Tausug language
Tausug (Tausug: Bahasa Sūg, Malay: Bahasa Suluk) is a language spoken in the province of Sulu in the Philippines, in the eastern area of the state of Sabah, Malaysia, and in North Kalimantan, Indonesia by the Tausūg people.
It is widely spoken in the Sulu Archipelago (Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi), Zamboanga Peninsula (Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga City), Southern Palawan, Malaysia (eastern Sabah) and Indonesia (North Kalimantan). Tausug and Chavacano are the only Philippine languages spoken on the island of Borneo.
The Tausug language is very closely related to the Surigaonon language of the provinces Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur, and to the Butuanon language of northeastern Mindanao.
Name of the language
The name of the language in Tausug is Bahasa Sūg, which means 'language of Sulu'. The word Tausūg is derived from two words "Tau" which means "person", and "sūg" which means "current", presumably referring to their economic livelihood depending on the strong currents of the Sulu Sea where they used to trans-navigate as fishermen, pearl divers and traders. The Sulu Sea has been use as the strategic trade route of the southern Philippines and other neighboring ASEAN nations, even up to the present time. As early as the 10th century it was believed that there was already flourishing trade route between Sulu with China and North Borneo. Basically the people in this area were known as "people of the current", which is the literal translation of "Tausūg".
