Ilokano language

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Ilokano (variants: Ilocano, Iluko, Iloco, and Iloko) is the third most-spoken language of the Republic of the Philippines.

An Austronesian language, it is related to such languages as Indonesian, Malay, Fijian, Maori (of New Zealand), Hawaiian, Malagasy (of Madagascar), Samoan, Tahitian, Chamorro (of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Tetum (of East Timor), and Paiwan (of Taiwan).

History

Ilocanos are descendants of Austronesian-speaking people from southern China via Borneo. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, meaning "boat". The term Ilokano originates from i-, "from", and looc, "cove or bay", thus "people of the bay." Ilokanos also refer to themselves as Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilokano phrase sao mi ditoy, "our language here".

Classification

Ilocano comprises its own branch in the Philippine Cordilleran family of languages. It is spoken as a native language by eight million people.

A lingua franca of the northern region, it is spoken as a secondary language by more than two million people who are native speakers of Pangasinan, Ibanag, Ivatan, and other languages in Northern Luzon.

Geographic distribution

Ilokano population distribution. Enlarge picture to see percent distribution.

Ilocanos occupy the narrow, barren strip of land in the northwestern tip of Luzon, squeezed in between the inhospitable Cordillera mountain range to the east and the South China Sea to the west. This harsh geography molded a people known for their clannishness, tenacious industry and frugality, traits that were vital for survival. It also induced Ilokanos to become a migratory people, always in search for better opportunities and for land to build a life on. Although their homeland constitutes the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Abra, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders.

Ilocano pioneers flocked to the more fertile Cagayan Valley, Apayao mountains and the Pangasinan plains during the 18th and 19th centuries and now constitute a majority in many of these areas. In the 20th century, many Ilokano families moved to Metro Manila and further south to Mindanao. They became the first Filipino ethnic group to immigrate en masse to North America (the so-called Manong generation), forming sizable communities in the American states of Hawaii, California, Washington and Alaska. Ilokano is the native language of most of the original Filipino immigrants in the United States, but Tagalog is used by more Filipino-Americans because it is the basis for Filipino, the national language of the people of the Philippines.

A large, growing number of Ilokanos can also be found in the Middle East, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Canada and Europe.

Writing system

Our Father prayer from Doctrina Cristiana, 1621.

Pre-Colonial

Pre-colonial Ilocanos of all classes wrote in a syllabic system prior to European arrival. They used a system that is termed as an abugida, or an alphasyllabary. It was similar to the Tagalog and Pangasinan scripts, where each character represented a consonant-vowel, or CV, sequence. The Ilokano version, however, was the first to designate coda consonants with a diacritic mark - a cross or virama - shown in the Doctrina Cristiana of 1621, one of the earliest surviving Ilokano publications. Before the addition of the virama, writers had no way to designate coda consonants. The reader, on the other hand, had to guess whether the vowel was read or not.

Modern

In recent times, there have been two systems in use: The "Spanish" system and the "Tagalog" system. In the Spanish system words of Spanish origin kept their spellings. Native words, on the other hand, conformed to the Spanish rules of spelling. Nowadays, only the older generation of Ilocanos use the Spanish system.

The system based on that of Tagalog is more phonetic. Each letter receives one phonetic value, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word.^[1] The letters ng, however, constitute a digraph and counts as a single letter, following n in alphabetization. As a result, numo humility appears before ngalngal to chew in newer dictionaries. Words of foreign origin, most notably those from Spanish, need to be changed in spelling to better reflect Ilokano phonology. The weekly magazine Bannawag is known to use this system.

Samples of the Two Systems

The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Tagalog-based system.

Ilokano and Education

Literature

Main article: Ilokano literature

Ilocano animistic past offers a rich background in folklore, mythology and superstition (see Religion in the Philippines). There are many stories of good and malevolent spirits and beings. Its creation mythology centers on the giants Aran and her husband Angngalo, and Namarsua (the Creator).

The epic story Biag ni Lam-ang (The Life of Lam-ang) is undoubtedly one of the few indigenous stories from the Philippines that survived colonialism, although much of it is now acculturated and shows many foreign elements in the retelling. It reflects values important to traditional Ilokano society; it is a hero’s journey steeped in courage, loyalty, pragmatism, honor, and ancestral and familial bonds.

