Native speakers 33,000 (1996–2007) | ||
Ethnicity Ivatan peopleFilipinos in Taiwan Language family AustronesianMalayo-PolynesianBatanicIvatan Dialects IvasayIsamurungBabuyan |
The Ivatan (Ibatan) language, also known as Chirin nu Ibatan ("language of the Ivatan people"), is an Austronesian language spoken in the Batanes Islands.
Contents
- Introduction
- Variations in language
- Phonology
- Cultural terms of the Ivatan people
- Legends
- Songs
- Poems
- Proverbs
- Selected idioms
- Phrases
- Etymology
- References
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 is a dialect. Babuyan was depopulated by the Spanish and only repopulated at the end of the Spanish era with families from Batan Island.
Introduction
Ivatan is especially characterized by its words, which mostly have the letter v, as in vakul, Ivatan, and valuga. The letter e is pronounced as the schwa oun, or uh, as in Dios Mamajes, 'di-yos-ma-ma-huhs', and palek 'pa-luhk'. 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, 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.
Supporting separate listings is that Ibatan is 31% mutual intelligible with Basco Ivatan, the standard form of the language. With Basco Ivatan, more commonly known as Ivasayen, an adjective denoting the Ivasayen people who inhabit the main island of Batan, and Itbayaten, derived from Itbayat, the name for the northernmost of the three islands, is a third dialect, Isamurongen, a dialect with a vocabulary identical to Ivasayen spoken on the southern half of Batan and on the most southern island, Sabtang.
As implied, notable variation exists in spoken Ivatan although Batanes makes up roughly 200 and is home to only 18,000 inhabitants. Examination of the linguistic zones suggests that this is best explained by Batanes being composed of three islands rather than a single landmass, as these linguistic divisions roughly follow geographic ones, the notable exception being Isamurongen which is spoken on not only Sabtang, but Batan as well.
Perhaps this explanation can be seen most clearly in the differences in the dialects themselves, where lexical variation is insignificant, but phonological variation, often indicative of geographic isolation, is highly pronounced; The late advent of writing, which might have standardized pronunciation prior to divergence, could have also been a factor.
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:
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:
The Ivatan language is basically a spoken language. Until lately, little effort was made to record the language in written form. What the young generation know about it is largely through hearing it spoken and speaking it.
Some tend to mix the Ivatan words to Filipino or vice versa in sentences, much worset is the combining or compounding of the Filipino words to the Ivatan words. One common example of this is – mapatak. This is derived from marunong (Filipino) and chapatak (Ivatan) which literally means "someone who knows" which were then compounded to form the word mapatak. This is actually the result of the influence of non-Ivatans who tend to speak the language and were then eventually adopted.
Another common mistakes that are often heard, is the mispronunciation of the Ivatan word like iskarayla – the correct is iskalayra – which means "stairs", and tumaraya – the correct is tumayara – which means "going up".
One unique characteristic of the language is its enormous street language. It is called street language because it emanated from the streets. Examples of these are: tanchew, coined from mirwa ta anchiyaw – literally means "we’ll meet again later", and nganmu, coined from jinu ngayan mu, literally means "where are you going". These are results of shortening the Ivatan phrases or sentences into one or two words depending on its usage.
Common Ivatan expressions have various origin such as:
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
The Ivatan language is characterized with its pidgin Spanish, spoken with the musicality of southern Chinese accent.
Similarities to other languages in the Philippines includes the presence of the glottal stop in the pronunciation of words.
Phonology
The Ivatan language consists of four vowels, 21 consonants and five diphthongs.
Cultural terms of the Ivatan people
Legends
Songs
Poems
An kalilyak mu
Proverbs
Carry with you good teaching, always bear in mind sound advice.
There is no strong man when the sea is at its worst.
There is no current that does not bounce back.
The feces that is dropped is sure comfort.
Do not gore the peg where you are tied.
Nobody can steal your knowledge.
Grasp the opportunity because the bed bugs will carry and hide them inside the floor.
Do not eat your fingers.
No one burns the house of a good man.
Selected idioms
Stones are softer than his head.
Tomatoes do not bear eggplant.
They washed their face with what he said.
Leave him alone for his head is tangled.
Do not speak of a cavan for a measuring lime unit.
Phrases
Etymology
Coined words are two words combined to form one new word.
Loanwords are words in the language that have been borrowed from other languages.