Tagalog belongs to the agglutinative branch of languages. For a long time it was believed to be one of the dialects of Malay, through that language having been the first of the family known to Europeans. But later studies, by comparing the Malay-Polynesian idioms with one another, have succeeded in showing how slight is the basis for this supposition. The conjugation of the Tagalog verbs, far from being derived from the Malay verbs, contains in itself every form of that's and besides some from other dialects. Although in Tagalog as at present spoken and written (slightly different from ancient Tagalog), there are to be found many Sanscrit, Spanish and Chinese words, nevertheless the structure of the language still retains its own distinctive character. These foreign words are stitched to the fabric much as gems are set in jewels; they could come off and something else be substituted without the framework losing its form. Like every other language, Tagalog has its alphabet; composed of five vowels and fourteen consonants. The vowels are: A, E, I, O, U. A is pronounced clear and full as in all other languages. The same may be said of I and U. E and O only are found in the last syllable, or in the next to the last when that begins with the same vowel. In these cases E or O can be likewise represented by I or U, since the sounds of these final, or penultimate, vowels partake of both sounds. For example, in mabuti or mabute, the final I or E sounds like the final Y of the English words pity and beauty, where Y has a sound intermediate between E and I; leeg or liig is pronounced with a vowel which resembles E as much as it does I. In the same way, O in the words dulo, ubod, look, has the value of a vowel intermediate between O and U. The consonants are: B, D, G, G, H, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, Y. PHILIPPINE TRIBES AND LANGUAGES By Prof. Ferdinand Blumentritt.