Masbateño language
Masbateño or Minasbate/Masbatenyo is a member of Central Philippine languages and of the Bisayan subgroup of the Austronesian language family spoken by more than 724,000 people in the province of Masbate and some parts of Sorsogon in the Philippines. Masbatenyo (sometimes written as Masbateño) is the name used by the speakers of the language and for themselves, although the term 'Minásbate' is sometimes also used to distinguish the language from the people. It has 350,000 speakers as of 2002 with 50, 000 who speak it as first language. About 250,000 speakers use it as their second language . Masbatenyo is closely related to Capiznon, with 79% lexical similarity and Hiligaynon with 76% lexical similarity. Waray language is closely related and significantly similar to Masbatenyo as well. It is also closely related to Waray Sorsogon language; the language of Sorsogon. This is because Masbate was once part of Sorsogon Province and was governed from Sorsogon City until 1920s. It has three major dialects: the western dialect centered around the town of Balud on the western coast which is close to Capiz, the southern dialect centered about the town of Cataingan in the southeastern part of Masbate and the northern  dialect covering the whole northern half of Masbate and centered on Masbate City. Etymology. There are several accounts on the origins of the word 'Masbate'. One account says that it came from the words masa "to mix" and batî "to beat". The other account says it came from mas batî "heard better" as in "Lumúsad kamó kag umapíke agúd mas batî an íyo ginasábi" "Get down here and get closer so that we can hear better whatever you're saying." Another account further says that it came from the term that Cebuano migrants used to describe the place, mas batí  which means "a place where living condition is worse". According to a certain Fray Martin de Rada, Masbate took its name from Masbat or Basbat which means 'having many gold mines'. Another claims that the name Masbate came from "Masbad." The term "Masbad" possibly originated from "Masbaranon," a barrio that used to be part of the jurisdiction of the Municipality of Placer but now under the Municipality of Esperanza. This barrio is used to be called "Surosimbahan" because it looks like a church. Its name was then changed into "Agoho" from the tree called "agoho." Then for the third time , its name was changed "Masbaranon" because of the supposed abundance of small fish called masbad. Dialects. Wolfenden identified three major dialects of Masbatenyo: the western dialect centered around the town of Balud on the western coast which is close to Capiz, the southern dialect centered about the town of Cataingan in the southeastern part of Masbate and the northern dialect covering the whole northern half of Masbate and centered on Masbate City, the capital. Masbatenyo and its neighboring languages. Wolfenden reported that although Sorsogon (the southernmost province of Bicol) and Masbate are very much closer to Bicol Peninsula, Sorsoganon and  Masbatenyo shared the same grammatical systems which are rather closer to that of Hiligaynon, the trade language of Panay Island rather than that of Bicol. The presence of competing grammatical and lexical subsystems in the language is the most striking characteristic of Masbatenyo. This has probably been brought on by the influx of settlers from surrounding major language groups who mixed in elements of their language with and alongside of the Masbatenyo. This results to a number of semantic concepts that can be expressed by two to five alternate different words for a single concept. This led Wolfenden to think  that Masbatenyo is unique in the sense of its being a mixed-up language. Speakers of the language often thought that their language is just a mixture of its neighboring languages which are Bikol, Waray-Waray, Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Tagalog. There are still who refer to their own speech as 'Bisaya' . Masbatenyo shares different types of mutual intelligibility with its neighboring languages. Speakers of Masbatenyo can easily and conveniently converse with speakers of the neighboring languages using their own language. However, speakers of Cebuano, Waray or Hiligaynon would sometimes find it difficult to understand Masbatenyo because of its lexicon. Furthermore , Zorc considered Masbatenyo, together with Kinaray-a, Bulalakaw, Hiligayon, Waray, and Surigaonon, as "linking dialects" because they serve as "centers of dialect complexes". McFarland presented different views on the classification of the language spoken in Masbate. One view excluded Masbate and the southern part of Sorsogon from the Bikol area on the grounds that the language