Kapampangan Pronoun Combinations

Since the late 1950's, my family has had ties of some sort to Pampanga province, due to the former Clark Air Base. My relatives aren't from Pampanga, but from Manila. I've also lived there myself for a period of five years and my now-18 year old brother was born there as well.

Looking back, my exposure to Kapampangan in Angeles City & Clark was rather scant. Though, I admit that at a young age I could have mistaken it for Tagalog. I was aware of phrases like me keni (come here) and that the locals didn't speak Tagalog the way my parents do. My mother, on the other hand, attended elementary school (Holy Family) in the 1960's and was exposed to it constantly. She understands it well, but cannot speak it fluently.

I left Pampanga in 1989 and it took about 12 year for me to develop a curiosity for the language spoken there; Kapampangan.

This curiosity led to fascination.

What can I say about Kapampangan? Perhaps, unpredictible, bizarre, unique, and, uh... cool? After studying Ilokano, Bikol, & the Visayan languages, I can say that the language is certainly an oddball. And that's what I love about it.

Conjugating took some time getting used to. In Tagalog, sumulat means "wrote" in the actor focus. In Kapampangan, it means "will write." On the other hand susulat means "will write" in Tagalog but means "is writing" in Kapampangan. The past tense in Kapampangan is sinulat. And this resembles the past tense of the object focus in Tagalog!

Also, in Kapampangan you have, for the verb "to read" (object focus): basan (future), babasan (progressive), and binasa (past).

But for the verb "to do" (object focus): gawan (future), gagawan (progressive), and not *ginawa, but gewa.

For "to eat" (again, object focus): kanan, kakanan, and you'd expect to see maybe *kinan. But no, it's pengan!

Ay naku, what a challenge. What fun.

Another interesting feature of Kapampangan is the the fact that a pronoun must always be present even when the noun it stands for is present. Dr. Reid calls these verbal agreement forms.

Kap: Malagu ya i Maria.
Tag: *Maganda siya si Maria. (literal translation)
Tag: Maganda si Maria. (free translation)
Eng: Mary is beautiful.

Kap: Silatanan na kang Pedru.
Tag: *Sinulatan ka niya ni Pedro. (literal)
Tag: Sinulatan ka ni Pedro. (free)
Eng: Peter wrote you.

Kap: Mamasa yang libru i Cristobal.
Tag: *Bumabasa siya ng libro si Cristobal. (literal)
Tag: Bumabasa si Cristobal ng libro. (free)
Eng: Christopher is reading a book.

Furthermore, Kapampangan has a set of merged pronouns that occur with the 3rd person singular & plural pronouns. Tagalog and its Central Philippine cousins typically have one that represents ko ikaw. Tagalog has kita, Bikol has taka, Cebuano has tikaw, Tausug has ta kaw, etc.

Kap: Ikit ke.
Tag: Nakita ko siya.
Eng: I saw him.

Kap: Dinan mong ebun.
Tag: Bigyan mo sila ng itlog.
Eng: Give them an egg.

Kap: Dinan meng ebun.
Tag: Bigyan mo siya ng itlog
Eng: Give him an egg.

Sometimes, they take different forms. The 3rd person singular forms usually do it around the word naman; kya naman rather than *ke naman. The plural ones change because they cannot end a sentence; Ikit ku la rather than *Ikit ko.

In any case, I made a chart that shows the pronoun combinations in Kapampangan. It's been very helpful to me, and so I'd like to share it with you. I compiled the information from sources written by Ernesto Turla, Hiroaki Kitano, Leatrice Mirikitani, and Michael Forman. Some entries might have two variants. The one on top is the short form and the bottom is the long one. Dashes indicate combinations which are deemed impossible. And the "ing sarili [pronoun]" represents a reflex action; myself, yourself, etc.

Also, Kapampangan writers may usually write words like da ka or yu ke as one word, daka or yuke. I've decided to keep them separate since particles can split them; da pin ka.

I've included a similar chart for Tagalog for comparison. I've listed the dual pronoun (you and I) in Tagalog, kata (or kita), which isn't used anymore these days. However, its Kapampangan counterpart is very much in use.

Some more examples:

Kap: Kaluguran da ka.
Tag: Mahal kita. OR Mahal ka namin. OR Mahal ka nila.
Eng: I love you. OR We love you. OR They love you.

Kap: Sulatanan na kong Isabel.
Tag: Susulatan kayo ni Isabel.
Eng: Isabel will write to you (plural).

Kap: Sibli no ring lapis.
Tag: Isinauli niya ang mga lapis.
Eng: He returned the pencils.

Chart of Kapampangan pronoun combinations by Christopher Sundita
Genitive (Ergative)		Nominative (Absolutive)
		yaku 1 sg	ika 2 sg	ya 3 sg	ikata 1 dual	ikatamu 1 pl inc.	ikami 1 pl exc.	ikayu 2 pl	ila 3 pl
ku 1 sg		(ing sarili ku)	da ka	ke kya	-	-	-	da ko da kayu	ko ku la
mu 2 sg		mu ku	(ing sarili mu)	me mya	-	-	mu ke mu kami	-	mo mu la
na 3 sg		na ku	na ka	ne nya (ing sarili na)	na kata	na katamu	na ke na kami	na ko na kayu	no nu la
ta 1 dual inc.		-	-	te tya	(ing sarili ta)	-	-	-	to ta la
tamu 1 pl inc.		-	-	ta ya	-	(ing sarili tamu)	-	-	ta la
mi 1 pl exc.		-	da ka	mi ya	-	-	(ing sarili mi)	da ko da kayu	mi la
yu 2 pl		yu ku	-	ye ya	-	-	yu ke yu kami	(ing sarili yu)	yo yu la
da 3 pl		da ku	da ka	de dya	da kata	da katamu	da ke da kami	da ko da kayu	do da la (ing sarili da)

Chart of Tagalog pronoun combinations by Christopher Sundita
Genitive (Ergative)		Nominative (Absolutive)
		ako 1 sg	ikaw 2 sg	siya 3 sg	kata 1 dual	tayo 1 pl inc.	kami 1 pl exc.	kayo 2 pl	sila 3 pl
ko 1 sg		(ang sarili ko	kita	ko siya	-	-	-	ko kayo	ko sila
mo 2 sg		mo ako	(ang sarili mo)	mo siya	-	-	mo kami	-	mo sila
niya 3 sg		niya ako	ka niya	niya siya (ang sarili niya)	niya kata	niya tayo	niya kami	niya kayo	niya sila
nita 1 dual inc.		-	-	nita siya	(ang sarili nita)	-	-	-	nita sila
natin 1 pl inc.		-	-	siya natin	-	(ang sarili natin)	-	-	natin sila
namin 1 pl exc.		-	ka namin	namin siya	-	-	(ang sarili namin)	namin kayo	namin sila
ninyo 2 pl		ninyo ako	-	ninyo siya	-	-	ninyo kami	(ang sarili ninyo)	ninyo sila
nila 3 pl		nila ako	ka nila	nila siya	nila kata	nila tayo	nila kami	nila kayo	nila sila (ang sarili nila)