This document provides an overview of the Hiligaynon language, including its phonology, grammar, vocabulary and history. Some key points:
- Hiligaynon is spoken by approximately 7 million people in western regions of the Philippines. It has many dialects and is part of the Central Bisayan language subgroup.
- The basic phonology includes 16 consonants and 3 vowels. Grammar utilizes affixes, particles and case marking to indicate relations. Nominals are inflected for case and pronouns have topic, oblique and locative forms.
- Verbs have active and passive voices and are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Word order is generally verb-subject-object but
This document provides an overview of the Hiligaynon language, including its phonology, grammar, vocabulary and history. Some key points:
- Hiligaynon is spoken by approximately 7 million people in western regions of the Philippines. It has many dialects and is part of the Central Bisayan language subgroup.
- The basic phonology includes 16 consonants and 3 vowels. Grammar utilizes affixes, particles and case marking to indicate relations. Nominals are inflected for case and pronouns have topic, oblique and locative forms.
- Verbs have active and passive voices and are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Word order is generally verb-subject-object but
This document provides an overview of the Hiligaynon language, including its phonology, grammar, vocabulary and history. Some key points:
- Hiligaynon is spoken by approximately 7 million people in western regions of the Philippines. It has many dialects and is part of the Central Bisayan language subgroup.
- The basic phonology includes 16 consonants and 3 vowels. Grammar utilizes affixes, particles and case marking to indicate relations. Nominals are inflected for case and pronouns have topic, oblique and locative forms.
- Verbs have active and passive voices and are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Word order is generally verb-subject-object but
This document provides an overview of the Hiligaynon language, including its phonology, grammar, vocabulary and history. Some key points:
- Hiligaynon is spoken by approximately 7 million people in western regions of the Philippines. It has many dialects and is part of the Central Bisayan language subgroup.
- The basic phonology includes 16 consonants and 3 vowels. Grammar utilizes affixes, particles and case marking to indicate relations. Nominals are inflected for case and pronouns have topic, oblique and locative forms.
- Verbs have active and passive voices and are inflected for tense, aspect and mood. Word order is generally verb-subject-object but
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Hiligaynon
Article · December 2006
DOI: 10.1016/B0-08-044854-2/04883-5
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Hiligaynon R. David Zorc
Hiligaynon is the fourth largest language of the Philippines,
representing approximately 10% of the national population. Its seven million speakers are located throughout Negros Occidental, southeastern Panay, Guimaras Island, and in urban centers of Mindanao (Davao and Zamboanga) and of Palawan (Puerto Princesa). It is a major trade language of the Western Visayan region (e.g., Antique and Aklan). Ilonggo, its alternate name,originally specified the dialect of Iloilo. It has many dialects with minor variations from town-to-town. The most distinct are Capiznon (Capiz Province) and Kawayan (south of Bacolod City). It is a member of the Central Bisayan subgroup along with Waray, Masbateño, and Romblomanon. These are in turn members of the Bisayan group of Central Philippine languages, including Tagalog and Bikol (Zorc 1977), all of which are ultimately descended from Proto-Austronesian.
Although legends and fabrications abound (see Scott 1984),
nothing is known historically prior to the Spanish. Alzina recorded that the Hiligaynons of Oton (Panay) traced their origin to Leyte (Kobak 1969:22), which correlates with the subgrouping.
The basic phonology of Hiligaynon consists of 16 consonants and 3
vowels; accent (stress) is contrastive. Native speakers educated in Spanish and English have an additional 3 consonants /f, j, ch/ and 2 vowels /e, o/.
Table 1. Hiligaynon Sound System
Consonants stops labial apical velar glottal voiced b d g voiceless p t k ' fricatives (f) s h affricates voiced (j) [dy] voiceless (ch) [ts] continuants liquid l rhotic r semivowel w y nasals m n ng Zorc, Hiligaynon #4883 page - 2
Vowels front central back high i u mid (e) (o) low a
Accent (/á, í, ú/ with vowel length) occurs in an open penult.
The vowel [o] is an allophone of /u/ in final syllables but is phonemic in loans. Accent predictably falls on a closed penult: táytay 'bridge.'
