversation (Pagsambung-laung) to better understand how these pronouns are used:

Pagsambung-Laung III              [NEEDS EDITING! NEEDS NEW EXAMPLE!!!] 

o

o

o

o

o

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You can listen to this conversation in the audio files provided.

Till next Thursday. Salam kasilasa!           

-Anak Iluh