Waray language

 ( Waray ) 

Waray (also known as Waray-Waray or Bisayâ/Binisayâ and Winaray/Waray, meaning Samar language) is an Austronesian language and the fifth-most-spoken native regional language of the Philippines, native to Eastern Visayas. It is the native language of the Waray people and second language of the Abaknon people of Capul, Northern Samar, and some Cebuano-speaking peoples of western and southern parts of Leyte island. It is the third most spoken language among the Bisayan languages, only behind Cebuano language and Hiligaynon.

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Nomenclature The term Waray comes from the word often heard by non-speakers meaning 'none' or 'nothing' in the language; similarly, Cebuanos are known in Leyte as mga Kana and their language as Kana (after the oft-heard word kana, meaning 'that' in the Cebuano language). The Cebuano pronunciation of Waray is walay with the same meaning.

During the Spanish period, texts refer to the language as simply being a dialect of "Visayan". In contrast, most contemporary linguists consider many of these "Visayan dialects" (e.g., Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Karay-a, etc.) to be distinct languages, and the term Visayan is usually taken to refer to what is called Cebuano in contemporary linguistic literature. Domingo Ezguerra's 1663 (reprinted 1747) Arte de la lengua bisaya de la provincia de Leyte refers to the "Visayan tongue of the province of Leyte", Figueroa's Arte del idioma Visaya de Samar y Leyte refers to the "Visaya language of Samar and Leyte". Antonio Sanchez's 1914 Diccionario español-bisaya (Spanish-Visayan Dictionary) refers to the speech of "Sámar and Leyte".

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Dialects Linguist Jason Lobel (2009) considers there are 25 dialects and subdialects of Waray-Waray.

• Tacloban: "standard" dialect: the dialect used in television and radio broadcasts and in education
• Abuyog, Leyte: heavy Cebuano language influence
• Culaba, Biliran: heavy Cebuano language influence
• Catbalogan: "original" dialect: Pure Waray, central part of Samar Island
• Calbayog: mixture of the Tacloban dialect and the dialect of Northern Samar
• Allen, Northern Samar: mostly Waray Sorsoganon mixed with Northern Samarenyo. Dialects in neighboring towns have also borrowed extensively from Waray Sorsoganon.

Many Waray dialects feature a sound change in which Proto-Bisayan *s becomes in a small number of common grammatical morphemes. This sound change occurs in all areas of Samar south of the municipalities of Santa Margarita, Matuginao, Las Navas, and Gamay (roughly corresponding to the provinces of Samar and Eastern Samar, but not Northern Samar), as well as in all of the Waray-speaking areas of Leyte, except the towns of Javier and Abuyog. However, this sound change is an areal feature rather than a strictly genetic one (Lobel 2009).

Most Waray dialects in northeastern and East Samar have the close central unrounded vowel as a reflex of Proto-Austronesian *e.

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Usage Waray is one of the many regional languages found in the Philippines and used in local government. It is widely used in media particularly in television and radio broadcasts, however, not in print media because most regional newspapers are published in English.

The language is used in education from kindergarten to primary level as part of the Philippine government's K–12 program since 2012 in which pupils from kindergarten to third grade are taught in their respective indigenous languages.

Waray is also used in the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church and in the worship services of different Christian sects in the region. Bibles in Waray are also available. In 2019, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released in Waray-Waray. However, there is a growing population of Muslims in the region with the first mosque, Tacloban Mosque and Islamic Center, through a charity built by a Turkey Islamic religious authority in Tacloban at 2017 which teaches the scriptures and offers Friday sermons in both Waray and Cebuano in general.

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Phonology

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Vowels Most Waray dialects have three vowel phonemes: , and . Some dialects have an additional vowel ; words with in these dialects have in the majority dialects.

David Paul Zorc (1977). 9780858831575, Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific Studies, Australian National University. . ISBN 9780858831575

P. 47

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Consonants Waray has a total of 16 consonant phonemes: . Two extra postalveolar sounds are heard when occurs after , further proceeding another vowel sound.Rubino, (2001:797–800)

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Alphabet

+ Waray alphabet ! Number	18

The Waray alphabet consists of 18 letters: 17 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet (all but c, e, f, j, o, q, v, x, and z), alongside one digraph: NG.

