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| Blaan | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Philippines |
| Region | Mindanao |
| Ethnicity | Blaan |
Native speakers | (240,000 cited 2000–2007)[1] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | Either:bpr – Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad)bps – Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao) |
| Glottolog | blaa1241 |
Blaan, also known asBla'an, is anAustronesian language of the southern Philippines spoken by anindigenous ethnic group of the same name who inhabited many areas ofSoccksargen andDavao Occidental.
Blaan belongs to the Bilic microgroup of thePhilippine language subgroup, along with GianganManobo,Tiruray, andTboli.[2]
There are two major varieties of Blaan: Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad) and Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao).
According to theEthnologue,[specify] Koronadal Blaan is spoken in:
Sarangani Blaan is spoken in:
Blaan has fifteen consonant and seven vowel phonemes.[3] Unlike most other Philippine languages and Austronesian languages in general, Blaan (as its related languageTboli, permits a variety of consonant clusters at the onset of a syllable. This is evident in the name of the language,/bla'an/. This contraction of the original schwa sound exists in other Austronesian languages (such asJavanese, a major language ofJava inIndonesia), but is rarely seen outside of theBilic group within the Philippines.[citation needed]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | k | ʔ | ||
| voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
| Fricative | f | s | h | |||
| Approximant | w | l | j | |||
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ |
| Low | a | ɑ |
/i,ɛ/ are also heard as[ɪ,e]./ə/ can also be heard as[ɨ,ʌ] within syllables.[citation needed]
Blaan uses word order to indicate the thematic roles of nominal elements in the sentence.[4]
Similar to other Philippine-type Austronesian languages, Blaan uses verbal morphology to indicate voice (or focus, as it is usually called in the literature).[5] Here are some examples of voice/focus types in Blaan:
Agent voice/focus (-m-)
Patient voice/focus (-n-)
| English | Blaan |
|---|---|
| chicken | anuk |
| flower | bulek |
| horse | kura |
| corn | agul |
| needle | dalum |
| basket | been |
| broom | fune |
| rat | unge |
| money | filak |
| goat | uhe |
| scissors | gunting |
| mat | igem |
| clouds | labun |
| fish | nalaf |
| eye | mata |
| pestle | sung |
| leaf | doon |
| bone | tulan |
| lamp | salo |
| snake | ulad |
| crow | wak |
| foot | bli |
| mother | ye |
| father | ma |
