The Sentence Patterns of Twenty-Six Philippine

Languages(Rated OK: For general patronage)

By Ernesto Constantino

Introduction

Purpose

The main purpose of this paper is to present a constituent analysis and a transformational analysis of the major sentence patterns of twenty-six Philippine languages.

Languages

Tagalog (Tag), Abak (Abk), Bikol (Bkl), Bolinao (Bol), Botolan (Bot), Hiligaynon (Hil), Ibanag (Ibg), Ilukano (Ilk), Itbayat (Itb), Itneg (Itn), Ivatan (Ivt), Kapampangan (kap), Malaweg (Mal), Manobo (Mnb), Pangasinan (Png), Sama Bangingi (Smb), Samal (Sml), Sebuano (Seb), Sta. Fe Igorot (Sfi), Tausug (Tau), Ternate (Ter), Tinguian (Tng), Waray (War), Ylanon (Yln), and Yogad (Yog).

Consonants and Vowels

The following consonants occur in each of the twenty-six Philippine languages:

/p, t, k, q (glottal stop), b, d, g, m, n, ŋ, s, h, l, r, w, y/.

The vowels /i, a, u/ occur in each of the twenty-six languages.

Length and Stress

The phoneme of vowel length is represented by /./ placed immediately after the vowel. The stress phoneme is represented by /’/ placed over the vowel of the syllable that receives the stress.

Intonation Contours

Four pitch levels: low /1/, mid /2/, high /3/, extra high /4/; and three terminal junctures: rising /↑/, falling /↓/, sustained /l/, occur in each of the twenty-six Philippine languages.

intonation contours: /(2)32↓/, /(2)32↑/, /(2)32l/, /(2)2l/, and /(2)42↓/.

Utterance

An utterance is a segment of speech before and after which tere is silence. It is either complete or incomplete.

Tag: /tumakbo qaŋ ba.taq↓/

The child ran away.

2 32

* Any utterane has two immediate constituents: the intonation pattern and the nucleus.

Intonation patterns

The intonation pattern of an utterance may have one intonation contour or it may have two or more:

2- 32 2- 32

Tag: /qaŋ ba.taq׀tumakbo↓/

‘The child ran away.’

which has two: /232l/ and /232 ↓/

Nucleus

The nucleus of an utterance may have one macrosegment or it may have two or more. An emphatic stress morpheme may occur within the macrosegment on any one of the accented syllables.

the nucleus of a complete utterance, with or without its intonation pattern, is called a sentence. The nucleus of an incomplete utterance is called a fragment.