so i think hagedorn's dogeaters is much more vibrant when one understands a lot of the tagalog and regional references. at first i thought about posting about cultural references... then i decided against tokenizing myself and figuring people can use google. then i realized that when i first read dogeaters, i knew nothing of filipino culture and got by fine. however, after one trip to the PI and a little bit of tagalog the book comes to life if you know stuff she doesn't explain.
so a random compilation because i'd rather translate tagalog than write thesis :) those you can get from context i haven't added and a lot of words are from spanish so i'm hoping you know español. and i'm not fluent so there's a lot i don't know too. (if you need a tagalog dictionary)
basic tagalog words that may help:
ba - question word
na - like ya, in spanish, meaning already
pa - still
hindi - no
ho - word of respect (towards elders or higher positioned in society)
from page four onwards
puwede ba - can you please? (literally "can" and the question word "ba")
trapo - rag
merienda - a snack
tayo na - let's now (lit. us already)
tanga - idiot
pangit- ugly
dios ko - my Lord
patis - fish sauce (yummy with fish)
di ba? - right? yeah?
tsismis - gossip
tuba - native drink, palm sap
kalachuchi - plumeria
sampaguita - Asian Jasmine
carabao - water buffalo
ano ba? - what?
kumusta? - how are you? what up?
balita - report, to tell
alam mo - you know
halo-halo - lit. mix-mix, ice cream dessert
bakla- equivalent of "fag"
wala nang - wala means "without," "doesn't have"
ba ito - this?
daw - it is said, (name) said
sige - okay
Cultural references -
Igorot - indigenous people of Baguio area i think who are looked down upon as backwards
Cebu - island in the southern Philippines with heavy Spanish influence and thus seen as more refined and civilized
Abra - region on the northwest of Luzon I think in Ilocos
lechon kawali - roasted pig
bangus - a type of fish
if anyone has stuff to add (regarding anything reference wise please do)
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actual post
before i go and write for thesis, i wanted to comment on the overwhelming number of corporate named commodities in the book. from SPORTEX clothing and TruCola to Marlboros and Maserati. i think this is indicative of the inbetween-ness of the Philippines, between Filipino and American and between developing and impoverished, brought by U.S. (neo)colonialism.
also, on page 27, when baby cleans herself multiple times a day, it reminds me of how back in the day soap companies advertised their products within the paradigm of blacks being dirty and whites being clean. therefore you wanted to be clean and white. i forgot what book i got this from. also the idea of "clean" is very class based, as those who can afford to be clean 24/7 and sweat-free don't have to work in teh fields and have the luxury of three baths a day.
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3 comments:
Thanks for the mini-dictionary Mary Rose. This made me question why Jessica Hagedorn uses Spanish and Tagalog, but does not give a translation for the words. Is she writing to a specific audience, one that knows either of these languages, or is the reader not supposed to understand what she is saying? What then is the significance of the communication barrier? Or, perhaps that is the point, that there are communication barriers between people of different races. Sorry if this post is a little disjointed, but I just wanted to put my random ideas out there. Please let me know if you guys have any ideas.
-Whitney
Ditto, thanks for the mini-dictionary. It was really helpful to see the definitions, because I hear the expressions often enough but can proffer no substantial or meaningful translation of my own. The reason for this, I think, is because I was raised in a Filipino household where Tagalog was rarely used, and words/ expressions/ phrases in my parent's dialect, Ilocano, come easier to me than Tagalog. My inability to understand the Tagalog references in the book was yet another reminder that a literary text cannot and should not be taken as a definition of a culture. This is a very specific portrayal - not just of Tagalog-speakers, but of inhabitants of Manila, and, with a few exceptions, affluent or at least relatively wealthy Filipinos.
On the subject of Spanish/Tagalog in the book, it's important to know that a number of words in Tagalog are taken directly from Spanish, and mean the same things in English. I did a double take when I read it too, especially given that a number of the characters are mestizo/a and could reasonably be expected to speak both Spanish and Tagalog. However, I had a talk with my dad over the weekend, and he told me that there's a dialect in the Philippines, Chabacano, which emerged from the encounter of Spanish and the indigenous language of the PI, and shares even more similarities to Spanish. I still don't know exactly which mix of language is going on in the book, but I think the communication barrier works on multiple levels and not only functions to delineate race, but also ethnicity, and within Filipino culture, regional and class affiliations.
also there are communication barriers within the Philippines and the Filipino community as Jan notes with the multiple dialects in the PI. Some know more English, some know no Tagalog (if they grow up in the Southern provinces for instance, visayan would be their main language) and for the upper class, they know some spanish.
side note: one of my dear friends taught himself tagalog and learned the older words not derived from spanish. so in regular tagalog blue would be azul. in older tagalog which he learned, he says bughaw.
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