The glottal stop is written as a hyphen when it appears before
another consonant: bág-o 'new,' búg-at 'heavy,' gáb-i 'evening.' It is ignored word-finally in most local publications; linguists have spelled it with q or an apostrophe. Accent, which is also not represented in the orthography, is critical in distinguishing words or derivations: ámo 'boss' {Spanish} amó 'thus, like that' sá'og 'crawl' sa'óg 'wear out by use' bílin 'remain, stay' bilín 'leftovers' píkot 'mend' pikót 'half-closed (eyes)' lútu' 'to cook' lutú' 'cooked' túbo 'pipe' {Spanish} tubó 'sugarcane'
Various morphophonemic changes apply in inflection and
derivation: Intervocalic /d/ > [-r-]: báyad 'pay' > bayáran 'be paid' With Spanish verbs final/r/ changes to [-h-]: probár 'try' > probahán 'be tried.' Nasal final prefixes such as the distributive pang- yield nasal assimilation and consonant loss: batí' 'hear' > památi' 'listen to,' tíndog 'stand' > panindúgan 'position,' káhoy 'wood' > pangahóy 'gather firewood.' Vowel loss is common with suffixation: inóm 'drink' > ímnon 'be drunk,' sunúd 'follow' > súndun 'be followed.'
Grammatical relations are shown by PARTICLES (kag 'and', na 'now,
already', mga plural, man 'also, too', lang 'only') or AFFIXES: PREFIXES (pag- temporal verb, ka- companion noun), INFIXES (-in- passive past), SUFFIXES (-un direct passive, -an local passive), or CIRCUMFIXES (ka--an abstract noun, gina--an local passive progressive).
Nominals are inflected for case: COMMON NOUNS (marked by ang topic, sing indefinite oblique, sang definite oblique, sa locative), PERSONAL NAMES (si topic, ni oblique, kay locative; plural: sanday topic, nanday oblique, kanday locative. Zorc, Hiligaynon #4883 page - 3
Table 2. Hiligaynon Pronouns
PRONOUN TOPIC = = OBLIQUE FORMS = = LOCATIVE preposed postposed I akó ákon -ko / nákon sa'ákon you [singular] ikáw / ka ímo -mo / nímo sa'ímo he / she siyá íya níya sa'íya we [+ you / incl] kitá áton -ta / náton sa'áton we [- you / excl] kamí ámon námon sa'ámon you [plural] kamó ínyo nínyo sa'ínyo they silá íla níla sa'íla
DEMONSTRATIVES orient to person, locus, time, or anaphora. They have
existential and verbal inflections.
Table 3. Hiligaynon Deictics
NEAR ME NEAR YOU FAR AWAY TOPIC iní iná' ató OBLIQUE siní siná' sádto LOCATIVE dirí dirá' dídto EXISTENTIAL yári yára' yádto VERBAL karí kará' kádto
Verbs are inflected for four VOICES (active, passive,
instrumental, local), four TENSES (past, progressive, contingent, future), three ASPECTS (punctual, durative, distributive), and three MOODS (factual, command, potential).
There are three negatives: ayáw 'don't!' IMPERATIVE, walá' + TOPIC
or waláy + OBJ 'none' EXISTENTIAL , 'did not' PAST or 'doesn't' PRESENT, díli' 'will not' FUTURE or PREDICATIVE 'is not so;' a fourth, bukún, negates nouns and adjectives in some dialect areas.
Walá' kitá sing baláy
NEG-EXIS we (incl) OBL house 'We have no house.'
Waláy baláy kitá
NEG-EXIS house we (incl) 'We have no house.'
díli' siyá manggaránun
bukún siyá manggaránun neg-pred he/she rich 'He is not rich' Zorc, Hiligaynon #4883 page - 5
References. Kaufmann, Rev. John. Visayan-English Dictionary (Kapulúngan Binisayá-Ininglís). Iloilo, n.d. --. Principles of Visayan Grammar. Manila: Catholic Trade School, 1939. Kobak, Cantius, O.F.M. "Alzina's Historia de las Islas E Indios de Bisayas," Leyte-Samar Studies, Chapters 1-3, 3/1:14-36, Chapters 4-5, 4/1:17-28, 1969-70. Motus, Cecile. Hiligaynon Dictionary. PALI Language Texts: Philippines. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971. --. Hiligaynon Lessons. PALI Language Texts: Philippines. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971. Scott, William Henry. Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History (Revised Edition). Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1984. Sunio, Delicia and R. David Zorc. Hiligaynon Reader. Kensington, MD: Dunwoody Press, 1992. Wolfenden, Elmer P. Hiligaynon Reference Grammar. PALI Language Texts: Philippines. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1971. --. A Description of Hiligaynon Syntax. Summer Institute of Linguistics Publications in Linguistics and Related Fields, Publication Number 46. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1975. Zorc, R. David. Peace Corps Primer for the Western Visayas. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1967. --. The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction. Pacific Linguistics C.44. Canberra: The Australian National University, 1977. --. "Hiligaynon," in Garry, Jane and Carl Rubino, eds. Facts About the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present: 300-304.New York: New England Publishing Associates, 2001.
