Visayan 1/linguistic characteristics
Appearance
Pronunciation
[edit | edit source]Consonants are pronounced the same as in English except for:
- g is always pronounced like a hard g in English (as in "get").
- ng is the same sound as the ng in fang. In Visayan the ng sound can occur at the beginning of a word (ngalan).
Although there are five vowels in Visayan, there are only three vowel sounds: a, e/i, and o/u.
- a is always pronounced like the a in apple.
- e and i are either pronounced like the second vowel in taxi (gabii) or like the vowel in it (pansit). e should always be pronounced as the e in bed.
- In vowel-consonant syllables, o and u are pronounced like the vowel in the English word cute (ugma). In consonant-vowel syllables, o and u are pronounced like the vowel in the English word boat (e.g. ko); u should always be pronounced as the oo in look.
Visayan has three dipthongs:
- aw (ikaw) is pronounced like the English cow.
- ay (balay) is pronounced like the English sky.
- oy and uy (kahoy) are pronounced like the English boy.
Contractions
[edit | edit source]Contraction | Original | English |
---|---|---|
akog | ako og | me and |
akong | ako ng | mine |
among | amo ng | ours |
di | dili | not |
ka | ikaw | you |
ilang | ila ng | theirs |
imong | imo ng | yours |
iyang | iya ng | his, hers |
kadtong | kadto ng | that (over there) |
kag | ka og | you and |
kamig | kami og | us and |
kamog | kamo og | all of you |
kanang | kana ng | that and |
kining | kini ng | this and |