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This paper takes a closer look on the intelligibility of the Surigaonon and the Kamayo languages of the Surigao Provinces in Mindanao with that of the Cebuano Visayan. Oftentimes confused as the waya-waya or the jaun-jaun language, Surigaonon finds its speech community among the Surigao del Norte inhabitants as well as a few number of municipalities in Surigao del Sur. Kamayo, on the other hand, is common among the Surigao del Sur inhabitants. From a select number of children’s songs common in the Surigao islands, the paper, seeks to discover the morphological structures, phonological processes, and the semantic features of Surigaonon language of Surigao del Norte, Cantilangnon Surigaonon, and Bisliganon Kamayo to establish their intelligibility with the Cebuano Visayan language.
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Ipalakpak an alima1
(A Study on Surigaonon and Kamayo Dialects of the Surigao Provinces in Mindanao)
Mundiz, Teresa May A.
Dr. Riceli C. Mendoza
AL 114—Applied Linguistics
May 20, 2010
Abstract
1 Let’s all clap hands together
1
This paper takes a closer look on the intelligibility of the Surigaonon and the Kamayo languages
of the Surigao Provinces in Mindanao with that of the Cebuano Visayan. Oftentimes confused as
the waya-waya or the jaun-jaun language, Surigaonon finds its speech community among the
Surigao del Norte inhabitants as well as a few number of municipalities in Surigao del Sur.
Kamayo, on the other hand, is common among the Surigao del Sur inhabitants. From a select
number of children’s songs common in the Surigao islands, the paper, seeks to discover the
morphological structures, phonological processes, and the semantic features of Surigaonon
language of Surigao del Norte, Cantilangnon Surigaonon, and Bisliganon Kamayo to establish
their intelligibility with the Cebuano Visayan language.
Ipalakpak an alima
2
(A Study on Surigaonon and Kamayo Dialects of the Surigao Provinces in Mindanao)
INTRODUCTION
“Surigaonun bisan hain dali ra kilay-anKay dali ra man hisakpan sa sinultihanLain-lain di kun pareho an inistoryahan
Kay an waya-waya, wara-wara sa iban.”
--lyrics from SURIGAO SurigaonunFrom www.youtube.com
And there he was looking in the bus from the outside.
Slouching on the window seat inside the bus, one could hear the
drowning horns and calls from everywhere around the bus terminal. There
were porters selling their services, bus inspectors checking for their
schedules, passengers getting agitated for the yet again late ride, and
families sending off relatives. But most of all, there were peddlers all over
the bus terminal that it would be unusual not to bump at any one of them.
Then, there was that sunglass vendor who could not seem to help but stare
at someone going up in the bus, seemingly stalking at the same person,
following her trail as she sat by the window—to peddle his glossy, black,
plastic goods.
The sunglass vendor kept his gaze, one who seemed to be in search for
an effective pre-sales opener. And he walked towards the window to ask the
passenger—the author—of her whereabouts. Taga Mangagoy diay ka? So,
waya waya imung sinultihan? (So you’re from Mangagoy? Then you must
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have spoken Waya-waya?) He gave his widest grin; one would think he would
miss that quick, annoyed glance she had thrown down at him. Luckily, the
sunglass vendor left for another waya-waya passenger, getting the cue not
to bother her with his sales talk.
Making herself comfortable on her side of the window, the author
thought, the incident was not really a new one. Nothing could bring a good
laugh than being mistaken for something or someone you are not. And there
have been too many similar instances—way too comforting that she thought
she had found herself explaining about her family or so. But to be mistaken
quite a few times of virtually the same thing is different. The author realized
that whenever people hear her say she is from Mangagoy, or even just see
her among the passengers on a Mangagoy bus, the waya-waya2 language
would always be associated. And if not waya-waya, these people would call it
“inday-inday”, “jaon-jaon”, “maradjaw karadjaw” or even the infamous
“pospoyo.” These misnomers have added to the lists and even confusion of
what the language really is.
Located in Region 13, CARAGA, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur
make up the provinces of Surigao. It was in the 1960 that the province was
divided into the Surigao geography knows today. Thus, it is unsurprising that
for the people in and outside the Surigao provinces, Surigaonon becomes a
general term for identity or the term given to the people of Surigao.
However, as much as the passengers of Mangagoy bus in Ecoland would
2 Just a misnomer for the Surigaonun language as known to non-Surigaonun speakers
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want to agree with the term, the waya-waya or Surigaonon language will
always be attributed to and spoken by the people living in the Surigao del
Norte region. Even one of the interviewee for this paper added that
Surigaonon language is not the same as Visayan and Kamayo. Albeit the
difference, a Surigaonon speaker still understands what the speakers of
Visayan and Kamayo has to say, or a Kamayo speaker to a Surigaonon or
Cebuano Visayan—after all, the languages are also being used among the
people in Surigao provinces.
Then again, in spite of the widely accepted notion that Surigaonon is
only for the Surigao del Norte speakers, there are still municipalities in
Surigao del Sur which speak a variation of the Surigaonon language.
CarCanMadCarLan—Carrascal, Cantilan, Madrid, Carmen and Lanuza are the
municipalities whose language is considered to be variations of the
Surigaonon of Surigao del Norte language (wikipedia and Lewis ed., 2009).
