| Ilocano | |
| Also Known As: | Ilokano |
| Nativename: | Iloko, Iluko, Iloco, Pagsasao nga Ilokano, Samtoy, Sao mi ditoy |
| States: | Philippines |
| Region: | Northern Luzon, many parts of Central Luzon and a few parts of Mindanao |
| Ethnicity: | Ilocano |
| Speakers: | 6,370,000 |
| Date: | 2005 |
| Ref: | [1] |
| Speakers2: | 2 million L2 speakers (2000) Third most spoken native language in the Philippines[2] |
| Familycolor: | Austronesian |
| Fam2: | Malayo-Polynesian |
| Fam3: | Philippine |
| Fam4: | Northern Luzon |
| Script: | Latin (Ilocano alphabet), Ilokano Braille Historically Kur-itan |
| Nation: | La Union[3] |
| Minority: |  Philippines |
| Agency: | Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino |
| Iso2: | ilo |
| Iso3: | ilo |
| Glotto: | ilok1237 |
| Glottorefname: | Iloko |
| Lingua: | 31-CBA-a |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Ilokano language map.png |
| Mapcaption: | Area where Ilokano is spoken according to Ethnologue[4] Striped areas are Itneg-Ilokano bilingual communities in Abra |
Ilocano (also Ilokano; ;[5] Ilocano: Iloko: Pagsasao nga Ilokano) is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines, primarily by Ilocano people and as a lingua franca by the Igorot people and also by the native settlers of Cagayan Valley. It is the third most-spoken native language in the country.
As an Austronesian language, it is related to Malay (Indonesian and Malaysian), Tetum, Chamorro, Fijian, Māori, Hawaiian, Samoan, Tahitian, Paiwan, and Malagasy. It is closely related to some of the other Austronesian languages of Northern Luzon, and has slight mutual intelligibility with the Balangao language and the eastern dialects of the Bontoc language.[6]
The Ilokano people had their indigenous writing system and script known as kur-itan. There have been proposals to revive the kur-itan script by teaching it in Ilokano-majority public and private schools in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur.[7]
Ilocano, like all Philippine languages, is an Austronesian language, a very expansive language family believed to originate in Taiwan.[8] [9] Ilocano comprises its own branch within the Philippine Cordilleran language subfamily. It is spoken as a first language by seven million people.
A lingua franca of Northern Luzon and many parts of Central Luzon, it is spoken as a secondary language by more than two million people who are native speakers of Ibanag, Ivatan, Pangasinan, Sambal, and other local languages.
See main article: Ilocos Region. thumb|left|250px|Area where Ilocano is the majority language.
The language is spoken in the Ilocos Region, the Babuyan Islands, the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, northern parts of Central Luzon (precisely Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, and Aurora, as well as south central Zambales[10] [11] and southeast Bataan),[12] [13] Batanes, some areas in Mindoro, Palawan and scattered areas in Mindanao (particularly the Soccsksargen region).[14] The language is also spoken in the United States, with Hawaii and California having the largest number of speakers,[15] and in Canada.[16] It is the most spoken non-English language in Hawaii, spoken by 17% of those speaking languages other than English at home (25.4% of the population).[17]
In September 2012, the province of La Union passed an ordinance recognizing Ilocano (Iloko) as an official provincial language, alongside Filipino, the national language, and English, a co-official language nationwide. It is the first province in the Philippines to pass an ordinance protecting and revitalizing a native language, although there are other languages spoken in La Union, including Pangasinan, Kankanaey, and Ibaloi.
The modern Ilokano alphabet consists of 28 letters:[18]
Aa, Bb, Cc, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Hh, Ii, Jj, Kk, Ll, Mm, Nn, Ññ, NGng, Oo, Pp, Qq, Rr, Ss, Tt, Uu, Vv, Ww, Xx, Yy, and Zz
Pre-colonial Ilocano people of all classes wrote in a syllabic system known as Baybayin prior to European arrival. They used a system that is termed as an abugida, or an alphasyllabary. It was similar to the Tagalog and Pangasinan 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 virama – 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 a consonant not succeeding a vowel is read or not, for it is not written. Vowel apostrophes interchange between e or i, and o or u. Due to this, the vowels e and i are interchangeable, and letters o and u, for instance, and ('shop-assistant').
