Ilocano language
Ilocano (also Ilokano; ; Ilocano: ) is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines, primarily by Ilocano people and as a lingua franca by the Igorot people. 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. 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. Classification. Ilocano, like all Philippine languages, is an Austronesian language, a very expansive language family believed to originate in Taiwan. Ilocano comprises its own branch within the Philippine Cordilleran language subfamily. It is spoken as first language by seven million people. A lingua franca of the northern region of the Philippines, it is spoken as a secondary language by more than two million people who are native speakers of  Ibanag, Ivatan, and other languages in Northern Luzon. Geographic distribution. The language is spoken in northwest Luzon, the Babuyan Islands, Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, northern parts of Central Luzon, Mindoro, and scattered areas in Mindanao (the Soccsksargen region in particular). The language is also spoken in the United States, with Hawaii and California having the largest number of speakers. It is the third most spoken non-English language in Hawaii after Tagalog and Japanese, with 17% of those speaking languages other than English at home (25.4% of the population) speaking the language. In September 2012, the province of La  Union passed an ordinance recognizing Ilocano (Iloko) as an official provincial language, alongside Filipino and English, as national and official languages of the Philippines, respectively. It is the first province in the Philippines to pass an ordinance protecting and revitalizing a native language, although there are also other languages spoken in the province of La Union, including Pangasinan and Kankanaey. Writing system. Modern alphabet. The modern Ilokano Alphabet consists of 28 letters: 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 Zz  Pre-colonial. 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 kudlits interchange between e or i, and o or u. Due to this, vowels "e" and "i" are interchangeable, and letters "o" and "u", for instance, "tendera" and "tindira" (shop-assistant). Modern. 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, and better reflects the actual pronunciation of the word. The letters "ng" constitute a digraph and counts as a single letter, following "n" in alphabetization. As a result, numo ("humility") appears before ngalngal ("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". Samples of the two systems. The following are two versions of the Lord's Prayer. The one on the left is written using the Spanish-based orthography, while the one on the right uses the Tagalog-based system. Ilocano and education. 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. Constitutionally, Ilocano is an auxiliary official language in the regions where it is spoken and serves as auxiliary media of instruction therein. In 2009, the Philippine Department of Education instituted department order 74, s. 2009 stipulating that "mother tongue-based multilingual education" would be implemented. In 2012, department order 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. 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 instructions. 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 ("kankanta"), dances ("salsala"), poems ("dandaniw"), riddles ("burburtia"), proverbs ("pagsasao"), literary verbal jousts called "bucanegan" (named after the writer Pedro Bucaneg, and is the equivalent of the Balagtasan of the Tagalogs), and epic stories. Phonology. Segmental. Vowels . Modern Ilocano has two dialects, which are differentiated only by the way the letter e is pronounced. In the Amianan ("Northern") dialect, there exist only five vowels while the 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. For a better rendition of vowel distribution, please refer to the IPA Vowel Chart. Unstressed /a/ is pronounced in all positions except final syllables, like "madí" (cannot be) but "ngiwat" (mouth) is pronounced . Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system  is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions. O/U and I/E. In native morphemes, the close back rounded vowel is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the ultima of the morpheme, it is written o; elsewhere, u. Instances such as masapulmonto, "You will manage to find it, to need it", are still consistent. Note that masapulmonto is, in fact, three morphemes: masapul (verb base), -mo (pronoun) and -(n)to (future particle). An exception to this rule, however, is laud ("west"). Also, u in final stressed syllables can be pronounced [o], like for danum ("water ). The two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words due to fact that was an allophone of in the history of the language. In words of foreign origin, notably Spanish, they are phonemic. Unlike u and o, i and e are not allophones, but i in final stressed syllables in words ending in consonants can be , like ubíng" ("child"). The two closed vowels become glides when followed by another vowel. The close back rounded vowel becomes before another vowel; and the close front unrounded vowel , . In addition, dental/alveolar consonants become palatalized before . (See Consonants below). Unstressed /i/ and  /u/ are pronounced and except in final syllables, like "pintás" (beauty) and "buténg" (fear) but "bangir" (other side) and "parabur" ("grace") are pronounced and . Pronunciation of. The letter represents two vowels in the non-nuclear dialects (areas outside the Ilocos provinces) in words of foreign origin and in native words, and only one in the nuclear dialects of the Ilocos provinces, . Diphthongs. 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, buok "hair" and dait "sew" . The diphthong is a variant of in native words. Other occurrences are in words of Spanish and English origin. Examples are "reyna" (from Spanish "reina", "queen") and "treyner" ("trainer"). The diphthongs and may be interchanged since is an allophone of in final syllables. Thus, "apúy" (fire) may be pronounced and "baboy" (pig) may be pronounced . Consonants. All consonantal phonemes except may  be a syllable onset or coda. The phoneme /h/ is a borrowed sound and rarely occurs in coda position. Although, the Spanish word, reloj, "clock", would have been heard as [re.loh], the final /h/ is dropped resulting in /re.lo/. However, this word also may have entered the Ilokano lexicon at early enough a time that the word was still pronounced , with the j pronounced as in French, resulting in /re.los/ in Ilokano. As a result, both /re.lo/ and /re.los/ occur. The glottal stop 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 aramat , "use". When prefixed with ag-, the expected form is . But, the actual form is ; the glottal stop disappears. In a reduplicated form, the glottal stop returns and participates in the template, CVC, agar-aramat . Stops are pronounced without aspiration. When they occur as coda, they are not released, for example, sungbat "answer, response". Ilokano is one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from - allophony, as /r/ in many cases is derived from a Proto-Austonesian *R, compare bago (Tagalog) and baró (Ilokano) "new". The language marginally has a trill  [r] which was spelled as "rr", for example, serrek "to enter". Trill [r] is sometimes an allophone of in word-initial position and word-final positions, spelled as single . But it is different in proper names of foreign origin, mostly Spanish, like Serrano, which is correctly pronounced . Some speakers, however, pronounce Serrano as . Prosody. Primary stress. The placement of primary stress is lexical in Ilocano. This results in minimal pairs such as /ˈkaː.yo/ ("wood") and /ka.ˈyo/ ("you (plural or polite)") or /ˈkiː.ta/ ("class, type, kind") and /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. Secondary stress. Secondary stress occurs in the following environments: Vowel length. Vowel length coincides with stressed syllables (primary or secondary) and only on open syllables except for ultimas, for example, /'ka:.jo/ "tree" versus /ka.'jo/ "(second person plural ergative pronoun)". Stress shift. 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. Grammar. Ilokano 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. Lexicon. Borrowings. Foreign accretion comes  largely from Spanish, followed by English and smatterings of much older accretion from Hokkien (Min Nan), Arabic and Sanskrit. Common expressions. Ilokano shows a T-V distinction. Numbers, days, months. Numbers. Ilocano uses two number systems, one native and the other derived from Spanish. Ilocano uses a mixture of native and Spanish numbers. Traditionally Ilokano numbers are used for quantities and Spanish numbers for time or days and references. Examples: Spanish: Ilocano: Days of the week. Days of the week are directly borrowed from Spanish. Months. Like the days of the week, the names of the months are taken from  Spanish. Units of time. 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. To mention time, Ilokanos use a mixture of Spanish and Ilokano: Also of note is the yo-yo, probably named after the Ilocano word yóyo.