Taleon, Kristine Anne

Review of Related Literature 1

1. Preliminary notes on the Hiligaynon Language
Hiligaynon also referred to as Ilonggo is a Filipino language spoken around the
western part of the Negros Island, south-eastern part of Panay, Guimaras island and by
immigrants in areas of Mindanao and Luzon such as Davao and Palawan. It is part of the
Austronesian language family, specifically in the Central Philippine Group of the Malayo-
Polynesian branch (Zorc, 2001). Based on the 2010 census (Ethnologue,2010) Hiligaynon
currently has 6,240,000 Million speakers. It also has a few dialect varieties, such as:
Kawayan spoken in Cauayan, Negros Occidental, Kari and Capiznon. In comparison to the
standard Hiligaynon, it has lexical and intonational differences.
During the arrival of the Spanish in the Philippines, Hiligaynon was used as major
trade language. Previously it followed a quasi-hispanic orthography such as [kw] being
spelled as [q] or [c] as in: cuarta ‘money’ and not kwarta. However, it currently adapts the
standard Orthography for Philippine languages based on the Tagalog language, therefore the
modern spelling for ‘money’ is kwarta. The phonemic inventory for Hiligaynon varies
depending on the resources based upon. Wolfenden (1975) claims on his Hiligaynon
Reference Grammar that there are currently 17 consonants including /f/ and /q/ and 5 vowels
for the Hiligaynon language. On the contrary, both Zorc (2006) and Motus (1971) theorized
the existence of only 16 consonantal phonemes where /f/ only appears on loan words from
English and 3 vowel phonemes, with [o] being an allophone of /u/ and [e] an allophone of [i].
Consonants in Hiligaynon
p t k q*
b d g
s h
m n ng
l
r
w y
*(Glottal stop is symbolized by /q/)
Vowels in Hiligaynon
i u
(e) (o)
a
 Vowel lengthening often occurs in open syllables whereas stress shift is often to the
right. New words in Hiligaynon can be formed via infixing, similar to most Philippine
languages, as well as reduplication and occasionally compounding. This usually involves two
root words for example: sakit ‘painful/pain’ and ulo ‘head’ when combined together it means
‘headache’. The standard word order for Hiligaynon is V-S-O (Verb-Subject-Object),
departure from this order only occurs in informal speech and when putting emphasis (Zorc,
2006). For example:
Nag-abot ako kagapon. ‘I arrived yesterday.’
V S Time
Kagapon ko nag-abot. ‘It was yesterday, that I arrived’.
Time S V
With the establishment of the Mother-tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education by the
Department of Education in the Philippines, ‘Hiligaynon’ is currently taught in Elementary
schools located in the Panay Island as well as, Negros Occidental. There are also numerous
TV Shows, radio broadcasts, news, literature, and research papers being produced in the
language, typically emanating from Bacolod City and Iloilo City, as part of the populations’
effort in enriching and preserving the Hiligaynon language.
2. Bibliographical Sources for the Hiligaynon Language
This section includes the bibliographical sources for the Hiligaynon Language in a
chronological order. They will also be categorized into the type of references, such as
dictionaries, language-learning books, reference grammars, comparative analyses and
semantic studies done on the Hiligaynon language.
2.1 Early Spanish Work on the Hiligaynon Language
Earlier works done on Hiligaynon were made by Spanish missionaries whose primary
objective was to record and learn the language of the native Filipinos and by extension,
spread Catholicism in these areas. The Institute of National Language (1746, 1781) created
the first Hiligaynon and Bisayan dictionary and grammar book, aside from categorizing the
lexemes found in both languages the authors also studied the overview of the grammar.
