The Tagalog language has developed a unique vocabulary since its inception from its direct Austronesian roots, incorporating words from Malay, Hokkien, Spanish, Nahuatl, English, Sanskrit, Tamil, Japanese, Arabic, Persian, and Quechua.
Spanish
The Filipino language incorporated Spanish loanwords as a result of 333 years of contact with the Spanish language. In their analysis of José Villa Panganiban's Talahuluganang Pilipino-Ingles (Pilipino-English dictionary), Llamzon and Thorpe (1972) pointed out that 33% of word root entries are of Spanish origin. As the aforementioned analysis didn't reveal the frequency of the usage of these words by native speakers, a study was conducted by Antonio Quilis in order to understand the percentage of Spanish-derived words used by Filipinos in their daily conversations. Through his studies, the results of which were published in 1973 in the case of Tagalog and in 1976 in the case of Cebuano, it was found out that 20.4% of the lexicon used by Tagalog speakers were of Spanish origin, while it was 20.5% in the case of Cebuano. According to Patrick O. Steinkrüger, depending on the text type, around 20% of the vocabulary in a Tagalog text are of Spanish origin. In an analysis of a Tagalog-language corpus consisting of random news, fiction and non-fiction articles published between 2005 and 2015, Ekaterina Baklanova found out that Spanish-derived words constitute 20% of the lexicon used. An example is the sentence below in which Spanish–derived words are in italics (original in parentheses):
Tagalog: "Puwede (Puede) ba akóng umupô sa silya (silla) sa tabi ng bintana (ventana) hábang nása biyahe (viaje) táyo sa eroplano (aeroplano)?" Translation in English: ("May I sit on the chair near the window during our voyage in the aeroplane?")
The adoption of the Abakada alphabet in 1940 changed the spelling of the Spanish loanwords present in the Filipino language. The spellings of Spanish loanwords were reformed according to the new orthographic rules. Examples include:
agila (from Sp. águila), alkalde (from Sp. alcalde), bakuna (from Sp. vacuna), banyo (from Sp. baño), baso (from Sp. vaso), biktima (from Sp. víctima), bintana (from Sp. ventana), bisita (from Sp. visita), biyahe (from Sp. viaje), braso (from Sp. brazo), demokrasya (from Sp. democracia), diyaryo (from Sp. diario), estudyante (from Sp. estudiante), heneral (from Sp. general), hustisya (from Sp. justicia), kama (from Sp. cama), kambiyo (from Sp. cambio de marcha), keso (from Sp. queso), kutsara (from Sp. cuchara), kuwarto (from Sp. cuarto), kuwento (from Sp. cuento), lababo (from Sp. lavabo), mensahe (from Sp. mensaje), meryenda (from Sp. merienda), mikrobyo (from Sp. microbio), niyebe (from Sp. nieve), panyo (from Sp. paño), pila (from Sp. fila), plema (from Sp. flema), presyo (from Sp. precio), prinsesa (from Sp. princesa), reseta (from Sp. receta médica), reyna (from Sp. reina), serbisyo (from Sp. servicio), sinturon (from Sp. cinturón), teklado (from Sp. teclado), telebisyon (from Sp. televisión), tinidor (from Sp. tenedor), trabaho (from Sp. trabajo), tuwalya (from Sp. toalla) and yelo (from Sp. hielo).
Other loanwords underwent phonological changes. Vowel changes can be observed to some of the Spanish words upon adoption into the Filipino language, such as an /i/ to /a/ vowel shift observed in the Filipino word paminta, which came from the Spanish word pimienta, and a pre-nasal /e/ to /u/ vowel shift observed in several words such as unano (from Sp. enano) and umpisa (from Sp. empezar). Prothetic /a/ is added in the loanwords alisto (from Sp. listo) and aplaya (from Sp. playa). Other words underwent vowel deletion, e.g., pusta (from Sp. apostar), tarantado (from Sp. atarantado), kursonada (from Sp. corazonada), Pasko (from Sp. Pascua) and labi (from Sp. labio).
Consonant shifts can also be observed to some of the Spanish words upon their adoption into the Filipino language. The [r] to [l] consonant shift can be observed in the following words:
albularyo (folk healer, from Sp. herbolario), alma (from Sp. armar), almusal (from Sp. almorzar), asukal (from Sp. azúcar), balbas (from Sp. barba), bandila (from. Sp. bandera), dasal (from Sp. rezar), hibla (thread or strand, from Sp. hebra), hilo (dizzy, from Sp. giro), hulmá (to mould, from Sp. ahormar), kasal (from Sp. casar), kumpisal (from Sp. confesar), lagadera (from Sp. regadera), litratista (photographer, from Sp. retratista), litrato (photograph, portrait or picture; from Sp. retrato), multo (from Sp. muerto), nunal (from Sp. lunar), pastol (from Sp. pastor) and pasyal (from Sp. pasear).