WOTD: ULAM (noun) – viand

Ah yeah, I see it now. It was early morning haha. I’ve been learning grammar just from listening, so it isn’t my strongest point. If an American asks what ulam means and someone says “viand”, the next question would certainly be “what’s viand?” :-) :-)

Maybe Americans don't use the word anymore now, but taking into account our history, who do you think taught us to use that word? I've been hearing it here since I was a kid. 😁Do you think "dish" would be a good substitute or it's really just one of those words that can't be translated accurately with a single word?

I think it doesnt really have an equivalent. Dish or entree is sometimes used, but the whole concept of a plate of rice combined with a smaller amount of something else as a whole meal, is already foreign to most Americans.I think viand might have been adopted by pinoys as a translation but not sure if Americans introduced it. It has origins in french and latin, maybe the Spanish? In either case, it’s okay between filipinos if they already know the word, but I would assume most foreigners wouldn’t, so it would just lead to more questions or a google search of viand haha.

Yes, 'viand' is almost never heard here in the States. My best guess for 'ulam' would be the protein source (meat dish) that accompany the staple ingredients. If dinner consisted of rice, broiled fish and mixed vegetables then I would think the broiled fish would be the ulam.

I've had this same discussion with my wife about ulam, "...so then, what is a viand?" ; )I like @AlwaysCurious 's translation of "protein" as being the closest translation...sometimes those restaurants where you pick what you want to eat from a selection of items, they'll have steps where you pick your vegetable, then pick your rice or noodles, and then pick your "protein".

So it's lunchtime and you're at the workplace cafeteria and you notice your friend is only eating a bag of potato chips. Can you say 'Yun lang ba ang ulam mo? Baka magugutum ka pa mamaya.'? or, because there is no real protein in potato chips, should you say 'Yun lang ba ang kinain mo? Baka magugutum ka pa mamaya.'PS: I'm not sure if my grammar or phrasing is correct. I was really trying to differentiate between ulam and pagkain.Also, since we're on topic: Would 'ulam' be part of merienda, or would merienda simply be snacks (like potato chips)?

@AlwaysCurious I'll defer to the Filipinos on this board, but I believe ulam is something served with rice, so meryenda or potato chips eaten alone would not be considered ulam...

As a Brit, I've heard the word viand, but never as used in the Philippines. It's a unique feature of Filipino English, like 'province' meaning countryside.

@JohntheFinn I think this is the case. So many “English” words appear in filipinos lexicon, but many times they have taken a new or different meaning. “Salvage” is another example that comes to mind.Even the archaic meaning of viand doesn’t mean the same as ulam. It was just a word for an item of food, usually plural “viands”.

"Ulam" is not only protein, but anything one is going to eat with rice. Among fruits, bananas and mangoes are popular options for "ulam" in the absence of cooked food. In some extreme cases, salt or sugar even serve the purpose.This is what the Oxford Dictionary says about "viand" and gives its connection to Filipino:
en.oxforddictionarie s.com/definition/via ndYou may just have to remember the word because if you're here and you forgot the word "ulam", "viand" will take care of it. 😁

@AlwaysCurious In your example, both the fish and vegetables would be called “ulam”.It will only be valid to say " 'Yan lang ba ang ulam mo? " if you also see rice there. Without the rice, it should be " 'Yan lang ba ang kakainin mo? " (Is that all that you'd eat?). “ ‘Yun ” (short for “iyon”) is “there yonder” or if you’re referring to something that you do not see at that moment. For the potato chips, if you are talking to someone who is holding potato chips, then you have to use “ ‘yan “ (short for “iyan” - that, which is near to you both).It would sound more natural as “Baka magutom/gutumin ka mamaya”. You also don’t really need the “pa” (still, yet). You use the infinitive because “baka” (maybe, might) makes the phrase subjunctive. “Magutom” is subject-focused and “gutumin” is object-focused. “Gutumin” can be used here without an object because there can only be one object being referred to and is, therefore, already understood as “the absence or lack of food”.“Baka magugutom/gugutumin ka pa mamaya” = Maybe you will be hungry still later. Better: “Baka magutom/gutumin ka (uli) mamaya” = You might be hungry (again) later.“ ’Yun lang ba ang kinain mo?” = Was that all that you ate? (“yun” would be all right because what was eaten is no longer visible)“ ‘Yun lang ba ang kakainin mo?” = Is that all that you will eat? (referring to a food item not seen at that moment)“ ‘Yan lang ba ang kakainin mo?” = Is that all that you will eat? (the food is seen by both of them)“Pagkain” is “food”, which includes rice. “Ulam” is everything that can be eaten with rice or bread, if it is going to be eaten as a substitute for rice.As mentioned by FilipinoChatAdmin, “...ulam is something served with rice, so meryenda or potato chips eaten alone would not be considered ulam...”. However, if you’d eat potato chips along with rice, then they will already be called “ulam”.

