Ilokano or
Ilocano is the
third most-spoken languageIn the Philippines, there are between 120 and 175 languages, depending on the method of classification. Four languages no longer have any known speakers. Almost all the Philippine languages belong to the Austronesian language family...
of the
Republic of the PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
An
Austronesian languageThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, it is related to such languages as
IndonesianIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
,
MalayMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
,
FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
,
MaoriMāori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
,
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
,
MalagasyMalagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
,
SamoanSamoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
,
TahitianTahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
,
ChamorroChamorro is a Malayo-Polynesian language, spoken on the Mariana Islands by about 47,000 people Chamorro (Chamorro: Fino' Chamoru or simply Chamoru) is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan) by about 47,000 people Chamorro...
, Tetum, and
PaiwanPaiwan is a native language of Taiwan, spoken by the Paiwan people, one tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines. Paiwan is a Formosan language of the Austronesian language family...
.
History
The
Ilocano peopleThe Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...
are an
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
-speaking people. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, or "boat". The term Ilocano, as commonly accepted, originates from i-, which denotes "from", and looc, meaning "cove or bay", thus giving them the name "People of the bay." Some modern scholars, however, argue that as far as the Ilocano tradition of giving names to their place of residency is concerned, the i + looc etymology is actually an exonym. These scholars suggest that the term Ilocano comes from "i-", "from", and "lucong", "the flat lands" or "the lowlands". Ilocanos also refer to themselves with the endonym Samtoy, a contraction of the phrase sao mi ditoy, meaning "this is our language".
Classification
Ilocano 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
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
,
IbanagThe Ibanag language is spoken by up to 500,000 speakers in the Philippines, in the northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, especially in Tuguegarao City, Solana, Cabagan, and Ilagan and with overseas immigrants in countries located in the Middle East, UK and the U.S.A....
,
IvatanThe Ivatan language, also known as Ibatan or Chirin nu Ibatan , is an Austronesian language spoken exclusively in the Batanes Islands...
, and other languages in Northern Luzon.
Geographic distribution
Ilocanos 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 NorteIlocos Norte is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Its capital is Laoag City and is located at the northwest corner of Luzon Island, bordering Cagayan and Apayao to the east, and Abra and Ilocos Sur to the south...
,
Ilocos SurIlocos Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Vigan City, located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the provincial capital...
,
La UnionLa Union or La Unión may refer to:-Colombia:*La Unión, Antioquia*La Unión, Nariño*La Unión, Sucre*La Unión, Valle del Cauca-Peru:*La Unión Province, Peru...
and
AbraAbra is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bangued, and it borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao on the north, Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province on the south, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur on the west, and Kalinga, and Apayao on the...
, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders.
Ilocano migrants flocked to the more fertile
CagayanCagayan , the "Land of Smiling Beauty", is a province of the Philippines in the Cagayan Valley region in Luzon. Its capital is Tuguegarao City and is located at the northeastern corner of the island of Luzon. Cagayan also includes the Babuyan Islands to the north. The province borders Ilocos Norte...
Valley,
ApayaoApayao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its administrative capital is Luna and founding capital Kabugao. It borders Cagayan to the north and east, Abra and Ilocos Norte to the west, and Kalinga to the south...
mountains and the
PangasinanPangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the west central and peripheral area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf, with the total land area being 5,368.82 square kilometers . According to the latest census,...
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 to
Metro ManilaMetropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
and further south to
MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, specificlly in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sarangani, and the Zamboanga Peninsula but the bulk mostly settled in Sultan Kudarat Province. 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
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Washington and
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. 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 basis for Filipino, the national language of the people of the Philippines.
A large, growing number of Ilokanos can also be found in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Writing system
Pre-Colonial
Pre-colonial Ilocanos of all classes wrote in a syllabic system prior to European arrival. They used a system that is termed as an
abugidaAn abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
, or an alphasyllabary. It was similar to the
TagalogBaybayin , is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system. It is a member of the Brahmic family and is recorded as being in use in the 16th century...
and
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
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
viramaVirama is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end"...
- 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 the vowel was read or not, due to this vowels "e" and "i" are interchangeables and letters "o" and "u", for instance "tendera" and tindira" (shop-assistant)
Modern
In recent times, there have been two systems in use: The "Spanish" system and the "Taglish" 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 Ilocanos use the Spanish system.
The system based on that of Taglish is believed to be more phonetic although the spanish system is also totally phonetic although it contains some regular exceptions such us the silent "u" after "q" sound. Each letter receives one phonetic value, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters ng, however, constitute a
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
and counts 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. The weekly magazine
BannawagBannawag is a Philippine weekly magazine published in the Philippines by Liwayway Publications Inc. It contains serialized novels/comics, short stories, poetry, essays, news features, entertainment news and articles, among others, that are written in Ilokano, a language common in the northern...
is known to use this system.
Samples of the two systems
The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Taglish-based system.
- Amami, ñga addaca sadi lañgit,
- Madaydayao coma ti Naganmo.
- Umay cuma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid cuma ti pagayatam
- Cas sadi lañgit casta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo cadacam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldao.
- Quet pacaoanennacami cadaguiti ut-utangmi,
- A cas met panamacaoanmi
- Cadaguiti nacautang cadacami.
- Quet dinacam iyeg iti pannacasulisog,
- No di quet isalacannacami iti daques.
- Amami, nga addaka sadi langit,
- Madaydayaw koma ti Naganmo.
- Umay koma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid koma ti pagayatam
- Kas sadi langit kasta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo kadakam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldaw.