In recent times, there have been two systems in use: the Spanish system and the Tagalog 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. Most older generations of Ilocanos use the Spanish system.
In the system based on that of Tagalog there is more of a phoneme-to-letter correspondence, which better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters ng constitute a digraph and count as a single letter, following n in alphabetization. As a result, ('humility') appears before ('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. Words of English origin may or may not conform to this orthography. A prime example using this system is the weekly magazine Bannawag.
The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Tagalog-based system.
| Rules | Spanish-based | Tagalog-based | Translation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| c → k | tocac | tukak | frog | |
| ci, ce → si, se | acero | asero | steel | |
| ch → ts | coche | lugan | car | |
| f → p1 | familia | pamilia | family | |
| gui, gue → gi, ge | daguiti | dagiti | the | |
| ge, gi → he, hi2 | página | pahina | page | |
| ll → li | caballo | kabalio | horse | |
| ñ → ni | baño | banio | bathroom | |
| ñg, ng̃ → ng | ñgioat, ng̃ioat | ngiwat | mouth | |
| Vo(V) → Vw(V) | aoanaldao | awanaldaw | nothingday | |
| qui, que → ki, ke | iquit | ikit | aunt | |
| v → b | voces | boses | voice | |
| z → s | zapatos | sapatos | shoe |
Notes
1. In Ilocano phonology, the labiodental fricative sound /pronounced as /f// does not exist. Its approximate sound is /pronounced as /p//. Therefore, in words of Spanish or English origin, /pronounced as /f// becomes /pronounced as /p//. In particular (yet not always the case), last names beginning with /pronounced as /f// are often said with /pronounced as /p//, for example Fernández /per.'nan.des/.2. The sound /pronounced as /h// only occurs in loanwords, and in the negative variant haan.
With the implementation by the Spanish of the Bilingual Education System of 1897, Ilocano, together with the other seven major 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 Philippines.[19] Constitutionally, Ilocano is an auxiliary official language in the regions where it is spoken and serves as auxiliary media of instruction therein.[20]
In 2009, the Department of Education instituted Department Order No. 74, s. 2009 stipulating that "mother tongue-based multilingual education" would be implemented. In 2012, Department Order No. 16, s. 2012 stipulated that the mother tongue-based multilingual system was to be implemented for Kindergarten to Grade 3 Effective School Year 2012–2013.[21] Ilocano is used in public schools mostly in the Ilocos Region and the Cordilleras. It is the primary medium of instruction from Kindergarten to Grade 3 (except for the Filipino and English subjects) and is also a separate subject from Grade 1 to Grade 3. Thereafter, English and Filipino are introduced as mediums of instruction.
See main article: Ilocano literature.
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 Angalo, 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, dances, poems, riddles, proverbs, literary verbal jousts called (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs), and epic stories.
While there is no official dialectology for Ilocano, the usually agreed dialects of Ilocano are two, which are differentiated only by the way the letter e is pronounced. In the Amianan (Northern) dialect, there exist only five vowels while the older Abagatan (Southern) dialect employs six.
Reduplicate vowels are not slurred together, but voiced separately with an intervening glottal stop:
The letter in bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel.
| Front | Central | Back | ||
| Close | i pronounced as //i// | u/o pronounced as //u//e pronounced as //ɯ// | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | e pronounced as //ɛ ~ e// | o pronounced as //o// | ||
| Open | a pronounced as //a// |
For a better rendition of vowel distribution, please refer to the IPA Vowel Chart.
Unstressed /a/ is pronounced pronounced as /[ɐ]/ in all positions except final syllables, like pronounced as /[mɐˈdi]/ ('cannot be') but ('mouth') is pronounced pronounced as /[ˈŋiwat]/. Unstressed /a/ in final-syllables is mostly pronounced pronounced as /[ɐ]/ across word boundaries.
Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.
In native morphemes, the close back rounded vowel pronounced as //u// is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the ultima of the morpheme, it is written o; elsewhere, u.
Example:
Instances such as,
The two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words due to fact that pronounced as //o// was an allophone of pronounced as //u// in the history of the language. In words of foreign origin, notably Spanish, they are phonemic.
