Kankanaey language

Kankanaey
Kankana-ey
Native to	Philippines
Region	Northern Luzon
Ethnicity	Kankanaey people
Native speakers	220,000  (1990 census)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Northern Luzon South–Central Cordilleran Central Cordilleran Nuclear Cordilleran Bontok–Kankanay Kankanaey
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: kne – Kankanaey xnn – Northern Kankanaey
Area where Kankanaey (including Northern Kankanaey) is spoken according to Ethnologue

Kankanaey (also spelled Kankana-ey) is a South-Central Cordilleran language under the Austronesian family spoken on the island of Luzon in The Philippines primarily by the Kankanaey people. 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 somthihg) maga - to shake loose (as in loosening a stick or post)

eng-gay - only, finish

• 

  Cover of the Kankanaey Hymnal.

• 

  An open page of the Kankanaey Hymnal.

• 

  A pile of Kankanaey Hymnal in the Church of Saint Mary, an Episcopal Church in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines.

• 

  The 23rd Psalm in the Kankanaey Psalter.

References

v t e Igorot/Cordilleran | Philippine Cordilleras Balangao Bontoc Ibaloi Ifugao Isneg Kalinga Kankanaey

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