Butuanon language

Butuanon (Binutwanon, [binutwɐnʊn]) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Butuanon people in Agusan del Norte and Agusan del Sur, with some native speakers in Misamis Oriental and Surigao del Norte. It is a part of the Bisayan language family and is closely related to other Philippine languages. As of 2007, Butuanon is believed to be spoken by fewer than 500 younger speakers in Butuan itself.^[2]

Butuanon
Native to	Philippines
Ethnicity	Butuanons
Native speakers	72,000 (2005 [needs update])[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Central Philippine Bisayan Southern Bisayan Butuan–Tausug Butuanon
Language codes
ISO 639-3	btw
Glottolog	butu1244

Butuanon is very closely related to the Tausug language of distant Sulu and the Surigaonon language of neighboring provinces Surigao del Sur and Surigao del Norte.

Phonology

Vowels

Butuanon has three vowels: /a/, /i/, and /u/, with phonemic length.

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Open		a aː

Consonants

	Bilabial		Dental		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Nasal		m		n				ŋ
Stop	p	b	t	d			k	ɡ	ʔ
Fricative			s						h
Approximant (Lateral)						j		w
				l
Rhotic				ɾ

Stress

Stress is phonemic in Butuanon and can fall on either the penultimate or the final syllable.

Minimal pairs in Butuanon based on stress

Spelling	With penultimate stress	With ultimate stress
amo	/ˈamuʔ/ ('ours')	/aˈmuʔ/ ('monkey')
kuwang	/ˈkuaŋ/ ('lacking')	/kuˈaŋ/ ('lie down' [imperative])
lupa	/ˈlupaʔ/ ('earth')	/luˈpaʔ/ ('cross' [imperative])
tuo	/ˈtuʔu/ ('believe' [imperative])	/tuˈʔu/ ('right side')

Grammar

Morphosyntactic alignment

Main article: Austronesian alignment

Butuanon has four triggers:

1. agent
2. patient
3. circumstantial
4. instrument

Case markers in Butuanon

		direct	indirect	oblique
general		ang	hong	sa[a]
personal	singular	si	ni	kang
	plural	sinda	ninda	kanda

1. Sa may be dropped, replaced with hong, or replaced with a locative demonstrative.

Pronouns

Pronouns in Butuanon

			direct	indirect		oblique
				postposed	preposed
1st	singular		ako	ko[a]	ako	kanako
	plural	exclusive	kami	namo	amo	kanamo
		inclusive	kita	ta	ato	kanato
2nd	singular		ikaw	mo	imo	kanimo
	plural		kamo	niyo	iyo	kaniyo
3rd	singular		siya	niya	iya	kaniya
	plural		sila	nila	ila	kanila

1. Replaced with ta if the object is in the second person.