Ilocano language

The modern Ilokano alphabet consists of 28 letters:[15]

Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ññ, NGng, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, and Zz

Pre-colonial Ilocano people of all classes wrote in a syllabic system known as Baybayin 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 Ilocano 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 a consonant not succeeding a vowel is read or not, for it is not written. Vowel apostrophes interchange between e or i, and o or u. Due to this, the vowels e and i are interchangeable, and letters o and u, for instance, tendera and tindira ('shop-assistant').

Ilocano version of the Book of Mormon, written with the Tagalog system, as can be seen by the use of the letter K

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. Most older generations of Ilocanos use the Spanish system.

In the system based on that of Tagalog there is more of a phoneme-to-letter correspondence, which better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word.[lower-alpha 1] The letters ng constitute a digraph and count 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 Ilocano phonology. Words of English origin may or may not conform to this orthography. A prime example using this system is the weekly magazine Bannawag.

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

Notes

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 older Abagatan (Southern) dialect employs six.

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

Reduplicate vowels are not slurred together, but voiced separately with an intervening glottal stop:

• saan: /sa.ʔan/ 'no'
• siit: /si.ʔit/ 'thorn'

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]. Unstressed /a/ in final-syllables is mostly pronounced [ɐ] across word boundaries.

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

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)'; example: lutuen dayta

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').

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.ˈtɯŋ] but bangir ('other side') and parabur ('grace/blessing') are pronounced [ˈba.ŋiɾ] and [pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ]. Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in final syllables are mostly pronounced [ɪ] and [ʊ] across word boundaries.

The letter ⟨e⟩ represents two vowels in the non-nuclear dialects (areas outside the Ilocos provinces) [ɛ] in words of foreign origin and [ɯ] in native words, and only one in the nuclear dialects of the Ilocos provinces, [ɛ].

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 /aj/ or /ej/, /iw/, /aw/ and /uj/ occur. In the orthography, vowels in sequence such as uo and ai, do not coalesce into a diphthong, rather, they are pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, for example, buok 'hair' /bʊ.ʔok/ and dait 'sew' /da.ʔit/.

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.ˈpoi/ and baboy ('pig') may be pronounced /ˈba.bui/.

As for the diphthong /au/, the general rule is to use /aw/ for native words while /au/ will be used for spanish loanword such as the words ’’autoridad, autonomia, automatiko’’. The same rule goes to the diphthong /ai/.

All consonantal phonemes except /h, ʔ/ may be a syllable onset or coda. The phoneme /h/ is a borrowed sound (except in the negative variant haan) and rarely occurs in coda position. Although the Spanish word reloj 'clock' would have been heard as [re.loh], the final /h/ is dropped resulting in /re.lo/. However, this word also 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. As a result, 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 onset, the glottal stop disappears in affixation. Take, for example, the root aramat [ʔɐ.ɾa.mat], 'use'. When prefixed with ag-, the expected form is *[ʔɐɡ.ʔɐ.ɾa.mat]. But, the actual form is [ʔɐ.ɡɐ.ɾa.mat]; the glottal stop disappears. In a reduplicated form, the glottal stop returns and participates in the template, CVC, agar-aramat [ʔɐ.ɡaɾ.ʔɐ.ɾa.mat]. Glottal stop /ʔ/ sometimes occurs nonphonemically in coda in words ending in vowels, but only before a pause.

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-Austronesian *R; compare bago (Tagalog) and baró (Ilokano) 'new'.

The language marginally has a trill [r] which is spelled as rr, for example, serrek [sɯ.ˈrɯk] 'to enter'. Trill [r] is sometimes an allophone of [ɾ] in word-initial position, syllable-final, and word-final positions, spelled as single ⟨r⟩, for example, ruar 'outside' [ɾwaɾ] ~ [rwar]. It is only pronounced flap [ɾ] in affixation and across word boundaries, especially when vowel-ending word precedes word-initial ⟨r⟩. But it is different in proper names of foreign origin, mostly Spanish, like Serrano, which is correctly pronounced [sɛ.ˈrano]. Some speakers, however, pronounce Serrano as [sɛ.ˈɾano].

The placement of primary stress is lexical in Ilocano. This results in minimal pairs such as /ˈkaː.jo/ ('wood') and /ka.ˈjo/ ('you' (plural or polite)) or /ˈkiː.ta/ ('class, type, kind') and /ki.ˈta/ ('see'). In written Ilokano the reader must rely on context, thus ⟨kayo⟩ and ⟨kita⟩. Primary stress can fall only on either the penult or the ultima of the root, as seen in the previous examples.

While stress is unpredictable in Ilokano, there are notable patterns that can determine where stress will fall depending on the structures of the penult, the ultima and the origin of the word.[2]

• Foreign words – the stress of foreign (mostly Spanish) words adopted into Ilokano fall on the same syllable as the original.[lower-alpha 8]

• CVC.'CV(C)# but 'CVŋ.kV(C)# – in words with a closed penult, stress falls on the ultima, except for instances of /-ŋ.k-/ where it is the penult.

• 'C(j/w)V# – in words whose ultima is a glide plus a vowel, stress falls on the ultima.

• C.'CV:.ʔVC# – in words where VʔV and V is the same vowel for the penult and ultima, the stress falls on the penult.

Secondary stress occurs in the following environments:

• Syllables whose coda is the onset of the next, i.e., the syllable before a geminate.

• Reduplicated consonant-vowel sequence resulting from morphology or lexicon.

Vowel length coincides with stressed syllables (primary or secondary) and only on open syllables except for ultimas, for example, /'ka:.jo/ 'tree' versus /ka.'jo/ (second person plural ergative pronoun).

As primary stress can fall only on the penult or the ultima, suffixation causes a shift in stress one syllable to the right. The vowel of open penults that result lengthen as a consequence.

Foreign accretion comes largely from Spanish, followed by English and smatterings of much older accretion from Hokkien (Min Nan), Arabic and Sanskrit.[21][22][23]

Ilokano shows a T-V distinction.

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

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

Spanish:

Mano ti tawenmo?

'How old are you (in years)?' (Lit. 'How many years do you have?')

Baintiuno.

'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.'

Ilocano:

Mano a kilo ti bagas ti kayatmo?

'How many kilos of rice do you want?'

Sangapulo laeng.

'Ten only.'

Adda dua nga ikanna.

'He has two fish.' (lit. 'There are two fish with him.')

Days of the week are directly borrowed from Spanish.

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

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.

To mention time, Ilocanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilocano:

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

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

6:00 p.m A las sais iti sardang (six in the evening)

7:00 p.m A las siete iti rabii (seven in the evening)

12:00 noon A las dose iti pangaldaw (twelve noon)