Dili
It’s Sinulog today! Here’s a common Cebuano (Bisaya) word that is a false friend of a common Kapampángan word!
The Sinulog Festival is one of the most famous Filipino festivals that is celebrated in the Philippine province of Cebu on the third Sunday of January in honor of the Santo Niño or the Holy Child, the oldest Christian artifact in the Philippines.
FALSE FRIENDS
Cebuano (Bisaya)
DÍLÌ “no, not”
Kapampángan: alî
Kapampángan
DÍLI “solely, the only one, alone, by oneself”
Cebuano: inusára (root word: usá “one”)
DÍLI • (DEE-li)
solely, the only one, alone, by oneself
Tagálog (Filipino): mag-isá (Root Word: isá “one”)
Derived Word
SARÍLI • (suh-REE-li)
self, own, personal
Tagálog (Filipino): saríli
MAGDÍLIDÍLI • (muhg-DEE-li-DEE-li)
to be alone, by oneself
Tagálog (Filipino): mag-isá
Forming Superlative Adjectives/Adverbs (“-est, most”)
One way of forming superlative modifiers in Kapampángan is adding “díli” (“the only one”).
Example:
Masálang díli = “the brightest one”
Báyung díli = “the newest one”
Another common way is using the prefix “péka-“
Pékamasálâ = “brightest”
Pékabáyu = “newest”
Verb Conjugation
magdílidíli, mágdílidíli, megdílidíli – to be alone (Actor Focus)
Example Sentence
Mágdilidíli ya ing malagung díli karéla. [Kap]
Mag-isa ang pinakamagandá sa kanilá. [Tag]
The most beautiful one out of them is alone/by herself. [Eng]
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