Matigsalug language

Alphabet

The Matigsalug alphabet consists of eighteen graphemes: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w, y. The graphemes c, f, j, o, q, v, x, z are used in recently borrowed words and the names of people and places. Punctuation standards follow those of the Philippine national language. The glottal stop is represented by a hyphen when it occurs word medially, but not where it occurs intervocalically. For example, the word [manʔeʔ] 'again' is written as man-e, while the word [tiʔaŋ] 'carry on the shoulder' is written as tiang.

Vowels

Matigsalug has 4 vowels: /i, e, a, u/.

Long vowels do occur in Matigsalug, albeit rarely. The orthographic convention for long vowels is to write two vowel segments. For example, the word [pa:n] 'bread' is written as paan. This convention, however, may cause some confusion among non-expert speakers of the language. Instead of a long vowel, they might parse the VV-grapheme sequence as two vocalic segments with a glottal stop. That is, they might read paan as [paʔan].

Consonants

There are 14 Matigsalug consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

Stress

Stress in Matigsalug always occurs penultimately, that is, on the second-to-last vowel. Because it is completely predictable, stress is not marked orthographically.

Matigsalug does have small one-syllable clitics. When these phonologically join to the previous word, they cause the stress to shift in order to maintain penultimate stress. For example, the word for 'father' is ámey; when the possessive determiner rin 'his/her' is added, the stress shifts to the second syllable of the word for 'father': améy rin

Noun phrases

Nouns are preceded by a case marker. There are three types of case markers in Matigsalug.

First, similar to the better-studied ang-marking in Tagalog, the language also employs a case-marking reserved for the noun with which the verb agrees (via focus/voice morphology). This marker exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the noun is a proper noun or a common noun. Si is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; ka is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

'Inday/Uncle' 'the sugar cane/his breath'

Second, when the verb shows agreement with any other noun other than the agent/experiencer, the agent/experiencer is marked with a separate case marking. In other words, this would be comparable with the by-phrase in an English passive. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ni is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

'by Inday/uncle' 'by the man'

Lastly, there is case marking reserved for non-focused non-agent/experiencer roles in the clause. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ki is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.

'to/from Inday/uncle' 'to/from the man'

Focus/voice morphology

Characteristic of Philippine-type languages, Matigsalug verbs carry what is known in the literature as focus morphology. This piece of morphology indicates the semantic roles of the participants in the clause with respect to the verb. Matigsalug can put the agent/experiencer (AF), goal (GF), location (LF), and instrument (IF) into direct focus.

In the first example, the prefix eg- indicates that the ka-marked noun functions as the agent, that is, the entity doing the kicking. In the second example, the prefix eg- in combination with the suffix -en together indicate that the ka-marked noun is the goal, that is, the entity being kicked.

'The horse kicks the child' 'The child kicks the horse'