Ilocano literature 

or Iloko literature pertains to the literary works of writers of Ilocano ancestry

regardless of the language used - be it Ilocano, English, Spanish or other foreign and Philippine
languages. In Ilocano language, the terms "Iloko" and "Ilocano" are different. Generally, "Iloko" is the
language while "Ilocano" refers to the people or the ethnicity of the people who speak the Iloko
language.
Ilocano literature in the Philippines is one of several regional Philippine literatures. It is one of the
most active tributaries to the general Philippine literature, next to Tagalog (Filipino) and Philippine
Literature in English.
Ilocanos are Austronesian-speaking people. Families and clans arrived by viray or bilog, meaning
"boat". The term Ilokano originates from i-, "from", and looc, "cove or bay", thus "people of the bay."
Ilokanos also refer to themselves as Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilokano phrase sao mi ditoy,
"our language here".

Precolonial times to the 19th century[edit]

Pre-colonial Iloko literature were composed of folk songs, riddles, proverbs, lamentations
called dung-aw, and epic stories in written or oral form. Ancient Ilokano poets expressed themselves
in folk and war songs as well as the dallot, an improvised, versified and at times impromptu long
poem delivered in a sing-song manner.
During the Spanish regime, Iloko poetry was generally patterned after Spanish models. In fact, the
earliest known written Iloko poems were the romances translated from Spanish by Francisco Lopez,
an Augustinian friar who, in 1621, published his own Iloko translation of the Doctrina
Cristiana by Cardinal Bellarmine, the first book to be printed in Iloko.
A study of Iloko poetry could be found in the Gramatica Ilokana, published in 1895, based on
Lopez's Arte de la Lengua Iloca, earlier published in 1627, but was probably written before 1606.