NahILOKANO?

Na-ILOKANO? I lived in the province for almost 5 years and I am a true-blue Ilokano! But really, what have I improved aside from eating? The dialect.

When Mama and I lived in Manila, we never conversed in Ilokano. But when she gets mad, really mad, she starts to speak in Ilokano as if she were an ilokano-online-tutorial-session. I love you, Ma. Rest in peace. I will admit, I only understood half of it. Well, okay. Just a quarter but most of the time, I didn’t understand anything at all. But hey,who knew I would speak like a pro? No one, but I do. And since I am so much like a pro, or feeling like a pro, let me teach you some easy and common Ilokano words and phrases.

Ilokano – Tagalog – English

napintas - maganda - beautiful
napudaw - maputi - white/fair-skinned
nagngisit - maitim - dark (or Shasta, kidding!)
nagpuskol - makapal -thick
nagngina - mahal (presyo) - expensive (cost)
naglaka - mura (presyo) - cheap (cost)
mangan - kumain - to eat
Mangan ta. - Kumain tayo. - Let's eat.
ma-il-iliw-ak kanyam - ako'y nangungulila sa'yo - i miss you
ay-ayaten ka - mahal kita - i love you
Napintas ni Shasta. - maganda si Shasta. - Shasta is beautiful.

Okay, maybe you realize speaking English is easier, but learning Ilokano or other dialects or languages is fun and quite interesting. Want to learn more words? Just comment and I’ll help you out.

PS. This is not to break my reliability but honestly, some of my close friends call me trying-hard when I speak the dialect and kinda hurts. Oh no, it really does hurt, a lot!