- Ket pakawanennakami kadagiti ut-utangmi,
- A kas met panamakawanmi
- Kadagiti nakautang kadakami.
- Ket dinakam iyeg iti pannakasulisog,
- No di ket isalakannakami iti dakes.
Ilokano and education
With the implementation of the
Bilingual EducationBilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
System of 1897, Ilocano, together with the other seven
major languagesThe Philippine languages are a 1991 proposal by Robert Blust that all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi—except Sama–Bajaw and a few languages of Palawan—form a subfamily of Austronesian languages...
(those that have at least a million speakers), was allowed to be used as a medium of instruction until the second grade. It is recognized by the Commission on the Filipino Language as one of the major languages of the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an auxiliary official language in the
regionsIn the Philippines, regions are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines is divided into 17 regions...
where it is spoken and serves as auxiliary media of instruction therein.
In recent years, a movement in both the Lower and the Upper House of the Congress pressed for the usage of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction until the sixth grade.
Literature
Ilocano animistic past offers a rich background in folklore, mythology and superstition (see
Religion in the PhilippinesReligion in the Philippines are spiritual beliefs held by Philippine citizens. Religion holds a central place in the life of the majority of Filipinos, including Hindus, Buddhists, animists, Muslims, Aglipayans,Protestant and Catholic...
). 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.
Ilocano culture revolves around life rituals, festivities and oral history. These were celebrated in songs (kankanta), dances (sala), poems (daniw), riddles (burburtia), proverbs (pagsasao), literary verbal jousts called bucanegan (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs) and epic stories.
Vowels
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
Abagatan (Southern) Dialect employs six.
- Amianan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/
- Abagatan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɯ/
The letter in
bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel.
caption | Ilokano Vowel Chart
| Height |
Front |
Central |
Back |
| Close |
i /i/ |
|
e /ɯ/, u/o /u/ |
| Mid |
e /ɛ/ |
|
o /o/ |
| Open |
|
a /a/ |
|
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].
Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.
O/U and I/E
In native morphemes, the
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the
ultima-Games:* Ultima , a series of video games* Ultima Online, a 1997 MMORPG video game* Baroque chess, known in the northeastern region of the United States as "Ultima"...
of the morpheme, it is written
o; elsewhere,
u.
Example:
Root:
luto cook
agluto to cook
lutuen to cook (something)
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).
That said, the two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words, due to fact that /o/ was an
allophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
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
glideIn phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s when followed by another vowel. The
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ becomes [w] before another vowel; and the
close front unrounded vowelThe close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
/i/, [j].
Example:
kuarta /kwaɾ.ta/ money
paria /paɾ.ja/ bitter melon
In addition,
dental/
alveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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.ˈtɛŋ] but bangir (other side) and parabur (grace) are pronounced [ˈba.ŋiɾ] and [pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ].
Amianan and Abagatan pronunciation of /e/
The letter
e represent two vowels in the Abagatan (Southern) dialect, /ɛ/ in words of foreign origin and /ɯ/ in native words, and only one in the Amianan (Northern) dialect, /ɛ/.
caption|Realization of 'e'
| Word |
Gloss |
Origin |
Amianan Dialect |
Abagatan Dialect |
| keddeng |
assign |
Native |
kɛd.dɛŋ |
kɯd.dɯŋ |
| elepante |
elephant |
Spanish |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
Diphthongs
Ilokano or
Ilocano (Ilocano: Ti Pagsasao nga Iloco; also Ilocano, Iluko, Iloco, Iloco, Ylocano, and Yloco) is the
third most-spoken languageIn the Philippines, there are between 120 and 175 languages, depending on the method of classification. Four languages no longer have any known speakers. Almost all the Philippine languages belong to the Austronesian language family...
of the
Republic of the PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
An
Austronesian languageThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, it is related to such languages as
IndonesianIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
,
MalayMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
,
FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
,
MaoriMāori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
,
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
,
MalagasyMalagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
,
SamoanSamoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
,
TahitianTahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
,
ChamorroChamorro is a Malayo-Polynesian language, spoken on the Mariana Islands by about 47,000 people Chamorro (Chamorro: Fino' Chamoru or simply Chamoru) is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan) by about 47,000 people Chamorro...
, Tetum, and
PaiwanPaiwan is a native language of Taiwan, spoken by the Paiwan people, one tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines. Paiwan is a Formosan language of the Austronesian language family...
.
History
The
Ilocano peopleThe Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...
are an
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
-speaking people. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, or "boat". The term Ilocano, as commonly accepted, originates from i-, which denotes "from", and looc, meaning "cove or bay", thus giving them the name "People of the bay." Some modern scholars, however, argue that as far as the Ilocano tradition of giving names to their place of residency is concerned, the i + looc etymology is actually an exonym. These scholars suggest that the term Ilocano comes from "i-", "from", and "lucong", "the flat lands" or "the lowlands". Ilocanos also refer to themselves with the endonym Samtoy, a contraction of the phrase sao mi ditoy, meaning "this is our language".
Classification
Ilocano 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
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
,
IbanagThe Ibanag language is spoken by up to 500,000 speakers in the Philippines, in the northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, especially in Tuguegarao City, Solana, Cabagan, and Ilagan and with overseas immigrants in countries located in the Middle East, UK and the U.S.A....
,
IvatanThe Ivatan language, also known as Ibatan or Chirin nu Ibatan , is an Austronesian language spoken exclusively in the Batanes Islands...
, and other languages in Northern Luzon.
