Hiligaynon language

Hiligaynon (or "Ilonggo") is an Austronesian language spoken in Western Visayas in the Philippines. Hiligaynon is concentrated in the provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental. It is also spoken in the other provinces of the Panay Island group, such as Capiz, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, and many parts of Mindanao like Koronadal City, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat (It is spoken as a second language by Karay-a in Antique, Aklanon and Malaynon in Aklan, Cebuano in Siquijor, and Capiznon in Capiz.). There are approximately 7,000,000 people in and outside the Philippines who are native speakers of Hiligaynon, and an additional 4,000,000 who are capable of speaking it with a substantial degree of proficiency.

It is a member of the Visayan language family.

The language is referred to as "Ilonggo" in Negros Occidental and in Iloilo. More precisely, "Ilonggo" is an ethnoliguistic group referring to the people living in Panay and the culture associated with the people speaking Hiligaynon. The boundaries of the dialect called Ilonggo and that called Hiligaynon are unclear. The disagreement of where what name is correct extends to Philippine language specialists and native laymen.

Writing system

The core alphabet consists of 20 letters used for expressing consonants and vowels in Hiligaynon, each of which comes in an upper case and lower case variety.

Alphabet

Additional symbols

It should be noted that the apostrophe(') and dash(-) also appear in Hiligaynon writing, and might be considered letters. In addition, some English letters, may be used in borrowed words.

Grammar

Determiners

Hiligaynon has three types of case markers: absolutive, ergative, and oblique. These types in turn are divided into personal, that have to do with names of people and impersonal, that deal with everything else, and further into singular and plural types, though the plural impersonal case markers are just the singular impersonal case markers + mga, a particle used to denote plurality in Hiligaynon.

(*)The articles sing and sing mga means the following noun is indefinite, while sang tells of a definite noun, like the use of a in English as opposed to the, however, it is not as common in modern speech, being replace by sang. It appears in conservative translations of the Bible into Hiligaynon and in traditional or formal speech
(**)The plural personal case markers are not used very often and not even by all speakers. Again, this is an example of a case marker that has fallen largely into disuse, but is still occasionally used when speaking a more traditional form of Hiligaynon, using less Spanish loan words.

The case markers do not determine the which noun is subject and which is object, rather, the affix of the verb determines this. Though the ang-marked noun is always the topic.

Examples: Ang lalaki nagkaon sang tinapay
"The man ate the bread"

can mean the same as

Ang tinapay ginkaon sang lalaki
Literally: "The bread was eaten by the man"

but, in Hiligaynon, there is a tendency to use active voice more, so the first sentence would be more common.

Personal pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns

In addition to this, there are two verbal deictics, karí, meaning come to speaker, and kadto, meaning to go yonder.

Copula

Hiligaynon lacks the marker of sentence inversion "ay" of Tagalog/Filipino or "hay" of Akeanon. Instead sentences in SV form (Filipino: Di karaniwang anyo) are written without any marker or copula.

Examples:

"Si Inday ay maganda" (Tagalog)

"Si Inday matahum" (Hiligaynon)

"Inday is beautiful" (English)

There is no direct translation for the English copula "to be" in Hiligaynon. However, the prefixes mangin- and nangin- may be used to mean will be and became, respectively.

Example:

Manámî mangin manggaranon
"It is nice to become rich"

The Spanish copula "estar" (to be) has also become a part of the Hiligaynon lexicon. It's meaning and pronunciation have become corrupted. In Hiligaynon it is pronounced as "istar" and means "to live (in)/location"(Compare with the Hiligaynon word "puyo").

Example:

Nagaistar ako sa tabuc suba
"I live in tabuc suba" "tabuc suba" translates to "other side of the river"

Existential

To indicate the existence of an object, the word may is used.

Example:

May idô (a)ko
"I have a dog"

Hiligaynon Linkers

When an adjective modifies a noun, the linker nga links the two.

Example:

Itom nga ido
Black dog

Sometimes, if the linker is preceded by a word that end in a vowel, glottal stop or the letter N, it becomes acceptable to contract it into -ng, as in Filipino. This is often used to make the words sound more poetic or to reduce the number of syllables. Sometimes the meaning may change as in maayo nga aga and maayong aga. The first meaning: (the) good morning; while the other is the greeting for 'good morning'.

The linker ka is used if a number modifies a noun.

Example:

Anum ka ido
six dogs

Interrogative words

The interrogative words of Hiligaynon are as follows: diin, san-o, sin-o, nga-a, kamusta, ano, and pila

Diin means where.
Example:
Diin ka na?
"Where are you now?"

A derivation of diin, tagadiin, is used to inquire the birthplace or hometown of the listener.
Example:
Tagadiin ka?
"Where are you from?"

San-o means when
Example:
San-o inâ?
"When is that?"

