Cebuano language

Cebuano is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 20 million people. It is the most widely spoken member of the Visayan languages; a language closely related to Malaysian, Indonesian and the Filipino people. It has the largest speaking population of the Philippines despite not being taught formally in schools and universities. Cebuano is given the ISO 639-2 three letter code ceb, but has no ISO 639-1 two-letter code.

Distribution

Cebuano-speaking regions in the Philippines.

Cebuano is spoken in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, western parts of Leyte, some parts of Samar, Negros Occidental, Biliran islands, southern region of Masbate island and Mindanao. Some dialects of Cebuano have different names to the language. Ethnic groups from Bohol may refer to Cebuano as Bol-anon while Cebuano speakers in Leyte identify their dialect as Kana. Speakers in Mindanao and Luzon refer to the language simply as Bisaya.

How to distinguish a Cebuano speaker

If the speaker uses the word "sa" when it should have been "sang" in Hiligaynon or "han" in Waray, most probably the person is speaking any of the variants of Cebuano.

Orthography

Cebuano has 21 phonemes. There are sixteen consonants: p, t, k, ʔ (the glottal stop), b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are five vowels: i, e, a, o and u.

Vowels

During the pre-colonial and Spanish period, Cebuano had three vowel phonemes: /a/, /i/ and /u/. This was later expanded to five vowels with the introduction of Spanish words. The vowels o and u are still mostly allophones, however, with u always being used when it is the beginning of a syllable and o always used when it ends a syllable. But there are some exceptions, like kamatuoran (truth) and hangtúd (until). "E" originally appeared only in a few words such as "babaye" (girl/woman), "dayeg" (praise, compliment), "parayeg" (loving), and "pangadye" (prayer) and only in last syllables as "E" was mostly an allophone of "I" in final syllables. Under the influence of Spanish, more words with e have been added with the introduction of loanwords.

The vowels are:

• /a/ an open front unrounded vowel similar to English "father".
• /ɛ/ an open-mid front unrounded vowel similar to English "bed".
• /i/ a close front unrounded vowel similar to English "machine".
• /o/ a close-mid back rounded vowel similar to English "forty".
• /u/ a close back unrounded vowel similar to English "flute".

Consonants

Below is a chart of Cebuano consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

Stress

Stress accent is phonemic, so that dápit means "to invite", while dapít means "near" or "nearby place". Consonants [d] and [ɾ] were once allophones, but cannot interchange, like kabungturan (uplands) [from bungtód, mountain] is correct but not *kabungtudan and tagadihá (from there) [from dihá, there] is correct but not *tagarihá.

Grammar

Cebuano is a language with the Verb Subject Object sentence order. Nouns and adjectives are joined by the nga connector with their order arbitrary as long as the nga connector is in between them.

Nouns

While Cebuano nouns are not inflected, they are usually preceded by case markers. There are three types of case markers: kinsa (nominative), tag-iya (genitive) and gitagan'an (oblique).

Unlike English or Spanish which are nominative-accusative languages, Cebuano is an ergative-absolutive language. This may have led to a misconception about Cebuano as being often spoken in a passive voice.

Kinsa or nominative markers mark the topic of most sentences and both the topic and complementary predicate of an equational sentence. Tag-iya or genitive markers mark the owner of the thing or the doer of an action. Gitagan'an markers are similar to prepositions in English. They mark things such as location and direction. Furthermore, noun markers are divided into two classes: one for names of people (personal) and the second for everything else (general).

Below is a chart of case markers. Mga (pronounced [maˈŋa]) marks the plural.

*Tag-iya case functions like an adjective. Sometimes an adjective acts as a complementary predicate. When a tag'iya case noun is a complementary predicate it uses kang in singular and ila ni/ilang in plural.

Examples:

Cebuano: Mga gobernador sa Pilipinas.
Governors of the Philippines.
"The governors of the Philippines."

Tagalog: Mga gobernador sa Pilipinas.

Cebuano: Init ka'ayo ang adlaw karon.
The weather is hot today.
"The weather is very hot today."

Tagalog: Ma-init ang panahon nga-yon.

Cebuano: Hain/Asa ang mga libro?.
At-where the those book?.
"Where are the books?."

Tagalog: Nasaan ang mga libro?.

Cebuano: To'a kang Presidente ang yawe.
At with the President has the keys.
"The President has the keys."

Tagalog: Naan doon ang susi ni Presidente.