Ilocano culture revolves around life rituals, festivities and oral history. These were celebrated in songs (kankanta), dances (sala), poems (daniw), riddles (burburtia), proverbs (pagsasao), literary verbal jousts called bucanegan (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs) and epic stories.

Phonology

Segmental

Vowels

Modern Ilocano has two dialects, which are differentiated only by the way the letter e is pronounced. In the Amianan (Northern) Dialect, there exist only five vowels while the Abagatan (Southern) Dialect employs six.

• Amianan: /a/, /i/, /u/,/ɛ/,/o/
• Abagatan: /a/, /i/, /u/,/ɛ/,/o/,/ɯ/

The letter in bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel.

For a better rendition of vowel distribution, please refer to the IPA Vowel Chart.

Unstressed /a/ is pronounced [ɐ] in all positions except final syllables, like madí [mɐˈdi] (cannot be) but ngiwat (mouth) is pronounced [ˈŋiwat].

Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.

O/U and I/E

In native morphemes, the close back rounded vowel /u/ is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the ultima of the morpheme, it is written o; elsewhere, u.

Example:
    Root: luto cook
          agluto to cook
          lutuen to cook (something)

Instances such as masapulmonto, You will manage to find it, to need it, are still consistent. Note that masapulmonto is, in fact, three morphemes: masapul (verb base), -mo (pronoun) and -(n)to (future particle). An exception to this rule, however, is laud /la.ʔud/ (west). Also, u in final stressed syllables can be pronounced [o], like [dɐ.ˈnom] for danum (water).

That said, the two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words, due to fact that /o/ was an allophone of /u/ in the history of the language. In words of foreign origin, notably Spanish, they are phonemic.

Example:
    uso use
    oso bear

Unlike u and o, i and e are not allophones, but i in final stressed syllables in words ending in consonants can be [ɛ], like ubíng [ʊ.ˈbɛŋ] (child).

The two closed vowels become glides when followed by another vowel. The close back rounded vowel /u/ becomes [w] before another vowel; and the close front unrounded vowel /i/, [j].

Example:
    kuarta /kwaɾ.ta/ money
    paria /paɾ.ja/ bitter melon

In addition, dental/alveolar consonants become palatalized before /i/. (See Consonants below).

Unstressed /i/ and /u/ are pronounced [ɪ] and [ʊ] except in final syllables, like pintás (beauty) [pɪn.ˈtas] and buténg (fear) [bʊ.ˈtɛŋ] but bangir (other side) and parabur (grace) are pronounced [ˈba.ŋiɾ] and [pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ].

Northern and Southern Pronunciation of /e/

The letter e represent two vowels in the Southern (Abagatan) dialect, /ɛ/ in words of foreign origin and /ɯ/ in native words, and only one in the Northern (Amianan) dialect, /ɛ/.

Diphthongs

Diphthongs are combination of a vowel and /i/ or /u/. In the orthography, the secondary vowels (underlying /i/ or /u/) are written with their corresponding glide, y or w, respectively. Of all the possible combinations, only /ai/ or /ei/, /iu/, /ai/ and /ui/ occur. In the orthography, vowels in sequence such as uo and ai, do not coelesce into a diphthong, rather, they are pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, for example, buok hair /bʊ.ʔuk/ and dait sew /da.ʔit/.

Diphthongs

Diphthong	Orthography	Example
/au/	aw	kabaw "senile"
/iu/	iw	iliw "home sick"
/ai/	ay	maysa "one"
/ei/[2]	ey	idiey "there" (Regional variant. Standard: "idiay")
/oi/, /ui/[3]	oy, uy	baboy "pig"

The diphthong [ei] is a variant of [ai] in native words. Other occurrences are in words of Spanish and English origin. Examples are reyna [ˈɾei.na] (from Spanish reina, queen) and treyner [ˈtɾei.nɛɾ] (trainer). The diphthongs [oi] and [ui] may be interchanged since [o] is an allophone of [u] in final syllables. Thus, apúy (fire) may be pronounced [ɐ.’poi] and baboy (pig) may be pronounced [‘ba.bui].