Likewise, a dictionary of Hiligaynon used in the Panay Island was also made by Mentrida
(1841) along with Bisaya and Haraya. One relevant insight was that during this period, the
infixes -la-, -li- and -lo- were recorded and studied along with -um- and -in-. -li- for example
as described in this book, was found when conjugated with the word inom or ‘to drink’ then
becomes ‘ilimnon’ which is the nominalized form, meaning ‘drink’. Moreover, -li-, -lo- and
-la- infixes often take an augmentative meaning in adjectival bases. For example:
-lo- + luoy ‘mercy’ -> maluluyqon ‘merciful’.
Cuartero (1878) also published his research on the idioms and metaphors found in the
Hiligaynon language during this period, the data gathered for his study were generally from
the Panay Island.
 2.2 Dictionaries and Language-Learning References on Hiligaynon
Multiple authors have produced language-learning books and dictionaries regarding
the Hiligaynon language. As illustrated prior, one of the earliest most comprehensive work is
from the Institute of National Language (1781) wherein the authors created one of the first,
Tagalog-Hiligaynon dictionaries. However, works on the language flourished during the
1970s. Motus (1971) and Wolfenden (1971) both produced dictionaries and reference
grammars solely on Hiligaynon and this was later followed by Maroma (1973) and
Constantino’s (1975) English and Hiligaynon dictionaries. During this period, Hiligaynon
self-help and language learning books were also published. Some notable references are from
Peace Corps (1960,1990)’s Ilonggo Language Packet that featured helpful phrases and
grammatical notes that will help Hiligaynon language learners, Ruiz (1960) also published an
intensive course guide on the Hiligaynon language that consisted of listening, grammar and
sentence drills. In addition, Eyestone (1964) also issued their Hiligaynon Lessons from the
Manila Language School and finally, Yamashita et. Al (1988) created their book on
Hiligaynon daily conversations in Japanese. All these language-learning books featured
vocabulary lists, useful grammar notes especially in affixing which is a characteristic of the
Hiligaynon language and even practice drills and translations.
2.3 Reference Grammars on Hiligaynon
Reference Grammars published about the Hiligaynon language were particularly
useful in discerning the characteristics of this languages as well as, enrich the linguistic
literature about the Philippine languages. Some of the most effective reference grammars
published from the 1930s up to the current period include: Viray (1939) on the -la- ; -li- and
-lo- infixes in Hiligaynon and Cebuano, Ghatage (1964) on the phonemes of the Hiligaynon
language, Grino (1967) on the pronouns found in the Hiligaynon language such as: the first
person pronouns ‘ako/ko’ and the demonstrative pronouns, ‘diri/dira/didto/’ . She also
detailed the cases in which these pronouns were used in the language. Moreover, Wolfenden
(1971,1975) created an efficient reference grammar on Hiligaynon, as well as Motus (1971);
Zorc (2001,2006) Spitz (2001), Santos (2011); Mithun (2016) and lastly, the Sumner Institute
of Linguistics (2018).
In assessing the reference grammars published from 1964 to 2018, some of the
relevant insights included were:
(a) In Phonetics, the phonemes /e/ and /o/ were included as part of the phonemic
inventory of the language by some authors (Wolfenden, 1971 and Ghatage, 1964),
however some authors analysed these phonemes as allophones of /i/ and /o/ as
they were only appearing loan words and never indicated a change in meaning
(Zorc, 2001 and 2006; Spitz,2001; Santos (2011) and SIL (2018).
(b) In Morpho-phonology, the usual morphophonemic processes studied were nasal
assimilations, infixing, compounding and even the consonant clusters such as /kw/
and /tch/ but one of the ‘affixes’ that have not been further explored is the
nominalization mentioned by the earlier Spanish missionaries: -la- , -li- and -lo-.
They stated that they must be affixes (Viray, 1939) as well -al, whereas other
authors did not investigate. Wolfenden (1975) groups it as ‘complex affixes’ in
combination with the suffix -an or the prefix -pa. There is a possibility that it
could be analysed in a separate way other than the ones, suggested.