Pronouns

Like nouns, personal pronouns are categorized by case.

*The two sets of tag-iya case function similarly except that the primary tag-iya would need the unifying linker nga and the modifier tag-iya cannot be used as complementary adjective.
**The final syllable of a primary tag-iya pronoun is mostly dropped.

When the pronoun is not the first word of the sentence, the short form is more commonly used than the full form.

*When the object is a second person pronoun, use ta instead of ko.

Examples:

Nisulat ko.
"I wrote."

Nag basa ko.
"I'm reading."

Nag trabaho ko
"I'm working."

Modifier tag-iya pronouns follow the word they modify. Primary tag-iya pronouns can take the place of the modifier tag-iya pronoun but they precede the word they modify.

Ang akong sakyanan.
Ang akong sakyanan.
"My vehicle."

Especial attention should be given to the short form ta. When the subject is second person it means first person singular.

Taga'an ta ka.
"I will give you"

Nakit'an ti ka gahapon sa dagat.
"I saw you at the beach yesterday."

Amigo ta ka.
"You are my friend."

The inclusive pronoun kita refers to the first and second persons. It may also refer to a number of persons.

The exclusive pronoun kamí refers to the first and a number of persons in a group.

wa ta'y klase karon
"We don't have school today."

wa 'mi libro para basahonon karon "We don't have a book to read today."

The short form is often used when the pronoun is not the first word in the sentence.

The pronouns are gender neutral, hence siyá means either he or she.

Demonstrative pronouns

Cebuano demonstrative pronouns are as follows.

*The nga- form can be replaced with the di- form so instead of ngari, nganhi, nganha, ngadto one can use diri, dinhi, dinha, didto.
**The one in parenthesis is the short form which is often used when a pronoun is not the first word in the sentence.

Examples:

Unsa ni?
What is this?.
"What's this?."

Kinsa na?.
Who's that?.
"Who is that?."

Gikan ni sa Presidente sa Filipinas, ning sulata.
From (ni=adjective) President this letter.
"This letter is from the President of the Philippines"

Mangaon sila didto.
We will eat they there.
"They will eat there."

Ni kaon na ang mga ta'o ug mga bata didto sa fiesta.
The people and children have already eaten in the festival.
"The people and children have already ate some of that in the festival."

Verbs

Cebuano verbs are morphologically complex and take on a variety of affixes reflecting focus, aspect, mode and others.

Aspect

Cebuano verbs conjugate for aspect rather than for tense. Cebuano verbs indicate whether you are still going to start the act or not going to start it anymore. There are three types of aspect: imperative, incepted and incepting.

1. imperative aspect - for giving commands.
2. incepted aspect - past actions and present actions that are not habitual. While habitual may have been started somewhere in the past or the present, the fact that you are still have to start it again in the future make it in the incepting aspect.
3. incepting aspect - future actions and habitual actions.

Examples on INCEPTED ASPECT:

Past actions
The festival was fun.
The act had been started in the past therefore the Cebuano translation is:
Alegre kaayo ang fiesta.

Present actions
We feast on delicious food and drink on beer.
The act has been started before the statement is spoken therefore the Cebuano translation is:
Ni ka'on mi ug maayo sa lami nga pagkaon ug ni inom sad mi ug beer.

Examples of Incepting Aspect

Future actions
My friend and I are going to Europe.
The act has not happened yet; therefore it has not yet started:
Ako ug ako'ang amigo mo'adto mi sa Europa.

Habitual actions
I'm going to the festival in San Fernando.
Although the act had already happened she will still have to start the same act again and again (every morning) so the act itself is still to be started or pagasugdan pa and therefore:
Mo adto ko sa fiesta sa San Fernando.

Forms

An interesting feature of verbs in Cebuano and in other Philippine languages is its orientation (forms) system. This means that the role or relationship of the topic (marked by the absolutive marker) is reflected in the verb.

There are nine common orientation types: um verbs, pag verbs, pang verbs, ka verbs, magka verbs, on verbs, an verbs, i verbs and reciprocative.

um verbs

• Form

• Function - this form is used for either of the following conditions.

1. one is emphasising that the action happen in an instance.
2. one is emphasising that the doer willed the act.

• Type of topic - the doer is the topic.

pag verbs

• Forms

• Functions - expresses actions that either.

1. happen for a duration of time.
2. do not imply doer intention.