Example: 'use'; 'bear'
Unlike u and o, i and e are not allophones, but i in final stressed syllables in words ending in consonants can be pronounced as /[ɛ]/, like pronounced as /[ʊ.ˈbɛŋ]/ ('child').
The two closed vowels become glides when followed by another vowel. The close back rounded vowel pronounced as //u// becomes pronounced as /[w]/ before another vowel; and the close front unrounded vowel pronounced as //i//, pronounced as /[j]/.
Example: pronounced as //kwaɾ.ta// 'money'; pronounced as //paɾ.ja// 'bitter melon'
In addition, dental/alveolar consonants become palatalized before pronounced as //i//. (See Consonants below).
Unstressed /i/ and /u/ are pronounced pronounced as /[ɪ]/ and pronounced as /[ʊ]/ except in final syllables, like ('beauty') pronounced as /[pɪn.ˈtas]/ and ('fear') pronounced as /[bʊ.ˈtɛŋ, bʊ.ˈtɯŋ]/ but ('other side') and ('grace/blessing') are pronounced pronounced as /[ˈba.ŋiɾ]/ and pronounced as /[pɐ.ˈɾa.buɾ]/. Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in final syllables are mostly pronounced pronounced as /[ɪ]/ and pronounced as /[ʊ]/ across word boundaries.
The letter (e) represents two vowels in the non-nuclear dialects (areas outside the Ilocos provinces) pronounced as /[ɛ ~ e]/ in words of foreign origin and pronounced as /[ɯ]/ in native words, and only one in the nuclear dialects of the Ilocos provinces, pronounced as /[ɛ ~ e]/.
| Gloss | Origin | Nuclear | Non-nuclear | ||
| 'assign' | Native | pronounced as /[kɛd.dɛŋ, ked.deŋ]/ | pronounced as /[kɯd.dɯŋ]/ | ||
| 'elephant' | Spanish | pronounced as /[ʔɛ.lɛ.pan.tɛ, ʔe.le.pan.te]/ | |||
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/, /aw/ and /uj/ occur. In the orthography, vowels in sequence such as uo and ai, do not coalesce into a diphthong, rather, they are pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, for example, 'hair' pronounced as //bʊ.ʔok// and 'sew' pronounced as //da.ʔit//.
| Orthography | Example | ||
| /au/ | aw (for native words) / au (for spanish loanwords) | 'senile', ‘authority’ | |
| /iu/ | iw | 'home sick' | |
| /ai/ | ay (for native words) / ai (for spanish loanwords) | 'one', ‘dance’ | |
| /ei/ | ey | 'there' (regional variant; standard) | |
| /oi/, /ui/ | oy, uy | 'pig' |
The diphthong pronounced as //ei// is a variant of pronounced as //ai// in native words. Other occurrences are in words of Spanish and English origin. Examples are pronounced as //ˈɾei.na// (from Spanish, 'queen') and pronounced as //ˈtɾei.nɛɾ// ('trainer'). The diphthongs pronounced as //oi// and pronounced as //ui// may be interchanged since pronounced as //o// is an allophone of pronounced as //u// in final syllables. Thus, ('fire') may be pronounced pronounced as //ɐ.ˈpoi// and ('pig') may be pronounced pronounced as //ˈba.bui//.
As for the diphthong pronounced as //au//, the general rule is to use /aw/ for native words while /au/ will be used for spanish loanword such as the words ’’autoridad, autonomia, automatiko’’. The same rule goes to the diphthong pronounced as //ai//.
