Kankanaey

This article is about Kankanaey language. For Kankanaey people, see Kankanaey people.

Kankanaey
Spoken in	Philippines
Region	Northern Luzon
Native speakers	2.7 million, est. 1.3 million second language = 4 million total  (date missing)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Northern Luzon South–Central Cordilleran Central Cordilleran Nuclear Cordilleran Bontok–Kankanay Kankanaey
Language codes
ISO 639-3	kne

Kankanaey is a language used on the island of Luzon in The Philippines. It is widely used by Cordillerans, specifically those from western Mountain Province and northern Benguet.

Phonology

Of particular interest is the very common occurrence of what could be best thought of as a stressed schwa in many words. In fact, the e in Kankanaey is to be pronounced as this sound, and not as the e in words like bet or wet. This sound is usually unstressed and of a very short duration in English, as an intermediary sound between consonant clusters, such as that between the /B/ and the /L/ in the word table, or between the /T/ and the /L/ in title. This sound value is similarly found in a few other Northern Luzon languages like Ilocano and Pangasinan.

Some words with this sound are as follows:

emey/umey - to go

entako - let's go (a contracted form of emey tako)

ed - a particle equivalent in function to the relative pronoun where

ipe-ey/ipa-ey/ippey - to put (something somewhere)

iwedwed - to shake loose (as in loosening a stick or post)

anggey - only, finish

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  Cover of the Kankanaey Hymnal.

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  An open page of the Kankanaey Hymnal.

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  A pile of Kankanaey Hymnal in the Church of Saint Mary, an Episcopal Church in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines.

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  The 23rd Psalm in the Kankanaey Psalter.