Kankana-ey language

Kankanaey, is a language used on the island of Luzon in The Philippines. It is widely used by Cordillerans, specifically people from the Mountain Province and people from the Northern part of the Benguet Province.

Phonology

Of particular interest is the very common occurrence of what could be best thought of as a stressed schwa in many words. In fact, the e in Kankanaey is to be pronounced as this sound, and not as the e in words like bet or wet. This sound is usually unstressed and of a very short duration in English, as an intermediary sound between consonant clusters, such as that between the /B/ and the /L/ in the word table, or between the /T/ and the /L/ in title. This sound value is similarly found in a few other Northern Luzon languages like Ilocano and Pangasinan.

Some words with this sound are as follows:

emey/umey - to go

entako - let's go (a contracted form of emey tako)

ed - a particle equivalent in function to the relative pronoun where

ipe-ey - to put (something somewhere)

iwed-wed - to shake loose (as in loosening a stick or post)

eng-gay - only, finish