Consonants

		Bilabial	Dental / Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stops	Voiceless	p	t		k	(#[4]Ø[5]V/ØVØ/C-V)[ʔ][6]
	Voiced	b	d		g
Affricates	Voiceless			(ts, tiV) [tʃ][7]
	Voiced			(diV) [dʒ][7]
Fricatives			s	(siV) [ʃ][7]		h
Nasals		m	n	(niV) [nj][7]	ng [ŋ]
Laterals			l	(liV) [lj][7]
Flaps			r [ɾ]
Trills			rr [r]
Semivowels		(w, CuV) w[7]		(y, CiV) [j][7]

All consonantal phonemes may be the syllable onset or coda. Exceptions are /h/ and /ʔ/. The phoneme /h/ is loaned and rarely occurs in coda position. Although, the Spanish word, reloj, clock, would come into Ilokano as */re.loh/, the final /h/ is dropped resulting in /re.lo/. However, this word may have entered the Ilokano lexicon at early enough a time that the word was still pronounced /re.loʒ/, with the j pronounced as in French, resulting in /re.los/ in Ilokano. Both, /re.lo/ and /re.los/ occur.

The glottal stop /ʔ/ is not permissible as coda; it can only occur as onset. Even as an oset, the glottal stop disappears in affixation. Take for example the root aramat, use. When prefixed with ag-, the expected form is *ag-aramat /ʔɐg.ʔɐ.ra.mat/. But, the actual form is, in fact, agaramat /ʔɐ.gɐ.ra.mat/; the glottal stop disappears. In a reduplicated form, the glottal stop returns and participates in the template, CVC, agar-aramat /ʔɐ.gar.ʔɐ.ra.mat/.

Stops are pronounced without aspiration. When they occur as coda, they are not released, for example, sungbat [sʊŋ.bat̚] answer, response.

Ilokano is one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from [ɾ]-[d] allophony, as /r/ in many cases is derived from a Proto-Austonesian */G/, compare dugo (Tagalog) and dara (Ilokano) blood.

The language has a trill [r] which was spelled as “rr”, for example, serrek [sɛ.ˈrɛk] to enter. But it is different in proper names of foreign origin, mostly Spanish, like Serrano, which is correctly pronounced as [sɛ.ˈrano]. Some speakers, however, pronounce Serrano as [sɛ.ˈɾano].

Suprasegmental

Stress

Lexical

Stress is phonemic or lexical in Ilokano. This results in minimal pairs such as káyo (wood) and kayó (you (plural or polite)) or kíta (class, type, kind) and kitá (see). In written Ilokano, stress is not indicated, thus kayo and kita. Regardless of that fact, phonemic patterns can be found that give a good indication how to determine the primary stress of a given root.

Pitch

Primary stressed syllables are lower in pitch compared to the rest of the prosodic word.

Prosodic

Grammar

Main article: Ilokano grammar

Ilokano employs a predicate-initial structure. Verbs and adjectives occur in the first position of the sentence, then the rest of the sentence follows.

Ilokano uses a highly complex list of affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes and enclitics) and reduplications to indicate a wide array of grammatical categories. Learning simple root words and corresponding affixes goes a long way in forming cohesive sentences.

Lexicon

Borrowings

Ilokano's vocabulary has a closer affinity to languages from Borneo. Foreign accretion comes largely from Spanish, followed by English and smatterings of Hokkien (Min Nan), Arabic and Sanskrit.

Examples of Borrowing

Word	Source	Original Meaning	Ilokano meaning
arak	Arabic	drink similar to sake	generic alcoholic drink
karma	Sanskrit	deed (see Buddhism)	spirit
sanglay	Hokkien	to deliver goods	to deliver/Chinese merchant
agbuldos	English	to bulldoze	to bulldoze
kuarta	Spanish	cuarta ("quarter", a kind of copper coin)	money
kumusta	Spanish	greeting: ¿Cómo está? ("How are you?")	how are you

