Palawano language


The Palawano languages are spoken in the province of Palawan in the Philippines, by the Palawano people.

Classification

There are three Palawano languages: the Quezon Palawano which is also known as the Central Palawano; Brooke's Point Palawano and it's dialect the Bugsuk Palawano or South Palawano and Southwest Palawano. The three Palawano languages share the island with several other Palawanic languages which are not part of the Palawano cluster, though they share a fair amount of vocabulary.

Phonology

The following overview is based on Revel-MacDonald.

Consonants

Vowels

PhonemeAllophones
/i/, , ,
/u/, ,
/ɔ/, ,

Grammar

Verb conjugations are similar to other Filipino dialects with prefixes and suffixes indicating tense, object or actor focus, as well as intention. These prefixes and suffixes can be used to create various parts of speech from the same root word. For example, biyag, meaning life, can be manipulated to mean "to live", full of food, to raise to life, living as an adjective, or living as a present tense verb form.
Palawano creates a diminutive prefix by copying the first CV of the base together with the final base consonant: kusiŋ : kuŋ-kusiŋ, bajuʔ : bäʔ-bajuʔ, libun : lin-libun, kunit : kut-kunit, siak : sik-siak.

Pronouns

The following set of pronouns are the pronouns found in the Southwest Palawano language. Note: the direct/nominative case is divided between full and short forms.
Direct/NominativeIndirect/GenitiveOblique
1st person singularako kodaken/dag
2nd person singularikew modimo
3rd person singularya yekenye
1st person dualkite tekite
1st person plural inclusivekiteyo teyokiteyo
1st person plural exclusivekami kaydamen
2nd person pluralkemuyo muyodimuyo
3rd person pluraldiyediyekedye

Vocabulary

There are many linguistic variations among Palawan family groups with words changing from one valley to the next. Tagalog is frequently used to supply words lacking in the local dialect for modern objects and actions which can cause confusion, especially among the younger generation, between Tagalog and Palawan. The more familiar a family or village is with the Tagalog lowland culture, the more common the language overlap.
Some Brooke's Point Palawan words are:
Phrases:
The following compares the Palawano languages with other Greater Central Philippine languages.
Englishonetwothreefourpersonhousedogcoconutdaynewwe whatfire
Central Palawano 1sengbatdowateloepattawbenwaidoniyogeldewbagokiteyoonoapoy
Central Palawano 2sambatduwataluapatta'ubənwa'idəngnyogəldawba'agukiteyoənuapoy
Southwest Palawano 1isa'duateloepattaawbenwaidengnyugeldewbagokiteyoenoapoy
Southwest Palawano 2sɔmbatduatɔluɔpatta'obənuaidɔngnyugaldɔwba'gokiteyoɔnoapuy
Tagalogisadalawatatloapattaobahayasoniyogarawbagotayoanoapoy
Aklanonisaea, sambilogdaywatatloap-attawobaeayayamniyogadlawbag-okitaanokaeayo
Hiligaynonisaduha/duatatloapattawobalayidolubiadlawbag-okitaanokalayo

Writing system

Latin alphabet

The spelling is controversial with multiple translators using separate spelling methods, some using Tagalog based spelling while others use other systems.
Brooke's Point Palawano uses 23 letters: a, b, , d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, ng, o, p, r, s, t, u, w, y, and '. Borrowed: c, f, q, x, z. The 'e' stands for schwa and "dy" makes a 'j' sound.

Ibalnan script

In the 20th century, the Tagbanwa script was adopted from the Tagbanwa people by the Palawan people further south in the island. They call this alphabet 'Ibalnan' and the vowel mark an ulit.