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Visayan 1/linguistic characteristics

From Wikiversity

Pronunciation

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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

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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