Cebuano language

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Bisaya, Sinugboanon, Binisayang Sugboanon
Native to Philippines
Region entire Central Visayas, parts of Eastern Visayas, northeastern parts of Negros Occidental, southern parts of Masbate, most parts of Mindanao
Ethnicity Cebuano people
Native speakers
21 million  (2007)[1]
2nd-most-spoken language in the Philippines[2]
Standard Cebuano (Cebu City dialect)
Leyteño (Kana)
Mindanao Cebuano (Bisaya)
Latin (Cebuano alphabet)
Cebuano Braille
Official status
Official language in
Regional language in the Philippines
Regulated by Visayan Academy of Arts and Letters
Language codes
ISO 639-2 ceb
ISO 639-3 ceb
Glottolog cebu1242[3]
Cebuano-speaking area in the Philippines

Cebuano, referred by most of its speakers as Bisaya or Binisaya (English: Visayan), is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines by about 20 million people, mostly in the Central Visayas, most of whom belong to the Bisaya ethnic group. It is the most widely spoken of the languages within the so-named Bisayan subgroup and is closely related to other Filipino languages.

It has the largest native language-speaking population of the Philippines despite not being taught formally in schools and universities.[4] It is the lingua franca of the Central Visayas and parts of Mindanao. The name Cebuano is derived from the island of Cebu where the prestige register is spoken. Cebuano is the prime language in Western Leyte, noticeably in Ormoc and other municipalities surrounding the city, though most of the residents in the area name the Cebuano language by their own demonyms such as "Ormocanon" in Ormoc and "Albuerahanon" in Albuera.

Cebuano is given the ISO 639-2 three letter code ceb, but has no ISO 639-1 two-letter code.


Cebuano/Binisaya is spoken in Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, western parts of Leyte, some parts of Samar, Negros Occidental, Biliran islands, southern region of Masbate Island and Mindanao. Some dialects of Cebuano/Binisaya have different names for the language. Ethnic groups from Cebuano speakers from Cebu is called "Cebuano", Cebuano speaker from Bohol is refer to "Bol-anon", while Cebuano speakers in Leyte identify their dialect as Kana (Leyteño). Speakers in Mindanao and Luzon refer to the language simply as Binisaya or Bisaya.


Cebuano was first documented by Antonio Pigateffa, an Italian explorer who was part of Ferdinand Magellan's 1521 expedition.[5] Spanish missionaries started to write the language during the early 18th century, and as a result, Cebuano contains many words of Spanish origin.

While there is evidence of a pre-Spanish writing system for the language, its use appears to be sporadic. Spanish writers of the 16th century reported that the practice of writing was found only in Manila at the time of first contact. Writing spread to the other islands later, in the middle of the 16th century.[6] The Spaniards usually called the ancient Filipino script "Tagalog letters", regardless of the language for which it was used. This script died out by the 17th century as it was replaced by the Latin alphabet.

The language was heavily influenced by the Spanish language during the period of colonialism from 1521 to 1898. With the arrival of Spanish colonials, for example, a Latin-based writing system was introduced alongside a number of Spanish loanwords.[7] The Spaniards also increased the amount of vowels from 3 to 5.


Main article: Abakada

Cebuano has 21 phonemes. There are 16 consonants: p, t, k, ʔ (the glottal stop), b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are five vowels: i, e, a, o and u.


Below is the vowel system of Cebuano:

Table of vowel phonemes of Standard Cebuano
Front Central Back
Close i u
Mid ɛ o
Open a

During the precolonial and Spanish period, Cebuano had three vowel phonemes: /a/, /i/ and /u/. This was later expanded to five vowels with the introduction of Spanish entries. The vowels o and u are still mostly allophones, however, with u always being used when it is the beginning of a syllable and o always used when it ends a syllable. But there are some exceptions, like kamatuoran (truth) and hangtúd (until). "E" originally appeared only in a few words, such as "babaye" (girl/woman), "dayeg" (praise, compliment), "parayeg" (loving), and "pangadye" (prayer), and only in last syllables, as "E" was mostly an allophone of "I" in final syllables. Under the influence of Spanish, more words with e have been added with the introduction of loanwords.


