Having spent some time in the southern Philippines, I’ve learnt that Visayan (or Bisaya) language share many common words with the Malay language. The Filipinos I’ve met express surprise when I mention this. I’m sure many Malaysians would be surprised too.
Visayan is also known as Cebuano and you’ll find its purer form spoken on the island of Cebu. Other than the national language, which is Tagalog, Visayan is the second most widely spoken language spoke in the country. Tagalog and Malay share many common words too. I would guess, to a lesser extend,that this would be the same for some of the other Filipino languages.
Filipinos have to learn Tagalog and will also speak their local language, which might be Visayan, Ilocano, Waray, Ilongo, Bikol or one of the other hundred or more languages. Other than that they also learn American English at school. So the Philippines is a country of multi-lingual speakers.
It’s interesting too that in Visayan the word for tiger is “tigre”, whereas a harimau happens to be a demon! Also the word of milk is gatas and the word “susu” is breast!
Languages just evolve.
Anyway, here are the common words I’ve come across so far. There are, I’m sure, many others.
Melayu ….. Bisaya
Aku ….. Ako
Anak ….. Anak
Angin ….. Hangin
Api …. Apo
Asap ….. Aso
Atap ….. Atop
Atas …… Taas
Babi …. Baboy
Bahu …. Baho
Baldi ….. Baldi
Balik …. Balik
Bangun ….. Bangun
Baru ….. Bago
Batu ….. Bato
Bayar …. Bayad
Beras ….. Bugas
Berat ….. Bugat
Berita …. Balita
Buaya ….. Buaya
Basah ….. Basak
Beras …. Bugas
Bola …. Bola
Buat ….. Buhaton
Bulan ….. Bulan
Buta ….. Buta
Cermin ….. Samin
Daun ….. Dahon
Dua ….. Duha
Durian ….. Durian
Engkau ….. Ikaw
Empat ….. Upat
Enam ….. Unom
Gunting ….. Gunting
Harga ….. Halaga
Hitam ….. Itom
Hujan ….. Ulan
Hutang ….. Utang
Jalan …… Dalan
Kambing ….. Kanding
Kami ….. Kami
Ketawa …. Ketawa
Kerbau …. Kalabau
Kita ….. Kita
Langga ….. Bangga
Langit ….. Langit
Langsat ….. Langsones
Lelaki …. Lalaki
Lima ….. Lima
Mahal ….. Mahal
Mangga ….. Mangga
Manis …. Tamis
Mata ….. Mata
Minum ….. Inom
Nyamuk ….. Lamuk
Pahit ….. Pait
Payung ….. Payung
Pintu ….. Pintu
Putih …. Puti
Sabun …. Sabun
Sakit ….. Sakit
Salah ….. Sala
Sandar …… Sandiri
Senyum ….. Pahiyum
Takut ….. Hadlok
Tanam ….. Tanum
Timbang ….. Timbang
Tuwala …. Twala
It’s possible that some of the Bisaya words have come from the Tagalog, or perhaps visa versa!
You’ll find the Malay/Tagalog common words here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Tagalog#Malay_and_Indonesian
December 30, 2017 at 12:13 pm
Here’s more. Pulo for us visayans is ten. Lantay in Cebuano means cot or bed but it means floor in indonesian. Oh by the way, our word for vegetable is utan which means forest in bahasa. But then ofcone thinks about it, back in the days of the hunter-gatherers, vegetables were found in the forest.
September 4, 2018 at 2:12 pm
some of the words are false friends though
like the word Bahu(shoulders) vs Visayan “Baho”(smelly/stink)
November 3, 2018 at 11:48 am
Bau in Malay is smell. So false friends can become real friends!
December 25, 2018 at 8:08 am
Bau is smell in Malay though 🙂
January 1, 2019 at 11:49 am
Hi Tunku Halim! Appreciate this content. I’d like to clarify by the way that while Cebuano speakers refer to their language and themselves as Bisaya, there are related non-Cebuano (but Visayan) groups which also use the term Bisaya. The largest of them are the Hiligaynon (AKA Ilonggo) and Waray groups. Practically almost every other ethnic group if not all within the Visayas region are Bisaya. While they consider themselves as separate ethnic groups in the most rigid sence nowadays, they have a strong historical, cultural, and probably ancestral relationship as one Visayan ethno-linguistic continuum throughout those islands.
January 21, 2019 at 12:15 pm
Thanks for your comment. I suppose it gets confusing when Bisaya can mean both the language and the people!
April 28, 2021 at 12:38 am
As a Cebuano speaker myself born and raised in Cebu City, we believed that most if not all dialects found in the Visayan region were somehow derived from the Cebuano language of Cebu. And it is very evident in about 98% of words they are using. Most of these dialects has minimal changes of intonation, spelling and few loan words. That is why most of the Visayan speakers could understand each other.
May 10, 2021 at 3:49 am
Thank you. That is very interesting.