@JohntheFinn "Province" is the term for the administrative partitions of the Philippines. Manila used to be part of what was sometimes called the "Central Province" before it became quite urbanized and grew into a metropolis that's now called the "National Capital Region". The rest of the administrative divisions are still called provinces - the island of Cebu, Davao, Pampanga, etc., are all provinces with cities within them. There was also a time when Manila was the only urban place in the country that the rest of the provinces earned the "countryside" meaning. There are now many cities all over, but places that remain rural still retain their "countryside" identity. There is this colloquial term "promdi" that is used to describe someone who lacks the "sophistication" of an urban dweller. "Promdi" is coined from "FROM THE province". 😁

Yes, from what I can tell, locally “viand” might be known as the English equivalent to ulam. It can work here, but if you want to be understood by a foreigner that doesn’t live here, it’s probably best to just explain ulam and avoid “viand”. My canadian neighbor has been here for six years and assumed ulam was the word for food. I just explained that we don’t have an exact word for it in English, but it is usually referring to something that is eaten with rice. He was familiar with pinoy food so I gave him some examples and explained the difference between pagkain and ulam. He doesn’t speak filipino though, so it probably went in one ear and out the other haha.

@Daoxin So, you've heard of "salvage" here. Rest assured though that the real meaning of "salvage" is still used correctly by those in the know. 😁This other meaning of "salvage" came about during our Martial Law period under the Marcos dictatorship. It earned the meaning of "being killed for unknown reasons, but most likely political, and the corpse being dumped just anywhere". That was what the people saw as Marcos' way of getting rid of small-time opponents. The more prominent ones are jailed. This meaning is practically the opposite of the real one, yet no one bothered to correct it."Salbahe" is the Tagalog word for a "bad person", which came from the Spanish "salvaje" (wild/reckless/barbaric person). "Sinalbahe" means "to have done something bad to another". It was also used as a euphemism for "getting raped" then. It's possible that people who were killed during the Marcos regime were tagged as "sinalbahe" and some thought that the English of "salbahe" is "salvage". 🤔 😁Nowadays "tokhang" seems to have replaced the martial law "salvage". "Tokhang" is a Visayan word that entered the Filipino colloquial vocabulary when Duterte became our president in May 2016. He is from Davao and speaks Visayan and his main campaign is to demolish the drug trade. He made his bodyguard when he was still the mayor of Davao as the country's chief of police and even brought police officers from Davao to Manila to head some police units. They started using the word "tokhang", which was then unknown to most Filipinos. The original meaning is supposed to be "to knock on someone's door and plead to the residents to cease their involvement with drugs". However, what happened was that a lot of the supposedly drug users and pushers end up getting killed, point-blank even in many cases and their numbers at present are already in the thousands. So, "tokhang" is now understood as "getting killed by the police or even by masked vigilantes on the assumption of involvement in drugs". Many families of victims have claimed though that it had nothing to do with drugs, but a matter of retribution for being at odds with the police or by an enemy under the guise of a masked vigilante.

Thanks, @Tagamanila - I was wondering how “salvage” took on such a different meaning in the Philippines, and the Spanish root makes a lot of sense. Another English word that takes on slightly different usage is “avail”. Where I am in the US, avail is almost never used in casual language, and when it is used it’s usually the longer reflexive verb form of “avail oneself/yourself/myself of”...and never simply “avail”...so, it’s never used as “avail a 50% discount”, like I hear in the Philippines (here it would be: “avail yourself of a 50% discount”, but even that is rare). In the southern US at least, “avail” is usually either replaced with “take advantage of” or simply “use”.