Below is a chart of Cebuano consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.

Bilabial Dental Palatal Velar Glottal
Nasal m ŋ
Stop p b k g ʔ
Fricative h
j w
Flap ɾ̪


Stress accent is phonemic, so that dápit means "act of inviting", while dapít means "near" or "nearby place". Consonants [d] and [ɾ] were once allophones, but cannot interchange, like kabungturan (uplands) [from bungtód, mountain] is correct but not *kabungtudan and tagadihá (from there) [from dihá, there] is correct but not *tagarihá.


Main article: Cebuano grammar

Cebuano is a language with the verb–subject–object sentence order. Nouns and adjectives are joined by the nga connector with their order arbitrary as long as the connector is in between them.


While Cebuano nouns are not inflected, they are usually preceded by case markers. There are three types of case markers: kinsa (nominative), tag-iya (genitive) and gitagan'an (oblique).

Unlike English or Spanish which are nominative–accusative languages, Cebuano is an ergative–absolutive language. This may have led to a misconception about Cebuano as being often spoken in a passive voice.

Kinsa or nominative markers mark the topic of most sentences and both the topic and complementary predicate of an equational sentence. Tag-iya or genitive markers mark the owner of the thing or the doer of an action. Gitagan'an markers are similar to prepositions in English. They mark things such as location and direction. Furthermore, noun markers are divided into two classes: one for names of people (personal) and the second for everything else (general).

Below is a chart of case markers. Mga (pronounced [maˈŋa]) marks the plural.

  Kinsa Tag-iya Gitagan-an
general singular ang og sa
general plural ang mga og mga sa mga
personal singular si ni* kang
Personal plural sila si/ silang nila ni/ nilang* kanila ni/ kanilang

*Tag-iya case functions like an adjective. Sometimes an adjective acts as a complementary predicate. When a tag'iya case noun is a complementary predicate it uses kang in singular and ila ni/ilang in plural.


Cebuano: Mga gobernador sa Pilipinas.
The governors of the Philippines
"The governors of the Philippines."

Cebuano: Init kaáyo ang adlaw karon.
Hot very the day now.
"It's a very hot day today."

Cebuano: Hain/Asa ang mga libro?
At-where the those book?
"Where are the books?"

Cebuano: Tόa kang Presidente ang yawe/lyabe.
with the President the keys.
"The keys are with the President."


When the pronoun is not the first word of the sentence, the short form is more commonly used than the full form.[citation needed]

  Kinsa Tag-iya (primary) Tag-iya (modifier) Oblique
1st person singular ko ako ko nako
2nd person singular ka imo mo nimo
3rd person singular siya iya niya niya
1st person plural inclusive ta ato nato nato
1st person plural exclusive mi amo namo namo
2nd person plural kamo inyo ninyo ninyo
3rd person plural sila ila nila nila

*When the object is a second person pronoun, use ta instead of ko.


Ni/Misulat ko.
"I wrote."

Nagbasa ko.
"I'm reading."

Nagtrabaho ko
"I'm working."

Ang akong sakyanan.
Ang akong sakyanan.
"My vehicle."

Special attention should be given to the short form ta. When the subject is second person it means first person singular.

Hatagan/Taga-an ta ka.
"I will give you"

Nakit-an ta ka kagahapon sa dagat.
"I saw you at the beach yesterday."

Higala ta ka.
"You are my friend."

The inclusive pronoun kita refers to the first and second persons. It may also refer to a number of persons.

The exclusive pronoun kamí refers to the first and a number of persons in a group.

Wa ta'y klase karon
"We don't have school today."

Wa mi'y libro para basahon karon "We don't have a book to read today."

The short form is often used when the pronoun is not the first word in the sentence.

The pronouns are gender neutral, hence siyá means either he or she.

Demonstrative pronouns[edit]

Cebuano demonstrative pronouns are as follows.

