From what I know, I often hear that the English “J” sound does not exist in Tagalog. However, when I see words in Tagalog, there are often sounds that use English “j” (ex: Dyanitor). Why doesn’t Tagalog use J for [dzh] instead of Dy? Wouldn’t J be a more logical choice since Tagalog has been widely influenced by English and it’s not only a simpler and faster way to write it but also looks better? I mean “Janitor” looks more pleasing than “Dyanitor” and is simpler to write. What problem would it create if J was used in Tagalog? Did it make another sound?
First blush is that Tagalog has a lot of borrowings of Spanish, and that “j” may be spoken for by Spanish /x/ - /h/ (e.g. trabajador, jalapeño). A nonce English borrowing into Tagalog spelled janitor could be read as /hani:tor/ or similar.
Further: Elegance and simplicity won’t really factor into the reasons “dy” is favored. If “Dy” makes sense from the standpoint of Tagalog phonotactics, that’s what will get used.
In English “J” is pronounced /dʒ/, where /ʒ/ is the voiced “sh” sound as in “leisure”. I don’t know much about Tagalog but I gather it does not have /ʒ/ as a separate sound, so “dy” is a reasonable approximation of how to pronounce English J if /ʒ/ is not available. And of course whether “j” or “dy” looks “more pleasing” is not objective but depends on what you are used to. I’m sure that many Tagalog speakers would tell you that “dyanitor” looks better than “janitor”.
Are you saying, J is ambiguous in Tagalog?
From what I read, in the Modern Filipino and Tagalog alphabet, the letter “j” can be pronounced /h/ or /dʒ/. It appears to be used for foreign words and I would suppose their origin dictates which pronunciation it gets.
Yes:
J
Tagalog name of letter: dyey
IPA: /dʒ/ or /h/
Written as the digraph dy … when using the /dʒ/ phoneme or as h when using the /h/ phoneme. The sound varies depending on the language. It is only used for words of foreign origin that have not been assimilated into Filipino or Filipino words which were written using Spanish orthography.
D’yer Mak’er
WHat!!!
It is a reference to a Led Zeppelin song off Houses of the Holy. It is meant to be a playful phoenetic rendition of the word “Jamaica” and a reference to the joke “My wife went on vacation to the West Indies” “Jamaica?” “No, she went on her own.”
Oh I see!
Yes, thanks, I submitted too early switching among tabs checking spelling.
I had to hear the joke before I understood it. For sure, the DJ said ‘dyer maker’ when I listened to the radio as a kid.
The wikipedia goes into some detail beyond the summary:
The title is a play on the word “Jamaica” when spoken in an English accent.