Bisayan languages

Native speakers of most Bisayan languages, especially Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray, not only refer to their language by their local name, but also by Bisaya or Binisaya, meaning Bisayan language. This is misleading or may lead to confusion as different languages may be called Bisaya by their respective speakers despite their languages being mutually unintelligible.

However, languages that are classified within the Bisayan language family but spoken natively in places outside of the Visayas do not use the self-reference Bisaya or Binisaya. To speakers of Cuyonon, Surigaonon, Butuanon and Tausug, the term Visayan usually refers to either Cebuano or Hiligaynon.

There have been no proven accounts to verify the origins of Bisaya. However, there is an ethnic group in Malaysia and Brunei who call themselves with the same name. However, these ethnic groups in the Philippines must not be confused with those in Borneo.

David Zorc lists the following innovations as features defining the Bisayan languages as a group (Zorc 1977:241).[2] Tausug is noted to have diverged early from the group and may have avoided some sound changes that affected the others.

1. *lC, *Cl > *Cl (where C is any consonant not *h, *q, or *l)
2. *qC, *Cq > *Cq (MOST) *qC, *Cq > *qC (Tausug, and most Bikol languages)

David Zorc gives the following internal classification for the Bisayan languages (Zorc 1977:32).[2] The five primary branches are South, Cebuan, Central, Banton, and West. However, Zorc notes that the Bisayan language family is more like a dialect continuum rather than a set of readily distinguishable languages.

The South Bisayan languages are considered to have diverged first, followed by Cebuan and then the rest of the three branches. Also, in the Visayas section, the province of Romblon has the most linguistic diversity, as languages from three primary Bisayan branches are spoken there: Romblomanon from Central Bisayan, Inunhan from Western Bisayan and Banton (which has an independent Bisayan branch).

Notably, Baybayanon and Porohanon have Warayan substrata, indicating a more widespread distribution of Waray before Cebuano speakers started to expand considerably starting from the mid-1800s.[3]

A total of 36 varieties are listed below. Individual languages are marked by italics.

Bisayan Languages Tree Chart

• Bisayan
  • 1. South (spoken on the northeastern coast of Mindanao)
    • Butuan-Tausug
      • Tausug
      • Butuanon
    • Surigao
      • Surigaonon
      • Tandaganon
  • 2. Cebuan (spoken in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Eastern Negros, western Leyte and northern, southeastern and northwestern parts of Mindanao)
    • Cebuan
      • Cebuano
        • Boholano
  • 3. Central (spoken across most of the Visayan region)
    • Warayan (spoken in eastern Leyte, Biliran and Samar)
      • Waray
      • Baybayanon
      • Kabalian
      • Southern Sorsogon (Gubat)
    • Peripheral
      • Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) (spoken in eastern Panay and Guimaras, Western Negros and south-central Mindanao)
      • Capiznon
      • Bantayanon
      • Porohanon
      • Masbate-Sorsogon
        • Masbateño
        • Central Sorsogon (Masbate)
    • Romblon (also the name of the province)
      • Romblomanon
  • 4. Asi (spoken in northwestern Romblon Province)
    • • Asi
  • 5. West
    • Aklan (spoken in northwestern Panay)
      • Aklanon/Inakeanon
      • Malaynon
    • Karayan
      • Karay-a (spoken in western and inland Panay)
    • North-Central (spoken on Tablas Island and the southern tip of Mindoro)
      • Inonhan (language related to Karayan)
    • Kuyan (spoken in the archipelagos west of Panay and Romblon as well as the southern tip of Mindoro)
      • Ratagnon
      • Cuyonon
    • Caluyanon
      • Caluyanon

The auxiliary language of Eskayan is grammatically Bisayan, but has essentially no Bisayan (or Philippine) vocabulary.

Magahat and Karolanos, both spoken in Negros, are unclassified within Bisayan.[4]

Zorc (1977: 14–15) lists the following names and locations of Bisayan languages. The recently documented languages Karolanos, Magahat, and Kabalian are not listed in Zorc (1977).

The following comparisons are from data gathered by Zorc (1997).

David Zorc's reconstruction of Proto-Bisayan had 15 consonants and 4 vowels (Zorc 1977:201).[2] Vowel length, primary stress (penultimate and ultimate), and secondary stress (pre-penultimate) are also reconstructed by Zorc.

• Bisalog
• Bislish
• Bisakol languages
• Classical Cebuano
• Visayans

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Bisaya phrasebook.

• "Bisayan" on Ethnologue, (23rd ed., 2020).