Geographic distribution
Ilocanos 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 NorteIlocos Norte is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Its capital is Laoag City and is located at the northwest corner of Luzon Island, bordering Cagayan and Apayao to the east, and Abra and Ilocos Sur to the south...
,
Ilocos SurIlocos Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Vigan City, located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the provincial capital...
,
La UnionLa Union or La Unión may refer to:-Colombia:*La Unión, Antioquia*La Unión, Nariño*La Unión, Sucre*La Unión, Valle del Cauca-Peru:*La Unión Province, Peru...
and
AbraAbra is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bangued, and it borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao on the north, Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province on the south, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur on the west, and Kalinga, and Apayao on the...
, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders.
Ilocano migrants flocked to the more fertile
CagayanCagayan , the "Land of Smiling Beauty", is a province of the Philippines in the Cagayan Valley region in Luzon. Its capital is Tuguegarao City and is located at the northeastern corner of the island of Luzon. Cagayan also includes the Babuyan Islands to the north. The province borders Ilocos Norte...
Valley,
ApayaoApayao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its administrative capital is Luna and founding capital Kabugao. It borders Cagayan to the north and east, Abra and Ilocos Norte to the west, and Kalinga to the south...
mountains and the
PangasinanPangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the west central and peripheral area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf, with the total land area being 5,368.82 square kilometers . According to the latest census,...
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 to
Metro ManilaMetropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
and further south to
MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, specificlly in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sarangani, and the Zamboanga Peninsula but the bulk mostly settled in Sultan Kudarat Province. 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
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Washington and
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. 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 basis for Filipino, the national language of the people of the Philippines.
A large, growing number of Ilokanos can also be found in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Writing system
Pre-Colonial
Pre-colonial Ilocanos of all classes wrote in a syllabic system prior to European arrival. They used a system that is termed as an
abugidaAn abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
, or an alphasyllabary. It was similar to the
TagalogBaybayin , is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system. It is a member of the Brahmic family and is recorded as being in use in the 16th century...
and
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
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
viramaVirama is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end"...
- 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 the vowel was read or not, due to this vowels "e" and "i" are interchangeables and letters "o" and "u", for instance "tendera" and tindira" (shop-assistant)
Modern
In recent times, there have been two systems in use: The "Spanish" system and the "Taglish" 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 Ilocanos use the Spanish system.
The system based on that of Taglish is believed to be more phonetic although the spanish system is also totally phonetic although it contains some regular exceptions such us the silent "u" after "q" sound. Each letter receives one phonetic value, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters ng, however, constitute a
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
and counts 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. The weekly magazine
BannawagBannawag is a Philippine weekly magazine published in the Philippines by Liwayway Publications Inc. It contains serialized novels/comics, short stories, poetry, essays, news features, entertainment news and articles, among others, that are written in Ilokano, a language common in the northern...
is known to use this system.
Samples of the two systems
The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Taglish-based system.
- Amami, ñga addaca sadi lañgit,
- Madaydayao coma ti Naganmo.
- Umay cuma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid cuma ti pagayatam
- Cas sadi lañgit casta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo cadacam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldao.
- Quet pacaoanennacami cadaguiti ut-utangmi,
- A cas met panamacaoanmi
- Cadaguiti nacautang cadacami.
- Quet dinacam iyeg iti pannacasulisog,
- No di quet isalacannacami iti daques.
- Amami, nga addaka sadi langit,
- Madaydayaw koma ti Naganmo.
- Umay koma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid koma ti pagayatam
- Kas sadi langit kasta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo kadakam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldaw.
- Ket pakawanennakami kadagiti ut-utangmi,
- A kas met panamakawanmi
- Kadagiti nakautang kadakami.
- Ket dinakam iyeg iti pannakasulisog,
- No di ket isalakannakami iti dakes.
Ilokano and education
With the implementation of the
Bilingual EducationBilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
System of 1897, Ilocano, together with the other seven
major languagesThe Philippine languages are a 1991 proposal by Robert Blust that all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi—except Sama–Bajaw and a few languages of Palawan—form a subfamily of Austronesian languages...
(those that have at least a million speakers), was allowed to be used as a medium of instruction until the second grade. It is recognized by the Commission on the Filipino Language as one of the major languages of the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an auxiliary official language in the
regionsIn the Philippines, regions are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines is divided into 17 regions...
where it is spoken and serves as auxiliary media of instruction therein.
In recent years, a movement in both the Lower and the Upper House of the Congress pressed for the usage of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction until the sixth grade.
Literature
Ilocano animistic past offers a rich background in folklore, mythology and superstition (see
Religion in the PhilippinesReligion in the Philippines are spiritual beliefs held by Philippine citizens. Religion holds a central place in the life of the majority of Filipinos, including Hindus, Buddhists, animists, Muslims, Aglipayans,Protestant and Catholic...
). 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.
Ilocano culture revolves around life rituals, festivities and oral history. These were celebrated in songs (kankanta), dances (sala), poems (daniw), riddles (burburtia), proverbs (pagsasao), literary verbal jousts called bucanegan (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs) and epic stories.
Vowels
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
Abagatan (Southern) Dialect employs six.
- Amianan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/
- Abagatan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɯ/
The letter in
bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel.
caption | Ilokano Vowel Chart
| Height |
Front |
Central |
Back |
| Close |
i /i/ |
|
e /ɯ/, u/o /u/ |
| Mid |
e /ɛ/ |
|
o /o/ |
| Open |
|
a /a/ |
|
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].
Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.
