Talk:Visayan languages

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Hi. I lived on and travled around Panay. One of my close friends is born and raised in Capiz, and she says they all speak Illongo (Hiligaynon). When I visited, that's what everyone I saw was speaking. There were a few unique words, on the scale of the difference between English in California and English in Alabama. Does anyone know or know of people who speak the Capiznon language? Because I never heard of it before this article. Is it more in rural areas? I could just not be aware of it, but it is definitely not the main language of the province. Officially, Capiz, Iloilo, Guimaras, and Negros Occidental (where Bacolod is) were all considered to be Illongo-speaking provinces.

Also, Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a are very closely related. I'd be surprised if they weren't in the same sub-family. There is much more mutual comprehension between Kinaray-a speakers and Hiligaynon speakers, than between speakers of Hiligaynon and Cebuano. A lot of the differences took a recognisable pattern, where an L in Hiligaynon would be an R in Kinary-a. For instance, 'talong' (eggplant) became 'tarong. Similarly, 'ligos' for bath, would be 'rigos'.

There's also some very obvious structural similarities between Hiligaynon and Aklanon, although the people I knew who were raised speaking English or Hiligaynon found some of the sounds very difficult to pronounce. There was a sort of swallowed 'y' sound that only natives of Aklan ever seemed capable of getting correct. It also seemed to be a substitue for L. For instance, in Aklan, the language was called Akyanon instead of Aklanon, and the word for house (Tagalog 'bahay' or Hiligaynon 'balay') became 'bayay'

This is all personal observation and fairly amateur lingustics, so if anyone knows better, please correct me. 68.234.12.90 05:31, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

Please include Bacolod.Thanks.--Jondel 04:12, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Under Cebuano? I didn't include any city references, but perhaps the Bacolod reference is more appropriate under the Cebuano article. --Chris 10:05, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
Hi. I don't know the the linguistic categories but I do love languages and I 'm from Capiz but travelled to Iloilo, Bacolod, Aklan and some Luzon provinces. I understand Illonggo but don't speak it well(grew up in Manila but have relatives and travelled a lot to Roxas City). But fellow Illonggo speakers can tell I'm from an Illonggo province because the accent sometimes comes out when I speak Tagalog. With differences in accents and choice of words, Ilonggo is spoken and mutually understood in Capiz, Romblon, Bacolod and parts of Aklan. If there is a Capiznon, Romblon and the language of Bacolod should be considered as variants or versions of Illonggo. From experience I believe people from Bacolod don't speak Cebuano but Illonggo. Anyone from Bacolod who would like to comment? --Jondel 06:25, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC)
Bacolod people speak Ilonggo (more formally known as Hiligaynon, though curiously a lot of the Ilonggo speakers I know are not aware that Hiligaynon is the same thing). TheCoffee 18:06, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

[edit] j sound

Copied from the Hinduism in the Philippines discussion page:

Just a question for the Visayan language speakers or perhaps other: does the phoneme /j/ occur in this language? Meursault2004 10:10, 31 August 2005 (UTC)
Yes, V Speakers can pronounce the j but this was not a pre-Spanish sound nor can it be found in pure native non-hispanic, non-English words. It is similar to the Di sound, 'Dios ko '(My God), etc.--Jondel 07:32, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
OK thanks. So Visaya could be a native pronunciation of Wijaya/Vijaya. Meursault2004 08:28, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
Many 'j' sounds became s in various Philippine languages during the early Spanish period. 'javon' became sabon and Reloj => Relos . Spanish of course today pronounces the j as an h (Jesus=> Hesus). But in the early period it was similar to the j of French and Portugese like a zsh sound. In the Philippines, this sound evolved into the s sound. Some Filipinos have names like Sese(Jese), Sesus (Jesus). --Jondel 08:41, 9 September 2005 (UTC)
You can encounter the /j/ sound in some Visayan dialects. The /j/ sound is a distinguishing feature of the Boholano dialect (usually considered a dialect of the Cebuano language) of central Bohol. In Boholano, /j/ is often used to replace the /y/ sound. --Wng 08:17, September 10, 2005 (UTC)
These Boholano words are not Spanish-based like Dios => Jos (God), Diario=> Jaryo(newspaper), etc?--Jondel 08:31, 10 September 2005 (UTC)
I think this is limited to central and eastern Bohol. Iya (his, her) becomes Ija. Babaye (woman) becomes babaje. The k also becomes h. Akò (mine)(is ò the correct symbol for the glottal stop?) becomes ahò. --Nino Gonzales 04:10, 24 September 2005 (UTC)
The "correct" symbol for a glottal stop is ʔ - so 'akoʔ, but that's IPA. But writing it as an accent depends on the stress. And you got it right. As for the "aho" - are you talking about a regular "h" or a German "ch" ? In Tagalog, a similar thing happens with "ako" or "k" between vowels. --Chris S. 04:51, 24 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Kinamiguin

I recently created a page for Kinamiguin. I would like to add it to this page but want to give everyone a chance to comment before making any changes. Please also look at the Talk:Kinamiguin page. Gavin 08:38, 27 February 2007 (UTC)