Tawbuid language
The Tawbuid language is a language spoken by Tawbuid Mangyans in the province of Mindoro in the Philippines. It is divided into eastern and western dialects. The Bangon Mangyans also speak the western dialect of Tawbuid.
Geographic distribution
The Tau-buid Mangyans live in central Mindoro.In Oriental Mindoro, Eastern Tawbuid is spoken by 1,130 people in the municipalities of Socorro, Pinamalayan, and Gloria.
In Occidental Mindoro, Western Tawbuid is spoken by 6,810 people in the municipalities of Sablayan and Calintaan.
Phonology
Western Tawbuid
Vowels
i ɨ ue ɔ
a
Consonants
bilabial labiodental alveolar palatal velarplosive b p d t g k
fricative f s
nasal m n ŋ
lateral l
flap ɾ
approximant w y
Historical comparison
Comparison with related languages shows a gradual loss of /k/ > /h/ > /Ø/. For example:There is a residual /k/ in the 1st person singular, in the affix /ak-/, usually shortened in speech to /k-/. E.g. kadasug kban ‘I will arrive.’
Glottals
It will be noticed that there are no glottal phonemes, either /h/ or /ʔ/.The glottal stop /ʔ/ is absent as a phoneme in Tawbuid, though may be the realization of a boundary between adjacent identical vowels. Normally though, in connected speech, two adjacent vowels are either merged to form a lengthened vowel or differentiated by stress. For example:
Notice that in the above, the stress precedes the glottal, whereas without a glottal, the stress is in the normal position for that particular stress pattern.
Vowels following /i/ and /u/ offer different interpretations as to whether a linking /y/ or /w/ is present. For example:
Assimilation
There is a remarkable absence of assimilation at the point of articulation of nasals with following sounds. For example:Description of phonemes
/i/ close front spread/e/ half close front spread
established as a phoneme in contrast with /i/ by minimal pairs
occurrence in similar environment:
Historically this was most likely /ay/. It is a common occurrence in languages around the world for /ay/ to become /e/, as in French and English. Comparison of Tawbuid with related languages shows this:
Within Tawbuid, /ay/ and /e/ alternate with different grammatical forms of the same word.
/a/ open central unrounded
Vowel which occurs in syllable initial, mid and final positions.
/o/ half-open back rounded
established as a phoneme in contrast with /u/ by minimal pairs
As with /e/, this is probably a historical development of /aw/. A similar process occurred in English and French.
/u/ close back rounded
syllable initial, middle and final
/ɨ/ close central unrounded
syllable initial middle and final
In orthography, the letter ‘v’ is used. In the 1950s when the Reeds started writing the language, that was a convenient letter on the typewriter. It is the least frequent vowel, and in fact the least frequent phoneme in the language. It mostly occurs with /a/ or /ɨ/ in an adjacent syllable. In all but one word /a/ and /ɨ/ are the only vowels used.
/b/ voiced bilabial plosive
syllable initial and final. For example:
/p/ voiceless bilabial plosive.
environment: syllable initial and final
variants:
voiceless unaspirated bilabial plosive
environment: syllable initial
voiceless slightly aspirated bilabial plosive
environment: word final
/p/ is established as a phoneme in contrast with /f/ by the following:
there is at least one minimal pair:
/p/ is in contrastive distribution with /f/ under the following circumstances:
/d/ voiced alveolar plosive
syllable initial and final.
Realised as before voiceless consonants, most frequently in the verb form CVd-root-an.
/t/ voiceless alveolar plosive
environment: syllable initial and final
variants:
environment: syllable initial
environment: word final
/g/ voiced velar plosive
environment: syllable initial and final, or initial cluster.
realised as before voiceless consonants, for example in the verb prefix g-, and prefixes tag-, fag-.
/k/ voiceless velar plosive
environment: syllable initial and final
voiceless unaspirated bilabial plosive
environment: syllable initial
voiceless slightly aspirated plosive
environment: word final
There is a tendency for the initial /k/ to be lost in Tawbuid compared to similar words in related languages. For example:
/f/ voiceless labiodental fricative
environment: syllable initial only. See comments on /p/ for contrastive features.
Rare in Austronesian languages. Historically related to Tagalog and other Philippine languages. /p/. For example:
/s/ voiceless alveolar fricative
can occur in all syllable positions, and in the initial consonant cluster /st/. The affricate /ts/ is treated as a unit rather than two successive consonants.
/m/ bilabial nasal
can occur in all syllable positions.
/n/ dental nasal
environment: syllable initial and final and syllabic
/ŋ/ velar nasal
environment: syllable initial and final and syllabic
/l/ voiced alveolar palatalized lateral
environment: syllable initial and final
/R/ voiced alveolar flap
environment: syllable initial and final
/w/ voiced bilabial approximant
environment: syllable initial and final
/y/ voiced palatal approximant
environment: syllable initial and final
Stress patterns
Primary stress in Tawbuid is either final or penultimate. Most words are stressed unpredictably, and in some speakers, all syllables seem to be equally stressed. Modification in stress occurs in affective speech.
Some syllable patterns have predictable stress. A word containing two adjacent syllables with CVC patterns are stressed on the second of those two syllables, whether final or not.
Words with two identical CVC patterns interrupted by /-ar-/ or /-al-/ are also stressed on the second of those two CVC syllables.
Where the final and penultimate syllables are open, and the vowels are the same, the stress is penultimate.
But when the vowels are different, stress can occur unpredictably.
A root word can change its stress when affixes are added, because affixes carry their own inherent stress.
In affective speech, lengthening may change stress:
Secondary stress and tertiary stress
In words of more than three syllables there is a secondary and even a tertiary stress.
Accent
Within the Western Tawbuid region, there are distinctive accents as well as vocabulary preferences. Taking the rebuke lag katanya ‘don’t do that’:
A rebuke or any utterance conveying a negative emotion is frequently said with lips rounded throughout.
Syllable patterns
V
monosyllabic words are: e, o, u
Some words beginning with a vowel have a V syllable initial pattern.
V-CV
C – in the case of the completed aspect prefix /n-/
VC
CVC
CCV
CVC with semivowels