Volume 8, Issue 2, February – 2023 International Journal of Innovative Science and Research Technology

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A Grammar of Bisaya in Davao

Mary Jane A. Cooke

Ana Helena R. Lovitos, PhD, MedStud

language consultants are native speakers of the language

who translated and recorded word and sentence lists for

accurate pronunciation. The analysis reveals the

language's phonological, morphological, syntactic, and

morphosyntactic characteristics. Based on the translated

eliciting materials spoken and pronounced by the

language consultants, there are three vowels and sixteen

consonants in the phonemic inventory. Distinct

phonological characteristics such as minimal pairs,

diphthongs, and phonotactics are readily apparent. It

crosslinguistic study. This is vital for students and

teachers in DepEd Davao in teaching the Bisaya in

Davao as a mother tongue.

Keywords:- Applied Linguistics; Bisaya, Language

Description; Linguistic Features; Philippines.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Cebuano (ISO 639-3 ceb) language belongs to the

Fennig, 2022) considers the language to be institutional, that

is, it has been developed to the point and is used and

sustained by institutions beyond the home and community;

the language still needs to be documented to add to the

language's sustainable and functional literature.

In her study, Rubrico (2012) defined Cebuano,

referred to as Bisaya or Binisaya by the people of Davao, as

the language most people speak. In addition, she cited

Ethnologue (2009), one in every three (33.32%) is Cebuano.

2.01%; other languages, 2.04%; uncertain, 0.01%.5

According to Ethnologue 2009, Davawenyo synthesizes

Filipino, Cebuano, and other Visayan dialects. In addition,

Lobel and Pouezevara (2021) added that the only Philippine

language with a native speaker population that approaches

Tagalog (16 million) is Cebuano. Additionally, Cebuano,

which is spoken as a native tongue in the central part of the

Philippines, is the only language to match its geographic

range, the majority of central and eastern Mindanao, the

Visayan Islands, and beyond. Compared to Tagalog as the

available on the linguistic analysis of Cebuano is rich and

timely. However, as a result, it is critical to preserve this

Davao variety. Hence, it the important to document this

Davao variety to add to the rich literature of Philippine

languages. Language is an ever-evolving entity it is difficult

to predict when it will change (Atos,2015). Therefore,

language documentation is an essential task for any linguist

and research enthusiast to consider. However, high-quality

data and literature availability are critical for continuing

these investigations. Speakers of all languages must

consciously document their languages so that future

generations can utilize them as guides or references.

histories of the world's peoples has been an exciting

that language documentation is among the oldest traditions

in the linguistic field.

addition. While it is true that this language is thriving and

it will be a rich addition to the teaching of the mother tongue

under DepEd's Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual

Education (MTBLE) to uphold its Four Minima for a

language to become a mother tongue: weaving to standard

Writing a Grammar involves two primary objectives:

documentation of threatened or endangered languages and

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The research design of this paper is qualitative

descriptive research, specifically descriptive which explores

the documentary analysis and involves gathering data

through comprehensive interviews from the selected three

informants who are Bisaya native speakers. The research

participants or language consultants were three Davao

Bisaya, native speakers in Davao City. Before data

collection started, I prepared the elicitation materials, which

are more than 20 years old. They were educated enough to

translate from their native language to Bisaya and Tagalog.

Barlow (2020) noted that people older than 30 tended

to be fluent speakers (of varying proficiency). In contrast,

people in their twenties only seemed capable of producing

basic phrases (although their comprehension might have

been quite good). The translation was conducted in the

comfort of their preferred location during their free time.

For further clarification and validation of the elicited data,

and the 775-Sentence List designed and enhanced by the

linguistics department of the University of the Philippines

(Diliman) (UP Department of Linguistics, 2018a, 2018b,

2018c). The elicitation materials were used with appropriate

consent from the rightful owner. The first three materials

enumerated above are all wordlists, which have been

utilized to collect lexical data from the Bisaya language to

decide how to test the emerging conclusions.

permission necessary to complete this research.

Furthermore, the researcher ensured the appropriateness of

identified recruiting parties and reviewed the risks and

measures to mitigate these risks (including physical,

psychological, and social-economic. Proper authorization

and consent are also obtained from the sample of the study,

in which they are assured that all their rights would be fully

protected, specifically in handling the data such as, but not

limited to, voluntary participation, privacy, and

confidentiality, informed consent process, recruitment,

benefits, plagiarism, fabrication, falsification, conflict of

the only language spoken in the Philippines, close to

Tagalog's native speaker population. Moreover, speaking as

a native tongue in the central region of the Philippines,

Cebuano is the only language to match its geographic

breadth—the majority of central and eastern Mindanao, the

Visayan Islands, and beyond.

