About Cebunao

by Pisith Phlong

Number of speakers
Cebuano is a second largest language spoken in the Philippines after Tagalog, with an estimated 15 million people, accounting for 20% of the total population. (Brown, vol. 2, p. 270)

Language group
Like many other languages in the Philippines, Cebuano is a member of Austronesian language family. Austronesian languages are spoken throughout most of Indonesia, northward into the Philippines and Taiwan, eastward through much of the Papua New Guinea and over the Pacific as far as Hawaii and Easter Island. Cebuano is spoken in the central and southern Philippines, around the central Visayas and northern and western Mindanao. It is subgrouped with Tagalog, and belongs to the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family. (Brown, vol. 2, p. 270)

History of written language and script
Cebuano is sometimes referred as Sugbuanon in the literature about the language. Cebuano is commonly called Visayan, after the name of the central Philippines region where the majority of the population speaks Cebuano. In fact, there are more than 30 languages spoken in this area. (Brown, vol. 2, p. 270)

Cebuano was first recorded in 1521 in word lists written down by Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, when Magellan's expedition made its ill-fated stop in Cebu. Catechisms in Cebuano were composed in the years shortly after the first Spanish colonization in 1564 and translations made at that time are still used. The earliest dictionaries and grammatical sketches were composed during the 17th century, and published in the 18th century. The dictionaries and catechisms of Cebuano show that the language has changed considerably since the 17th century. Many of the verb forms used in the catechisms and cited in the earlier dictionaries are no longer used, and some are absent from the present normal speech. (Brown, vol. 2, p. 270)

Language
Cebuano has a long history, originating during the pre-modern period of Indo-China trade. Indian cultural influence was established in the Philippines in that early time, thus elements of Indian culture and the Sanskrit language are evident in Cebuano. Cebuano has assimilated a few Sanskrit terms such as bathála (god) and bugás (rice). From this trade connection, Cebuano incorporated a few terms from the Chinese as well, such as bíku (rice) and míswa (rice noodle). In the 11th century, the Hinduized Malay empire of Sri-Vishay (Srivijaya) extended its power over parts of the Philippines. Two centuries later, the Majapahit empire in Java overthrew Sri-Vishaya and had some influence over the Philippines, mostly in Sulu and Manila. Linguistic influences in the form of loanwords reached the Philippines by way of Malay and Javanese. Relations with Islamic Malay peoples in the 14th century also brought elements of Arabic into the Philippines, and Cebuano has adopted a few Arabic terms such as salámat (thank) and hokum (judge).

The linguistic influence of Spanish on the Philippines was profound and extensive during the three-century rule of the Spanish over the Philippines beginning in the 16th century. Spanish terms in the religious, social and economic spheres became widely accepted by the inhabitants and Cebuano has borrowed a number of words such as pári (priest), kumústa (how are you), and krus (cross). During the American sovereignty over the Philippines (1898-1946), English was taught extensively in all the public schools established by the Americans throughout the country, and Cebuano borrowed such words as báskit (reed container), dyip (jeep), and rádyu (radio). (Trosdal, p. xxxiv-xxxvi) In the period between independence after World War II and the mid-1970's, Cebuano was the largest linguistic group in the Philippines. The 1975 census shows that 24.1% of the population spoke Cebuano as compared to 21% for Tagalog speakers. (Herbert and Milner, p. 155) Now, Tagalog is becoming the lingua franca at the expense of Cebuano, especially in Mindanao, but also throughout the Cebuano speaking area, because more native speakers of Cebuano are learning Tagalog as a second language. Cebuano is now considered to be the language of the home and social intercourse. It is used among the low-status groups, people with little education and little access to English. In official settings, English is used. (Brown, vol. 2, p. 270)

Cebuano is a pitch language. It has three pitch phonemes: low, middle and high. (Trosdal p. xv) The language requires light muscular tension, relatively low tongue position, little spreading and rounding of the lips and light movement of the jaw. (Trosdal p. xl)

Script
There are two separate periods which influenced the Philippines' writing system. One of the earliest records of the Philippine script is found on the Calatagan pot, on which the writing is identical to earlier Indic syllabic scripts. Similar syllabic scripts have also been found on bamboo, palm leaves and tree bark, but it does not appear to have been incised on stone or copper plates. During the Spanish occupation in the 16th century, the Spanish introduced the Roman alphabet into the Philippine languages, and thus influenced the writing scripts of the Cebuano. One of the earliest records with Roman scripts from this period was found in the Chronicle of Magellan, written in 1521. (Brown, vol.2, p.270) The Roman-influenced-script of Cebuano has later been gradually changed by American influence to become the Cebuano writing script used today. (Herbert and Milner, p. 156) The Cebuano script consists of sixteen consonants and three vowels in order to form the phonemes in the Cebuano language.

Other Related Dialects
Filipino is considered to be the national language of Philippines, and it is based on Tagalog. English is widely used and is the medium of instruction in higher education. These two languages are used nationally as the language of communication among many ethnic groups. There are over 170 small dialects, and all of them belong to the Austronesian language family, under the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch, except the Spanish Creoles. (Brown, vol. 9, p.323) Among these 170 dialects, there are about ten major dialects which are spoken by majority of the Filipinos. These major dialects are Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon (or Ilonggo), Bikol, Waray-Waray, Kapampangan, Pangasinan, Maranao, Maguindanao and Kinaray-a. The Spanish Creole languages are referred to as Chavacano, including Caviteño, cotabateño, Davao Chavacano, Ternateño and Zamoangueño. (Brown, vol.9, p. 323)

Comparison to Western languages
Cebuano words are formed by consonants and vowels, and stress is usually applied to syllables of a word as in the English language. Cebuano differs from the Western European languages in a way that the sentence structure is arranged in Verb-Subject-Object order. (Trosdal, p. xxii)

References

• Brown, K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Volume 2. (2nd ed.). Elsevier: Oxford, 2006.
• Brown, K. Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, Volume 9. (2nd ed.). Elsevier: Oxford, 2006.
• Herbert, P. and Milner, A. Southeast Asia, Languages and Literatures. University of Hawaii Press: Honolulu, 1989.
• Trosdal M. B. Cebuano-English Dictionary. Cebu City: Philippines, 1990.