O/U and I/E
In native morphemes, the
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the
ultima-Games:* Ultima , a series of video games* Ultima Online, a 1997 MMORPG video game* Baroque chess, known in the northeastern region of the United States as "Ultima"...
of the morpheme, it is written
o; elsewhere,
u.
Example:
Root:
luto cook
agluto to cook
lutuen to cook (something)
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).
That said, the two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words, due to fact that /o/ was an
allophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
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
glideIn phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s when followed by another vowel. The
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ becomes [w] before another vowel; and the
close front unrounded vowelThe close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
/i/, [j].
Example:
kuarta /kwaɾ.ta/ money
paria /paɾ.ja/ bitter melon
In addition,
dental/
alveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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.ˈtɛŋ] but bangir (other side) and parabur (grace) are pronounced [ˈba.ŋiɾ] and [pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ].
Amianan and Abagatan pronunciation of /e/
The letter
e represent two vowels in the Abagatan (Southern) dialect, /ɛ/ in words of foreign origin and /ɯ/ in native words, and only one in the Amianan (Northern) dialect, /ɛ/.
caption|Realization of 'e'
| Word |
Gloss |
Origin |
Amianan Dialect |
Abagatan Dialect |
| keddeng |
assign |
Native |
kɛd.dɛŋ |
kɯd.dɯŋ |
| elepante |
elephant |
Spanish |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
Diphthongs
Ilokano or
Ilocano (Ilocano: Ti Pagsasao nga Iloco; also Ilocano, Iluko, Iloco, Iloco, Ylocano, and Yloco) is the
third most-spoken languageIn the Philippines, there are between 120 and 175 languages, depending on the method of classification. Four languages no longer have any known speakers. Almost all the Philippine languages belong to the Austronesian language family...
of the
Republic of the PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
.
An
Austronesian languageThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
, it is related to such languages as
IndonesianIndonesian is the official language of Indonesia. Indonesian is a normative form of the Riau Islands dialect of Malay, an Austronesian language which has been used as a lingua franca in the Indonesian archipelago for centuries....
,
MalayMalay is a major language of the Austronesian family. It is the official language of Malaysia , Indonesia , Brunei and Singapore...
,
FijianFijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 450,000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language...
,
MaoriMāori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
,
HawaiianThe Hawaiian language is a Polynesian language that takes its name from Hawaii, the largest island in the tropical North Pacific archipelago where it developed. Hawaiian, along with English, is an official language of the state of Hawaii...
,
MalagasyMalagasy is the national language of Madagascar, a member of the Austronesian family of languages. Most people in Madagascar speak it as a first language as do some people of Malagasy descent elsewhere.-History:...
,
SamoanSamoan Samoan Samoan (Gagana Sāmoa, is the language of the Samoan Islands, comprising the independent country of Samoa and the United States territory of American Samoa. It is an official language—alongside English—in both jurisdictions. Samoan, a Polynesian language, is the first language for most...
,
TahitianTahitian is an indigenous language spoken mainly in the Society Islands in French Polynesia. It is an Eastern Polynesian language closely related to the other indigenous languages spoken in French Polynesia: Marquesan, Tuamotuan, Mangarevan, and Austral Islands languages...
,
ChamorroChamorro is a Malayo-Polynesian language, spoken on the Mariana Islands by about 47,000 people Chamorro (Chamorro: Fino' Chamoru or simply Chamoru) is a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language, spoken on the Mariana Islands (Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan) by about 47,000 people Chamorro...
, Tetum, and
PaiwanPaiwan is a native language of Taiwan, spoken by the Paiwan people, one tribe of the Taiwanese aborigines. Paiwan is a Formosan language of the Austronesian language family...
.
History
The
Ilocano peopleThe Ilocano or Ilokano people are the third largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. Aside from being referred to as Ilocanos, from "i"-from, and "looc"-bay, they also refer to themselves as Samtoy, from the Ilocano phrase "sao mi ditoy", meaning 'our language here.' The word "Ilocano" came from...
are an
AustronesianThe Austronesian languages are a language family widely dispersed throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and the Pacific, with a few members spoken on continental Asia that are spoken by about 386 million people. It is on par with Indo-European, Niger-Congo, Afroasiatic and Uralic as one of the...
-speaking people. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, or "boat". The term Ilocano, as commonly accepted, originates from i-, which denotes "from", and looc, meaning "cove or bay", thus giving them the name "People of the bay." Some modern scholars, however, argue that as far as the Ilocano tradition of giving names to their place of residency is concerned, the i + looc etymology is actually an exonym. These scholars suggest that the term Ilocano comes from "i-", "from", and "lucong", "the flat lands" or "the lowlands". Ilocanos also refer to themselves with the endonym Samtoy, a contraction of the phrase sao mi ditoy, meaning "this is our language".
Classification
Ilocano 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
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
,
IbanagThe Ibanag language is spoken by up to 500,000 speakers in the Philippines, in the northeastern provinces of Isabela and Cagayan, especially in Tuguegarao City, Solana, Cabagan, and Ilagan and with overseas immigrants in countries located in the Middle East, UK and the U.S.A....
,
IvatanThe Ivatan language, also known as Ibatan or Chirin nu Ibatan , is an Austronesian language spoken exclusively in the Batanes Islands...
, and other languages in Northern Luzon.
Geographic distribution
Ilocanos 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 NorteIlocos Norte is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Its capital is Laoag City and is located at the northwest corner of Luzon Island, bordering Cagayan and Apayao to the east, and Abra and Ilocos Sur to the south...
