Ibanag is spoken in various areas of the Northeastern Philippines, but principally in the provinces of Isabela and Cagayan; there are minor differences between these areas in the way that Ibanag is spoken. Ibanag spoken in Tuguegarao, the capital of Cagayan (the northernmost of the two provinces), is considered the standard dialect. Native speakers of Ibanag are usually able to determine by pronunciation and accent whether another speaker is from Tuguegarao. [citation needed]
In Tuguegarao, before the arrival of the Spanish, the language predominantly spoken was Irraya, which is now an almost-extinct dialect of Gaddang. The Spanish introduced Ibanag to the city from Lal-lo (formerly the city of Nueva Segovia) and established the language as the lingua franca of the Northeastern Philippines. However, since the introduction of Ilocano settlers in the late 20th century, Ilocano has supplanted Ibanag as the region's common language.[3][4]
Ibanag speakers who originate from Cauayan and Illagan, the two major cities of Isabela Province, have a "hard" accent, whereas the form of Ibanag spoken in Tuguegarao is alleged to have a Hispanic quality. However, speakers of Ibanag from Northern Cagayan have a more complex accent.[citation needed] As an example, Ibanang speakers from towns in Northern Cagayan, which includes Abulug, Aparri, Camalaniugan, Pamplona, as well as Lal-lo, tend to replace [p] with [f].[5]
mapatu – mafatu ('hot')
paggipayan – faggifayan ('a place to put')
dupo – dufo ('banana')
Additionally, certain Ibanag words exhibit regional variations between the Tuguegarao and Isabela dialects.
Beyond the distinctive features of urban usages, the main dialects of Ibanag are Southern Ibanag and Northern Ibanag.[6] While Southern Ibanag is commonly considered the standard dialect, Northern Ibanag is considered to be closer to the ancient Pre-Hispanic Ibanag which existed before the more widespread adoption of Ibanag beyond its original home territory in Cagayan. However, Southern Ibanag may have acquired elements from nearby Itawis as well as from Spanish. The form of Southern Ibanag spoken in Isabela may similarly have been influenced by the Gaddang substrate that was originally the dominant language in the areas where Ibanag is currently spoken. [citation needed]
Archaic Ibanag
Some modern Ibanag words, such as innafi 'rice', bavi 'pig', and afi 'fire', are listed in Spanish texts as innafuy, bavuy, and afuy respectively.[citation needed] The modern Ibanag term for the number one, tadday, was once used interchangeably with the word itte, which appears to have fallen out of modern usage.[7][8]
Use and current status
In October 2012, "revival of the Ibanag culture [was] part of the Mother-Tongue Based (MTB) program of the [Philippine] government which seeks to preserve indigenous cultures, including its languages, for generations to come." Ibanag was also listed as one of the MTB languages being taught in Philippine schools, and two stage plays - Zininaga Ta Bannag ("Heritage of the River") and Why Women Wash the Dishes - were being performed in Ibanag.[9]
Monophthongization of diphthongs is observable in Ibanag. For example, the words umay 'to go', balay 'house' or aggaw 'day' are sometimes pronounced as ume, bale, and aggo respectively.[citation needed]
Consonants
Ibanag is one of the Philippine languages which do not exhibit the [ɾ]-[d]allophony.[clarification needed] Ibanag features phonemes that are not present in many related Philippine languages; phonemes unique to Ibanag compared to its sister languages include [f] as in innafi, 'rice', [v] as in bavi, 'pig', [z] as in kazzing 'goat' and [dʒ] as in madjan 'maid'.[citation needed]
There are two principal orthographic conventions for writing Ibanag. Older texts use a spelling influenced by Spanish in which ⟨c⟩, and ⟨qu⟩ are used to represent /k/, and words that end with a glottal stop have -c added to the end of the word.[10] The more modern method of writing Ibanag is both simpler and tends to be more phonetic.
"Spanish style"
Modern Style
English
quiminac cami tab bavi
kiminak kami tu bavi
'we ate pork'
napannu tac cunam y langui-c
Napannu tu kunam i langi
'the sky is full of clouds'
The modern orthographic system for writing Ibanag is consistent with the conventions of Filipino, as well as other languages such as Bisaya and Ilocano, in which silent letters are omitted. The modern orthographic system has similarly been adopted for use in public schools for the purpose of the Department of Education's Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education policy in Ibanag-speaking areas and is prescribed by the Ibanag Heritage Foundation, Inc.[11][12][13]
There are at least four ways to indicate the first-person pronoun.
