Arikah Map

Cebuano language

Cebuano redirects here. For the inhabitants of Cebu, see Cebuano people
Cebuano
Sugboanon
Spoken in:Philippines 
Region:Central Visayas and northern and western Mindanao
Total speakers:first language: 20 million (ethnologue)

second language: 11 million (est.) 

Ranking:47
Language family: Austronesian
 Malayo-Polynesian
  Borneo-Philippines
   Meso Philippine
    Central Philippine
     Bisayan
      Cebuan
       Cebuano
Language codes
ISO 639-1:none
ISO 639-2:ceb
ISO/FDIS 639-3:ceb 
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

Cebuano, also known as Sugboanon, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 20,000,000 (ethnologue) people and is a subgroup or member of Bisaya, Visayan and Binisayâ. The name came from the Philippine island of Cebu, with the Spanish suffix -ano meaning native, of a place, added at the end. Cebuano is given the ISO 639-2 three letter code ceb, but has no ISO 639-1 two letter code.

Cebuano is a member of the Visayan language family.


Contents

Geographic distribution

Cebuano is spoken natively by the inhabitants of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental and some parts of Leyte and Samar islands and throughout Mindanao. It is also spoken in a few towns and islands in Samar. Until 1975, Cebuano surpassed Tagalog in terms of number of native speakers. Some dialects of Cebuano give different names to the language. Residents of Bohol may refer to their language as Bol-anon while Cebuano-speakers in Leyte may call their dialect Kana.Cebuano is a language with Verb Subject Object sentence order. It uses prepositions rather than postpositions. Nouns come after adjectives, but before genitives or relative phrases.

Sounds

Cebuano has sixteen consonants: p, t, k, ? (the glottal stop), b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are three vowels: i, a, and u/o. The vowels u and o are allophones, with u always being used when it is the beginning of a syllable, and o always used when it ends a syllable. Accent is also a distinguisher of words, so that dápit means "to invite", while dapít means "place".

Grammar

Pronouns

Nouns in Cebuano are inflected for person, number, and case.

The four cases are nominative, preposed genitive, postposed genitive, and oblique.

 AbsolutiveErgative₁
(Postposed)		Ergative₂
(Preposed)		Oblique
1st person singularako, konako, koakongkanako, nako
2nd person singularikaw, kanimo, moimongkanimo, nimo
3rd person singularsiyaniyaiyangkaniya, niya
1st person plural inclusivekita, tanatoatongkanato, nato
1st person plural exclusivekami, minamoamongkanamo, namo
2nd person pluralkamo, moninyoinyongkaninyo, ninyo
3rd person pluralsilanilailangkanila, nila

Cebuano, like most other Austronesian languages, makes use of the inclusive and exclusive we. This distinction, not found in most European languages, signifies whether or not the addressee is included in the pronoun "we."

Examples:

Moadto kami sa sine.
"We (someone else and I, but not you) will go to the movies."

Moadto kita sa sine.
"We (you and I, and perhaps someone else) will go to the movies."

Vocabulary and borrowed words

Cebuano has long borrowed words from Spanish, such as krus [cruz] (cross) and brilyante [brillante] (brilliant). It has several hundred loan words from English as well, which are altered to conform to the limited phonemic inventory of Cebuano: brislit (bracelet), hayskul (high school), syapin (shopping), dikstrus (dextrose), sipir (zipper), bigsyat (big shot), or prayd tsikin (fried chicken).


The use of asa and hain

Asa and hain - both means where - have distinct uses in formal Cebuano writing.

Asa is used when asking about a place.Asa ka padulong? (Where are you going?)Asa ta molarga? (Where are we travelling to?)

Hain is used when asking about a person or thing.Hain na ang gunting? (Where is the pair of scissors?)Hain na si Arsenia? (Where is Arsenia?)

In modern spoken Cebuano, however, asa is commonly used to replace hain. You can rarely hear hain being used (and it is usually spoken by old native Cebuanos).

Recognition of Cebuano

The use of Tagalog as a basis for Pilipino in the 1940's drew the most criticism from Cebuano speakers. To some extent, the use of Tagalog was actively resisted. For instance, after an attempt by the central government to enforce the use of Tagalog as the language of instruction in all public schools in the eighties, the governor of Cebu initiated the singing of the Philippine national anthem in Cebuano rather that in Pilipino (Tagalog) in the island province of Cebu. This resistance was not intended to undermine the country's national unity. On the part of the Cebuanos, it was mostly a protest against "imperial Manila" and a clamor for linguistic and regional recognition.

In fairness, the selection of Tagalog was based on (a) its being the language of the revolution against Spain, (b) it having the largest literature among Philippine languages at the time of the selection, (c) being understood outside of its set of native speakers more than other Philippine languages, and (d) being the language of Manila which was the capital of the country at the time the selection was made (Cebu was once the capital, other cities that once held the title was Quezon City and Baguio). The head of the selection panel, Dr. Jaime de Veyra, was a Waray. There was one representative for each of the major languages in the country. It could be argued, though, that then President Quezon was a Tagalog and could have exerted undue influence upon the selection process. However such a suggestion is highly speculative.

The Cebuano desire for special recognition finds support from the following arguments:

  1. Historically, Cebu is the first and oldest city in the Philippines, an ancient hub of trade with the Arabs and the Chinese. It was also the first city established by Legaspi. Long before Manila fell into the hands of the Spanish in the 16th century, Cebu was already an established trading and military post for the Spaniards.
  2. Linguistically, Cebuano is the country's second most widely-used language. During the period after independence until the mid-seventies, it was the largest linguistic group.
  3. Strategically and commercially, Cebu is the alternate gateway to Manila due to its geographical location, adding significance to its language. Cebuano is the native language of the majority in more regions than Tagalog, being the language with the most native speakers in Region VII (Central Visayas), Region IX (Zamboanga Peninsula), Region X (Northern Mindanao), Region XI (Davao Region), Caraga Region, and Region XII (SOCCSKSARGEN). There are also significant number of speakers in Region VI (Western Visayas, mostly in San Carlos City and neighboring areas) and Region VIII (Eastern Visayas, mostly in western Leyte and Southern Leyte). By comparison, Tagalog is the language of the majority in the NCR, Region IV-A, Region IV-B, and Region III (Central Luzon, where Kapampangan and Ilocano also dominate some areas).
  4. Politically, since the colonial days of the Spanish and Americans, the Cebuanos have resented "arrogance" from Manila. In the Marcos years, Cebu, with the exception of Durano-held Danao, was regarded as a staunch center of opposition.

Words and phrases

Numbers

However, Spanish is more commonly used for numbers above 10

...

...

...

...

...

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Common expressions

Nasudnong Awit (Cebuano version of the Philippine National Anthem, Lupang Hinirang)

Translated into Cebuano by Jess Vestil

Yutang tabunon
Mutya nga masilakon,
Putling bahandi,
Amo kang gimahal.
Mithing gisimba,
Yuta's mga bayani,
Sa manlulupig,
Pagadapigan ka.
Ang mga buntod mo,
Ug lapyahan sa langit mong bughaw,
Nagahulad sa awit, lamdag sa
Kaliwat tang gawas.
Silaw sa adlaw ug bituon
Sa nasudnong bandila,
Nagatima-an nga buhion ta
Ang atong pagka-usa.
Yutang maanyag, duyan ka sa pagmahal,
Landong sa langit ang dughan mo;
Pakatam-ison namo nga maulipon ka
Ang kamatayom sa ngalan mo.

See also

Categories


Cebuano | Visayan languages | Malayo-Polynesian languages | Languages of the Philippines | Austronesian languages

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