,
Ilocos SurIlocos Sur is a province of the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region in Luzon. Vigan City, located on the mouth of the Mestizo River is the provincial capital...
,
La UnionLa Union or La Unión may refer to:-Colombia:*La Unión, Antioquia*La Unión, Nariño*La Unión, Sucre*La Unión, Valle del Cauca-Peru:*La Unión Province, Peru...
and
AbraAbra is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Bangued, and it borders Ilocos Norte and Apayao on the north, Ilocos Sur and Mountain Province on the south, Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur on the west, and Kalinga, and Apayao on the...
, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders.
Ilocano migrants flocked to the more fertile
CagayanCagayan , the "Land of Smiling Beauty", is a province of the Philippines in the Cagayan Valley region in Luzon. Its capital is Tuguegarao City and is located at the northeastern corner of the island of Luzon. Cagayan also includes the Babuyan Islands to the north. The province borders Ilocos Norte...
Valley,
ApayaoApayao is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its administrative capital is Luna and founding capital Kabugao. It borders Cagayan to the north and east, Abra and Ilocos Norte to the west, and Kalinga to the south...
mountains and the
PangasinanPangasinan is a province of the Republic of the Philippines. The provincial capital is Lingayen. Pangasinan is located on the west central and peripheral area of the island of Luzon along the Lingayen Gulf, with the total land area being 5,368.82 square kilometers . According to the latest census,...
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 to
Metro ManilaMetropolitan Manila , the National Capital Region , or simply Metro Manila, is the metropolitan region encompassing the City of Manila and its surrounding areas in the Philippines...
and further south to
MindanaoMindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also the name of one of the three island groups in the country, which consists of the island of Mindanao and smaller surrounding islands. The other two are Luzon and the Visayas. The island of Mindanao is called The...
, specificlly in North Cotabato, South Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sarangani, and the Zamboanga Peninsula but the bulk mostly settled in Sultan Kudarat Province. 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
HawaiiHawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, Washington and
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
. 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 basis for Filipino, the national language of the people of the Philippines.
A large, growing number of Ilokanos can also be found in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
,
Hong KongHong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
,
JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
,
South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
,
SingaporeSingapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
and
EuropeEurope is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
Writing system
Pre-Colonial
Pre-colonial Ilocanos of all classes wrote in a syllabic system prior to European arrival. They used a system that is termed as an
abugidaAn abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
, or an alphasyllabary. It was similar to the
TagalogBaybayin , is a pre-Spanish Philippine writing system. It is a member of the Brahmic family and is recorded as being in use in the 16th century...
and
PangasinanThe Pangasinan language or Pangasinense is one of the twelve major languages in the Philippines....
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
viramaVirama is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit for "cessation, termination, end"...
- 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 the vowel was read or not, due to this vowels "e" and "i" are interchangeables and letters "o" and "u", for instance "tendera" and tindira" (shop-assistant)
Modern
In recent times, there have been two systems in use: The "Spanish" system and the "Taglish" 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 Ilocanos use the Spanish system.
The system based on that of Taglish is believed to be more phonetic although the spanish system is also totally phonetic although it contains some regular exceptions such us the silent "u" after "q" sound. Each letter receives one phonetic value, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters ng, however, constitute a
digraphA digraph or digram is a pair of characters used to write one phoneme or a sequence of phonemes that does not correspond to the normal values of the two characters combined...
and counts 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. The weekly magazine
BannawagBannawag is a Philippine weekly magazine published in the Philippines by Liwayway Publications Inc. It contains serialized novels/comics, short stories, poetry, essays, news features, entertainment news and articles, among others, that are written in Ilokano, a language common in the northern...
is known to use this system.
Samples of the two systems
The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Taglish-based system.
- Amami, ñga addaca sadi lañgit,
- Madaydayao coma ti Naganmo.
- Umay cuma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid cuma ti pagayatam
- Cas sadi lañgit casta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo cadacam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldao.
- Quet pacaoanennacami cadaguiti ut-utangmi,
- A cas met panamacaoanmi
- Cadaguiti nacautang cadacami.
- Quet dinacam iyeg iti pannacasulisog,
- No di quet isalacannacami iti daques.
- Amami, nga addaka sadi langit,
- Madaydayaw koma ti Naganmo.
- Umay koma ti pagariam.
- Maaramid koma ti pagayatam
- Kas sadi langit kasta met ditoy daga.
- Itedmo kadakam ita ti taraonmi iti inaldaw.
- Ket pakawanennakami kadagiti ut-utangmi,
- A kas met panamakawanmi
- Kadagiti nakautang kadakami.
- Ket dinakam iyeg iti pannakasulisog,
- No di ket isalakannakami iti dakes.
Ilokano and education
With the implementation of the
Bilingual EducationBilingual education involves teaching academic content in two languages, in a native and secondary language with varying amounts of each language used in accordance with the program model.-Bilingual education program models:...
System of 1897, Ilocano, together with the other seven
major languagesThe Philippine languages are a 1991 proposal by Robert Blust that all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi—except Sama–Bajaw and a few languages of Palawan—form a subfamily of Austronesian languages...
(those that have at least a million speakers), was allowed to be used as a medium of instruction until the second grade. It is recognized by the Commission on the Filipino Language as one of the major languages of the
PhilippinesThe Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an auxiliary official language in the
regionsIn the Philippines, regions are administrative divisions that serve primarily to organize the provinces of the country for administrative convenience. Currently, the archipelagic republic of the Philippines is divided into 17 regions...
where it is spoken and serves as auxiliary media of instruction therein.