• Type of topic - talks about the doer.

pang verbs

• Forms

• Function - pluritive form of um verbs.
• Type of topic - talks about the doer.

ka verbs

• Forms

• Function - talks about changes.
• Type of topic - the topic is the one who undergoes the change.

magka verbs

• Forms

• Function - talks about a slow but steady change.
• Type of topic - the topic is the one who undergoes the change.

reciprocating verbs

• Forms

• Function - reciprocating actions.
• Type of topic - at least two persons/things doing reciprocating actions to each other.

on verbs

• Forms

• Function - the direct object is often the topic, mostly misunderstood as similar to English passive voice.

an verbs

• Forms

• Function - the indirect object is often the topic, mostly misunderstood as similar to English passive voice.

i verbs

• Forms

• Function - the instrument used is often the topic, mostly misunderstood as similar to English passive voice.

Mood

There are several grammatical mood in Cebuano: intuitive, non-intuitive and aptative.

1. intuitive - the intuitive subject is the normal word of the verb, the one whose form you have just learned.
2. non-intuitive - the non-intuitive aspect is used to express unexpected or unintended actions. It has no imperative aspect.

1. aptative - the aptative aspect expresses the possibility of an action. Like the non-intuitive aspect, it has no imperative aspect. In the incepted aspect it implies the English perfect tenses or the have form. In the incepting aspect it implies the English can/could form.

Modifier

Cebuano adjectives (and also nouns) are linked to the word they modify by the unifying linker nga. However if nga follows a word ending in a vowel or glottal stop or the letter N, then it becomes suffixed to that word as -ng. The adjective often come before the word it modifies but it can also come after it.

Ex:
maayong buntag = a good morning
daghang ta'o = a large crowd
kosoga sa Uwan = The rain is raining very hard.

A noun however always comes after the word it modifies.

Ex:
balay nga nipa = straw/bamboo house
hangin nga habagat = southeast monsoon

Superlative are expressed by adding the affix kina—an or the particle labing. Ex:
kina'maayohan = best
kinadak'an = largest
labing'guapa = the most pretty

Comparative are express by adding the particle mas or labawng.

Enclitic particles

Cebuano has enclitic particles that have important information conveying difference nuances in meaning.

Below is a list of some enclitic particles.

1. na and pa
   • na - now, already, yet
   • pa - still, else, in addition, yet
2. man - particle used for disregarding reasons or results; even, even if, although
3. pud, sad - too, also
4. lamang (lang) - limiting particle; only or just
5. daw, kuno - a reporting particle that expresses that the information in the sentence is second-hand; they say, he said, reportedly, supposedly, etc.
6. gyud - politeness particle
7. ba - used in yes-and-no questions and optionally in other types of questions.
8. sa - for now, for a minute and yet (in negative sentences).
9. kaha - expresses wonder; I wonder; perhaps (we should do something) (also optionally used in yes-and-no questions and other forms of questions).
10. kay - expresses cause; because
11. diay - expresses that the speaker has realized or suddenly remembered something; realization particle.
12. tingali - expresses uncertainty; probably, perhaps, seems
13. unta - expresses hope, unrealized condition (with verb in incepting aspect), used in conditional sentences.

Sentences

1) equational ( topic = predicate ) ~ in this sentence type you can interchange the topic and the predicate without changing the thought of the sentence.

2) non-equational ( topic < predicate ) ~ in this sentence type the topic and the predicate are not interchangeable.

3) existential sentence of presence ~ sentences of this type tells the existence of a thing or idea.

4) existential sentence of possession. ~ sentences of this type tell about someone or something possessing something.

5) locative sentence ~ this type of sentence tells the location of a thing.

6) meteorologic sentence ~ this type of sentence tells about weather condition, noise level, etc., of a place.

7) exclamatory remark ~ praises and unexpected discoveries belong here.

8) imperatives ~ commands and requests.

9) interrogatives ~ questions that are not answerable by yes or no.

10) confirmation ~ questions that are basically answered by yes or no. Constructed sentence like the first 6 sentence type with the insertion of the particle "ba" as a second term.

Negation

There are three negation words: dili, wala and ayaw.

Dili negates adjectives, nouns and incepting verbs.

Dili ko mo trabajo ugma.
"I will not work tomorrow."

Mano roy mi.
"Were are going out."

Wala negates existentials and incepted verbs.

Init ka'ayo.
"Its hot."

Wala ko mo trabaho tibuok adlaw. "I did not work the whole day."

Ayaw is used in expressing negative commands.

