Bikol

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Bikol

Bikol is the main local language of the Bicol Region in southeastern Luzon,
Philippines. It is strongly influenced by Spanish.

Belonging to the Austronesian family of languages, it is closely related to all the


other languages in the Philippines like the larger Ilocano, Tagalog and Cebuano and
more distantly to the various languages of the Pacific islands.

Malay, the main language of the Malaysia, is also closely related to Bikol, and
while the two languages are not mutually intelligible, you will notice many
cognates. There are also numerous false friends between Bikol and Malay, such as
Malay pagi (morning) vs Bikol pagi (sting ray) and Bikol ayam (dog) vs Malay ayam
(chicken).

Pronunciation guide Edit


Accent marks Edit
Diacritics (tandang panduon) are normally not written in everyday usage, be it in
publications or personal correspondence. The teaching of diacritics is inconsistent
in Philippine schools and many Bicolanos do not know how to use them. However,
diacritics are normally used in dictionaries and in textbooks aimed at teaching the
language to foreigners.

There are three kinds of diacritics used in Bicol:

Acute accent or pahilíg


Used to indicate primary or secondary stress on a particular syllable; marháy. It
is usually omitted on words that are stressed on the penultimate (second to the
last) syllable; babáyi = babayi. It is possible that there is more than one
stressed syllable in a word, meaning that that pahilíg mark may appear multiple
times, as in Repúbliká. If there is no diacritic on the last two syllables of a
word, then it means that there is stress on the penultimate syllable.

Grave accent or paiwà


It indicates that there is a glottal stop (/ʔ/) at the end of the word. This mark
may only appear at the end of a word that ends in a vowel. This mark does not
indicate stress. Therefore, following the previously stated rule on stress, sampulò
is stressed on the second to the last syllable.

Circumflex accent or pakupyâ


It indicates that the final syllable of a word receives stress while there is a
glottal stop that follows; udô. This is because it is a combination of the pahilíg
and paiwà marks. This mark may only appear at the end of a word that ends in a
vowel.

Stress Edit
Although Bikol is pronounced as it is spelled, stress is very unpredictable and
stressing the wrong syllable can lead to misinterpretation; for that reason, almost
every book and dictionary concerning the Bikol language will put an accent mark (´)
on the stressed syllable.

Vowels Edit
In Bicol, two consecutive vowels are pronounced separately.

Unaccented Bikol vowels

a
near-open central unrounded vowel IPA [ɐ]; like the u in cut
e
open-mid front unrounded vowel IPA [ɛ]; like the e in bed
i
near-close front unrounded vowel IPA [ɪ]; like the i in sit
o
close-mid back rounded vowel IPA [o]; like the au in author
u
near-close back rounded vowel IPA [ʊ]; like the oo in foot
Accented Bikol vowels

a
open central unrounded vowel IPA [a]; like the a in far
e
close-mid front unrounded vowel IPA [e]; like the a in hand
i
close front unrounded vowel IPA [i]; like the ee in see
o
open-mid back rounded vowel IPA [ɔ]; like the o in off
u
close back rounded vowel IPA [u]; like the oo in soon
Consonants Edit
b
as in bee
k
as in key
d
as in dough
g
as in gold
h
as in heat
l
as in let
m
as in me
n
as in nice
ng
as in song
p
as in pea
r
as in raw
s
as in sea
t
as in tea
w
as in weak
y
as in you
Some consonants are borrowed from Spanish and English and are used in writing names
of places and personal names.

c
like c in scare (before a, o, u)
like c in pencil (before e or i)
f
like f in fine
j
like h in ham
ll
although not a letter in the Philippines but of Spanish influence, pronounced as ly
ñ
like ny in canyon
q
like q in quest (always with a silent u)
v
pronounced the same way as b (see above) like b in elbow.
x
like x in flexible
like ss in hiss (at beginning of a word)
like h as in he in the family name Roxas
z
like s in supper
Digraphs Edit
Some digraphs appear in Spanish loan words.

dy
as in just
ts
as in chew
sy
as in shoe
ny
as in canyon
ly
as in million
Common diphthongs Edit
In the spelling of many places and personal names, ao is used and is pronounced as
in how just like the Spanish way of spelling.

aw
as in how
iw
as in kiwi
ay
as in high
oy
as in boy

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