In recent years, a movement in both the Lower and the Upper House of the Congress pressed for the usage of the mother tongue as a medium of instruction until the sixth grade.
Literature
Ilocano animistic past offers a rich background in folklore, mythology and superstition (see
Religion in the PhilippinesReligion in the Philippines are spiritual beliefs held by Philippine citizens. Religion holds a central place in the life of the majority of Filipinos, including Hindus, Buddhists, animists, Muslims, Aglipayans,Protestant and Catholic...
). 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.
Ilocano culture revolves around life rituals, festivities and oral history. These were celebrated in songs (kankanta), dances (sala), poems (daniw), riddles (burburtia), proverbs (pagsasao), literary verbal jousts called bucanegan (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs) and epic stories.
Vowels
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
Abagatan (Southern) Dialect employs six.
- Amianan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/
- Abagatan: /a/, /i/, /u/, /ɛ/, /o/, /ɯ/
The letter in
bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel.
caption | Ilokano Vowel Chart
| Height |
Front |
Central |
Back |
| Close |
i /i/ |
|
e /ɯ/, u/o /u/ |
| Mid |
e /ɛ/ |
|
o /o/ |
| Open |
|
a /a/ |
|
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].
Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.
O/U and I/E
In native morphemes, the
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the
ultima-Games:* Ultima , a series of video games* Ultima Online, a 1997 MMORPG video game* Baroque chess, known in the northeastern region of the United States as "Ultima"...
of the morpheme, it is written
o; elsewhere,
u.
Example:
Root:
luto cook
agluto to cook
lutuen to cook (something)
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).
That said, the two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words, due to fact that /o/ was an
allophoneIn phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
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
glideIn phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s when followed by another vowel. The
close back rounded vowelThe close back rounded vowel, or high back rounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is u....
/u/ becomes [w] before another vowel; and the
close front unrounded vowelThe close front unrounded vowel, or high front unrounded vowel, is a type of vowel sound, used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ....
/i/, [j].
Example:
kuarta /kwaɾ.ta/ money
paria /paɾ.ja/ bitter melon
In addition,
dental/
alveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
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.ˈtɛŋ] but bangir (other side) and parabur (grace) are pronounced [ˈba.ŋiɾ] and [pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ].
Amianan and Abagatan pronunciation of /e/
The letter
e represent two vowels in the Abagatan (Southern) dialect, /ɛ/ in words of foreign origin and /ɯ/ in native words, and only one in the Amianan (Northern) dialect, /ɛ/.
caption|Realization of 'e'
| Word |
Gloss |
Origin |
Amianan Dialect |
Abagatan Dialect |
| keddeng |
assign |
Native |
kɛd.dɛŋ |
kɯd.dɯŋ |
| elepante |
elephant |
Spanish |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ |
Diphthongs
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/, /aj/ and /uj/ occur. In the
orthographyThe orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one 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 /bʊ.ʔuk/ and
dait sew /da.ʔit/.
caption|Diphthongs
| Diphthong |
Orthography |
Example |
| /au/ |
aw |
kabaw "senile" |
| /iu/ |
iw |
iliw "home sick" |
| /ai/ |
ay |
maysa "one" |
| /ei/ |
ey |
idiey "there" (Regional variant. Standard: "idiay") |
| /oi/, /ui/ |
oy, uy |
baboy "pig" |
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.ˈpui/ and baboy (pig) may be pronounced /ˈba.bui/.
Consonants
|
BilabialIn phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
|
Dental /
AlveolarAlveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth...
|
PalatalPalatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate...
|
VelarVelars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum)....
|
GlottalGlottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider...
|
| Stops In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &...
|
Voiceless |
p |
t |
|
k |
(#∅ V/∅V∅/C-V)[ʔ] |
| Voiced |
b |
d |
|
g |
|
| Affricates Affricates are consonants that begin as stops but release as a fricative rather than directly into the following vowel.- Samples :...
|
Voiceless |
|
|
(ts, tiV) [tʃ] |
|
|
| Voiced |
|
|
(diV) [dʒ] |
|
|
| Fricatives Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or...
|
|
s |
(siV) [ʃ] |
|
h |
| Nasals A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
|
m |
n |
(niV) [nj] |
ng [ŋ] |
|
LateralsA lateral is an el-like consonant, in which airstream proceeds along the sides of the tongue, but is blocked by the tongue from going through the middle of the mouth....
|
|
l |
(liV) [lj] |
|
|
| Flaps The alveolar flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar flaps is .-Definition:...
|
|
r [ɾ] |
|
|
|
| Trills The alveolar trill is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents dental, alveolar, and postalveolar trills is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is r. It is commonly called the rolled R, rolling R, or trilled R...
|
|
(rr [r]) |
|
|
|
| Semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel is a sound, such as English or , that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary rather than as the nucleus of a syllable.-Classification:...
s |
(w, CuV) w |
|
(y, CiV) [j] |
|
|
All consonantal phonemes except are /h, ʔ/ may be a syllable
onsetOnset may refer to:*Onset , the beginning of a musical note or sound*Interonset interval, a term in music*Syllable onset, a term in phonetics and phonology*Onset, Massachusetts, village in the United States...
or
codaIn phonology, a syllable coda comprises the consonant sounds of a syllable that follow the nucleus, which is usually a vowel. The combination of a nucleus and a coda is called a rime. Some syllables consist only of a nucleus with no coda...