Ayaw og hilak.
"Don't cry."

Ayaw mo pagdagan'dagan dinhi.
"Don't run here."

Words

• Unsa? What?
• Asa? Where? (for a place or person - present, future)
• Diin?, Dis'a? Where? (past)
• Hain?, Saa? Where? (for an object- present)
• Kinsa? Who?
• Ngano? Why?
• Kangkinsa? To whom?
• Giunsa? How?
• Kanus'a? When? (past)
• Anus'a? When? (future)
• Pila ka buok?, Pila? How many?
• Tagpila? How much?
• Diay ba? Really?

The use of asa and hain

Asa and hain—both mean where—have distinct uses in formal Cebuano usage.

Asa - is used when asking about a place.

• • Asa ka padulong? - Where are you going?
  • Asa ta molarga? - Where are we traveling to?

Hain is used when asking about a person or thing.

• • Hain na ang gunting? - Where is the pair of scissor?
  • Hain na ang papel? - Where is the paper?

In spoken Cebuano in Metro Cebu, however, asa is commonly used to replace hain. Some use hain, especially by Southern Cebu, Negros, and Mindanao Cebuano speakers. This phenomenon is analogous to Tagalog speakers not distinguishing between saan (asa) and nasaan (hain) in colloquial speech and instead using saan for both.

Vocabulary

Cebuano is a Filipino language closely related to the languages of Malaysia, Indonesia with some Latin influences. It is also a member of the Borneo-Philippine languages. It has also been influenced by thousands of words from Spanish, such as krus [cruz] (cross), swerte [suerte] ("luck"), gwapa [guapa], ("beautiful"), merkado [mercado] ("market") and brilyante [brillante] ("brilliant"). It has several hundred loan words from English as well by Cebuanos who weren't given an opportunity to go to school, which are altered to conform to the limited phonemic inventory of Cebuano: brislit (bracelet), hayskul (high school), syápin (shopping) and dráyber (driver), nonetheless, Cebuanos are good English speakers. There are also words from other languages like Arabic like Salámat ("thanks"), [Hukom or Hukm] ("judge") and Islamic words used in Mindanao like Imam, Syarip, dyihad and Islam and Sanskrit Mahárlika ("nobility") and Karma.

Numbers

Note: Shorter terms are the one mostly used.

Phrase

• How are you? - Kumusta ka?
• Good morning - Ma'ayong buntag
• Good afternoon - Ma'ayong hapon
• Good evening - Ma'ayong gabi'i
• Good bye - Adios
• Thank you - Salamat
• Where are you from? - Taga asa ka?
• How do you say... in Cebuano? - Unsa'un ni pag sulti sa Binisaya.
• How do I get to ...? - Unsa'un nako pag-adto sa...
• Do you understand? - 'Naka sabot ka?
• How is the weather? - Unsa na'ang panahon?
• What is that? - Unsa nâ?/Unsa man nâ?
• What time is it? - Unsa nang orasa?/Unsa oras na?
• Stop - Hunong.
• Don't - Ayaw
• Yes - Oo
• No - Dili
• O.k. - Sige
• Great - Maayo
• Oh (Interjection) - Sus

See also

• Cebuano grammar
• Cebuano literature

References

External links

• Ethnologue report for Cebuano
• John U. Wolff, A dictionary of Cebuano Visayan: Volume I, Volume II, at Project Gutenberg's Distributed Proofreaders
• Ang Dila Natong Bisaya
• Language Links.org - Philippine Languages to the world - Cebuano Lessons
• Language Links.org - Philippine Languages to the World
• Online E-book of Spanish-Cebuano Dictionary, published in 1898 by Fr. Felix Guillén
• Online E-book of Arte de la Lengua Zebuana, published in 1836 by Francisco Encina Agustino Calzado

Languages of the Philippines and Philippine languages National language Filipino Official languages Filipino • English Recognized regional languages Bikol • Cebuano • Chavacano (Spanish-based creole) • Hiligaynon • Ilokano • Kapampangan • Kinaray-a • Maguindanao • Maranao • Pangasinan • Tagalog • Tausug • Waray-Waray Recognized auxiliary languages Arabic • Spanish Language groups Borneo-Philippines • Northern Philippine {Northern Luzon (Batanic) • Central Luzon (Sambalic)} • Central Philippine {Bikol (Coastal • Inland • Pandan) • Visayan (Aklan • Bisakol)} • Southern Philippine (South Mindanao)