  Kinsa Tag-iya Gitagan-an
  Full* Short* Full* Short* 'NG-'** 'D-'**
Nearest to speaker (this, here) kiri


ri niiri




ngari diri
Near speaker and addressee (this, here) kini


ni niini




nganhi dinhi
Nearest addressee (that, there) kana na niana ana nganha diha


Remote (yon, yonder) kadto to niadto adto ngadto didto

* When the demonstrative is used as a predicate, the full form must be used.
** Both forms, those beginning with 'ng-' and those with 'd-', are interchangeable.
† Although not represented in the orthography, forms in this row end in a glottal stop:
kana /kanaˀ/, na /naˀ/, niana /niˀanaˀ/, nganha /ŋanhaˀ/, diha /dihaˀ/, dinha /dinhaˀ/.


Cebuano verbs are morphologically complex (agglutinative) and take on a variety of affixes reflecting focus, aspect, mode and others. This is the functional view. There is disagreement over the issue. A number of linguists do not believe there is a verb at all. Cebuano controls arguments (subject–object) from an inflectional affix.[citation needed]


Cebuano verbs conjugate for aspect rather than for tense. Cebuano verbs inflect for the following: imperative, incepted and incepting.

  • Imperative - for giving commands.
  • Incepted aspect - past actions and present actions that are not habitual.
  • Incepting aspect - future actions and habitual actions.

Examples of Incepted Aspect:

Past actions
Nag-ihaw mi og kabaw.
We butchered carabao.
The act had been started in the past therefore the Cebuano translation is:

Present actions
Nagsalo mi sa mga lamian nga pagkaon ug nanginom og beer.
We feast on delicious food and drink beer.
The act has been started before the statement is spoken therefore the Cebuano translation is:

Examples of Incepting Aspect:

Future actions
Mangadto mi sa akong higala sa Europa.
My friend and I will go to Europe.
The act has not happened yet; therefore it has not yet started.

Habitual actions
Moadto ko kada fiesta sa San Fernando.
I always go to the festival in San Fernando.
Although the act had already happened she will still have to start the same act again and again (every morning) so the act itself is still to be started or pagasugdan pa.


An interesting feature of the functional categorization of verbs in Cebuano and in other Philippine languages is its orientation (forms) system. This means that the role or relationship of the topic (marked by the absolutive marker) is reflected in the verb.

There are nine common orientation types: um verbs, pag verbs, pang verbs, ka verbs, magka verbs, on verbs, an verbs, i verbs and reciprocative.

um verbs[edit]
  • Form
imperative incepted incepting wala base
-(um)- mi- mo- mo-
  • Function - this form is used for either of the following conditions.
  1. one is emphasising that the action happen in an instance.
  2. one is emphasising that the doer willed the act.
  • Type of topic - the doer is the topic.
pag verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
pag- nag- mag- mag-
  • Functions - expresses actions that either.
  1. happen for a duration of time.
  2. do not imply doer intention.
  • Type of topic - talks about the doer.
pang verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
pang- nang- mang- mang-
  • Function - pluritive form of um verbs.
  • Type of topic - talks about the doer.
ka verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
ka- na- ma- ma-
  • Function - talks about changes.
  • Type of topic - the topic is the one who undergoes the change.
magka verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
none nagka- magka- magka-
  • Function - talks about a slow but steady change.
reciprocating verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
pag-in-ay nag-in-ay mag-in-ay mag-in-ay
  • Function - reciprocating actions.
  • Type of topic - at least two persons/things doing reciprocating actions to each other.
on verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
-a gi- -on -a
  • Function - the direct object is often the topic, mostly misunderstood as similar to English passive voice.
an verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
-i gi-an -an -i
  • Function - the indirect object is often the topic, mostly misunderstood as similar to English passive voice.
i verbs[edit]
  • Forms
imperative incepted incepting wala base
i- gi- i- i-


There are several grammatical moods in Cebuano: intuitive, non-intuitive and aptative.[citation needed]

1) intuitive - the intuitive mood, subject is the normal word of the verb, the one whose form you have just learned.

2) non-intuitive - the non-intuitive mood is used to express unexpected or unintended actions. It has no imperative aspect.

