Classical Cebuano

Classical Cebuano, or Spanish-Era Cebuano, (Cebuano: Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisaya, Binisaya sa Katuigan sa Katsila; Badlit: pre-virama: ᜃᜇᜀ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ, post-virama: ᜃᜇᜀᜈ᜴ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ) was a form of the Cebuano language spoken during the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. It was the primary language spoken in Cebu, Bohol, and other parts of Visayas and Mindanao.

Classical Cebuano
Spanish-Era Cebuano
Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisaya
Native toPhilippines
Regionpresent-day regions of Central Visayas and the northern coast of Mindanao
EthnicityVisayan
Era16th-19th century, developed into Early Modern Cebuano around the late 19th century
Badlit (before c. 18th century)
Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3–

History

The earliest surviving record of Cebuano was from a wordlist collected by Antonio Pigafetta during the Magellan expedition in 1521. The wordlist contains about 160 Cebuano words (some of which are in Malay) written in an Italian-influenced orthography, which is considered problematic due to its inconsistent and unphonetic spelling system. The oldest reliable glimpse of Cebuano's grammar and vocabulary was from Domingo Ezguerra's Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte, a Waray grammar book written in 1663. The first dedicated grammar book for Cebuano, Francisco Encina's Arte de la Lengua Zebuana, was compiled in 1801 (40 years after his death).[1]

Phonology

The phonological system of Classical Cebuano was relatively minimal compared to Modern Cebuano, which has more phonological inventory due to the influence of foreign languages such as Spanish and English.

Vowels

The Classical Cebuano phonemic inventory consists of three vowel phonemes (/a/, /i/, /u/). Some dialects of Modern Cebuano, particularly those in Bohol, have retained a close back unrounded vowel /ɯ/,[2] which means it might have existed in Classical Cebuano, although unrecorded and possibly dialectal.

Classical Cebuano Vowels[3]
Height Front Central Back
Close i, y /i/ u, o /u/
Open a /a/

Consonants

The Classical Cebuano phonemic inventory consisted of 15 consonant phonemes (in which /d/ and /r/ were treated as a single phoneme). The consonant /r/ was pronounced only when the phoneme /d/ was situated between two vowels. The natives described the final -d as a medial sound between /r/ and /d/.[3]

Classical Cebuano Consonants[3]
Labial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m /m/ n /n̪/ ng̃ /ŋ/
Stop p /p/ b /b/ t /t̪/ d, r /d̪/ k /k/ g /ɡ/ ` /ʔ/
Fricative s /s̪/ h /h/
Approximant l /l̪/ y /j/ u /w/
Rhotic d, r /ɾ̪~r̪/

Grammar
See also: Cebuano grammar

Case Markers

Classical Cebuano possessed separate plural personal case markers (sa, na, and ka), which are not retained in any dialect of Modern Cebuano.[4]

Classical Cebuano Case Markers[3][4]
Direct Indirect Oblique
General Definite ang, ak[lower-alpha 1] sa
Indefinite ing, i ug, ak[lower-alpha 2]
Personal Singular si ni kan
Plural sa na (sa)ka
  1. Only used in Argao.
  2. Only used in Bohol.

Pronouns

Classical Cebuano underwent morphological changes throughout the Spanish period. One of the most notable was the change from *s(i)- to *k(i)- as the direct case-marking prefix for Cebuano demonstrative (e.g. sini -> kini) and interrogative (e.g. sinsa -> kinsa) pronouns. Classical Cebuano, especially the one spoken in Bohol, still had plural case markers sa, na, and ka, which are already obsolete in Modern Cebuano. These were also used to form plural demonstratives, which are considered rare among Philippine languages.[4]

Personal Pronouns
Classical Cebuano Personal Pronouns (1760)[3]
Person Number and Clusivity Direct Indirect Oblique
Independent Enclitic Independent Postposed Enclitic Default Suppletive
First Singular ako akò nakò ko, ta* kan-akò sa akò
Plural Inclusive kita atò natò ta kan-atò sa atò
Exclusive kami amò namò kan-amò sa amò
Second Singular ikaw ka imo nimo mo kan-imo sa imo
Plural kamo inyo ninyo kan-inyo sa inyo
Third Singular siya iya niya na kan-iya sa iya
Plural sila ila nila kan-ila sa ila
*

Only when paired with a second-person pronoun (as in "ta ka" and "ta kamo") or as an introspective "I".

Demonstratives
Classical Cebuano Demonstratives (1663)[4][5]
Direct Indirect Oblique
Cebu Bohol Cebu Bohol Cebu Bohol
Proximal Singular kadi siadi niadi kan-adi
Plural saadi naadi kaadi
Medioproximal Singular kini siini niini kan-ini
Plural saini naini kaini
Medial Singular kanà, kitò sianà, siitò nianà, niitò kan-anà, kan-itò
Plural saanà, saitò naanà, naitò kaanà, kaitò
Distal Singular kadto siadto niadto kan-adto
Plural saadto naadto kaadto

Interrogatives
Classical and Modern Cebuano Interrogatives[4][5]
Classical Cebuano (1663) Modern Cebuano
Cebu Bohol
WHAT unsa unsa
OF/TO WHAT sa unsa sa unsa
WHO (DIR) Singular sinsa ~ kinsa kinsa
Plural sainsa
WHOSE (IND) Singular ninsa ~ niinsa ni kinsa
Plural nainsa
TO WHOM (OBL) Singular kansa kaninsa kang kinsa
Plural kainsa
WHICH ang hain kasa hain
OF/TO WHICH sa hain niasa sa hain

See also

References
  1. Lobel, Jason William (2013). Philippine and North Bornean Languages: Issues in Description, Subgrouping, and Reconstruction. ProQuest LLC. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1-303-31343-1.
  2. David (Ed.), Zorc (2015). The Bisayan dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and reconstruction (PDF). CRCL, CRCL, Pacific Linguistics And/Or The Author(S). Pacific Linguistics. doi:10.15144/pl-c44. ISBN 978-0-85883-157-5.
  3. Encina, Francisco (1836). Arte de la lengua zebuana (in Spanish). Oliva.
  4. Lobel, Jason William (2013). Philippine and North Bornean Languages: Issues in Description, Subgrouping, and Reconstruction. ProQuest LLC. pp. 50–53. ISBN 978-1-303-31343-1.
  5. Ezguerra, Domingo (1949). Arte de la lengua bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte: Manila, N. de la Cruz Bagay, 1747 (in Spanish). V. Suárez.
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