Botolan language

Varieties

The Ayta people of sitio Villar, Botolan, and sitio Kakilingan, Santa Fe, Cabangan also speak a Botolan dialect with some unique lexical items.

Phonology

Botolan has 20 phonemes: 16 consonants and four vowels. Syllable structure is relatively simple. Each syllable contains at least a consonant and a vowel.

Vowels

Botolan has four vowels. They are:

There are five main diphthongs: /aɪ/, /uɪ/, /aʊ/, /ij/, and /iʊ/.

Consonants

Below is a chart of Botolan consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

Note: Consonants /d/ and /ɾ/ can sometimes interchange as they were once allophones.

Stress

Stress is phonemic in Botolan. Stress on words is very important, they differentiate words with the same spellings, but with different meanings, e.g. hikó (I) and híko (elbow).

Historical sound changes

Many words pronounced with /s/ and /ɡ/ in Filipino have /h/ and /j/, respectively, in their cognates in Botolan. Compare hiko and bayo with the Filipino siko and bago.

Version from Matthew

Tatay nawen ya anti ha katatag-ayan,
Hay ngalan mo ay igalang dayi nin kaganawan.
Andawaten nawen ya tampol kayna dayin mag-arí.
Mangyari dayi ya kalabayan mo bayri ha babon lotá
Bilang ombayro ha katatag-ayan.
Hapa-eg ay biyan mo kayin pamamangan ya
angka-ilanganen nawen.
Patawaren mo kayi ha kawkasalanan
nawen bilang pamatawad nawen ha nakapagkasalanan konnawen.
Agmo kayi biyan ma-irap ya pagsobok boy
ipakarayó mo kayi koni Satanas.

Philippine national proverb

Below is a translation in Botolan of the Philippine national proverb “He who does not acknowledge his beginnings will not reach his destination,” followed by the original in Filipino.