spoken in these areas was not Bikol. The other view considered the language as dialect of Bikol. Other claim on the language of Masbate was that 'the language and dialects of Masbate are basically Visayan, with the major influence being Cebuano.' Zorc made a  subgrouping and reconstruction of the Bisayan dialects and included Masbatenyo in his work. He stated that while it is true that there are immigrants from the areas that speak Bikol, Cebuano and Hiligaynon languages, the "native dialect" throughout the island is Masbatenyo. Zorc presented four types of intelligibility among the Bisayan languages and dialects: a) natural or primary intelligibility, where speakers of different dialects can communicate freely, even they never hear the other dialect before (e.g. Bulalakawnon and Ratagnon, Capiznon and Hiligaynon); b) learned or secondary intelligibility, where speakers can adjust to another dialect in a matter of time (e.g.  Bulalakawnon and Aklanon); c) sesquilingualism, whereby a speaker is fluent in his native language (dialect), but can only understand (not speak) another (Waray and Cebuano, where speakers of both languages can understand both perfectly but speakers of Cebuano understand Waray poorly); and d) one-way intelligibility, whereby A understands B but B does not understand A. Masbatenyo speakers in the town of Masbate belong to the fourth kind. The residents of the town can readily understand the speech of the outsiders but the outsiders cannot understand the speech of the local residents. Speakers can understand Sorsoganon, Capiznon, Hiligaynon, and  Cebuano but the latter experience varying degrees of difficulty in understanding Masbatenyo. Regarding the duration of the Bisayan occupancy of the Central Philippines, Zorc reported that there are no pre-Hispanic writings that would account for their existence in the area. Zorc stipulated that current speakers of many of the Bisayan languages and dialects could have given up their original languages long ago in favor of an intrusive or more prestigious language, or in favor of the language already spoken in the region that they invaded and conquered. Orthography. In 2016, researchers from the Dr. Emilio B. Espinosa Sr. Memorial  State College of Agriculture and Technology (DEBESMSCAT) together with the members of newly established Minasbate Language Society, composed of various stakeholders from Masbate, developed a working orthography on the language based on the discussions in the 1st Minasbate Orthography Congress. The Minasbate Working Orthography distinguishes between the native Minasbate orthography and the extended working orthography. A. Native Minasbaté Orthography B. Extended Orthography The inclusion of borrowed terms in native Minasbaté vocabulary has resulted in the change in the structure of the language. There is a need to develop an extended orthography to accommodate these words. 8. Consonant clusters exist in  both native and borrowed words in Minasbaté. 9. The apostrophe symbol ( ' ) is used in contracted words. The particles "san" and "sin" are often contracted to the immediately preceding word if it ends in either a glottal or vowel sound. The unstressed vowel can also be deleted in fast speech. Examples: Phonology. Masbatenyo has 19 segmental phonemes: 16 consonant sounds /p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, l, r, w, j, s, h, ʔ/ and three vowel sounds /a, ɪ, ʊ/. ɪ/ has the mid front unrounded, lax vowel [ɛ] (written orthographically as "e") as its variant; /ʊ/ has  the mid back rounded lax [ɔ] (written orthographically as "o") as its variant. The sound [ɛ] only appears in loan words from English and Spanish and occurs in free variation with [ɪ]. Similarly, the sound [ɔ] is a variant of [ʊ] and its occurrence might have been brought by the interaction with the Tagalog language and the incorporation of Spanish and English loan words in Masbatenyo language. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is the conventional onset of the orthographically vowel-initial words, thus vowels cannot occur in initial position. They only occur in medial and final position. There are two  major syllable patterns in Masbatenyo, namely, open syllable /C(C)V, (C(C)VC)/ and closed syllable /CVC/. Most root words in Masbatenyo are disyllabic (they are composed of two syllables) and follows the CV(C).CV(C) pattern. There are monosyllabic words; however, most of them are functors that have no lexical meaning. Most of the disyllabic words contain an affix, reduplicated or compound. Masbatenyo also has a suprasegmental phoneme, the stress, which is characterized by vowel length. The acoustic analysis of stress correlates using Praat showed that duration is the most consistent factor that