The Tausug language (or Bahasa Sug) is the native language of the Tausug (=tau 'person' + su:g '(sea) current') who are found mostly in the province of Sulu, Philippines. Many native speakers of the language are also found in other places in the country, especially in the neighboring provinces of Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, and Palawan. The Tausug language functions as the principal lingua franca in Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan and in the southern part of Palawan. The 1975 Census of the Philippines reports 329,940 of the total population of the country as the number of the native speakers of Tausug.

This grammatical sketch of Tausug was submitted in 1972 to the Department of Linguistics and Asian Languages (now Department of Linguistics) by Professor Irma U. Peneyra (the present Chairman of the Department) as her thesis for the Master of Arts degree in Linguistics. As far as we know, this study presents the first comprehensive grammar of the Tausug language. Therefore, on the occasion of the seventieth anniversary of our department which was established in 1922, we are happy to make this very significant grammatical study of a very important Philippine language available to the public.