NON-INTUITIVE incepted aspect incepting aspect wala form
um verbs nahi- mahi- mahi-
pag verbs nahi- mahi- mahi-
pang verbs nahipang- mahipang- mahipang-
ka verbs naha- maha- maha-
magka verbs none none none
reciprocating verbs nagka-in-ay magka-in-ay magka-in-ay
on verbs na- ma- ma-
an verbs hing-an mahi-an hing-i
i verbs nai- mai- mai-

3) aptative - the aptative mood expresses the possibility of an action. Like the non-intuitive mode, it has no imperative aspect. In the incepted aspect it implies the English perfect tenses or the have form. In the incepting aspect it implies the English can/could form.[citation needed]

APTATIVE incepted aspect incepting aspect wala form
um verbs naka- maka- maka-
pag verbs naka- maka- maka-
pang verbs nakapang- makapang- makapang-
ka verbs none none none
magka verbs none none none
reciprocating verbs none none none
on verbs na- ma- ma-
an verbs na-an ma-an ma-i
i verbs gika- ika- ikaw


Cebuano adjectives (and also nouns) are linked to the word they modify by the unifying linker nga or na. However if nga follows a word ending in a vowel, a glottal stop, or the letter N, then it often becomes suffixed to that word as -ng. In cases of words ending with Y or W, it sometimes becomes the contraction 'ng.[citation needed]

maayong buntag - a good morning (maayo, "good" + -ng)
itom nga bato - a black rock (itom, "black")
puting bato - a white rock (putî, "white" + -ng)
dakong bato - a large rock (dakô, "large" + -ng)
gamay'ng bato/gamay nga bato - a small rock (gamay, "small" + 'ng)


1) equational ( topic = predicate ) ~ in this sentence type you can interchange the topic and the predicate without changing the thought of the sentence.[citation needed]

a) "Ma'o kini ang Kabisay'an". = This is the Visayas.
b) "Ma'o ’na ang amo'ang balay" = That is our house.

2) non-equational ( topic < predicate ) ~ in this sentence type the topic and the predicate are not interchangeable.

a) "Taga-Asia ang mga Bisaya." = Visayans are from Asia.
b) "Mo simba mi karon." = We are going to church now.

3) existential sentence of presence ~ sentences of this type tells the existence of a thing or idea.[citation needed]

a) "Adunay Diyos sa langit." = There is God in heaven.
b) "Didtoy halas sa kahoy." = There was a snake in the tree.

4) existential sentence of possession. ~ sentences of this type tell about someone or something possessing something.[citation needed]

a) "Ang mga anghel sa langit adunay Diyos." = The angels in heaven have a God.
b) "Naa[8] koy ilimnon sa balay." = I had a drink at home.

5) locative sentence ~ this type of sentence tells the location of a thing.

a) "Ani'a/Na'ara ang kwarta." = Here is the money.
b) "’To'a siya sa bukid." = He/She is in the mountain.

6) meteorologic sentence ~ this type of sentence tells about weather condition, noise level, etc., of a place.

a) "Tugnaw dinhi sa Bukidnon." = It is cold here in Bukidnon.
b) "Hilom kaganiha sa plaza/Mingao ka'ayo didto sa plaza." = It was calm in the square.

7) exclamatory remark ~ praises and unexpected discoveries belong here.[citation needed]

a) "Kadaghan man nimo og sakyanan!" = You have a lot of cars.
b) "Guapa'ha nimo." = You are pretty.
c) "Kasaba ba ninyo." = You are so noisy.

8) imperatives ~ commands and requests.

a) "Isugba kanang isda." = Grill that fish.
b) "Ako nang gi sugba." = I already grilled it.

9) interrogatives ~ questions that are not answerable by yes or no.

a) "Kinsa ka?" = Who are you?
b) "Unsay imong ngalan?" = What is your name?

10) confirmation ~ questions that are basically answered by yes or no. Constructed sentence like the first 6 sentence type with the insertion of the particle "ba" as a second term.[citation needed]

a) "Kini ba ang Kabisay'an?" = Is this the Visayas?
b) "Unsa ba ang imohang kinahanglan?" = What do you want?
c) "Na unsa ba ang Politica?" = What is wrong with politics?
d) "Isugba ba kining isda?" = Shall this fish be grilled?


There are three negation words: dili, wala and ayaw.

