Tausūg, Bahasa Sūg and Sinūg: What's the Difference?

Tausūg, Bahasa Sūg and Sinūg

A lot of people always get confused with the terms “Tausūg”, “Sinūg” and “Bahasa Sūg” (I myself got into a I-thought-I-was-right situation just lately). We come to ask “Do they mean the same thing, or are they different?” something which must be explained when we want to learn the language itself. Although the three terms are most of the time used alternately to refer to the language (which is quite wrong and confusing to do so), a clear distinction must be made between them to avoid further disorder in this world!

“Tausūg” literary means “People of the current” or “People of the Sea”. The term refers to the people who are mostly residing in the Sulu Zone (mostly Sulu islands, Basilan, Tawi-Tawi, also in Zamboanga and Sabah. It’s a long story). It should not, basically, be used to refer to the language. The name of the language the proud Tausūgs use is known as “Bahasa Sūg”, and the way of speaking this language is called “Sinūg”.

Okay. Let’s try to wrap it up. Again: Tausūg = the people, Bahasa Sūg = the language and Sinūg = the way of speaking Bahasa Sūg. I hope we got it all clear. Throughout this course, in sha Allah we will be using these terms (most of the time) when referring to the “people”, their “language” and the “way of speaking”.

Malayo-Polynesian Roots

Just like most of the languages in Southeast Asia, Bahasa Sūg is considered one of the languages that came from its Malayo-Polynesian ancestor. Although there are quite a number of unique words and terms in Bahasa Sūg, similarities with the neighboring Malay Languages such as Filipino (Tagalog) and Malay can be found. Also having the influence of Hindu and Islamic Empires (way back in time) there are also Tausūg terms that are derived from the Hindu and Arabic terms. Bahasa Sūg having more closer affinity with Philippine local dialects as Binisaya and Kamayo, and even Tagalog is also noted. This is one good reason why it is easier for Filipinos to learn Bahasa Sūg than other people.

Sulat Sug

During the olden times, the Tausūgs had a way of writing their Bahasa into texts. It is known as “Sulat Sug”. It is just similar with the Arabic Hurufs (letters) but with some variations which is closer to (and is inspired by) Malaysian Jawi writings. Old documents such as treaties and compacts made between the Sulu Sultanate and other foreign countries are usually recorded in Sulat Sug. I have seen a number of these in museums, and I can easily decode and understand most of them! Cool, huh? Even my grandmother is still using this kind of writing when sending us letters. (It doesn’t mean she’s that old! I am just stressing the fact that it is still being used today on some parts of our place.)

But eventually, Sulat Sug had slowly drifted with time. With the arrival of the western education and the introduction of the Latin way of writing, more and more Tausūgs have forgotten how to write in Sulat Sug, after preferring the Latin writings… (Yup, that’s a sad story. Things like these are just inevitable to happen). Only a small number of Tausūgs, mostly uneducated in Western education, still uses the Sulat Sug.

Writing Sinūg in Latin Letters

We are nowadays using the modern way of writing, which is the Latin letters. But there are some sounds in Bahasa Sūg that do not have their exact equivalents in Latin letters (because Bahasa Sūg is also a mixture of other languages such as Arabic). This is the reason why a lot of problems are met when writing Bahasa Sūg into Latin Letters. There are confusions as to which letter would represent this kind of sound; or if the letters “o” and “e” are allowed, and so on.

Unfortunately, there is no available concrete “Guide to Writing Bahasa Sūg” yet (or maybe I haven’t found it yet). Maybe there are a few published Tausūg Dictionaries, with instructions and the like, but only a few has access to them. This is also another reason why we only have a few number of Books published in Bahasa Sūg. Maybe some time in the future, this will be solved eventually, In sha Allah :-). I know there are a number of individuals out there, working on this problem now… So we have to wait a little longer yet. And as for us wanting to learn the Bahasa Sūg using the Latin letters, we will try as much to keep them simple. We will try to find solutions along the way.

I don’t want to overload this post, so I have to cut it here. At least, now we know some bits of info about the language we are about to learn: Bahasa Sūg, the language of the Tausūgs. I hope these infos would help us along the way, in better understanding the Bahasa Sūg—in a fun and easy way. I myself is rediscovering my own language! So let us be, uhm, more enthusiastic to learn this language little by little. Yeay!

Thank you for visiting this blog, and I hope you will join me on our next lesson to learn more about the beautiful language of the TAUSUG (the people) which is BAHASA SŪG (the language). See you soon!

Salam Kasilasa!

-Ahmad

[Note: This blogpost was originally written in July 2012.

Here’s a video about this blog post I made in YouTube: https://youtu.be/db_8VsoP8zg