The Visayas, or the Visayan Islands, are one of the three principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, along with Luzon and Mindanao. Located in the central part of the archipelago, it consists of several islands, primarily surrounding the Visayan Sea, although the Visayas are also considered the northeast extremity of the entire Sulu Sea. Its inhabitants are predominantly the Visayan peoples.
Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of 12,011 km2 (4,637 sq mi) and a total population of 4,542,926, as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City of Iloilo is its largest settlement with a total population of 457,626 inhabitants, as of 2020 census.
Iloilo, also called Iloilo Province, officially the Province of Iloilo, is a province in the Philippines located in the Western Visayas region. Its capital and largest city is Iloilo City, the regional center of Western Visayas and politically independent from the province. Iloilo occupies the southeast portion of the Visayan island of Panay and is bordered by the province of Antique to the west, Capiz to the north, the Jintotolo Channel to the northeast, the Guimaras Strait to the east, and the Iloilo Strait and Panay Gulf to the southwest.
Aklan, officially the Province of Aklan, is a province in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Its capital and largest town is Kalibo. The province is situated in the northwest portion of Panay Island, bordering Antique to the southwest, and Capiz to the southeast. Aklan faces the Sibuyan Sea and Romblon province to the north.
Capiz, officially the Province of Capiz, is a province in the Philippines located in the central section of Western Visayas region. Its capital is the city of Roxas, which is the most populous. It is located at the northeastern portion of Panay Island, bordering Aklan to the north, Antique to the west, and Iloilo to the south. Capiz faces the Sibuyan Sea to the north.
Western Visayas is an administrative region in the Philippines, numerically designated as Region VI. The region comprises the islands of Panay and Guimaras. It consists of five provinces: Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo on Panay, and the island province of Guimaras. The region also includes one highly urbanized city, Iloilo City, which is the largest city and serves as the regional center.
Visayans or Visayan people are a Philippine ethnolinguistic family group or metaethnicity native to the Visayas, the southernmost islands of Luzon and a significant portion of Mindanao. They are composed of numerous distinct ethnic groups, many unrelated to each other. When taken as a single group, they number around 33.5 million. The Visayans, like the Luzon Lowlanders were originally predominantly animist-polytheists and broadly share a maritime culture until the 16th century when the Spanish empire enforced Catholicism as the state religion. In more inland or otherwise secluded areas, ancient animistic-polytheistic beliefs and traditions either were reinterpreted within a Roman Catholic framework or syncretized with the new religion. Visayans are generally speakers of one or more of the distinct Bisayan languages, the most widely spoken being Cebuano, followed by Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) and Waray-Waray.
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Most Bisayan languages are spoken in the whole Visayas section of the country, but they are also spoken in the southern part of the Bicol Region, islands south of Luzon, such as those that make up Romblon, most of the areas of Mindanao and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao. Some residents of Metro Manila also speak one of the Bisayan languages.
The Central Philippine languages are the most geographically widespread demonstrated group of languages in the Philippines, being spoken in southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and Sulu. They are also the most populous, including Tagalog, Bikol, and the major Visayan languages Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Waray, Kinaray-a, and Tausug, with some forty languages all together.
The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim peoples from the southernmost island group of Mindanao are usually categorized together as Moro peoples, whether they are classified as Indigenous peoples or not. About 142 are classified as non-Muslim Indigenous people groups, and about 19 ethnolinguistic groups are classified as neither Indigenous nor Moro. Various migrant groups have also had a significant presence throughout the country's history.
The Waray people are a subgroup of the larger ethnolinguistic group Bisaya people, who constitute the 4th largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group in the Philippines. Their primary language is the Waray language, an Austronesian language native to the islands of Samar, Leyte and Biliran, which together comprise the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines. Waray people inhabit most of Samar where they are called Samareños/Samarnons, the northern part of the island of Leyte where they are called Leyteños, and the island of Biliran. In Leyte island, the Waray-speaking people are separated from the Cebuano-speaking Leyteños by the island's mountain range at the middle.
