| Classical Cebuano | |
|---|---|
| Spanish-Era Cebuano | |
| Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisayâ | |
| Native to | Philippines |
| Region | present-day regions ofCentral Visayas and the northern coast ofMindanao |
| Ethnicity | Visayan |
| Era | 16th-19th century, developed into Early Modern Cebuano around the late 19th century |
Austronesian
| |
| Badlit (beforec. 18th century) Latin script | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
Classical Cebuano, orSpanish-Era Cebuano, (Cebuano:Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisayâ,Binisayâ sa Katuigan sa Katsilà;Badlit: pre-virama:ᜃᜇᜀ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ, post-virama:ᜃᜇᜀᜈ᜴ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ) was a form of theCebuano language spoken during theSpanish colonial era of thePhilippines. It was the primary language spoken inCebu,Bohol, and other parts ofVisayas andMindanao.
The earliest surviving record of Cebuano was from awordlist collected byAntonio Pigafetta during theMagellan expedition in 1521. The wordlist contains about 160 Cebuano words (some of which are inMalay) written in an Italian-influencedorthography, which is considered problematic due to its inconsistent and unphonetic spelling system. The oldest reliable glimpse of Cebuano'sgrammar andvocabulary was from Domingo Ezguerra'sArte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte, aWaray grammar book written in 1663. The first dedicated grammar book for Cebuano, Francisco Encina'sArte de la Lengua Zebuana, was compiled in 1801 (40 years after his death).[1]
The phonological system of Classical Cebuano was relatively minimal compared to Modern Cebuano, which has more phonological inventory due to the influence of foreign languages such as Spanish and English.
The Classical Cebuanophonemic inventory consists of three vowel phonemes (/a/, /i/, /u/). Some dialects of Modern Cebuano, particularly those in Bohol, have retained a close back unrounded vowel /ɯ/,[2] which means it might have existed in Classical Cebuano, although unrecorded and possiblydialectal.
| Height | Front | Central | Back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i, y /i/ | u, o /u/ | |
| Open | a /a/ |
The Classical Cebuanophonemic inventory consisted of 15 consonant phonemes (in which /d/ and /r/ were treated as a single phoneme). The consonant /r/ was pronounced only when the phoneme /d/ was situated between two vowels. The natives described the final-d as a medial sound between /r/ and /d/.[3]
| Labial | Dental | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m /m/ | n /n̪/ | ng̃ /ŋ/ | |||||
| Stop | p /p/ | b /b/ | t /t̪/ | d, r /d̪/ | c, q /k/ | g /ɡ/ | ` /ʔ/ | |
| Fricative | s /s̪/ | h /h/ | ||||||
| Approximant | l /l̪/ | y /j/ | u /w/ | |||||
| Rhotic | d, r /ɾ̪~r̪/ | |||||||
Classical Cebuano possessed separate plural personal case markers (sa,na, andka), which are not retained in any dialect of Modern Cebuano.[4]
| Direct | Indirect | Oblique | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| General | Definite | ang, ak[a] | sa | |
| Indefinite | ing, i | ug, ak[b] | ||
| Personal | Singular | si | ni | kan |
| Plural | sa | na | (sa)ka | |
Classical Cebuano underwentmorphological changes throughout the Spanish period. One of the most notable was the change from *s(i)- to *k(i)- as the direct case-marking prefix for Cebuanodemonstrative (e.g.siní ->kiní) andinterrogative (e.g.sinsa ->kinsa) pronouns. Classical Cebuano, especially the one spoken in Bohol, still had plural case markerssa,na, andka, which are already obsolete in Modern Cebuano. These were also used to form plural demonstratives, which are considered rare amongPhilippine languages.[4]
| Person | Number and Clusivity | Direct | Indirect | Oblique | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Independent | Enclitic | Independent | Postposed | Enclitic | Default | Suppletive | |||
| First | Singular | akó | akò | nakò | ko, ta* | kan-akò | sa akò | ||
| Plural | Inclusive | kitá | atò | natò | ta | kan-atò | sa atò | ||
| Exclusive | kamí | amò | namò | kan-amò | sa amò | ||||
| Second | Singular | ikáw | ka | imo | nimo | mo | kan-imo | sa imo | |
| Plural | kamó | inyo | ninyo | kan-inyo | sa inyo | ||||
| Third | Singular | siyá | iya | niya | na | kan-iya | sa iya | ||
| Plural | silá | ila | nila | kan-ila | sa ila | ||||
Only when paired with a second-person pronoun (as in "ta ka" and "ta kamo") or as an introspective "I".
| Direct | Indirect | Oblique | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cebu | Bohol | Cebu | Bohol | Cebu | Bohol | ||
| Proximal | Singular | kadí | siadi | niadi | kan-adi | ||
| Plural | saadi | naadi | kaadi | ||||
| Medioproximal | Singular | kiní | siini | niini | kan-ini | ||
| Plural | saini | naini | kaini | ||||
| Medial | Singular | kanâ, kitó | sianà, siito | nianà, niito | kan-anà, kan-ito | ||
| Plural | saanà, saito | naanà, naito | kaanà, kaito | ||||
| Distal | Singular | kadto | siadto | niadto | kan-adto | ||
| Plural | saadto | naadto | kaadtoun | ||||
| Classical Cebuano (1663) | Modern Cebuano | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cebu | Bohol | |||
| WHAT | unsa | unsa | ||
| OF/TO WHAT | sa unsa | sa unsa | ||
| WHO (DIR) | Singular | sinsa ~ kinsa | kinsa | |
| Plural | sainsa | |||
| WHOSE (IND) | Singular | ninsa ~ niinsa | ni kinsa | |
| Plural | nainsa | |||
| TO WHOM (OBL) | Singular | kansa | kaninsa | kang kinsa |
| Plural | kainsa | |||
| WHICH | ang hain | kasa | hain | |
| OF/TO WHICH | sa hain | niasa | sa hain | |