Sin-o means who
Example:
Sin-o imo abyan?
"Who is your friend?"

Nga-a means why
Example:
Nga-a indi ka magkadto?
"Why won't you go?"

Kamusta means how, as in "How are you?"
Example:
Kamusta ang tindahan?
"How is the store?"

Ano means what
Example:
Ano ang imo ginabasa?
"What are you reading?"

A derivative of ano, paano, means how, as in "How do I do that?"
Example:
Paano ko makapulî?
"How can I get home?"

A derivative of paano is paanoano an archaic phrase which can be compared with kamusta
Example:
Paanoano ikaw?
"How art thou?"

Pila means how much/how many
Example:
Pila ang maupod sa imo?
"How many are with you?"

A derivative of pila, ikapila, asks the numerical order of the person, as in, "What place were you born in your family?"(first-born, second-born, etc.) This word is notoriously difficult to translate into English, as English has no equivalent.
Example:
Ikapila ka sa inyo pamilya?
"What place were you born into your family?"

A derivative of pila, tagpila, asks the monetary value of something, as in, "How much is this beef?"
Example:
Tagpila ina nga karne?
"How much is this beef?"

Sounds

Hiligaynon has sixteen consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are three main vowels: [a], [ɛ]/[i], and [o]/[ʊ]. [i] and [ɛ] (both spelled i) were allophones, where [i] in the beginning and middle and sometimes final syllables and [ɛ] in final syllables. The vowels [ʊ] and [o] were allophones, with [ʊ] always being used when it is the beginning of a syllable, and [o] always used when it ends a syllable. Consonants [d] and [ɾ] were once allophones but cannot interchange, like patawaron (to forgive) [from patawad, forgiveness] but not patawadon and tagadiín (from where) [from diín, where] but not tagariín.

Loan words

Hiligaynon has a large number of words that derive from Spanish words including nouns (e.g., santo from santo, saint), adjectives (e.g., berde from verde, green), prepositions (e.g., antes from antes, before), and conjunctions (e.g., pero from pero, but). Moreover, Spanish provides the Ilonggo base for items introduced by Spain, e.g., barko (barco, ship), sapatos (zapatos, shoes), kutsilyo (cuchillo, knife), kutsara (cuchara, spoon), tenedor (fork), plato (plate), kamiseta (camiseta, shirt), and kambiyo (cambio, change).

Spanish verbs used in Hiligaynon often remain unconjugated (have the verb endings -ar, -er or -ir) which in Filipino would be conjugated in the 'tú' form, e.g., komparar, mandar, pasar, tener, disponer, mantener, and asistir.

Examples

Numbers

Days of the week

The names of the days of the week are derived from their Spanish equivalents.

Months of the year

The first set of Hiligaynon names of the months are derived from Spanish.

Quick phrases

Greetings, friends and lovers

This, that, and whatnot...

Space and time

The marketplace

The Lord's Prayer

Amay namon, nga yara ka sa mga langit
Pagdayawon ang imo ngalan
Umabot sa amon ang imo ginharian
Matuman ang imo buot
Diri sa duta subong sang sa langit
Hatagan mo kami nian sing kan-on namon
Sa matag-adlaw
Kag ipatawad mo ang mga sala namon
Subong nga ginapatawad namon ang nakasala sa amon
Kag dili mo kami nga ipagpadaug sa mga panulay
Gino-o luwason mo kami sa kalaut
Amen.

Children's books

Ang Bukid Nga Nagpalangga Sang Pispis

Ang Bukid Nga Nagpalangga Sang Pispis is a fully illustrated, colored children's picture book. The original story is "The Mountain That Loved A Bird", by Alice McLerran. Originally published in the United States with illustrations by Eric Carle, the story has been translated to Hiligaynon by Genevieve L. Asenjo and illustrated with new art by Beaulah Pedregosa Taguiwalo drawn from the landscapes of the Philippines.

The publisher is Mother Tongue Publishing Inc., a new publishing company based in Manila, Philippines formed in November 2006 by Mario and Beaulah Taguiwalo. Their mission is to publish books in as many languages and dialects as possible. They are inspired by the words of science fiction writer Ursula K. Le Guin: “Literature takes shape and life in the body, in the wombs of the mother tongue.” They also agree with neuro-scientist Elkhonon Goldberg who refers to mother tongues as “an extremely adaptive and powerful device for modeling not only what is, but also what will be, what could be, and what we want and do not want to be.”

See also

• Languages of the Philippines
• Kinaray-a language

External links

• Hiligaynon to English Dictionary
• English to Hiligaynon Dictionary
• Ethnologue report for Hiligaynon
• Bansa.org Hiligaynon Dictionary
• Omniglot on Hiligaynon Writing
• Online Hiligaynon dictionary
• Ilonggo Community & Discussion Board
• Some information about learning Ilonggo

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)}