Dili negates adjectives, nouns and incepting verbs.

Dili ko mo trabaho ugma.
"I will not work tomorrow."

Wala negates existentials and incepted verbs.

Wala ko mo trabaho tibuok adlaw.
"I did not work the whole day."

Ayaw is used in expressing negative commands.

Ayaw og hilak.
"Don't cry."

Ayaw mo pagdagan'dagan dinhi.
"Don't run here."

In response to interrogatives, Dili is used to reply negatively to future actions, while Wala is used to reply negatively to past and progressive actions. Ayaw is used when the intended response is the imperative "Don't" (Dili can also be used).

Mukaon ka?
Are you going to eat?

Nikaon ka?
Did you eat?

Gakaon ka?
Are you eating?

Kaonon nako ni?
Should I eat this?
Ayaw. or Dili.
Don't. (No.)

  • Unsa? - What?
  • Asa? - Where? (for a place or person - present, future)
  • Diin?, Dis'a? - Where? (past)
  • Hain?, Saa? - Where? (for an object- present)
  • Kinsa? - Who?
  • Ngano? - Why?
  • Kangkinsa? - To whom?
  • Giunsa?, Unsaon? - How?
  • Kanus'a? - When? (past)
  • Anus'a? - When? (future)
  • Pila ka buok?, Pila? - How many?
  • Tagpila? - How much?
  • Diay ba? - Really?

The use of asa, diin and hain[edit]

Asa, diin and hain—all mean where—have distinct uses in formal Cebuano usage.

Asa - is used when asking about a place.

    • Asa ka padulong? - Where are you going?
    • Asa ta molarga? - Where are we traveling to?

Hain is used when asking about a person or thing.

    • Hain na ang gunting? - Where is the pair of scissors?
    • Hain na ang papel? - Where is the paper?

Diin is used when asking a person where is he/she came from, and also asking the origin of an object.

    • Diin ka gikan? - Where did you come from?
    • Diin ka anang kalo? - Where did you get that cap?

In spoken Cebuano in Metro Cebu, however, asa is commonly used to replace hain. Some use hain, especially Southern Cebu, Negros, and Mindanao Cebuano speakers.


Cebuano is a member of the Borneo–Philippine languages. Early trade contact resulted in a large amount of older loan words from other languages in Cebuano, like Sanskrit (e.g. sangka, "fight" and bahandi, "wealth", from Sanskrit sanka and bhānda respectively), and Arabic (e.g. salámat, "thanks"; hukom or hukm, "judge").[9]

It has also been influenced by thousands of words from Spanish, such as kurus [cruz] (cross), swerte [suerte] ("luck"), gwapa [guapa], ("beautiful"), merkado [mercado] ("market") and brilyante [brillante] ("brilliant"). It has several hundred loan words from English as well by Cebuanos who were not given an opportunity to go to school, which are altered to conform to the limited phonemic inventory of Cebuano: brislit (bracelet), hayskul (high school), syápin (shopping) and dráyber (driver).


  • How are you? - Kumusta ka? (unsa may inyong kahimtang in literal)[citation needed]
  • Good morning - Maayong buntag[citation needed]
  • Good afternoon - Maayong hapon[citation needed]
  • Good evening - Maayong gabii
  • Good bye - Magkita ra kita usab (formal), Adios (rare), Babay (informal, corruption of "Goodbye"), Amping, Ayoayo ("Take care"), Hangtud sa sunod ("Until next time"), Sige(common)[citation needed]
  • Thank you - Salamat
  • Where are you from? - Taga asa/diin ka?[citation needed]
  • How do you say... in Cebuano? - Unsaun pagsulti ug ... sa Binisaya?
  • How do I get to ...? - Unsaon nako pag-adto sa...?
  • Do you understand? - Nakasabot ka?[citation needed]
  • How is the weather? - Unsa na ang panahon?[citation needed]
  • What is that? - Unsa nâ?/Unsa man nâ?
  • What time is it? - Unsa nang orasa?/Unsang orasa na?
  • Stop (Imperative) - Hunong sâ.
  • Don't - Ayaw
  • Yes - Oo
  • No - Dili ("no", used for future tense), Wala ("nothing, the absence of", used for past and progressive tenses)[10]
  • Okay - Sige[citation needed]
  • Great - Maayo[citation needed]
  • Oh! (Interjection) - Sus! (shortened form of Hesus!, roughly equivalent to English interjections "Sheesh", "Christ!", and "Jesus!"),[11][12] Ayay!