'I am eating': Kuman na' = kuman 'to eat' and na' 'I'. Sometimes, nga' is used instead of na'.
'I gave him some food': Neddak ku yayya ta makan = neddan 'to give' and ku 'I'.
'I will be the one to go': So' laman ngana y ume = So' 'I'
'I split it in half': Ginaddwa' = ginaddwa 'to split in half' and 'I'. Here the glottal stop on the sentence indicates 'I'. Without the glottal stop, the sentence would become incomplete and would otherwise not make any sense.
Sikaw (2sg.)
'(You) go outside': Mallawak ka = mallawan 'to go' and ka 'you'
'You give': Iddammu = iddan 'to give/to put' and mu 'you'
Yayya (3sg.)
The third-person singular pronoun typically takes the form na.
'He lost it': Nawawan na = nawawan 'lost' and na 'he/she/it' (Note: without the glottal stop, na can mean 'he', 'she', or 'it'.)
Sittam becomes -tam or -tang when attached to the end of the verb or noun.
'Let us go': Tam ngana!/Ettang ngana! (Isabela) or Ume tam!
Sikami (1pl. - exclusive)
To exclude the person being spoken to, Sikami is used. In this case, -mi is attached to the end of the verb, adjective, or noun.
'We are going to look': Ume mi nga innan = ume 'to go' and mi 'we'
'We are full' (as in food): Nabattug kami = nabattug 'full', kami 'we' (excl.)
'We are Ibanags': Ibanag kami
Sikamu (2pl. - inclusive)
Both -nu and -kamu are used:
'Go get him/her': Apannu yayya! = apan 'to get' and nu 'you'
'You went there?': Uminé kamu tari? = umine 'went' and kamu 'you'
Ira (3pl.)
Ira is rarely used unless firmly indicating the persons denoted.[clarification needed] Instead of ira, the word da is used.
'They bought my house': Ginatang da y bale' = ginatang 'bought', da 'they'
Possessive pronouns
The word kua, when used in conjunction with the first-person or second-person plural personal pronouns, marks possession, and the prefix ku- may be added to kua to emphasise possession.
'That IS mine.': Kukua' yatun
'My, mine': ku, kua', kukua'
'Me': tanyo'
'Your, yours': -m, mu, kuam, kukuam
'His, her, its': na, kuana
'Our, ours' (inclusive): tam, kuatam
'Our, ours' (exclusive): mi, kuami
'Your, yours': nu, kuanu
'Their, theirs': da, kuada
'My toy': gaggayam
'Your gift': regalum
'Her earring': aritu' na
'Our land': davvut tam
'Our house': balay mi
'Your car': coche nu
'Their dog': kitu da
'This is mine': kua' yaw
'This is hers/his': kukua/kua na yaw
'That is yours': kuam yatun
'That is hers': kuana yari/kuana yatung
Demonstrative pronouns
'This': yaw, ye, yawe
'That' (item by person being spoken to): yatun or yane (Isabela)
'That' (far from both speaker and person being spoken to): yari or yore
'That' (sometimes used for objects that are absent or in the past): yuri
In order to emphasise the spatial or temporal distance encoded in the demonstrative pronoun, the first syllable in the pronoun, other than in yatun, as yatun davvun ('that land'), may be stressed by the speaker.
Locatives
'Here': taw or tawe
'There': tatun (by person being spoken to)
'There': tari (far from both)
'There': turi (absent, past time and location)
Locatives may also serve to emphasise distance.
'THIS house' (here): ye balay taw
'That girl there': yatun babay tatun
'That man over there': yari lalaki tari
'That old lady a long time ago': yuri bako' turi*
When the word turi is used, the stress on tu is often lengthened to emphasise the distance and time that has passed.[clarification needed]
Tadday nga aggaw – Tagalog: Isang araw – English: One day
Tadday vulan – Tagalog: Isang buwan – English: One month
Tadday nga dagun/ragun – Tagalog: Isang taon – English: One year
Enclitic particles
Interrogative Words
'What?': anni?
'When?': nikanni?
'Where?': sitaw?
'Who?': sinni?
'Why?': ngatta?
'How?': kunnasi?
'How much?': piga?