Common expressions

English	Ilokano
Yes	Wen
No	Saan Haan
How are you?	Kumusta ka? Kumusta kayo? (polite and plural)
Good day	Naimbag nga aldawmo. Naimbag nga aldawyo. (polite and plural)
Good morning	Naimbag a bigatmo. Naimbag a bigatyo. (polite and plural)
Good afternoon	Naimbag a malemmo. Naimbag a malemyo. (polite and plural)
Good evening	Naimbag a rabiim. Naimbag a rabiiyo. (polite and plural)
What is your name?	Ania ti naganmo? (often contracted to Aniat' naganmo?) Ania ti naganyo?
Where's the bathroom?	Ayanna ti banio?
I cannot understand	Diak matarusan. Saanko maawatan.
I love you	Ay-ayatenka. Ipatpategka.
I'm sorry.	Pakawan. Dispensar.
Goodbye.	Agpakadaakon. Kastan/Kasta pay. (Till then) Sige. (Okay) Innakon. (I'm going) Inkamin. (We are going)

Numbers (Bilang), Days (Aldaw), Months (Bulan)

Numbers (Bilang)

Ilokano uses two number systems, one native and the other derived from Spanish.

Numbers

0	ibbong awan (lit. none) sero (English zero) itlog (slang egg)	sero
0.25 (1/4)	kakappat
0.50 (1/2)	kagudua
1	maysa	uno
2	dua	dos
3	tallo	tres
4	uppat	kuatro
5	lima	singko
6	innem	sais
7	pito	siete
8	walo	otso
9	siam	nuebe
10	sangapulo (lit. a group of ten)	dies
11	sangapulo ket maysa	onse
20	duapulo	bainte
50	limapulo	singkuenta
100	sangagasut (lit. a group of one hundred)	sien, siento
1,000	sangaribo (lit. a group of one thousand)	mil
10,000	sangalaksa (lit. a group of ten thousand)	dies mil
1,000,000	sangariwriw (lit. a group of one million)	milion
1,000,000,000	sangabilion (American English, billion)	bilion

Ilokano uses a mixture of native and Spanish numbers. Traditionally Ilokano numbers are used for quantities and Spanish numbers for time or days and references. Examples:

Spanish: Mano ti tawenmo? Beintiuno. How old are you? Twenty one.

Luktanyo dagiti Bibliayo iti libro ni Juan kapitulo tres bersikolo diesiseis. Open your Bibles to the book of John chapter three verse sixteen.

Ilokano: Mano a kilo a bagas ti kayatmo? Sangapulo laeng. How many kilos of rice do you want? Ten only.

Adda dua nga ikan kenkuana. He has two fish. (lit. There are two fish with him.)

Days of the week (Aldaw ti Lawas)

Days of the week are directly borrowed from Spanish.

Days of the Week

Monday	Lunes
Tuesday	Martes
Wednesday	Mierkoles
Thursday	Huebes
Friday	Biernes
Saturday	Sabado
Sunday	Domingo

Months (Bulan)

Like the days of the week, the names of the months are taken from Spanish.

Months

January	Enero		July	Hulio
February	Pebrero		August	Agosto
March	Marso		September	Septiembre
April	Abril		October	Oktubre
May	Mayo		November	Nobiembre
June	Hunio		December	Disiembre

Units of time

The names of the units of time are either native or are derived from Spanish. The first entries in the following table are native; the second entries are Spanish derived.

Units of time

second	kanito segundo
minute	daras minuto
day	aldaw
week	lawas dominggo (lit. Sunday)
month	bulan
year	tawen anio

To mention time, Ilokanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilokano:

1:00 a.m. A la una iti bigat (One in the morning)

2:30 p.m. A las dos imedia iti malem (in Spanish, Son las dos y media de la tarde or "half past two in the afternoon")

More Ilokano words

ading = younger brother/sister awan = none adda = there is al-alya = ghost/spirit ama = father apay = why? apong = grandparent apong baket = grandmother an-nay! = Ouch! aso = dog aysus! = Oh, Jesus/Oh, my God! apong lakay = grandfather babai = female baboy = pig bakla/maing = effeminate male baket = old women / wife balla = crazy bangsit = stink barok = young boy basang = young girl (ag)basa = (to) read basul = fault, wrongdoing bisin = hunger (ag)buya = (to) watch dadael = destroy/ruin digos = bath buto=penis gayyem = friend kaanakan = niece / nephew kabalyo = horse kabsat = sibling kanayon = always kasinsin = cousin katawa = laugh kuddot = pinch ina/inang/nanang = mother laing = intelligence lakay = old man / husband lalaki = male latteg= testicle mabisin = hungry manang = older sister or relative; can also be applied to women a little older than the speaker mangan = eat