+ Letters used to write words of foreign origin ! Number	10

These ten letters are not used in any native Waray words. Aside from foreign loanwords, they are usually replaced by other letters (e.g. ⟨k⟩ or ⟨s⟩ for ⟨c⟩, ⟨i⟩ for ⟨e⟩, ⟨p⟩ for ⟨f⟩, ⟨y⟩ for ⟨j⟩, ⟨ny⟩ for ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨u⟩ for ⟨o⟩, ⟨kw⟩ for ⟨q⟩, ⟨b⟩ for ⟨v⟩, ⟨ks⟩ for ⟨x⟩, and ⟨s⟩ for ⟨z⟩).

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Grammar

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Case markers

singular impersonal	an	han/san*	ha/sa
plural impersonal	an mga	han mga/san mga*	ha mga/sa mga
singular personal	hi/si	ni	kan
plural personal	hira/sira	nira	kira

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Writing system Waray, like all Philippine languages today, is written using the Latin script. There is no officially-approved orthography for the language and different writers may use differing orthographic styles. In general, it has become common to write the language following the current orthographic conventions of Filipino.

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Vocabulary Waray uses many different words to specify a particular thing. These words might not be the same in spelling and in construction but they share the same meaning, making it a very diverse language.

Here are some examples of demonstratives and adverbs together with their equivalent definition in Waray-Waray:

ano, anyá, náno

diin, ngain, háin

hino/sino (hin-o/sin-o)

sán-o, kakán-o, kasán-o

páno, gin-áano, gin-áanya

didi, dinhi, ngadi, nganhi, áanhi, áadi

ngada, dida, ngadto, didto, aadto, aada

iito, iton, ito, it

adto, adton, aadto

aadin, adin, inin

kay, kay ano, kay ngano, ngano

ini, inin, adin, adi

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Verbs

aydi/a

ig-eksplikar

ig-imbitar, kumbidahi

atender, atendera/i

ipadara, padad-a/i

paghimo, pagbuhat

pagtindog

lupad

katurog

ig-surat

higda

higugma-a

asikasuha/i

pag-istorya, pagsabot, himangraw

pagmaneho, pagdrayb

sakay, sakya/i

pas-ana/i, dad-a, bitbita

ig-baligya, ig-tinda

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Numbers Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers (except for gatos for hundred and yukot for thousand). Some, especially the old ones, are spoken alongside the Spanish counterparts.

un/uno (m) una (f)

dos

tres

cuatro

cinco

seis

siete

ocho

nueve

diez

once

doce

trece

catorce

quince

dieciséis

diecisiete

dieciocho

diecinueve

veinte

veintiuno

veintidós

treinta

cuarenta

cincuenta

sesenta

setenta

ochenta

noventa

cien

mil

un millón

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Loanwords and cognates Waray has borrowed vocabulary extensively from other languages, especially from Spanish. These words are being adopted to fill lexical gaps of the recipient language. Spanish colonialization introduced new systems to the Philippine society.

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See also

• Waray people
• Waray literature
• Waray Wikipedia
• Languages of the Philippines
• Samar
• Leyte
• Waray Sorsogon language

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Further reading

• Abuyen, Tomas A. (2005). Dictionary English Waray-Waray/Tagalog, National Book Store, 494 pp., .
• Rubino, Carl. Waray-Waray. In Garry, Jane and Carl Rubino (eds.), Facts About the World's Languages, An Encyclopedia of the World's Languages: Past and Present (2001), pp. 797–800.

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External links

• Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte – Google Books
• Arte del idioma visaya de Samar y Leite – Google Books
• Diccionario espanol-bisaya para las provincias de Sámar y Leyte – University of Michigan collection
• Waray Museum Blog featuring Waray literature
• Waray lessons
• Bansa.org Waray Dictionary
• Waray dictionary, literary database & teaching resource
• Waray-Waray Dictionary by Andras Rajki
• SEAlang Library Waray Resources
• A large collection of bible study material in Waray language (free audio books, videos, publications) – Jehovah's Witnesses

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