Ivatan language

The Ivatan language, also known as Chirin nu Ivatan ("language of the Ivatan people"), is an Austronesian language spoken in the Batanes Islands of the Philippines.

Although the islands are closer to Taiwan than to Luzon, it is not one of the Formosan languages. Ivatan is one of the Batanic languages, which are perhaps a primary branch of the Malayo-Polynesian family of Austronesian languages.

The language of Babuyan Island (Ibatan) is sometimes classified as a dialect of the Ivatan language. Most of the Babuyan population moved to Batan Island and to Luzon mainland during the Spanish colonial period. The island became repopulated at the end of the 19th century with families from Batan, most of them speakers of one of the Ivatan dialects.

Ivatan speakers are found outside their homeland, many of them settled in mainland Luzon particularly in nearby Cagayan Valley, Ilocandia, Cordillera Administrative Region, Central Luzon, Metro Manila, Calabarzon, Mindoro and Palawan and also settled as far as Mindanao. In Mindanao, a significant Ivatan-speaking minority exist mainly in Bukidnon, Lanao and Cotabato where they settled since the 1950s in search of economic opportunities settled down in government homesteads in these areas. Nowadays, however, their language has becoming endangered among Ivatan settlers' descendants especially newer generations born in Mindanao, due to being accustomed into a society of Cebuano-speaking majority. Like elsewhere, intermarriage between Ivatans and Mindanaoans of various ethnicities are not uncommon. Most of these Ivatans in Mindanao today speak the majority language of Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Tagalog and other Mindanao indigenous languages more than their ancestors' native language in varying fluency or none at all.

Introduction

Ivatan is especially characterized by its words, which mostly have the letter v, as in , , and . While related to the Northern Philippine group of languages, Ivatan, having been isolated, is most close to the two other members of the Bashiic sub-group of languages, Yami (Tao) and Itbayat, neither of which is indigenous to Luzon. Ibatan dialect, spoken on the nearby Babuyan group of islands, is so similar to Ivatan that it is not entirely clear whether it should be classified as a dialect of Ivatan or a separate language, though each does receive its own code in ISO taxonomy.

Ivatan has two dialects; Basco Ivatan, more commonly known as Ivasay, spoken on the main island of Batan, and Southern Ivatan or Isamurung, spoken on the southern half of Batan and on the most southern island, Sabtang.

Variations in language

In the capital of Basco and the surrounding northern half of Batan, the area encompassed by Ivasayen, t is prominent, whereas in the Isamurongen zone to the south (Mahatao, Ivana, Uyugan and Sabtang) that phoneme becomes a ch.

Examples of the more visible variations of the Ivasayen and Isamurongen words and pronunciations are:

• ('to look') in Basco is in the southern towns
• ('later') in Basco is in the southern towns
• ('patola') in Basco is in the southern towns
• ('rain') in Basco is in the southern towns

Itbayaten is sometimes also considered a dialect. 2% of the total vocabulary does not occur in Ivatan dialects. Examples of different Ivasayen, Isamurongen and Itbayaten words that have the same English translation:

• ('to kiss') in Basco and the southern towns is in Itbayat.
• ('none') in Basco and the southern towns is in Itbayat.
• ('pig') in Basco and the southern towns is in Itbayat.
• ('nest') in Basco is in the southern towns and in Itbayat.
• ('tail') in Basco is in the southern towns and also in Itbayat.

Ivatan and Filipino words are sometimes combined, as in the Ivatan word . It is derived from (Filipino) and (Ivatan), literally 'someone who knows', which were then compounded to form the word . This is the result of the influence of non-Ivatans who tend to speak the language and were then eventually adopted.

Examples of metathesis in Ivatan include for ('stairs') and for ('going up').

Ivatan slang includes examples such as , coined from – literally 'we’ll meet again later', and , coined from , literally 'where are you going'. These are results of shortening Ivatan phrases or sentences into one or two words, depending on usage.

Common Ivatan expressions have various origins such as:

• or
  Literally: 'God reward you with goodness' or 'God bless you'
  Usage: Used to show gratitude to someone
• 
  Literally: 'May God remain with you'
  Usage: Used by the person who is leaving
• 
  Literally: 'May God go with you'
  Usage: Used by the person who is staying behind

Phonology

Vowels of Ivatan

	Front	Central	Back
Close	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Mid			Template:IPA link
Open		Template:IPA link

/u/ can also be lowered to Template:IPAblink. Vowel [e] only occurs in loanwords from Spanish, Ilocano, and Tagalog.

Consonants of Ivatan

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
	voiced	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Fricative		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link		Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Approximant			Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link	Template:IPA link
Tap			Template:IPA link

/h/ can also be heard as a velar fricative Template:IPAblink. Ivatan is one of the Philippine languages that do not exhibit []-[d] allophony.

Grammar

Pronouns

The following set of pronouns is found in the Ivatan language.

			Nominative		Genitive		Locative
			free	bound	free	bound
1st person	singular
	plural	exclusive
		inclusive
2nd person	singular
	plural
3rd person	singular
	plural

Ivatan words

Etymology

Coined words are two words combined to form one new word.

Sentence	Coined word	Meaning	Usage
		We'll meet again later.	Street language
		Where are you going?	Street language

Similarities with other Philippine languages

	Person	House	Dog	Coconut	Day	New
Ivatan
Tagalog
Bikol
Cebuano
Tausug
Kinaray-a
Kapampangan
Pangasinan
Ilocano
Gaddang
Tboli

Similarities with the Tao language

	Day	Home	Friend	Eat	Drink
Ivatan
Yami 雅美/達悟

Accommodation

	Room	Mail	Water	Time
Ivasayen
Itbayaten

Approval and disapproval

	Good	Of course	Ok	Pretty	Yes	No	Nothing	Perhaps
Ivasayen
Itbayaten

Colors

	Black	Blue	Brown	Dark	Gray	Green	Light	Red	White	Yellow
Ivasayen
Itbayaten

Days of the week

	Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Ivasayen
Itbayaten

Direction

	Left	Right	Straight ahead
Ivasayen
Itbayaten

Cardinal numbers

	Zero	One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Six	Seven	Eight	Nine	Ten
Ivayasen	,
Itbayaten	,

Writing system

Ivatan is written using the Latin alphabet. As Ivatan is primarily a spoken language and seldom used in written form, there is currently no consistent way of writing the language and different conventions may be used by different writers. An orthography devised for use in public schools by the Department of Education uses the full 26-letter Latin alphabet, with three extra letters, ch, ñ, and ng.

The schwa sound, or uh, is normally represented by the letter e as in , 'di-yos-ma-ma-huhs', and 'pa-luhk'.

External links

• Ivatan Language Packet
• The Ivatan
• Affiliation with the Yami of Taiwan
• Bansa.org Ivatan Dictionary Template:Webarchive
• Ivatan-English Dictionary from Webster's Dictionary
• IVATAN LANGUAGE: AN ANALYSIS – BatanesOnline.com
• Ivatan Language of the Batales Islands
• Batanes: Ivatan Songs composed and / or collected by Manuel Fajardo
• Uyugan, Batanes! On the Web! Batanes