manong = older brother or relative; can also be applied to men a little older than the speaker mari = female friend/mother naimas = taste/feel good/delicious nana = grandmother nasam-it = sweet naalsem = sour napait = bitter naapgad = salty (na)pintas = beautiful (woman) nataraki = cute (man, slightly impolite connotation, but properly used on an animal, as for a rooster), usually interchanged with 'handsome' nataengan = adult (na)guapo = handsome (man) (na)rago, (na)laad = ugly pari = close male friend papet/pepet/uki/pipit = vagina padi = father (priest) (na)peggad = danger(ous) pusa= cat pustaan = bet or wager pimmusay(en)= died riing = wake up rupa = face sala = dance (na)sakit = (it) hurts (ag)sangit = (to) cry (ag)surat = (to) write takrot/tarkok = coward/afraid tata = grandfather tatang = father (ag)takder = (to) stand (ag)tugaw = (to) sit (na)tawid = inherit(ed) tun-bigat = tomorrow. turog = sleep ubing = child ulo = head ubet/patong = butt

Notes

1. ↑ The reverse is true for the vowel /u/ where it has two representations in native words. The vowel /u/ is written o when it appears in the last syllable of the word or of the root, for example kitaemonto /ki.ta.e.mun.tu/. In addition, e represents two vowels in the southern dialect: [ɛ] and [ɯ].
2. ↑ The diphthong /ei/ is a variant of /ai/.
3. ↑ The distinction between /o/ and /u/ is minimal.
4. ↑ The '#' represents the start of the word boundary
5. ↑ the symbol 'Ø' represents zero or an absence of a phoneme.
6. ↑ Ilocano syllables always begin with a consonant onset. Words that begin with a vowel actually begin with a glottal stop ('[ʔ]'), but it is not shown in the orthography. When the glottal stop occurs within a word there are two ways it is represented. When two vowels are juxtaposed, except certain vowel combinations beginning with /i/ or /u/ which in fact imply a glide /j/ or /w/, the glottal stop is implied. Examples: buok hair [bu:.ʔok], dait sew [da:.ʔit], but not ruar outside [rwar]. However, if the previous syllable is closed (ends in a consonant) and the following syllable begins with a glottal stop, a hyphen is used to represent it, for example lab-ay bland [lab.ʔaj].
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6} Letters in parentheses are orthographic conventions that are used.

External links

• Ethnologue entry for Ilokano
• Bansa.org Ilokano Dictionary
• Ilocano.org A project for building an online Ilokano dictionary. Also features Ilokano songs, and a community forum.
• Ilocano: Ti pagsasao ti amianan - Webpage by linguist Dr. Carl R. Galvez Rubino, author of dictionaries on Iloko and Tagalog.
• Iluko.com popular Ilokano web portal featuring Ilokano songs, Iloko fiction and poetry, Ilokano riddles, and a lively Ilokano forum (Dap-ayan).
• mannurat.com blog of an Ilokano fictionist and poet written in Iloko and featuring original and Iloko fiction and poetry, literary analysis and criticism focused on Ilokano Literature, and literary news about Iloko writing and writers and organization like the GUMIL (Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano).
• samtoy.blogspot.com Yloco Blog maintained by Ilokano writers Raymundo Pascua Addun and Joel Manuel
• Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
• dadapilan.com - an Iloko literature portal featuring Iloko works by Ilokano writers and forum for Iloko literary study, criticism and online workshop.

Languages of the Philippines National language Filipino Official languages English • Filipino Recognized regional languages Bikol • Cebuano • Hiligaynon • Ilokano • Kapampangan • Kinaray-a • Maguindanao • Maranao • Pangasinan • Tagalog • Tausug • Waray-Waray Recognized auxiliary languages Arabic • Spanish Language groups Borneo-Philippines {Central Philippine (Bikol {Inland • Pandan} • Visayan {Aklan • Bisakol}) • (Batanic • Sambalic)}