Tausūg (Bahasa Sūg; Jawi: بَهَسَ سُوگ‎;^[2][3] Malay: Bahasa Sūlūk, lit. 'Language of Sulu/the Tausūg people') is an Austronesian language spoken in the province of Sulu in the Philippines and in the eastern area of the state of Sabah, Malaysia as well as in the Nunukan Regency, province of North Kalimantan, Indonesia by the Tausūg people. It is widely spoken in the Sulu Archipelago (Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan), the Zamboanga Peninsula (Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay, Zamboanga del Sur, and Zamboanga City), southern Palawan,Malaysia (eastern Sabah) and Indonesia (Nunukan Regency, province of North Kalimantan).

Tausūg has some lexical similarities or near similarities with Surigaonon language of the provinces Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur, and Agusan del Sur and with the Butuanon language of Agusan del Norte; it has also some vocabulary similarities with Sugbuanon, Bicolano, and with other Philippine languages.^[2] Many Malay and Arabic words are found in Bahasa Sūg.

In English, the language is primarily known as Tausug (i.e., Tausug language "language of the Tausug people"). The local name of the language is bahasa Sūg (Sulu language). The term Tausūg (tau Sūg, meaning "people of Sulu") is derived from two words: tau ("person") and Sūg^[4] (The transformation of "Sūk", itself the contraction of Sūlūk^[5]). Thus, in Tausug, Tausug refers to people while Bahasa Sūg refers to the language. Several scholars postulate that "Sūlūk" derives from "Ahl ul-Sūlūk", or "people of the path (to Allah)," in reference to the Islamic missionaries who arrived to spread the religion of Islam.^[6] Meanwhile, a similar sounding word "sug", which means "water-current", has been given by a number of writers as the etymologic source of the term; the two words, even if similarly pronounced, are not related.^[2] In the past, the language has also been simply referred to using the generic term "Moro".^[7]

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Tausūg is an Austronesian language. It is classified by linguists as being a member of the Bisayan languages family, which includes Cebuano and Waray.^[8] In particular, it has many similarities with the Surigaonon language of the provinces Surigao del Norte, Surigao del Sur and Agusan del Sur and with the Butuanon language of Agusan del Norte^[8] – both spoken in northeastern Mindanao; hence, Zorc (1977) groups these three languages as part of a "South Bisayan" grouping.

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Tausūg is primarily spoken in the Sulu Archipelago, which aside from the island of Sulu, also includes the Tawi-Tawi chain of islands and the island of Basilan. It is a lingua franca spoken in different areas/islands of the archipelago.^[9]

Due to migration, the language is also spoken alongside other local languages in the Zamboanga Peninsula (e.g., Cebuano and Chavacano), which includes the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibugay and Zamboanga del Sur and Zamboanga City. It is also spoken in Southern Palawan,Eastern Sabah, Malaysia and in Nunukan Regency,North Kalimantan,Indonesia.

This section does not cite any sources. (April 2021)

Tausūg is today primarily written using the Latin alphabet. Historically, it had previously been written using the Arabic alphabet. The script used was inspired by the use of Jawi in writing the Malay language.

An example of the Arabic alphabet in writing the Tausūg language:

• Latin script – Wayruun tuhan malayngkan Allāh, hi Muhammad ing (in) rasūl sin Allāh
• Arabic script – وَيْرُؤُنْ تُهَنْ مَلَيِڠْکَن هَالله، هِمُحَمَّدْ ئِڠ رَسُولْ سِن الله
• English translation – There is no god but Allah, Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah

The Arabic script used to write Tausūg differs in some aspects from the script used for Arabic and in the Jawi script used for Malay. One of the main differences is in the way that word-initial vowels are written.

In Arabic, /in/ is (إن); in Jawi (Malay), it is (ان). In Tausūg, it is (ئِن). The Tausūg Arabic script utilizes the letter yā' with a hamza (ئ) to represent a short vowel. If a kasra (ئِ) is added, it becomes an 'i' sound. If a fatha (ئَ) is added, it becomes an 'a' sound. If a damma (ئُ) is added, it becomes a 'u' sound.

This section does not cite any sources. (May 2020)

Many Tausug words derive from the Arabic language.

Some examples of Arabic words in Tausug are

Tausūg words derived from Sanskrit

• Languages of the Philippines
• Yakan
• Bikol
• Cebuano
• Chavacano
• Hiligaynon
• Kapampangan
• Ilocano
• Pangasinan
• Bisayan languages
• Waray language