 (c) In Hiligaynon Syntax, Motus (1971) and Minthu (2016) studied the Hiligaynon
language using the Topic-Comment approach, they posit that the topic is usually
the actor or the object of a discourse and the comment is what describes the topic
of the sentence. He also indicated the presence of goal and actor focus-type
sentences in the language. Wolfenden (1975) and SIL (2018) postulate that
inflections in verb determine the sentence’s aspect, focus and mode. Meanwhile,
Zorc (2001) analyses these inflections as voices: active, passive, local passive,
instrumental, past, future, command and contingent.

2.4 Comparative Analyses and Ethnolinguistic Studies on Hiligaynon

Certain useful resources on the Hiligaynon language, especially for non-native
speakers and foreigners that do not speak any Philippine languages but want to learn and
understand the target language more from a linguistic perspective are the comparative
analysis studies. Observing the similarities and differences of English, Tagalog and
Hiligaynon enables one to gain a better understanding of the language even from an
outsiders’ perspective. Some of the most helpful content in this domain include, Arandilla
(1959); Ruiz (1960) and Anderson (1960). All three authors compared Hiligaynon to English,
but Ruiz (1960) only focused on verbs. Various important findings include: the word order
for Hiligaynon is Verb-Subject-Object (VSO), contrastingly English has Subject-Verb-Object
(SVO) word-order in general. Departures from the VSO word order only occurs for
emphasis. Ruiz (1960) also talked about the inflection in Hiligaynon verbs. Meanwhile,
Villareal (2006) presented the only available semantic study on the language, using the
dictionaries published on the language she completed an archival analyses on the terms
associated with desire or love, as well as scenarios where these concepts are included and
Hiligaynon gender terms. One relevant insight was that feminine and masculine attributes can
be used as a verb, noun and adjective such as : binabaye ‘to be feminine’ root word: babaye
‘girl’ and even body parts can be used in this manner as well.
3. Further Areas of Research
As presented in this paper, studies in Hiligaynon are sparse, especially as it is one of
the major languages and the 5th most spoken language in the Philippines (Ethnologue,2010).
From a linguistic perspective, many areas should be investigated further in order to integrate
more useful resource on this major language, such areas include:
(a) Morphophonology: the existence of the supposed affixes ‘la,li,lo and al’ and its
role in the nominalization process in Hiligaynon should be investigated further.
The current studied regarding these, do not provide a sufficient and acceptable
analysis.
(b) Dialectology: Hiligaynon is spoken all over the Philippines, as such different
dialect variations of this language exist. Especially in Southern Negros
Occidental, in Iloilo City and Iloilo, Bacolod City and the northern part of
Occidental and even in islands in Palawan where a language variety is spoken as
well. No linguist has yet ventured on to these waters, and there could be truly
interesting findings once explored.
(c) Ethnolinguistics and Sociolinguistics: It is clear that studies regarding the
semantics, sociololinguistics of Hiligaynon are scarce. It may have areas where it
 is similar to Tagalog, but considering Hiligaynon has a distinct culture relevant
new perspectives and data may present itself concerning these two fields of study.
(d) Reference Grammars and Dictionaries: Although a number of helpful reference
grammars and dictionaries have been published in the Hiligaynon language, as the
language is continually evolving and especially with the establishment of the
Mother-tongue based Multi-lingual education by the Department of Education in
the Philippines, an updated and more comprehensive dictionary as well as a
reference grammar would prove to be effective.

4. Bibliography
This chapter includes a list of all the linguistic studies created concentrating on the
Hiligaynon language published between 1841 to 2016, organized in an Alphabetical order.
Anderson, B. (1961). Contrastive analysis of Ilongo and English. Ateneo De Manila
University
Arandilla, P. (1959). A contrastive analysis of Hiligaynon and English. University of
California, Los Angeles: UCLA Term Project for speech 103k.
Constantino, E. (1975) An English-Hiligaynon Dictionary. Diliman, Quezon City. University
of the Philippines, 296 pp.