 The Place where the Language is Spoken

639-3 ceb) language. It belongs to the "Austronesian,

Central Philippine, Central Philippine, Bisayan, Cebuano,

Mansakan, and Davaweño" ethnic groups. The Philippine

language is widely spoken in the Bicol region, including

south Masbate province, sections of Mindanao, and the

Visayas. It is natively called by its generic term Bisaya or

Binisaya.

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 Bisaya in Davao Phonological Component

The Bisaya's phonological structure in Davao comprises the phonemic inventory of vowels and consonants, phonotactics,

which addresses the restrictions on phoneme combination, and phonological constraints, which address Bisaya in Davao

consonant clusters, and the observable phonological processes employed to simplify their speech.

Fig 2 The Davao Bisaya Vowels

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sound system, as in all other Philippine languages. Three

sounds—/a/,/i/, and /o/u/—are the critical discoveries for

vowels. They could be in diphthongs, minimal pairings, and

open and closed syllables. Consonants consist of 16 sounds,

nasals, flaps, and approximants. Also, the consonants are

categorized in their places of articulation based on the

tongue positions; bilabial, dental/alveolar, velar, and glottal.

Table 1 The Bisaya in Davao Consonant Phonemes

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Philippines. The presentation of the language analysis

covers sentence patterns as well as phrase and clause

structure. Traditional grammatical analysis presents an

immediate distinction between intransitive and transitive

verbs.

In contrast to intransitive verbs, transitive verbs take

objects or a patient. In Bisaya in Davao, several transitive

and intransitive constructions are shown. The number of

necessary noun arguments a verb can take in a grammatical

formulation depends on its transitivity.

just one distinct argument, like all other languages: the

subject. The absence of an object renders the statement

comprehensive and comprehensible but lacking essential

details. This construction has also been made evident by the

Bisaya in Davao transitive construction.

 Verb Initial Sentences in Bisaya in Davao

The verb initial patterns in Philippine languages are

vital to sentence formation. Predicate occurs first, then the

subject of the sentence, a pattern also seen in Austronesian

 The Morphosyntax in Bisaya in Davao

The markers are one of the most observable features of

Philippine languages categorized as Austronesian. These are

words that do not have language equivalence in other

languages. They do not have an accurate literal translation.

Their primary purpose is syntactic. The sentences may have

all the main parts, verbs, and nouns but would still sound

aspect. The aspects of a verb in a sentence are altered by

changing its affixes, as is the verb's necessity for the

absolutive case to take on voice. Like other Philippine

languages classified as Austronesian languages, Bisaya in

Davao contains a trait known as verbal affixation related to

its arguments in sentences. These languages may be studied

well using this morphosyntactic feature, which also provides

a very understandable description of the typology of the

languages.

to the functional theory of grammar in assessing the

language's peculiarities. The study identified the

phonological, morphological, syntactic, and

morphosyntactic features of the language with the assistance

of the three principal language consultants (of varying ages),

who are native speakers of the language and diligently

translated and recorded word and sentence lists for accurate

pronunciation. Despite Bisaya in Davao's relative simplicity

compared to other Philippine languages, it is advisable to be

aware of the language's morphological system's slight

in their instruction and a source of knowledge for Bisayan

speakers in Davao to learn. This description paves the way

for future researchers on actual documentation of the

language and pursues research topics like dialectal

distinctions in Visayas and Mindanao, language contact,

survival of the language despite the presence of other

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family, friends, colleagues, students, immediate supervisors,

and language consultants for their love and support.

 About the Authors

IOS Press.

[9]. Lobel, J. and Pouezevara, S. (2021). Characteristics

of Select Philippine Mother Tongue Languages Used

in Basic Education Teaching and

Learninghttps://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PA00XBQ5.

pdf

[10]. Rogers, C., & Campbell, L. (2015). Endangered

languages. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of

Linguistics.

[11]. Rubrico, J. G. U. (2012). Indigenization of Filipino:

[13]. (2018b). A 505-Word List. Quezon City, PH:

Department of Linguistics, University of the

Philippines

[14]. (2018d). The 775-Sentence List. Quezon City, PH:

Department of Linguistics, University of the

Philippines.