Ilokano language
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).
Ilokanos are descendants of
Austronesian-speaking people from southern
China via
Taiwan. Families and clans arrived by
viray or
bilog, meaning boat. The term
Ilocano originated from
i-, meaning "from", and
looc, meaning "cove or bay", thus "people of the bay." Ilocanos also refer to themselves as
Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilocano phrase
saö mi ditoy, meaning "our language here".
Ilokano comprises its own branch in the Philippine Cordilleran family of languages. It is spoken as a native language by seven 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 other foreign origin, it is pronounced as in the northern dialect. In native Ilokano words,
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.
|
Ilocano population distribution. Enlarge picture to see percent 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 Ilocanos 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.
Ilocano 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 Ilocano 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. Ilocano 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 Ilocanos can also be found in the
Middle East,
Hong Kong,
Japan,
Singapore,
Canada and
Europe.
Pre-colonial Ilocanos of all classes wrote in a syllabic system prior to European arrival. Similar to the
Tagalog and
Pangasinan scripts, it was the first to designate coda consonants with a diacritic mark - a cross
virama, shown in the
Doctrina Cristiana of 1621, one of the earliest surviving Ilocano publications.
Ilocano 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.
|
Our Father prayer from Doctrina Cristiana, 1621. |
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 Ilocano society; it is a hero's journey steeped in courage, loyalty, pragmatism, honor, and ancestral and familial bonds.
Ilocano 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).
Typology
Ilocano employs a predicate-initial structure and 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. Ilocano also has five sets of pronouns.
Example: Root word for bath is
digos.
Ag
digos (to take a bath) Agdig
digos (bathing) Agdig
digosak (I am bathing) Agindi
digosak (I am pretending to bathe) Nag
digosak (I bathed)
Pronouns
Ilokano pronouns are categorized by case:
absolutive,
ergative, and
oblique.
! >Absolutive Independent | Absolutive Enclitic | Ergative | Oblique | | 1st person singular | siák | -ak | -k(o) | kaniák |
| 1st person dual | datá, sitá | -ta | -ta | kadatá |
| 2nd person singular | siká | -ka | -m(o) | kenká |
| 3rd person singular | isú(na) | - | -na | kenkuána |
| 1st person plural inclusive | datayó, sitayó | -tayó | -tayó | kadatayó |
| 1st person plural exclusive | dakamí, sikamí | -kamí | -mi | kadakamí |
| 2nd person plural | dakayó, sikayó | -kayó | -yo | kadakayó |
| 3rd person plural | isúda | -da | -da | kadakuáda |
Absolutive pronouns are divided into two forms; independent and
enclitic.
Independent pronouns are not attached to any word.
Siák ti gayyem ni Juan."I am Juan's friend."
Dakamí ti napan idiay Laoag."It was us who went to Laoag."
On the other hand, enclitic pronouns are.
Gumatgatangak iti saba."I am buying bananas."
Agawidkayonto kadi no Sabado?"Are all of you going home on Saturday?"
Genitive pronouns are either attached to nouns to refer to the possessive or to verbs to indicate the ergative case.
The pronouns
-mo and
-ko are reduced to
-m and
-k after vowels.
Napintas ti balaymo."Your house is beautiful."
Ayanna daydiay asok?"Where is my dog?"
''Basbasaen
da ti diario.
"They are reading the newspaper."
Oblique pronouns usually express
to or
for someone.
Intedna kaniak."He gave it to me."
Imbagam kaniana!"You told her!"
Borrowings
Ilocano'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.
Examples of Borrowing| Word | Source | Ilocano meaning |
|---|
| arak | Arabic (drink similar to saki) | generic alcoholic drink |
| karma | Sanskrit (see Buddhism) | spirit |
| Sanglay | Hokkien (to deliver goods) | to deliver/Chinese merchant |
| agbuldos | English (bulldozer) | to bulldoze |
| kwarta | Spanish (copper coin) | money |
| kumusta | Spanish (greeting) | how are you |
Common expressions
| Yes | Wen or Hamman (Saan man) |
| No | Saan or Haan |
| How are you? | Kumusta ka? |
| Good day | Naimbag nga aldaw |
| Good morning | Naimbag a bigat |
| Good afternoon | Naimbag a malem |
| Good evening | Naimbag a rabii |
| What is your name? | Ania ti naganmo? (often contracted to Aniat' naganmo?) |
| Where's the bathroom? | Ayanna ti banio? |
| I love you | Ay-ayatenka or Ipatpategka |
| Sorry | Pakawan or Dispensar |
| Goodbye | Agpakadaakon or Kastan/Kasta pay (Till then) or Sige (Okay) or Innakon (I'm going) |
Numbers (Bilang), Days, Months
Numbers| 0 | ibbong OR awan OR sero (English zero) OR itlog (Ilocano slang, "egg") |
| 0.25 (1/4) | kakappat |
| 0.50 (1/2) | kagudua |
| 1 | maysa |
| 2 | dua |
| 3 | tallo |
| 4 | uppat |
| 5 | lima |
| 6 | innem |
| 7 | pito |
| 8 | walo |
| 9 | siam |
| 10 | sangapulo |
| 11 | sangapulo ket maysa |
| 20 | duapulo |
| 50 | limapulo |
| 100 | sangagasut |
| 1000 | sangaribu |
| 1000000 | sangariwriw |
| 1000000000 | sangabilion (English, billion) |
Days and months are of Spanish origin:
Days of the Week| Monday | Lunes |
| Tuesday | Martes |
| Wednesday | Mierkoles |
| Thursday | Huebes |
| Friday | Biernes |
| Saturday | Sabado |
| Sunday | Domingo |
Months| January | Enero | | July | Hulio |
| February | Pebrero | | August | Agosto |
| March | Marso | | September | Settiembre |
| April | Abril | | October | Oktubre |
| May | Mayo | | November | Nobiembre |
| June | Hunio | | December | Disiembre |
Units of time| second | kanito OR segundo |
| minute | minuto OR daras |
| day | aldaw |
| week | lawas OR domingo |
| month | bulan |
| year | tawen OR anio |
To mention time, Ilocanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilocano:
1:00 a.m.
A la una iti bigat (One in the morning): 2:30 p.m.
A las dos imedia iti malem (in Spanish,
Son las dos y media de la tarde or "half past two in the afternoon")
ading = younger brother/sister
aysus! = Oh, Jesus/Oh, my God!
babai = female
bakla = feminine male
bangsit = stink
kabsat = sibling
lalaki = male
manang = older sister or relative; can also be applied to women a little older than the speaker
manong = older brother or relative; can also be applied to men a little older than the speaker
mari = female friend/mother
nana = old woman
napintas = beautiful (woman)
nataraki = cute (man, slightly impolite connotation, but properly used on an animal, as for a
rooster)
naguapo = handsome (man)
pari = close male friend/father (priest)
pustaan = bet or wager
(na)sakit = (it) hurts
tata = old man
tomboy = masculine female
ubing = child
*
Languages of the Philippines*
Etnologue 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.
*
Ilocano: Ti pagsasao ti amianan - Webpage by linguist Dr. Carl R. Galvez Rubino, author of dictionaries on Iloko and
Tagalog.
*
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, and literary news about Iloko writing and writers and organization like the
GUMIL (Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano).
*
samtoy.blogspot.com Yloco Blog maintained by Ilocano writers Raymundo Pascua Addun and Joel Manuel
*
Austronesian Basic Vocabulary Database