Mangagoy, on the other hand, is one of the 24 barangays of Bislig city
in Surigao del Sur. With Kamayo as a widely spoken dialect in the province,
living in Bislig city presupposes that one also speaks Kamayo. However, the
existence of PICOP until its bankruptcy in 2008 in Tabon, along with
Mangagoy and the other 22 barangays, has brought along language change
with the migration of people. Hence, with Mangagoy as the commercial
center and Tabon as the home of PICOP, Kamayo is spoken alongside other
languages such as Cebuano Visayan. Bisliganon Kamayo, then again, finds
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the majority of its speakers in barangays Poblacion (the city capital),
Pamaypayan, San Jose, San Antonio, Lawigan, Bocto, Sibaroy, Tumanan,
Caguyao, San Vicente 1, Santa Cruz, Coleto, Pamanlinan, Borboanan, Mone,
San Isidro (formerly known as Bagnan), and Kahayag (formerly known as
Palo) (Ramil Go, personal communication). Despite the geographical
differences of the speakers of Bisliganon Kamayo, the language still has a
generally uniform set of vocabulary, speech patterns or even registers
inherent to the Bisliganon Kamayo speech community.
Similar to the Surigaonon language, Kamayo also has its variations
among the other municipalities in Surigao del Sur namely, Barobo, Hinatuan,
Lingig, and Tagbina. But then again, of the Kamayo speech communities,
the Bisliganon Kamayo is said to have a more distinct linguistic
characteristics compared to the other Kamayo speech communities. Prior to
the existence of the paper company, PICOP, and the cityhood of Bislig, the
Bislig roads and highways were not as developed as they are now. Because
of this, transportation was not viable if not altogether possible. Hence, there
were not many opportunities for workers from other municipalities to
migrate. This resulted to a near isolated status of Bislig, and the further
development of the Bisliganon Kamayo (Bernardito Macaranas, personal
communication).
Though the author has lived among the Bisliganons ever since, she still
finds herself being from the outside looking in at the kind of language used
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by the people of Bislig in much the same way as she is trying to understand
the Surigaonon language. This paper, hence, is an attempt to identify and
explicate the intelligibility on the linguistic features of the two languages—
Kamayo and Surigaonon –according to their variants as the Bisliganon
Kamayo and the Cantilangnon Surigaonon with that of the Cebuano Visayan.
The author used children’s songs in Surigaonon and Bisliganon Kamayo texts
(with translation from English) along with a number of randomly chosen
Cebuano Visayan words translated into the said languages to illustrate and
establish similar and contrasting linguistic features of Surigaonon,
Cantilangnon and Bisliganon Kamayo to the former. The songs were limited
to a very few number since, according to the interviewees, in exception for
their hymns—Surigaonon Hymn, Cantilangnon Hymn, and Bisliganon Kamayo
Hymn—much of the songs they have known are in their original texts as
Cebuano Bisaya or in English. In addition, the children’s songs are
meticulously chosen to include easily identifiable terms as body parts,
domestic animals and even colors alongside discernible linguistic features
inherent to the languages.
In consequence, the songs included in the paper would have “original”
or “translated” indications beside their titles. The former signifies that the
speech community really has their version of the song; the latter signifies
that the text would have been translated from the original English or
Cebuano Visayan versions. Yet with the case of the Cantilangnon
Surigaonon, the translations would have to be oftentimes reflected form the
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main Surigaonon language, or what this paper would call, Surigaonon
naturalis.
Much as this paper would try to encompass the languages widely used
in the Surigao provinces, Surigaonon and Kamayo were strategically chosen
since they are the genetic language in the Caraga Region. Also, the
availability and accessibility of the interviewees were considered in the
writing of this paper. Another thing to take note of is that with the migration
of people as an essential part in shaping a language, the
interviewees/speakers then regard whatever form of the languages they are
familiar with as correct.
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ANALYSIS
A widely circulated joke between a Surigaonon and a Cebuano has
become the toasts among social circles of the two languages. The joke goes:
One day, two strangers met in one of the piers in Surigao City. One was Surigaonon, the other was Cebuano. Both of them were said to leave for Cebu. But, it was the Cebuano who brought out the question.
“Bai,” the Cebuano opened. “Unsy ngalan sa barkong padulong Cebu?3”
“Inday uno4.” the Surigaonon answered nonchalantly.
Later in the evening, the Cebuano was still waiting for the ship with the name Inday Uno.
For anyone who is used to travelling to Cebu, Inday uno is a valid name
for the motor vessel heading Visayas. But for a Surigaonon, Inday uno could
never be a ship’s name. If it were a Kamayo asking, he would have
understood. So does a Cantilangnon from Surigao del Sur. But then again,
3 Bai, what’s the name of the ship heading for Cebu?4 I don’t know.
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Inday uno would have been said differently. A Kamayo would say Inday,
while, a Cantilangnon would say Inday lam.
Inday, hence, is understood as “I don’t know.”
In the pre-1960s, Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur was only
known as Surigao islands. For this reason, there is an intelligibility that
somehow exists between Surigaonon and Kamayo with the influences of the
former from the Cebuano Visayan, Leyteño and Boholano languages (Wolff,
1982). And with the migration of people, language change has also reached
Caraga region. Hence, Cebuano Visaya is also among the languages
permeating among the Mindanao regions, particularly in the Surigao
provinces. To establish the said intelligibility among the Surigaonon and
Kamayo languages particularly on the Cantilangnon Surigaonon, Surigaonon
naturalis and the Bisliganon Kamayo with that of the Cebuano Visayan, this
paper has used songs to help identify features inherent in the morphological
structure, phonological processes, and semantic of the said languages.
The following sample nursery and children’s songs are a representation
of the linguistic patterns—the morphological, phonological and semantic
features—of the Surigaonon, Cantilangnon Surigaonon and Bisliganon
Kamayo and the Cebuano Visayan. The songs have been translated in
English for better understanding of some words. But for the purposes of this
paper, Surigaonon from Surigao del Norte would be labeled as Surigaonon
naturalis, Surigaonon from Cantilan would be labeled as Cantilangnon
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Surigaonon, and Bislig Kamayo would be known as Bisliganon Kamayo (Click
Here or open file: mam rice_paper_songs.doc).
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