Bolinao language

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Bolinao language Binu-Bolinao
Spoken in:	Philippines
Region:	Pangasinan
Total speakers:	~50,000^[1]
Language family:	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Northern Philippine Central Luzon Sambalic Bolinao language
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	`phi`
ISO 639-3:	`smk` — Bolinao
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

The Bolinao language (Bolinao: Binu-Bolinao) is spoken primarily in the Pangasinense municipalities of Bolinao and Anda. It has approximately 50,000 speakers (Ethnologue 1990), making it the second most widely spoken Sambalic language.

1 Phonology
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Phonology

Note: This page or section contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for a pronunciation key.

Bolinao has 21 phonemes: 16 consonants and five vowels. Syllable structure is relatively simple. Each syllable contains at least a consonant and a vowel.

[edit] Vowels

Bolinao has five vowels. They are:

/a/ an open front unrounded vowel similar to English ‘father’
/ə/ (written as ‘e’) an mid central vowel pronounced as in English ‘telephone’
/i/ a close front unrounded vowel similar to English ‘machine’
/o/ a close-mid back rounded vowel similar to English ‘forty’
/u/ a close back unrounded vowel similar to English ‘flute’

There are six main diphthongs: /aɪ/, /əɪ/, /oɪ/, /uɪ/, /aʊ/, and /iʊ/.

[edit] Consonants

Below is a chart of Bolinao consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

		Bilabial	Dental	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	Voiceless	p	t		k	’ [ʔ]
Stops	Voiced	b	d		g
Affricates	Voiceless		(ts)	(ty) [tʃ]
Affricates	Voiced			(dy) [dʒ]
Fricatives			s	(sy) [ʃ]		h
Nasals		m	n	(ny) [ɲ]	ng [ŋ]
Laterals			l	(ly) [lj]
Flaps			r
Semivowels		w		j

[edit] Philippine national proverb

The Philippine national proverb^[2] “He who does not acknowledge his beginnings will not reach his destination,” translated into Bolinao and followed by the original in Tagalog:

Bolinao: “Si [tawon] kai magtanda’ lumingap sa ibwatan [na], kai ya mirate’ sa keen [na].”
Tagalog: “Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan.”