Waray language: Difference between revisions
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===Numbers=== |
===Numbers=== |
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Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray-Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers. |
Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray-Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers while some, specially the old ones, spoke alongside the spanish counterparts. |
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One Usá Uno |
One Usá Uno |
Revision as of 12:23, 25 May 2007
error: ISO 639 code is required (help)
Wáray-Wáray (commonly spelled as Waray-Waray; also referred to as Winaray or L(in) eyte-Samarnon) is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte (eastern portion), and Biliran in the Philippines.
The Warayan group of languages consists of Waray-Waray, Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon. Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon are called Bisakol because they are intermediate between Visayan and Bicolano languages. All the Warayan languages belong to the Visayan language family and are related to Cebuano and more closely to Hiligaynon and Masbatenyo.
Grammar
Pronouns
Absolutive | Ergative | Oblique | |
---|---|---|---|
1st person singular | ako, ak | nakon, nak, ko | akon, ak |
2nd person singular | ikaw, ka | nimo, nim, mo | imo, im |
3rd person singular | hiya, siya | niya | iya |
1st person plural inclusive | kita, kit | naton | aton |
1st person plural exclusive | kami, kam | namon | amon |
2nd person plural | kamo | niyo | iyo |
3rd person plural | hira, sira | nira | ira |
The Waray-Waray copula
Waray-Waray, as in other Philippine languages, does not have any exact equivalent to the English linking verb be. In Tagalog, for example, the phrase "Siya ay maganda" (She is beautiful) contains the word ay which, contrary to popular belief, does not function as an attributive copula predicating maganda (beautiful) to its subject and topic Siya (he or she). The function of Tagalog's ay is rather a marker of sentence inversion, which is regarded as a literary form but somewhat less common in spoken Tagalog.
The Waray-Waray language in comparison would express "She is beautiful" only as "Mahusay hiya" or sometimes "Mahusay iton hiya" (iton functioning as a definite article of hiya, she), since Waray doesn't have a present-tense copula or even an inversion marker. As in other Philippine languages, attributive statements are usually represented in predicate-initial form and have no copula at all. Take for example the ordinary Waray sentence "This is a dog":
- Ayam ini.
The predicate Ayam (dog) is placed before the subject ini (this); no copula is present. Another example:
- Amo ini an balay han Winaray o Binisaya nga Lineyte-Samarnon nga Wikipedia.
In English: "This is the Waray-Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". The predicate Amo ini is roughly translated as "This here" but the rest of the sentence then jumps to its subject, marked by the particle an. A more literal translation would therefore be "This the Waray-Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". Unlike Tagalog, it is grammatically impossible to invert a sentence like this into a subject-head form without importing the actual Tagalog inversion marker ay, a growing trend among younger people in Leyte.
Despite the debate regarding the Waray-Waray copula, it would be safe to treat structures like magin (to be), an magin/an magigin (will be or will become), and an nagin (became) as the English treat linking verbs:
- Makuri magin estudyante. ([It's] hard to be a student.)
- Ako an magigin presidente! (I will be the president!)
- Ako an nagin presidente. (I became the president.)
Orthography issues
While the now-defunct Sanghiran San Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte (Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) formulated and recommended a standard orthography, this was never widely disseminated and therefore as of present there is still no official orthography commonly accepted. In effect, there may exist two spellings of the same word (these usually limited to differences in vowels only), such as
- diri or dire ("no")
- hira or hera ("them")
- pira or pera ("money") - could also mean "how many?"
- maopay or maupay ("good")
- guinhatag or ginhatag ("gave")
- direcho or diritso ("straight [ahead]")
Sounds
Waray-Waray has sixteen consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are three main vowels: [a], [ɛ]/[i], and [o]/[ʊ]. [i]/[ɛ] and [ʊ]/[o] sound the same, but [o] is still an allophone of [ʊ] in final syllables. But they now have separate sounds for each. Consonants [d] and [ɾ] were once allophones but cannot interchange, like palaron (to be lucky) [from palad, palm (because someone's luck is seen in the palm] but not paladon and tagadiín (from where) [from diín, where] but not tagariín.
Examples
Numbers
Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray-Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers while some, specially the old ones, spoke alongside the spanish counterparts.
One Usá Uno Two Duhá Dos Three Tuló Tres Four Upat Kuwatro Five Limá Singko Six Unom Siez/says Seven Pitó Siete Eight Waló Ocho Nine Siyám Nuebe/nueve Ten Napúlô Diez Eleven (Napúlô kag usá) Onse Twenty (Karuhaan) Baynte Thirty (Katloan) Trenta Forty (Kap-atan) Kwuarenta Fifty (Kalim-an) Singkwenta Sixty (Kaunman) Siesenta Seventy (Kapitoan) Setenta Eighty (Kawaloan) Ochienta Ninety (Kasiaman) Nobenta One Hundred (Usa ka Gatus) Cien One Thousand (Usa ka Yukut) Mil
Some common words and phrases
Below are examples of the Waray-Waray spoken in Metropolitan Tacloban and the nearby areas:
- Good morning (noon/afternoon/evening) : Maupay nga aga (udto/kulop/gab-i)
- Can you understand Waray? : Nakakaintindi/Nasabut ka hin Winaray? (hin or hiton)
- Thank you : Salamat
- I love you : Hinihigugma ko ikaw or Ginhihigugma ko ikaw or Pina-ura ta ikaw
- Where are you from? : Taga diin ka? or Taga nga-in ka?
- How much is this? : Tag pira ini?
- I can't understand : Diri ako nakakaintindi
- I don't know : Diri ako maaram or Ambot
- What : Ano
- Who : Hin-o
- Where : Hain
- When (future): San-o
- When (past): Kakan-o
- Why : Kay-ano
- Yes : Oo
- No : Dire or Diri
- There: Adto or Didto
- Here: Didi or Nganhi
- Front or in front: Atbang or Atubangan
- Night: Gab-i
- Day: Adlaw
- Nothing: Waray
- Good: Upay
See also
- Waray literature
- Languages of the Philippines
- Filipino
- Cebuano
- Kapampangan
- Chabacano
- Pangasinan
- Visayan languages
- Bikol
- Ilokano
- Hiligaynon
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/80/Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg/40px-Wikipedia-logo-v2.svg.png)