. The phoneme /h/ is a borrowed sound 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
FrenchThis article mainly discusses the phonological system of standard French based on the Parisian dialect. French is notable for its uvular r, nasal vowels, and three processes affecting word-final sounds: liaison, a certain type of sandhi, wherein word-final consonants are not pronounced unless...
, 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, use. When prefixed with
ag-, the expected form is *
ag-aramat /ʔɐɡ.ʔɐ.ra.mat/. But, the actual form is, in fact,
agaramat /ʔɐ.ɡɐ.ra.mat/; the glottal stop disappears. In a reduplicated form, the glottal stop returns and participates in the template, CVC,
agar-aramat /ʔɐ.ɡar.ʔɐ.ra.mat/.
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-Austonesian */G/, compare
dugô (Tagalog) and
dara (Ilokano) blood.
The language marginally has a trill [r] which was spelled as “rr”, for example,
serrek [sɛ.ˈrɛk] to enter. 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].
Lexical
Stress is phonemic or lexical in Ilokano. This results in
minimal pairIn phonology, minimal pairs are pairs of words or phrases in a particular language, which differ in only one phonological element, such as a phone, phoneme, toneme or chroneme and have distinct meanings...
s such as
káyo (wood) and
kayó (you (plural or polite)) or
kíta (class, type, kind) and
kitá (see). In written Ilokano, stress is not indicated, thus
kayo and
kita.
Regardless of that fact, phonemic patterns can be found that give a good indication how to determine the primary stress of a given root.
Pitch
Primary stressed syllables are lower in pitch compared to the rest of the prosodic word.
Grammar
Ilokano is typified by 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
reduplicationReduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
s 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
BorneoBorneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....
. Foreign accretion comes largely from
SpanishSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
, followed by
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
and smatterings of Hokkien (
Min NanThe Southern Min languages, or Min Nan , are a family of Chinese languages spoken in southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, Taiwan, and southern Zhejiang provinces of China, and by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora....
),
ArabicArabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
and
SanskritSanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
.
Examples of Borrowing
| Word | Source | Original Meaning | Ilokano meaning |
| arak |
Persian |
drink similar to sake |
generic alcoholic drink |
| karma |
Sanskrit |
deed (see BuddhismBuddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...
) |
spirit |
| sanglay |
Hokkien |
to deliver goods |
to deliver/Chinese merchant |
| agbuldos |
English |
to bulldoze |
to bulldoze |
| kuarta |
Spanish |
cuarta ("quarter", a kind of copper coin) |
money |
| kumusta |
Spanish |
greeting: ¿Cómo está? ("How are you?") |
how are you |
Common expressions
| English | Ilokano |
| Yes |
Wen |
| No |
Saan
Haan
Madi |
| How are you? |
Kumusta ka?
Kumusta kayo? (polite and plural) |
| Good day |
Naimbag nga aldaw.
Naimbag nga aldawyo. (polite and plural) |
| Good morning |
Naimbag a bigatmo.
Naimbag a bigatyo. (polite and plural) |
| Good afternoon |
Naimbag a malemmo.
Naimbag a malemyo. (polite and plural) |
| Good evening |
Naimbag a rabiim.
Naimbag a rabiiyo. (polite and plural) |
| What is your name? |
Ania ti naganmo? (often contracted to Aniat' naganmo? or Ana't naganmo)
Ania ti naganyo? |
| Where's the bathroom? |
Ayanna ti banio? |
| I cannot understand |
Diak matarusan/maawatan.
Saanko maawatan (or Saanko nga maawatan). |
| I love you |
Ay-ayatenka.
Ipatpategka. |
| I'm sorry. |
Pakawanen nak.
Dispensaren nak. |
| Thanks |
Agyamannak apu |
| Goodbye. |
Agpakadaakon.
Kastan/Kasta pay. (Till then)
Sige. (Okay)
Innakon. (I'm going)
Inkamin. (We are going)
|
Numbers (Bilang)
Ilokano uses two number systems, one native and the other derived from Spanish.
Numbers
| 0 |
ibbong
awan (lit. none)
sero (English zero)
itlog (slang egg) |
sero |
| 0.25 (1/4) |
kakapat |
|
| 0.50 (1/2) |
kagudua |
|
| 1 |
maysa |
uno |
| 2 |
dua |
dos |
| 3 |
tallo |
tres |
| 4 |
uppat |
cuatro |
| 5 |
lima |
cinco |
| 6 |
innem |
sais |
| 7 |
pito |
siete |
| 8 |
walo |
ocho |
| 9 |
siam |
nuebe |
| 10 |
sangapulo (lit. a group of ten) |
dies |
| 11 |
sangapulo ket maysa |
onse |
| 20 |
duapulo |
bainte |
| 50 |
limapulo |
cincuenta |
| 100 |
sangagasut (lit. a group of one hundred) |
cien, ciento |
| 1,000 |
sangaribo (lit. a group of one thousand) |
mil |
| 10,000 |
sangalaksa (lit. a group of ten thousand) |
dies mil |
| 1,000,000 |
sangariwriw (lit. a group of one million) |
milion |
| 1,000,000,000 |
sangabilion (American English, billion) |
bilion |
Ilokano uses a mixture of native and Spanish numbers. Traditionally Ilokano 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?)
- Beintiuno.
- 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.
Ilokano:
- Mano a kilo ti bagas ti kayatmo?
- How many kilos of rice do you want?
- Sangapulo laeng.
- Ten only.
- Adda dua nga ikan kenkuana.
- He has two fish. (lit. There are two fish with him.)
Days of the week (Aldaw ti Lawas)
Days of the week are directly borrowed from Spanish.