| Bilabial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stops | Voiceless | p | t | k | (#pronounced as /link/ pronounced as /V/∅V∅/C-V/) pronounced as /[ʔ]/ | ||
| Voiced | b | d | g | ||||
| Affricates | Voiceless | (ts, tiV) pronounced as /[tʃ]/ | |||||
| Voiced | (diV) pronounced as /[dʒ]/ | ||||||
| Fricatives | s | (siV) pronounced as /[ʃ]/ | h | ||||
| Nasals | m | n | (niV) [nʲ] | ng pronounced as /[ŋ]/ | |||
| Laterals | l | (liV) [lʲ] | |||||
| Flaps | r pronounced as /[ɾ]/ | ||||||
| Trills | (rr pronounced as /[r]/) | ||||||
| Semivowels | (w, CuV) pronounced as /[w]/ | (y, CiV) [j] | |||||
All consonantal phonemes except pronounced as //h, ʔ// may be a syllable onset or coda. The phoneme pronounced as //h// is a borrowed sound (except in the negative variant haan) and rarely occurs in coda position. Although the Spanish word 'clock' would have been heard as pronounced as /[re.loh]/, the final pronounced as //h// is dropped resulting in pronounced as //re.lo//. However, this word also may have entered the Ilokano lexicon at early enough a time that the word was still pronounced pronounced as //re.loʒ//, with the j pronounced as in French, resulting in pronounced as //re.los// in Ilokano. As a result, both pronounced as //re.lo// and pronounced as //re.los// occur.
The glottal stop pronounced as //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 pronounced as /[ʔɐ.ɾa.mat]/, 'use'. When prefixed with ag-, the expected form is pronounced as /
Stops are pronounced without aspiration. When they occur as coda, they are not released, for example, pronounced as /[sʊŋ.bat̚]/ 'answer', 'response'.
Ilokano is one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from pronounced as /[ɾ]/-pronounced as /[d]/ allophony, as pronounced as //r// in many cases is derived from a Proto-Austronesian *R; compare (Tagalog) and (Ilokano) 'new'.
The language marginally has a trill pronounced as /[r]/ which is spelled as rr, for example, pronounced as /[sɯ.ˈrɯk]/ 'to enter'. Trill pronounced as /[r]/ is sometimes an allophone of pronounced as /[ɾ]/ in word-initial position, syllable-final, and word-final positions, spelled as single (r), for example, ruar 'outside' [{{IPA|ɾwaɾ}}] ~ [{{IPA|rwar}}]. It is only pronounced flap pronounced as /[ɾ]/ in affixation and across word boundaries, especially when vowel-ending word precedes word-initial (r). But it is different in proper names of foreign origin, mostly Spanish, like Serrano, which is correctly pronounced pronounced as /[sɛ.ˈrano]/. Some speakers, however, pronounce Serrano as pronounced as /[sɛ.ˈɾano]/.
The placement of primary stress is lexical in Ilocano. This results in minimal pairs such as pronounced as //ˈkaː.jo// ('wood') and pronounced as //ka.ˈjo// ('you' (plural or polite)) or pronounced as //ˈkiː.ta// ('class, type, kind') and pronounced as //ki.ˈta// ('see'). In written Ilokano the reader must rely on context, thus (kayo) and (kita). Primary stress can fall only on either the penult or the ultima of the root, as seen in the previous examples.
While stress is unpredictable in Ilokano, there are notable patterns that can determine where stress will fall depending on the structures of the penult, the ultima and the origin of the word.
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| doctor | Spanish origin | ||
| (to) drive | Spanish origin ('I drive') | ||
| (to) record | English origin (verb) | ||
| agtárget | to target | English origin (verb) |
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| there is/are | Closed penult | ||
| feces | Closed penult | ||
| (a type of delicacy) | -ŋ.k sequence |
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ghost | Consonant–glide–vowel | ||
| to involve (someone or something) | Consonant–glide–vowel | ||
| creation | Consonant–glide–vowel |
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| fermented fish or shrimp paste | Vowel–glottal–vowel | ||
| idiot | Vowel–glottal–vowel | ||
| thorn, spine, fish bone | Vowel–glottal–vowel |
Secondary stress occurs in the following environments:
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ability to see | Syllable before geminate | ||
| judgement, decision | Syllable before geminate | ||
| children | Syllable before geminate |
| Ilocano | Gloss | Comment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| speaks, is speaking | Reduplicate CV | ||
| ghost, spirit | Reduplicate CV | ||
| sews, is sewing | Reduplicate CV |
Vowel length coincides with stressed syllables (primary or secondary) and only on open syllables except for ultimas, for example, pronounced as //'ka:.jo// 'tree' versus pronounced as //ka.'jo// (second person plural ergative pronoun).
