Standard Waray (Tacloban dialect), Northern Samar dialect, Calbayog dialect, Culaba-Biliran dialect, Abuyog dialect and 20 other identified dialects and subdialects
Waray (also known asWaray-Waray orBisayâ/Binisayâ andWinaray/Waray,Spanish:idioma samareño meaningSamar language) is anAustronesian language[2] and the fifth-most-spoken nativeregional language of thePhilippines, native toEastern Visayas. It is the native language of theWaray people and second language of the Abaknon people of Capul, Northern Samar, and some Cebuano-speaking peoples of western and southern parts of Leyte island. It is the third most spoken language among theBisayan languages, only behindCebuano andHiligaynon.
The termWaray comes from the word often heard by non-speakers meaning 'none' or 'nothing' in the language; similarly,Cebuanos are known in Leyte asmga Kana and their language asKana (after the oft-heard wordkana, meaning 'that' in theCebuano language).[not verified in body] The Cebuano pronunciation of Waray iswalay with the same meaning.
During the Spanish period, texts refer to the language as simply being a dialect of "Visayan". In contrast, most contemporary linguists consider many of these "Visayan dialects" (e.g., Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Karay-a, etc.) to be distinct languages, and the term Visayan is usually taken to refer to what is called Cebuano in contemporary linguistic literature.[3] Domingo Ezguerra's 1663 (reprinted 1747)Arte de la lengua bisaya de la provincia de Leyte refers to the "Visayan tongue of the province of Leyte", Figueroa'sArte del idioma Visaya de Samar y Leyte refers to the "Visaya language of Samar and Leyte".[3] Antonio Sanchez's 1914Diccionario español-bisaya (Spanish-Visayan Dictionary) refers to the speech of "Sámar and Leyte".
Many Waray dialects feature asound change in whichProto-Bisayan *s becomes/h/ in a small number of common grammatical morphemes. This sound change occurs in all areas ofSamar south of the municipalities ofSanta Margarita,Matuginao,Las Navas, andGamay (roughly corresponding to the provinces ofSamar andEastern Samar, but notNorthern Samar), as well as in all of the Waray-speaking areas ofLeyte, except the towns ofJavier andAbuyog. However, this sound change is an areal feature rather than a strictly genetic one.[4]
Waray is one of the manyregional languages found in the Philippines and used in local government. It is widely used in media particularly in television and radio broadcasts, however, not in print media because most regional newspapers are published in English.
The language is used in education from kindergarten to primary level as part of the Philippine government's K–12 program since 2012 in which pupils from kindergarten to third grade are taught in their respective indigenous languages.
Waray is also used in the Mass in theRoman Catholic Church and in the worship services of different Christian sects in the region. Bibles in Waray are also available.[5] In 2019, theNew World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released in Waray-Waray.[6] However, there is a growing population of Muslims in the region with the first mosque, Tacloban Mosque and Islamic Center, through a charity built by aTurkish Islamic religious authority inTacloban at 2017 which teaches the scriptures and offers Friday sermons in both Waray and Cebuano in general.
Most Waray dialects have three vowel phonemes:/a/[a],/i/[ɛ~i] and/u/[ɔ~u]. Some dialects have an additional vowel/ə/[ə]; words with/ə/ in these dialects have/u/ in the majority dialects.[7][8]
Waray has a total of 16 consonant phonemes:/p,t,k,b,d,ɡ,m,n,ŋ,s,h,l,ɾ~r,w,j,ʔ/. Two extra postalveolar sounds[tʃ,dʒ] are heard when/i/ occurs after/t,d/, further proceeding another vowel sound.[9][10]
The Waray alphabet consists of 18 letters: 17 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet (all but c, e, f, j, o, q, v, x, and z), alongside one digraph: NG.
These ten letters are not used in any native Waray words. Aside from foreign loanwords, they are usually replaced by other letters (e.g. ⟨k⟩ or ⟨s⟩ for ⟨c⟩, ⟨i⟩ for ⟨e⟩, ⟨p⟩ for ⟨f⟩, ⟨y⟩ for ⟨j⟩, ⟨ny⟩ for ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨u⟩ for ⟨o⟩, ⟨kw⟩ for ⟨q⟩, ⟨b⟩ for ⟨v⟩, ⟨ks⟩ for ⟨x⟩, and ⟨s⟩ for ⟨z⟩).
Waray, like all Philippine languages today, is written using the Latin script. There is no officially-approved orthography for the language and different writers may use differing orthographic styles. In general, it has become common to write the language following the current orthographic conventions of Filipino.
Waray uses many different words to specify a particular thing. These words might not be the same in spelling and in construction but they share the same meaning, making it a very diverse language.[citation needed][11]
Here are some examples of demonstratives and adverbs together with their equivalent definition in Waray-Waray:
Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers (except forgatos forhundred andyukot forthousand). Some, especially the old ones, are spoken alongside the Spanish counterparts.
Waray has borrowed vocabulary extensively from other languages, especially from Spanish. These words are being adopted to filllexical gaps of the recipient language. Spanish colonialization introduced new systems to the Philippine society.[citation needed][13]
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin (eds.)."Waray (Philippines)".Glottolog. Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
^Makabenta, Eduardo (2004).Pagpurulungan nga Binisaya (Waray) ha Leyte ug Samar (Binisaya-English English-Binisaya Dictionary) (2nd ed.). Quezon City: Adbox Book Distributors and Eduardo A. Makabenta Sr. Foundation. p. 121.
Rubino, Carl. Waray-Waray. In Garry, Jane and Carl Rubino (eds.), Facts About the World's Languages, An Encyclopedia of the World's Languages: Past and Present (2001), pp. 797–800.
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