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Ilokano (variants: Ilocano, Iluko, Iloco, and Iloko) is the third most-spoken language of the Republic of the Philippines. Being an Austronesian language, it is related to such languages as Indonesian, Malay, Fijian, Maori (of New Zealand), Hawaiian, Malagasy (of Madagascar), Samoan, Tahitian,Chamorro (of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands), Tetum (of East Timor), and Paiwan (of Taiwan). History Ilokanos are descendants of Austronesian-speaking people from southern China via Taiwan. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, meaning boat. The term Ilokano originated from i-, meaning "from", and looc, meaning "cove or bay", thus "people of the bay." Ilokanos also refer to themselves as Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilokano phrase saö mi ditoy, meaning "our language here". Classification Ilokano comprises its own branch in the Philippine Cordilleran family of languages. It is spoken as a native language by eight million people. A lingua franca of the northern region, it is spoken as a secondary language by more than two million people who are native speakers of Pangasinan, Ibanag, Ivatan, and other languages in Northern Luzon. Dialects Linguists recognize two main dialect groups in Ilokano: northern and southern. The northern group of subdialects is generally characterised by the pronunciation of the vowel e as an open-mid front unrounded vowel or . This is pronounced similarly to English bed. In the southern group of subdialects, the letter e has two pronunciations. In words of Spanish and foreign origin, it is pronounced as in the northern dialect. In native Ilokano words, however, e is pronounced as a close back unrounded vowel or . This sound is found in many Philippine languages like Kinaray-a as well as non-Philippine languages such as Japanese, and Turkish. Geographic distribution Ilokanos occupy the narrow, barren strip of land in the northwestern tip of Luzon, squeezed in between the inhospitable Cordillera mountain range to the east and the South China Sea to the west. This harsh geography molded a people known for their clannishness, tenacious industry and frugality, traits that were vital for survival. It also induced Ilokanos to become a migratory people, always in search for better opportunities and for land to build a life on. Although their homeland constitutes the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur, La Union and Abra, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders. Ilokano pioneers flocked to the more fertile Cagayan Valley, Apayao mountains and the Pangasinan plains during the 18th and 19th centuries and now constitute a majority in many of these areas. In the 20th century, many Ilokano families moved further south to Mindanao. They became the first Filipino ethnic group to immigrate en masse to North America (the so-called Manong generation), forming sizable communities in the American states of Hawaii, California, Washington and Alaska. Ilokano is the native language of most of the original Filipino immigrants in the United States, but Tagalog is used by more Filipino-Americans because it is the national language of the people of the Philippines. A large, growing number of Ilokanos can also be found in the Middle East, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Canada and Europe. Pre-Colonial
Colonial After the advent of the Spanish to the islands, the syllabary was abandonded in favor of the Spanish (Castillian) version of the Latin alphabet. Modern Recently, there are 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. Nowadays, only the older generation of Ilokanos use the Spanish system. The system based on that of Tagalog is more phonetic. In this system each letter receives one phonetic value, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters ng, however, constitute a digraph and follows the letter n in alphabetization. As a result, numo humility appears before ngalngal to chew in newer dictionaries. Words of foreign origin, nost notably those from Spanish, need to be changed in spelling to better reflect Ilokano phonology. The weekly magazine Bannawag is known to use this system. System Comparison Literature Ilokano animistic past offers a rich background in folklore, mythology and superstition (see Religion in the Philippines). There are many stories of good and malevolent spirits and beings. Its creation mythology centers on the giants Aran and her husband Angngalo, and Namarsua (the Creator). The epic story Biag ni Lam-ang (The Life of Lam-ang) is undoubtedly one of the few indigenous stories from the Philippines that survived colonialism, although much of it is now acculturated and shows many foreign elements in the retelling. It reflects values important to traditional Ilokano society; it is a hero’s journey steeped in courage, loyalty, pragmatism, honor, and ancestral and familial bonds. Ilokano culture revolves around life rituals, festivities and oral history. These were celebrated in songs, dances, poems, riddles, proverbs, literary verbal jousts called bucanegan and epic stories. Vowels Modern Ilokano has a five-vowel system in the North and six-vowel system in the South. The letter in bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel. For a better redition of vowel distribution, please refer to the IPA Vowel Chart. Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions. In native morphemes, the close back rounded vowel // 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) Instances such as kitaekonto, I will take a look at it, are still consistent. Note that kitaekonto is, in fact, three morphemes: kitae(n) (verb base) , ko (pronoun) and (n)to (future particle). An exception to this rule, however, is laud , west. That said, the two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words, due to fact that // was a allophone of // in the history of the language. In words of foreign origin, notably Spanish, they are phonemic. Example: uso use oso bear The two close vowels become glides when followed by another vowel. The close back rounded vowel // becomes w}} before another vowel. The close front unrounded vowel // and becomes the glide j}} before another vowel. Example: kuarta /kwar.ta/ money paria /par.ya/ bitter melon In addition, dental/alveolar consonants become palatalized before //. (See Consonants below). The letter e represent two vowels in the Southern dialect, // in words of foreign origin and // in native words, and only one in the Northern dialect, //. Diphthongs Diphthongs are combination of a vowel and /i/ or /u/. In the orthography, the secondary vowels are written with their corresponding glide, y or w. Of all the possible combinations, only /ai/ or /ei/, /iu/, /ai/ and /ui/ occur. In the orthography, vowels in sequence such as uo and ai, do not coelesce into a diphthong, rather, they are pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, for example, buok hair // and dait sew //. Consonants All consonantal phonemes may be the syllable onset or coda. Exceptions are /h/ and . The phoneme /h/ is loaned and rarely occurs in coda position. Although, the Spanish word, reloj, clock, would come into Ilokano as The glottal stop is not permissible as coda; it can only occur as onset. Even as an oset, the glottal stop disappears in affixation. Take for example the root aramat, use. When prefixed with ag-, the expected form is Stops are pronounced without aspiration. When they occur as coda, they are not released. Syllable Every syllable has a consonant onset. Syllables that begin with a vowel have a glottal stop onset. This is not shown in the orthography. Stress Accent Stress is not shown in the orthography although it is phonemic. There are, however, combinations of syllabic weights where stress is predictable, in at least in native words. Foregin words, especially from Spanish, tend to maintain their stress contour. Grammar Ilokano employs a predicate-initial structure. Verbs and adjectives occur in the first position of the sentence, then the rest of the sentence follows. Ilokano uses a highly complex list of affixes (prefixes, suffixes, infixes and enclitics) and reduplications to indicate a wide array of grammatical categories. Learning simple root words and corresponding affixes goes a long way in forming cohesive sentences. Borrowings Ilokano's vocabulary has a closer affinity to languages from Borneo. Foreign accretion comes largely from Spanish, followed by English and smatterings of Hokkien (Min Nan), Arabic and Sanskrit. Common expressions Numbers (Bilang), Days, Months Days and months are of Spanish origin: To mention time, Ilokanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilokano: 1:00 a.m. A la una iti bigat (One in the morning) 2:30 p.m. A las dos imedia iti malem (in Spanish, Son las dos y media de la tarde or "half past two in the afternoon") More Ilokano words See also | |||||||||
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