As primary stress can fall only on the penult or the ultima, suffixation causes a shift in stress one syllable to the right. The vowel of open penults that result lengthen as a consequence.
| Stem | Suffix | Result | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //ˈpuː.dut// (heat) | pronounced as //-ɯn// (Goal focus) | pronounced as //pu.ˈduː.tɯn// | to warm/heat (something) | |
| pronounced as //da.ˈlus// (clean) | pronounced as //-an// (Directional focus) | pronounced as //da.lu.ˈsan// | to clean (something) |
See main article: Ilocano grammar and Ilocano verb.
Ilocano 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.
Ilocano 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.
Foreign accretion comes largely from Spanish, followed by English and smatterings of much older accretion from Hokkien (Min Nan), Arabic and Sanskrit.[22] [23] [24]
| Word | Source | Original meaning | Ilocano meaning | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arabic | drink similar to sake | generic alcoholic drink (more specifically, wine) | ||
| Sanskrit | deed (see Buddhism) | spirit | ||
| Hokkien | to deliver goods | to deliver/Chinese merchant | ||
| English | to bulldoze | to bulldoze | ||
| Spanish | ('quarter', a kind of copper coin) | money | ||
| Spanish | greeting: ('How are you?') | How are you? | ||
| poder | Spanish | power | power, care | |
| talier | Spanish | taller (workshop) | mechanic shop |
Ilokano shows a T-V distinction.
| English | Ilocano |
|---|---|
| Yes | |
| No | (variant) |
| How are you? | (polite and plural) |
| Good day | (polite and plural) |
| Good morning | (polite and plural) |
| Good afternoon | (polite and plural) |
| Good evening | (polite and plural) |
| What is your name? | (often contracted to or) |
| Where's the bathroom? | |
| I do not understand | |
| I love you | |
| I'm sorry. | |
| Thank you. | |
| Goodbye | (Till then) (Okay. Continue.) (I'm going) (We are going) (You stay) (You stay (pl.)) |
| I/me | |
See main article: Ilocano numbers.
Ilocano uses two number systems, one native and the other derived from Spanish.
| 0 | (lit. 'none') | ||
| 0.25 (1/4) | |||
| 0.50 (1/2) | |||
| 1 | |||
| 2 | |||
| 3 | |||
| 4 | |||
| 5 | |||
| 6 | |||
| 7 | |||
| 8 | |||
| 9 | |||
| 10 | (lit. 'a group of ten') | ||
| 11 | , | ||
| 12 | , | ||
| 20 | , | ||
| 30 | , | ||
| 50 | |||
| 100 | (lit. 'a group of one hundred') | , | |
| 1,000 | (lit. 'a group of one thousand'), | ||
| 10,000 | (lit. 'a group of ten thousand'), | ||
| 1,000,000 | (lit. 'a group of one million') | ||
| 1,000,000,000 | (American English, 'billion') | (US-influenced), |
Ilocano uses a mixture of native and Spanish numbers. Traditionally Ilocano numbers are used for quantities and Spanish numbers for time or days and references.Examples:
Spanish:
'How old are you (in years)?' (Lit. 'How many years do you have?')
'Twenty one.'
'Open your Bibles to the book of John chapter three verse sixteen.'
Ilocano:
'How many kilos of rice do you want?'
'Ten only.'
'He has two fish.' (lit. 'There are two fish with him.')
Days of the week are directly borrowed from Spanish.
| Monday | ||
| Tuesday | ||
| Wednesday | ||
| Thursday | ||
| Friday | ||
| Saturday | ||
| Sunday |
Like the days of the week, the names of the months are taken from Spanish.
| January | July | |||
| February | August | |||
| March | September | |||
| April | October | |||
| May | November | |||
| June | December |
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.
| second | ||
| minute | ||
| hour | ||
| day | ||
| week | (lit. 'Sunday'), (rare) | |
| month | ||
| year |
To mention time, Ilocanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilocano:
1:00 a.m. (one in the morning)
2:30 p.m., in Spanish: (half past two in the afternoon)
6:00 p.m (six in the evening)
7:00 p.m (seven in the evening)
12:00 noon (twelve noon)
Note: adjacent vowels are pronounced separately, and are not slurred together, as in ba-ak, or in la-ing
Also of note is the yo-yo, probably named after the Ilocano word .[25]