The Hiligaynon people, often referred to as Ilonggo people or Panayan people, are the second largest subgroup of the larger Visayan ethnic group, whose primary language is Hiligaynon, an Austronesian language of the Visayan branch native to Panay, Guimaras, and Negros. They originated in the province of Iloilo, on the island of Panay, in the region of Western Visayas. Over the years, inter-migrations and intra-migrations have contributed to the diaspora of the Hiligaynon to different parts of the Philippines. Today, the Hiligaynon, apart from the province of Iloilo, also form the majority in the provinces of Guimaras, Negros Occidental, Capiz, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, and North Cotabato.
The Cebuano people are the largest subgroup of the larger ethnolinguistic group Visayans, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group in the country. They originated in the province of Cebu in the region of Central Visayas, but then later spread out to other places in the Philippines, such as Siquijor, Bohol, Negros Oriental, southwestern Leyte, western Samar, Masbate, and large parts of Mindanao. It may also refer to the ethnic group who speak the same language as their native tongue in different parts of the archipelago. The term Cebuano also refers to the demonym of permanent residents in Cebu island regardless of ethnicity.
Hinilawod is an epic poem orally transmitted from early inhabitants of a place called Sulod in central Panay, Philippines. The term "Hinilawod" generally translates to "Tales From The Mouth of The Halawod River". The epic must have been commonly known to the Visayans of Panay before the conquest, since its main protagonists, like Labaw Donggon, were noted in the accounts of the Islanders' beliefs and recorded by early Spanish colonizers. One of these Westerners' accounts says that the adventures of this ancient hero of Panay were recalled during weddings and in songs. It was noted that there were still native Mundos of Dingle, Iloilo who worshipped Labaw Donggon even until the last years of the Spanish rule in the Philippines. These worshippers would stealthily enter a certain cave in Dingle in the evening of a certain day of the year, in order to render homage and to offer poultry, doves, rice, bananas, and pigs to the ancient Visayan god.
The Aklanon people are the ethnolinguistic group who lived in the province of Aklan. They are part of the wider Bisaya ethnolinguistic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group.
The Maragtas is a work by Pedro Alcantara Monteclaro titled History of Panay from the first inhabitants and the Bornean immigrants, from which they descended, to the arrival of the Spaniards. The work is in mixed Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a languages in Iloilo in 1907. It is an original work based on written and oral sources available to the author.
Binukot, also spelled Binokot, is a pre-colonial Visayan tradition from the Philippines that secludes a young woman with the expectation that seclusion will result in a higher value placed on the girl by marital suitors in the future. It originally applied to young noblewomen. The name literally means "wrapped up" or "veiled" in Visayan languages, in the sense of seclusion.
Capiznon or Capiceño is an Austronesian regional language spoken in Western Visayas in the Philippines. Capiznon is concentrated in the province of Capiz in the northeast of Panay Island. It is a member of the Bisayan language family and the people are part of the wider Visayan ethnolinguistic group, who constitute the largest Filipino ethnolinguistic group. The language is often confused with Hiligaynon due to dialectological comprehension similarities and as high as 91% mutual intelligibility, but it has its certain unique accent and vocabulary that integrates Aklanon and Waray lexicon. Despite its distinct corruption of Hiligaynon lateral approximants, a prevalent feature among rural farmers, ethnic convergence and cosmopolitanism has led to a shift back to the purely Hiligaynon prosodic form of slower tonality and softer and longer vowels most particularly among the younger generations.
The Karay-a language is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique.
Hiligaynon, also often referred to as Ilonggo or Binisayâ/Bisayâ nga Hiniligaynon/Inilonggo, is an Austronesian regional language spoken in the Philippines by about 9.1 million people, predominantly in Western Visayas, Negros Island Region, and Soccsksargen, most of whom belong to the Hiligaynon people. It is the second-most widely spoken language in the Visayas and belongs to the Bisayan languages, and it is more distantly related to other Philippine languages.
Philippines (Western Visayas)
