Maranao phonology

Below is the sound system of Maranao including underlying phonetic features.

## Vowels

Maranao has four vowel phonemes that can become more close or higher when in certain environments (see hard consonants below). The vowel raising effects of hard consonants may have led earlier studies to Although previous studies have analyzed the [ɨ] sound as a separate phoneme (written with *ae*) instead of a raised allophone of /ə/.

Vowels
 Close-mid
 Open-mid
 Open

## Consonants

According to Lobel (2013), Maranao has the following consonants:

In Maranao, /ʔ/ is not phonemic word-initially (similar to non-Philippine English). Hence, "layok aken" (friend of mine) is smoothly pronounced [la.jo.ka.kən].

Since the heavy consonant developed from consonant clusters, they are only found word-medially.

Orthography-wise, "r" is used for /ɾ/, "y" is used for /j/, and "ng" is used for /ŋ/

### Fricative [h]

According to Lobel (2013), [h] only occurs in a few recent Malay loanwords:

* *to**h**an* 'God'
* *ta**h**on* 'astrological sign'
* ***h**adapan* 'in front (of God)'

Earlier Arabic loanwords with "h" that entered Proto-Danao or earlier Maranao were realized as **k**.

* *kalal* ‘halal (anything that is permissible in Islam)'
* *karam* ‘haram (anything not permissible in Islam)’ ,
* *kadî* ‘hadji (title for a man who has made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca)’
* *Kadis* ‘Hadith’

### Consonant elongation

Consonants are also pronounced longer if preceded with a schwa /ə/. However, this process is not a form of gemination since consonant elongation in Maranao is not distinctive as seen in other Philippine languages such as Ilokano and Ibanag. Some of these are:

* *tepad* [təpːad] 'get off a vehicle'
* *tekaw* [təkːaw] 'startled; surprised'

### Hard consonants and vowel raising

Since 2009, it has been proposed that previous studies on the phonology of Maranao had overlooked the presence of "heavy" consonants. These four "heavy" consonants being /p’ t’ k’ s’/. Vowels that follow these consonants are raised in position.
There are four possible environments for that determine whether the vowel will be raised or not:

1. Non-raising – /p t k s m n ŋ r w y/
2. Obligatory Raising – /p’ t’ k’ s’ (h)/
	* Tohan is pronounced as [t̪o.hɤn] instead of [to.han]
3. Optional Raising – /b d g/
	* Evidenced by some younger speakers writing "gagaan" as "gegaan".
4. Transparent – /l ʔ/ – the raising from the consonant before it will "pass through" and affect the following vowel.

#### Historical development

Consonant cluster homogenization occurred in earlier Danao and Subanon, where the articulations of the first consonant followed that of the second (Ex: **\*-gp-** > **\*-bp-**).

A study by Allison noted that Proto-Danao \*b, \*d, g\* were lost in modern Maranao when found before other consonants with the same place of articulation (Ex: **\*bp** > **\*p**), but preserved elsewehere.

Lobel noted that this sound change actually resulted in two features of Maranao phonology: heavy consonants and raised vowels ( \***[-bpa-]** > **[-phɤ-]** ). Aspirated consonants also developed in a similar way in Southern (Lapuyan) Subanon, but without the vowel-raising.

Sound changes
 \*-gt-, \*-dt-, \*-bt-
 \*-gs-, \*-ds-, \*-bs-
 \*-gk-, \*-dk-, \*-bk-