Cebuano can vary significantly depending on where it is spoken, particularly on the preference for vowel allophones or consonants. Words like kalayo ("fire") can become kalajo or kajo in some regions. Gahì ("hard") forms of vowels are also preferred in some areas. For example, /o/ or /ɛ/ sounds in some areas can become /u/ or /i/ sounds in others.

Colloquialisms can also be used to determine the regional origin of the speaker. Cebuano-speaking people from Cagayan de Oro, for example, say "chada" or tsada/patsada (roughly translated to the English colloquialism "awesome"), while Cebuanos from Cebu say nindot or anindot.

Increasing usage of spoken English (being the primary language of commerce and education in the Philippines) has led to the introduction of new pronunciations and spellings of old Cebuano words. /dʒ/ now routinely replace /dj/ sounds, /tʃ/ for /ts/, etc. Code-switching forms of English and Bisaya (Bislish) is also common among the educated younger generations.

There are four main dialectal groups within Cebuano. They are as follows:

Boholano and Southern Kana[edit]

The Boholano dialect of Bohol shares many similarities with the southern form of the standard Cebuano dialect; while the Southern Kana of southern Leyte and in Southern Leyte is closest to the Mindanao Cebuano dialect at the southern area and northern Cebu dialect at the northern boundaries. Both North and South Kana are subgroups of Leyteño dialect. Both of these dialects are spoken in western and central Leyte and in the southern province, but the Boholano is more concentrated in Maasin City.

Speakers of these two dialects can be distinguished by their distinctive modification of /j/ into /dʒ/. Like the Mindanao dialects, they are notable for their usage of a vocabulary containing archaic longer words like kalatkat ("climb") instead of katkat.

Southern Kana can be further distinguished from Boholano by slight vocabulary differences, such as arang ("very") for northern kana hastang and standard dialect kaayo.

In South Kana, there are some words that are influences from Waray-waray and used in everyday conversations. For example, luto in place of kan-on (rice), suoy in place of suka (vinegar), kaunan in place of kan-anan (dining room), tamsi in place of langgam (bird, but in Hiligaynon tamsi means snake), and bungto in place of lungsod (town or municipality).

Northern Kana[edit]

North Kana (found in the northern part of Leyte), is closest to the variety of the language spoken in northern part of Leyte , with significant influence from Waray-Waray, quite notably its pace, which speakers from Cebu find very fast, and its more mellow tone (compared to the standard Cebu City dialect, which Kana speakers find "rough"). A distinguishing feature of this dialect is the reduction of /A prominent, but often unnoticed feature of this dialect is the labialisation of /n/ and /ŋ/ into /m/ before /p/ /b/ and /m/, velarisation of /m/ and /n/ into /ŋ/ before /k/ /g/ and /ŋ/ and the dentalisation of /ŋ/ and /m/ into /n/ before /t/ /d/ and /n/ and sometimes, before vowels and other consonants as well.

This dialect generally contains less /l/ sounds than standard Cebuano. In between vowels /l/ is removed, and depending on what vowel chain follows, it may create a long vowel or have /y/ or /w/ take its place. (Elision) For example: balud ("wave") becomes baōd or bawod; balay ("house") becomes bāi/bāy. Aside from /l/ elision, /l/ may also change to either the alveolar flap /ɽ/ or the velar flap /ɾ/.

There may be slight vocabulary differences and shortened words like the use of āga for buntag (morning), ika for ikaw ("you"), and or mana for mga (plural subject marker). The prefixes hin- and hi- are also used in place of the standard ming-/mi- in Cebuano.

Some words also hold different meanings, like how the word "ramāw"/"lamāw" refers to the meat of young coconut suspended in either coconut juice or sugared milk in N. Kana; while in Standard Cebuano, "lamāw" means "rice leftovers", which is "bahāw" in S. Kana and Mindanao Cebuano.