Cuartero y Medina, M. (1878) Arte del Idioma Bisaya-Hiligaino que se Habla en Panay y en
Algunas Islas Adyacenfes. Manila: Establecimiento Tipografico del Colegio de Santo Tomas.
174 pp. (Other ed, 1890).
Eyestone, M. et al (1964). Hiligaynon Lessons. Manila : Interchurch Language School.
Ghatage, A. M. (1964). The Phonemes of Hiligaynon. Indian Linguistics 25. 77-82.
Grino, E. (1967) Hiligaynon Pronouns. Southeast Asia Quarterly. 2(2): 63-80.
Institute of National Language (1746). Hiligaynon vocabulary that maybe incorporated into
the Filipino language.
Institute of National Language. (1781) Tagalog-Hiligaynon Vocabulary. Manila, INL.
Maroma, E. (1973). Hiligaynon-English Dictionary. Iloilo, University of the Philippines
Visayas.
Méntrida-Aparicio, A. (1841). Lengua Bisaya, Hiligueina y Haraya de la isla de Panay. D.
Manuel y de d. Feliz Dayoy. 479pp.
Mithun, M. (2016). Grammatical Relations in Hiligaynon. In Alena Witzlack-Makarevich
and Balthasar Bickel (eds.), Grammatical Relations in the Languages of the World, 1-50.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Motus, C. (1971) Lessons in Hiligaynon. Np. 450 lvs.
Motus, C. (1971). A Hiligaynon Dictionary. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Peace Corps Philippine Language Program (1960). Hiligaynon dialogues for Peace Corps.
Bacolod City: Peace Corps Philippine Language Program.
Peace Corps Philippine Language Program. (1960). Hiligaynon materials-hiligaynon
classroom instructions. Hilo, Hawaii: Peace Corps Philippine language program.
Peace Corps Philippine Language Program (1990). Ilonggo language packet. Manila: Peace
Corps. 346pp.
Ruiz, M. (1960). A contrastive analysis of English and Hiligaynon verbs. Iloilo City: Central
Philippine University. 324 lvs. Mimeo.
Ruiz, M. (1960). An intensive course in Hiligaynon: a tentative guide. Iloilo City: CPU 177
lvs.
Ruiz, M. (1963). Weighing and sequencing English-tense verb aspect for Hiligaynon
speakers. Unpublished EdD Thesis: UCLA..
Santos, M. (2011). A contemporary grammar of Hiligaynon. Doctoral dissertation, De La
Salle University; 293pp.
Sumner Institute of Linguistics (2018). Hiligaynon: A Language of the Philippines. Sumner
Institute of Linguistics (SIL).
Spitz, W. (2001). Hiligaynon / Ilonggo. Languages of the World/Materials, 209. München:
Lincom. ii+68pp.
Villareal, C. (2006). Language and desire in Hiligaynon. Department of English and
Comparative Literature, University of the Philippines Diliman.
Viray, F. (1939). The infixes la,li,lo and al in Philippine languages. Institute of National
Language.
Wolfenden, E. (1971). Hiligaynon Reference Grammar. Ed by Howard P. MacKaughan.
University of Hawaii: Honolulu Press.
Wolfenden, E. (1975) A description of Hiligaynon syntax. Sumner Institute of Linguistics
Publication on Linguistics and Related fields 46. Published version of 1972 dissertation.
Yamashita, M. et al (1988) Hirigainon-go kaiwa renshuchu (A drillbook for Hiligaynon
Conversation) Tokyo: Daigakushorin.
Zorc, D. (1977). The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction.
Pacific Linguistics: Series C, 44. Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies,
Australian National University. pp313-328.
Zorc, D. (2001). Hiligaynon. In Garry, Jane and Carl Rubino (eds.), Facts About the World's
Languages, An Encyclopedia of the World's Languages: Past and Present, 300-304. New
York/Dublin: HW Wilson.