Greetings

One of the best ways to make a good impression with your Ilokano is by getting the greeting correct. Note on the following I will show a stress mark to help with pronunciation, but it will not normally show up when you read in Ilokano.

First you have the super basic:

Kumustá (informal)
Kumustáka (informal)
Kumustakayó (formal, plural)

These are borrowed from the Spanish " ¿Cómo está?" which literally means "How are you?" If you look back at the last post on suffixes you will see where the differences come from between the three.

Next is a greeting more akin to what English speakers are used too. It is basically "Good ________."

Naimbág __________.

Naimbág a bigát-Good Morning
Naimbág a malém - Good Afternoon
Naimbág nga aldáw - Good Day
Naimbág a rabií - Good Night

For proper respects each of these should be followed by the correct suffix (mo,yo,m) as well as the name or title of the person you are addressing(Mis, Sir, Nanang).
Example. "Naimbág a bigátyo, Mis."

You may have noticed that the linker preceeding "aldaw" changed from an "a" to "nga." This change is made whenever the linker comes before a word starting with a vowel.

Hopefully this gets you a good headstart in greetings in Ilokano. The next lesson will be over more common phrases you are likely to come across.

Until next time. Ditakayon.