Aside from that, there are also very rare alternate shortenings of phrases, such as saze instead of sas for asa si.

Sample Kana words and prefixes and their equivalents in standard Cebuano. Those words that may have originated in Waray-Waray have their Waray-Waray equivalents included.

Sugbu Kana Waray English
Mi-/ Ming- Hi- / Hin- Gi- / Gin-
Luto Kan'on Luto[?] Rice
Kini Kiri Ini This
Kana Kara' Iton That
Anhi Ari Adi Here
Anha Ara' Ada There
Dinha Dira' Dida There
Alsa Arsa Alsa To Carry
Bulsa Bursa Bulsa Pocket

Mindanao Cebuano[edit]

The Cebuano dialect in Mindanao is a unique blending of several dialects and other languages like Waray-waray, Ilonggo, and Tagalog. It is distinctive in retaining /l/ sounds and longer word forms, long since considered archaic in northern Cebuano dialects. For example: bulan instead of buwan ("moon" or "month"), hulam instead of huwam ("borrow"), "dula" instead of ("duwa") and the occasional lamang instead of lang or ra ("only").

In some instances, bulig can be heard or read in some signs, prayers, and public speeches thus it is used in place of tabang. Both of these words means "help". Although the former is Hiligaynon and Waray-waray, it is also in Cebuano vocabulary, but the latter is more frequent.


Not to be confused with Chavacano language.

The Cebuano dialectal variant in Davao is also known as Davaoeño, not the Davao variant of Chavacano. Like the Luzon Cebuano dialect, it contains some Tagalog vocabulary, though to a lesser extent. Its grammar is somewhat in between the original Cebuano language and the Luzon Cebuano dialect. For example: Ninaug ko sa dyip sa kanto, tapos miuli ko sa among balay ("I got off the jeepney at the street corner, and then I went home") instead of Ninaug ko sa dyip sa kanto, dayon miuli ko sa among balay. The words tapos and dayon mean "then"; the former is Tagalog, and the latter Cebuano. It also sometimes add some Bagobo and Mansakan vocabulary, like: Madayaw nga adlaw, amigo, kamusta ka? ("Good day, friend, how are you?", literally "Good morning/afternoon") rather than "Maayo nga adlaw, amigo, kamusta ka?" The words madayaw and maayo mean "good"; the former is Bagobo, and the latter Cebuano.

Luzon Cebuano[edit]

There is no specific Luzon dialect, as speakers of Cebuano in Luzon come from many different regions in Central Visayas and Mindanao. Cebuano-speaking people from Luzon in the Visayas can be easily recognized primarily by their vocabulary which incorporates Tagalog words. Their accents and some aspects of grammar can also sometimes exhibit Tagalog influence. The dialect is sometimes colloquially known as "Tagbis" (a portmanteau of Tagalog and Binisaya).

See also[edit]


  2. ^ Philippine Census, 2000. Table 11. Household Population by Ethnicity, Sex and Region: 2000
  3. ^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Cebuano". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. 
  4. ^ Ulrich Ammon, Norbert Dittmar, & Klaus J. Mattheier (2006). Sociolinguistics: an international handbook of the science of language and society. Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter. p. 2018. ISBN 978-3-11-018418-1. 
  5. ^ "Cebuano language, alphabet and pronunciation". Retrieved 2015-05-22. 
  6. ^ "Cebuano | About World Languages". Retrieved 2015-05-22. 
  7. ^ "Cebuano - Language Information & Resources". Retrieved 2015-05-22. 
  8. ^ Naa often replaces aduna/’duna.
  9. ^ Jose G. Kuizon (1964). "The Sanskrit Loan-words in the Cebuano-Bisayan Language". Asian Folklore Studies 23 (1): 111–158. doi:10.2307/1177640. 
  10. ^ "Wala / Dili". Learn Cebuano: Cebuano-Visayan Language Lessons. Retrieved June 18, 2011. 
  11. ^ "Sus". Tagalog Lang. Retrieved June 18, 2011. 
  12. ^ "sus". Tagalog Dictionary. Retrieved June 18, 2011. 

External links[edit]