How much...?

So there you are in the south Philippines and you spot something you want to buy. More than likely you are going to be given the 'tourist' price, but for sure if you are going to get something a little cheaper then it's a good idea to ask in bisaya.

So, how much?

Tagpila?

Your sentence pattern starts with this word and you but the subject afterwards.

This - ni

That - na

Piece - ang buok (as with all bisaya words this is split into each vowel sound, bu-ok)

Kilo - ang kilo  

Put it all together and if you wish to ask 'how much per piece?'

Tagpila ang buok?

All good hagglers start high so the price will be too high. So let's haggle.

Expensive - Mahal

Tagalog speakers amongst you will already know the word mahal as it means 'love' but in bisaya it means 'expensive'. To me this makes using the word a little uncomfortable. Let's emphasise what dialect we are using and use add the word for 'very'.

Very - kaayo (ka-a-yo)

Unlike English, the word for 'very' is put afterwards. So we end up with :

Very expensive! - Mahal kaayo!

Eight words in all, but words you will use again and again. Get cracking.

Mission Statement for this blog

What do I mean by 'In Search of Bisaya'?

Bisaya is a very widely spoken dialect in the Visayan are of the Philippines, but at the same time it is extremely difficult to learn. There just are no real sources out there for you to learn it apart from a hotch potch spread of websites and books that dish out phrases. I've learnt one language very well since I left high school and the one big lesson I learnt from that is that phrase books are practically useless for really learning a new language. One must learn basic grammar structures, have some vocabulary to plug into these structures so that when new words are learnt they can be simply 'plugged in'. And if you don't have the word you need you can just use the English for now within the Bisaya structure. Let's face it, most people you will interact with will already speak English pretty well and it is extremely common to mix the languages already.

So why not just learn Tagalog? It's easier to find better material to learn from and is much more useful in the Philippines. Because I am in love with a Cebuana, and for me that means I should speak in her first language. Anyway, I'm a bit of a rebel and I adore the unusual. That's probably why I speak Cantonese first instead of Mandarin.

So from time to time I will fill in posts with a simple structure and vocab, more so to remind myself but if you wish to follow along or get something from the material then you are most welcome.