characterizes stress. Stressed syllables are longer than their unstressed counterparts. The  diphthongs in Masbatenyo are: [aw] in "sabaw 'soup', [ɪw] in "agiw 'soot'"," [aj] in "balay 'house', and [ʊj] or [ɔj] in "baboy 'pig'. Consonant clusters are non-native to Masbatenyo phonology. Their occurrence in the language is brought by the entry of borrowed words from Spanish and English. The form of a morpheme can changed when they are combined to form words or phrases. Such changes are called mophophonemic changes. Among these changes are: vowel deletion; contraction of particles "san" and "sin, assimilation, metathesis, epenthesis" and "degemination". Grammar. Word formation. Masbatenyo provides support for the claim that root words are  pre-categorial or neutral by themselves. Take the following examples. "Dakó" 'big (size, abstract)' is a root which can express a property or state, as seen in: "Dakó an baláy niya" 'His house is big'. But it can also be combined with certain affixes to form a process verb in: "Nagdaragkó na an atáman" 'His pet has grown already.' It can also combine with a determiner "an" to form a noun in the context: "Dilí ko nakita an pagdakó san báta niya" 'I didn't see his child growing up.' "Dalágan" is considered as verb when it used in command  form: "Dalágan!" 'Run!' But it can be analyzed as noun in forms such as: "Malúya an dalágan san trak niya." 'His truck runs slowly.' Masbatenyo employs the following operations in deriving new words: However, the existence of bare root forms of modifiers (adjectives and adverbs) in Masbatenyo can also provide evidence that root forms also have lexical properties. Examples of this are "lab`as" 'fresh (fish)' versus "lúb`ok" 'rotten', "hilaw" 'raw' versus "lutô" 'cooked'. Noun and noun phrases. Proper and common nouns are distinguishable from each other because they have their respective determiners; proper nouns are marked by "si/sinda, ni /ninda," and "kan/kanda" while common nouns are accompanied by "an, san/sin," and "sa." In Masbatenyo, there is a subgroup of common nouns that can be inflected as imitative. The imitative affix can be the reduplicative or the "Curu-" 'imitative/diminutive'. The reduplicative affix – the reduplication of the whole word – is applicable to a stem that is disyllabic and has open penult (CV). Regardless of the original position of the stress, the stress of the reduplicated form is always in the penult, such as in "táwu" 'man' > "tawu-táwu" 'toy' The "Curu-" is attached to a stem that  has more than two syllables. It also attaches to a stem that has a close penult (CVC). The stress does not shift after reduplication. An example of this is "barúto" 'boat' > "burubarúto" 'mini-boat' Temporal nouns can also be reduplicated and affixed with Curu-. The meaning, however, is no longer imitative. It means 'every ….' as illustrated in "adláw" 'day' > "uru`adláw" 'everyday'. Nouns can also be derived from other word classes by adding nominalizing morphemes or voice affixes. Masbatenyo employs three types of possession strategies: (a) possessive clauses ("may" and "igwá" and oblique phrases "sa/kan"); (b) lexical noun  phrases ("ni" and "san/sin" constructions) and; (c) genitive case pronouns (personal and demonstrative pronouns). Verbs. Masbatenyo verbs, like verbs in other Philippine languages, are marked for their voice, aspect and modality. Further, as Nolasco observed in Philippine languages, voice and tense/aspect/mode often interact and it is sometimes difficult to tease them apart. Aspect. Masbatenyo is marked for aspect to show the condition of the action; whether it has begun or not, and whether it is viewed as a process or in a static state. What is important to the speakers is not a temporal relation of the  activity to the moment of speaking, but the internal stages of the activity. It is not marked for tense since its action is not correlated with time. Masbatenyo has the five aspects: infinitive or neutral, perfective, imperfective, prospective and recent perfective. Mode. Mode describes the speakers' attitude toward a situation, including the speakers' belief in its reality, or likelihood (Payne 1997). It describes the view of the speaker as to how the action is done. The term mode, mood and modality are often used interchangeably. There are at least six types of mode that occur in Masbatenyo: (a) indicative; (b ) imperative; (c) aptative/abilitative; (d) reciprocal/social; (e) causative; and (f) distributive. Modifiers. In Masbatenyo, the so-called "adjectives" and "adverbs" are similar morphologically; hence, there exists no persuasive reasons for separating the modifiers of verbs and non-verbs. Modifiers can either occur in their root forms or they can be inflected by