AKLAN STATE UNIVERSITY – College of Teacher

Education

SOLANOY, GAY ANN S. College of Teacher Education, Aklan

State University, Banga, Aklan, Philippines, July 2021.

COASTAL FISHER FOLKS’ SOCIOLECT: THEIR LEXICON, PHONETIC

TRANSCRIPTION, ORTHOGRAPHY AND GRAPHIC REPRESENTATION.

(A Master’s Thesis)

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to determine the coastal fisher folks’

sociolect, provide their lexicon, phonetic transcription,

orthography and graphic representation, to identify the

classifications of the sociolects in the fisherfolks’ corpus

and to produce a reference medium from the corpora of the

coastal fisherfolks’ sociolect. The research design

employed in this study is the Corpus Linguistics which

focuses on the large collection of real-life language used

in real-life context. The study was conducted in New

Washington, Aklan which focuses on the coastal barangays in

the exterior area; Tambak, Poblacion, Pinamuk-an, Polo,

Cawayan, Ochando, Fatima, and Dumaguit. The respondents of

this study were the coastal fisherfolks of the eight coastal

barangays of New Washington who catches fish and

crustaceans. The respondents were chosen using purposive and

 AKLAN STATE UNIVERSITY – College of Teacher
Education

snowball sampling which considers the fisherfolks’ number of

years in staying in the coastal area as well as the number

of years in fishing. An interview guide asking for the key

informants’ name, age, number of years in fishing, specific

occupation, and highest educational attainment were

distributed and the researcher asked probing questions to

gather the coastal fisherfolks’ sociolects. The data were

analyzed by transcribing the recorded interview and

confirming it from the key informants. The gathered data

were triangulated among the key informants, fishery experts,

mother-tongue experts, and mother-tongue educators.

Moreover, the phonetic transcription was taken from the

Tagalog transcription with additional reference from

Rentillo’s Preliminary Dialectology of Aklanon while the

orthography was based on Department of Education’s reference

in teaching Mother-Tongue entitled Mabaa Eon Kita: Sueondan

sa Pagturo it Akeanon.

Based on the data obtained from the key informants, the

researcher listed the socoilects with their lexicon,

phonetic transcription, and orthography. In additional, the

classification of the sociolects according to the data

obtained were occupations of the fisherfolks which is

 AKLAN STATE UNIVERSITY – College of Teacher
Education

subdivided into occupations by the sea and occupations by

the river, tools and equipment in fishing, processes in

fishing, parts of the boat, parts of a fishing vessel, parts

of a taba, crews boarded in a fishing vessel, and other

sociolects used by the fisherfolks. Furthermore, the

reference medium produced based on the corpora of the

coastal fisherfolks’ sociolect is a booklet which contains

the sociolect, its lexicon, phonetic transcription,

orthography and its graphic representation which will be

entitled Graphic Lexicon.