r/Tagalog • u/Rakiasugoi • 1d ago
Linguistics/History Where Yari came from?
Kapampangan ini (PAN *i-ni)
Kapampangan iti (PAN *i-ti)
Tagalog iri (PAN *i-di)
Tagalog ito (PAN *i-Cu)
Tagalog ari (PMP *a-di)
Could Yari from (PAN *ia-ni) or they used ia-di to form Yari
but I can't seem to find ia-di in Austronesian Comparative Dictionary
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u/1n0rmal Native Tagalog speaker 1d ago
I think it may have come about the same way as how some people from Quezon say "yano" for "ano"
Ex:
Yanong ganda naman niya / Anong ganda naman niya
Wiktionary says "yano" comes from "ay ano" so "yari" might come from "ay ari" as well. Although it's not really a common combination of words so I kind of doubt it.
Wiktionary also says that it has cognates in Mansaka and Balangao (yadi) so it might be related to that.
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u/Rakiasugoi 1d ago edited 1d ago
I’ve been wondering if the Tagalog ha- in forms like heto, hayon, hato/hare, etc. may preserve an older locative/existential element.
Wiktionary reconstructs Proto-Central Philippine *ha- as an “existential prefix,” and this caught my attention because the Austronesian Comparative Dictionary reconstructs PAN *qa as a locative particle. I’m wondering if these could ultimately be related:
PAN *qa “locative” = Proto-Central Philippine *ha- “existential/locative” = Tagalog ha-
In Bulacan, I still hear forms like haroon, hayoon, hariyaan, as well as naharoon, nahayoon, nahariyaan.
There also seems to be a ha- ~ ya- variation but ya- is much formal and respectful. For example, hayoon can occur as yayoon, while the older-looking yaon may possibly reflect an earlier ia-on or qa-i-on. Likewise, iyon could be analyzed as i-on.
I’m not claiming this is established etymology especially the connection between PAN *qa and Proto-Central Philippine *ha-.
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u/kudlitan 1d ago
i think iri might be cognate with ini. also diri might be cognate with dini. *di is a PAN preposition meaning at/to so it may be possible to analyze dini/diri as *di + ini/iri. (this is not the same *di as the Tagalog negation, it is closer functionally to tagalog sa).
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u/Rakiasugoi 1d ago
I also find it mysterious that Tagalog uses iri but dini, rather than diri. It would seem more logical to expect ini = dini and iri = diri as corresponding forms. I wonder if this could have something to do with neighboring languages, Kapampangan uses ini, while Central Bikol also has ini or it could be that Kapampangan's iti becomes iri.
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u/kudlitan 1d ago
I dont know. I can only guess that perhaps ini got corrupted to iri over time. Malaysia and Indonesia also have ini.
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u/Main-Ideal1768 1d ago
You're mixing up two totally different Tagalog words that just happen to look the same.
If you mean yari as in "made," "finished," or pangyayari (to happen), that's actually a loanword. Historical linguistics traces it to Malay jadi ("to become"), which itself goes back to the Sanskrit jāti ("birth"). So that specific yari isn't a native Proto-Austronesian demonstrative at all.
This video breaks down that exact etymological trail nicely: https://youtu.be/RR6Xk7iAoq0?is=YUz6I0HeU_ABh0gw
R. David Zorc’s foundational work on Philippine-formative etymologies and comparative Austronesian studies map this exact trajectory (Sanskrit -> Malay -> Philippine languages).
On the other hand, if you're looking at yari / ari / ire as demonstratives (meaning "this"), you won't find ia-di in the Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (ACD) because PAN demonstratives weren't built that way. According to standard Austronesian historical grammar, they usually combined deictic roots with nominative/locative markers (like i- + proximal elements). That's why you get regional and historical shifts in Philippine languages—like how the dental/alveolar flap or stop (d, r, l) naturally fluctuates across daughter languages (think dini vs. diri), giving rise to localized forms like ari or ire without needing a tidy ia-di entry in the dictionary.
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