affixes. The first type belongs to a class of unaffixed form of statives. These forms denote that the properties they exhibit are not derived from a process or those that are possessed innately by the thing being described. Examples are "lab`as" 'fresh (fish)' versus "lúb`ok" 'rotten', "hilaw  'raw' versus lutô" 'cooked'. Affixed forms of the statives are classified according to the affix that attaches to their root forms. There are three types of affixed forms in Masbaenyo: (a) "m-" type; (b) "hi-/ha-" type; and (c) those with voice affix. The first subtype inflected for by the "m-" replacive affix expresses the state or attribute of the referent or entity being described, e.g., "madulom" 'dark'. The second subtype, which is inflected for by the "hi-/ha-," is used to describe measurements (depth, height, length), e.g., "harayo" 'far'; "hitaas" 'high'. The third subtype is affixed with voice affix. Masbatenyo modifiers  are inflected by means of affixes for four degrees of intensity: basic, comparative, superlative, and intensive. In Masbatenyo, intensive degree is expressed by the affix "ka-" accompanied by the non-obligatory particle "man" attached to bare forms (roots), e.g. Kaganda san boses ni Tinne. 'Tinne's voice is so beautiful.' Intensive degree may also be expressed by "Curu" reduplication. "ka-" intensification also co-occurs with the C"uru" intensification. 'Katurutam`is saní na biko. 'This rice cake is very sweet.' Adverbial properties in Masbatenyo are rather expressed by clitic particles such as "na" 'already', "pa" 'still', "ngáni" 'really', "kunó" 'reportedly', etc. Pronouns . In Philippine-type languages, pronouns replace the full noun phrases in a clause. Pronouns however do not take the place of nouns in most expressions (e.g. "an bata" > siya, not "an siya"), but do so in oblique phrases (e.g. "sa batà "'to the child' > "sa iya" 'to him/her.' There are five important types of pronouns in Philippine languages: personal pronouns, interrogative pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, reflexive pronouns and indefinite pronouns. Personal pronouns refer to entities already mentioned in the discourse or known to the hearer. They are classified according to person, case and number. Demonstrative pronouns or deictics  refer to entities in relation to distance, and space and also refer to their location on a timeline. In discourse, demonstratives are also used to track reference across clauses. They sometimes take the place of third personal pronouns. Interrogative pronouns are those that take place of the nouns in questions. Interrogatives are used when a concept is being questioned and to elicit information so that an item can be identified. The interrogative pronouns are sin`o "who," náno "what," pan`o "how," san`o "when," pirá "how much," háin "where," and diín "where". Nano kay 'why' differs from the rest of interrogative words  since it does not replace a noun phrase but an entire clause. It consists of the interrogative pronoun "náno" and the reason particle "kay." Reflexive pronouns are special words which refer to the same referent in a construction. It is made up of the word "sadíri" plus the relevant pronoun, as in the phrase "sa sadíri niya" or "sa iya sadíri." Indefinite pronouns refer to entities, persons, places or times which cannot be clearly established. The indefinite pronouns can either be expressed in two ways: (a) by the same form as the interrogatives plus the particle "man" or (b ) by the use of the connectors "bísan" 'even, including', "máski" 'even though' or "kun" 'if' plus interrogative word. "Amó" is a general pro-form that can be used to replace any of the noun, verb, modifier, or even whole clauses. Wolfenden refers to "amó" as the universal substitute. "Amo" is also used to track an antecedent in a previous sentence. Numeral terms. Masbatenyo has native terms for numbers. However, in the domain of money and time, Spanish terms are used. Numerals typically go with nouns to specify the number of the items talked about. They can also modify verbs and  other predicates to indicate degree and quantity of action. Basic mathematical operations. The following are basic mathematical operations in Masbateño: Advanced algebraic operations. The following are advanced algebraic operations in Masbateño: Literary works. Pulong Ko Yadto Pulong ko yadto mato-od kag tunay An imo sa akon tuga na pagmahal Nano an nangyari kay imo guin bayaan Mga pangako mo san nag-agi na adlaw Mili kay sugad an akon kamotangan Imo guin bayaan, imo guin bayaan Nagtios sin labi na kasakitan Kay gusto mo ada na ako mamatay Kon dili pa lamang an akon paglaom Sa imo binilin na  mga surmaton Di kunta nagios inin tagipusu-on Di kunta nasayang inin lawas nakon.