Days of the Week
| Monday |
Lunes |
| Tuesday |
Martes |
| Wednesday |
Mierkoles |
| Thursday |
Huebes |
| Friday |
Biernes |
| Saturday |
Sabado |
| Sunday |
Domingo |
Months (Bulan)
Like the days of the week, the names of the months are taken from Spanish.
Months
| January |
Enero |
|
July |
Hulio |
| February |
Pebrero |
|
August |
Agosto |
| March |
Marso |
|
September |
Septiembre |
| April |
Abril |
|
October |
Oktubre |
| May |
Mayo |
|
November |
Nobiembre |
| June |
Hunio |
|
December |
|
Units of time
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.
Units of time
| second |
kanito
segundo |
| minute |
daras
minuto |
| hour |
oras |
| day |
aldaw |
| week |
lawas
dominggo (lit. Sunday) |
| month |
bulan |
| year |
tawen
anio |
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
- ading = younger brother/sister
- awan = none
- adda = there is
- al-alia = ghost/spirit
- ama = father
- apan = to go
- apay = why
- apong = grandparent
- apong baket = grandmother
- an-nay! = ouch!
- aso = dog
- aysus! = oh, Jesus/oh, my God!
- apong lakay = grandfather
- babae = female
- baboy = pig
- bado = clothing / attire
- badok = traditional jendo martial arts uniform/my attire/my uniform/my clothing
- baket = old women / wife
- balla (or bagtit, which is the most usable word) = crazy
- bangsit = stink
- baro = boy
- basang = girl
- (ag)basa = (to) read
- bassit= small
- basol = fault, wrongdoing, sin
- bisin = hunger
- (ag)buya = (to) watch
- dadael = destroy/ruin
- damdama = later
- digos = bath
- buneng = bladed tool / sword
- gayyem = friend
- kaanakan = niece / nephew
- kabalio = horse
- kabsat = sibling
- kanayon = always
- kasinsin = cousin
- (ag)katawa = (to) laugh
- kuddot/keddel = pinch
- ina/inang/nanang = mother
- laing = intelligence
- lakay = old man / husband
- lalaki = male
- mabisin = hungry
- manang = older sister or relative; can also be applied to women a little older than the speaker
- mangan = eat
- manong = older brother or relative; can also be applied to men a little older than the speaker
- mare = female friend/mother
- naimas = tasty/delicious/pleasurable
- nalaing = brilliant/intelligent
- nana = grandmother
- nasam-it = sweet
- naalsem = sour
- napait = bitter
- naapgad = salty
- (na)pintas = beautiful (woman)
- nataraki = cute (man, slightly impolite connotation, but properly used on an animal, as for a rooster
A rooster, also known as a cockerel, cock or chanticleer, is a male chicken with the female being called a hen. Immature male chickens of less than a year's age are called cockerels...
), usually interchanged with 'handsome'
- nataengan = adult
- (nag)guapo = handsome (man)
- (na)rago, (na)laad = ugly
- pari = close male friend
- padi = priest
- (na)peggad = danger(ous)
- (ag) perdi = (to) break/ruin
- pusa= cat
- pustaan = bet, wager
- pimmusay(en) = died
- rabii = night/evening
- riing = wake up
- rupa = face
- sala = dance
- (na)sakit = (it) hurts
- (ag)sangit = (to) cry
- (ag)surat = (to) write
- takrot/tarkok = coward/afraid
- tata = grandfather
- tatang = father
- (ag)takder = (to) stand
- (ag)tugaw = (to) sit
- (na)tawid = inherit(ed)
- tun-bigat = tomorrow
- turog = sleep
- ubing = child
- ulo = head
External links
- The Online Ilokano Dictionary Project (TOIDP) - A free Ilokano dictionary application for people to utilize so that they may overcome the language barriers existing between the English and Ilokano languages.
- Ethnologue entry for Ilokano
- Bansa.org Ilokano Dictionary
- Ilocano.org A project for building an online Ilokano dictionary. Also features Ilokano songs, and a community forum.
- Ilokano Swadesh vocabulary list
- Ilocano: Ti pagsasao ti amianan - Webpage by linguist Dr. Carl R. Galvez Rubino, author of dictionaries on Iloko and Tagalog
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
.
- Iluko.com popular Ilokano web portal featuring Ilokano songs, Iloko fiction and poetry, Ilokano riddles, and a lively Ilokano forum (Dap-ayan).
- mannurat.com blog of an Ilokano fictionist and poet written in Iloko and featuring original and Iloko fiction and poetry, literary analysis and criticism focused on Ilokano Literature
Ilokano literature or Iloko literature pertains to the literary works of writers of Ilocano ancestry regardless of the language used - be it Iloko, English, Spanish or other foreign and Philippine languages. The terms "Iloko" and "Ilokano" are different...
, and literary news about Iloko writing and writers and organization like the GUMILGUMIL Filipinas or Ilokano Writers Association of the Philippines, is one of the most active group of regional writers in the Philippines. It has hundreds of active writer-members in provincial and municipal chapters as well as in overseas chapters in the mainland U.S...
(Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano).
- samtoy.blogspot.com Yloco Blog maintained by Ilokano writers Raymundo Pascua Addun and Joel Manuel
- Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
- dadapilan.com - an Iloko literature portal featuring Iloko works by Ilokano writers and forum for Iloko literary study, criticism and online workshop.
- Vocabularios de la Lengua Ilocana by N.P.S. Agustin, published in 1849.
- Tugot A blog maintained by Ilokano writer Jake Ilac.