Each of the doubled consonants must be pronounced separately – i.e. anni? – an ni
'What are you doing?': Anni kuammu?
'When did you arrive?': Kanni labbe' mu?
'Where are we going?': Sitaw angayat tam?
'Who took my fan?': Sinni nanga' ta affefec ku?
'Why are you not eating?': Ngatta nga ari ka kuman?
'How are you going to cook that if you do not have the ingredients?': Kunnasim lutuan yatun nu awan tu rekadum?
'How much is this? How much is that?': Piga yaw? Piga yatun?
Ibanag verbs are conjugated on the basis of tense but not person. Like most other Malayo-Polynesian languages, Ibanag does not have a copula, which means there is no equivalent to English verb 'to be'. However, the Ibanag verb egga meaning 'to have' can perform a copulative function.
Infinitive and present tense
The infinitive form of the verb is often the same as the present tense.
'There is'/'to have': egga
'To eat/eat': kuman
'To drink/drink': minum
'To need/need': mawag
'To want/want', 'to like/like': kaya'
'To go/go', 'to come/come': umay
'To not want/not want', 'to not like/not like': manaki'
'I am here': Egga nga tawe
'Do you eat goat?': Kumak ka tu kazzing?
'Drink this': Inumang mu/inumammu yaw.
'Drink water': Uminum/mininum/mininung ka tu danum/danung.
'We cooked dinengdeng': Nallutu kami tu dinengdeng
'We cooked the pig': Nilutu mi yari bavi. (Y becomes yari assuming the pig itself is not present since it was already cooked)
'They cut my hair': Inusi' da y vu' ku.
'I got my hair cut': Nappa usi' na' tu vu' ku.
'They placed him far away': Inirayyu da yayya.
'I bought you this cow': Ginatang ku yaw baka para nikaw/niko.
Future tense
The principal method of forming the future tense is by using an auxiliary verb such as 'to go'. The present tense can also imply the future in certain circumstances.
'We are going to pick him up.': Apam mi ngana yayya
'Go buy lechon later.': Sonu manannwang ka na gumatang tu lichon or Sonu bibbinnay ka na matang tu lichon (Isabela), Sonu mangananwan ka ngana gumatang ta lechon. (Tuguegarao)
Y and nga are the two most commonly used markers in Ibanag. They either link adjectives to nouns or indicate the subject of the sentence. Y performs a copulative function, while nga indicates adjectival description.
'Loud laughter': Nagallu nga galo'. Nagallu indicates 'loud' and the nga links it to laughter.
'Your child is tall.': Atannang y ana' mu. With the lack of the verb to be and a switched syntax, y indicates that your child is the subject.
The marker tu is also used, but its usage is complex.[citation needed] It often is seen in conjunction with the word awan, meaning 'nothing, none'.
'There is nothing to eat': Awan tu makan – Tagalog: Wala nang pagkain. Here, tu links awan ('none') and makan ('food'). Tu is like nang in Tagalog.
Ibanag verbs that end in n omit the last consonant, which is replaced by the first consonant of the next word - unless the next word starts with a vowel or another n, in which case the final n is not affected.
Examples:
*Apan mu yari libru.
Correct: Apam mu yari libru 'Go get the book.'
*Nasingan ku y yama na.
Correct: Nasingak ku y yama na 'I saw his father.'
The marker ta and the preposition na (not the pronoun) can, depending on the dialect in use, acquire the first consonant of the succeeding word.
Ta likuk/likug na balay
Tal likuk nab balay 'at the back of the house'
Ta utun 'on top.' Note that ta is succeeded by utun, which starts with a vowel.
Dita, Shirley N. (2011). "The Structure of Ibanag Nominals". Philippine Journal of Linguistics. 42. Linguistic Society of the Philippines: 41–57. Archived from the original on 2019-12-31. Retrieved 2019-12-31.
Moses Esteban. Editing Ibanag–Tagalog–English Ibanag–Tagalog–English Survey. Ibanag people's of Benguet and the City Hall of Benguet (Ifugao)
Nepomuceno, Vicente (1919). Historia nac Cagayán. Manila: Tip. Linotype del Colegio de Sto. Tomás. Archived from the original on 2022-08-07. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
Salgado, Pedro V. (2002). Cagayan valley and eastern Cordillera, 1581–1898, Volume 1. Quezon City: Rex Commercial.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
