Classical Cebuano

Classical Cebuano, or Spanish-Era Cebuano, (Cebuano: Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisayâ, Binisayâ sa Katuigan sa Katsilà; Badlit: pre-virama: ᜃᜇᜀ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ, post-virama: ᜃᜇᜀᜈ᜴ ᜅ ᜊᜒᜈᜒᜐᜌ) was a form of the Cebuano language spoken during the Spanish colonial era of the Philippines. It was the primary language spoken in Cebu, Bohol, and other parts of Visayas and Mindanao.

Classical Cebuano
Spanish-Era Cebuano
Karaang Sinugboanon, Karaang Binisayâ
Native to	Philippines
Region	present-day regions of Central Visayas and the northern coast of Mindanao
Ethnicity	Visayan
Era	16th-19th century, developed into Early Modern Cebuano around the late 19th century
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Central Philippine Bisayan Cebuan Classical Cebuano
Writing system	Badlit (before c. 18th century) Latin script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

History

The earliest surviving record of Cebuano was from a wordlist collected by Antonio Pigafetta during the Magellan expedition in 1521. The wordlist contains about 160 Cebuano words (some of which are in Malay) written in an Italian-influenced orthography, which is considered problematic due to its inconsistent and unphonetic spelling system. The oldest reliable glimpse of Cebuano's grammar and vocabulary was from Domingo Ezguerra's Arte de la Lengua Bisaya de la Provincia de Leyte, a Waray grammar book written in 1663. The first dedicated grammar book for Cebuano, Francisco Encina's Arte de la Lengua Zebuana, was compiled in 1801 (40 years after his death).^[1]

Phonology

The phonological system of Classical Cebuano was relatively minimal compared to Modern Cebuano, which has more phonological inventory due to the influence of foreign languages such as Spanish and English.

Vowels

The Classical Cebuano phonemic inventory consists of three vowel phonemes (/a/, /i/, /u/). Some dialects of Modern Cebuano, particularly those in Bohol, have retained a close back unrounded vowel /ɯ/,^[2] which means it might have existed in Classical Cebuano, although unrecorded and possibly dialectal.

Classical Cebuano Vowels^[3]

Height	Front	Central	Back
Close	i, y /i/		u, o /u/
Open		a /a/

Consonants

The Classical Cebuano phonemic inventory consisted of 15 consonant phonemes (in which /d/ and /r/ were treated as a single phoneme). The consonant /r/ was pronounced only when the phoneme /d/ was situated between two vowels. The natives described the final -d as a medial sound between /r/ and /d/.^[3]

Classical Cebuano Consonants^[3]

	Labial		Dental		Palatal	Velar		Glottal
Nasal	m /m/		n /n̪/			ng̃ /ŋ/
Stop	p /p/	b /b/	t /t̪/	d, r /d̪/		c, q /k/	g /ɡ/	` /ʔ/
Fricative			s /s̪/					h /h/
Approximant			l /l̪/		y /j/	u /w/
Rhotic			d, r /ɾ̪~r̪/

Grammar

See also: Cebuano grammar

Case Markers

Classical Cebuano possessed separate plural personal case markers (sa, na, and ka), which are not retained in any dialect of Modern Cebuano.^[4]

Classical Cebuano Case Markers^[3][4]

		Direct	Indirect	Oblique
General	Definite	ang, ak[a]	sa
	Indefinite	ing, i	ug, ak[b]
Personal	Singular	si	ni	kan
	Plural	sa	na	(sa)ka

1. Only used in Argao.
2. Only used in Bohol.

Pronouns

Classical Cebuano underwent morphological changes throughout the Spanish period. One of the most notable was the change from *s(i)- to *k(i)- as the direct case-marking prefix for Cebuano demonstrative (e.g. siní -> kiní) and interrogative (e.g. sinsa -> kinsa) pronouns. Classical Cebuano, especially the one spoken in Bohol, still had plural case markers sa, na, and ka, which are already obsolete in Modern Cebuano. These were also used to form plural demonstratives, which are considered rare among Philippine languages.^[4]

Personal Pronouns

Classical Cebuano Personal Pronouns (1760)^[3]

Person	Number and Clusivity		Direct		Indirect			Oblique
			Independent	Enclitic	Independent	Postposed	Enclitic	Default	Suppletive
First	Singular		akó		akò	nakò	ko, ta*	kan-akò	sa akò
	Plural	Inclusive	kitá		atò	natò	ta	kan-atò	sa atò
		Exclusive	kamí		amò	namò		kan-amò	sa amò
Second	Singular		ikáw	ka	imo	nimo	mo	kan-imo	sa imo
	Plural		kamó		inyo	ninyo		kan-inyo	sa inyo
Third	Singular		siyá		iya	niya	na	kan-iya	sa iya
	Plural		silá		ila	nila		kan-ila	sa ila

^*

Only when paired with a second-person pronoun (as in "ta ka" and "ta kamo") or as an introspective "I".

Demonstratives

Classical Cebuano Demonstratives (1663)^[4][5]

		Direct		Indirect		Oblique
		Cebu	Bohol	Cebu	Bohol	Cebu	Bohol
Proximal	Singular	kadí	siadi	niadi		kan-adi
	Plural		saadi		naadi		kaadi
Medioproximal	Singular	kiní	siini	niini		kan-ini
	Plural		saini		naini		kaini
Medial	Singular	kanâ, kitó	sianà, siito	nianà, niito		kan-anà, kan-ito
	Plural		saanà, saito		naanà, naito		kaanà, kaito
Distal	Singular	kadto	siadto	niadto		kan-adto
	Plural		saadto		naadto		kaadto

Interrogatives

Classical and Modern Cebuano Interrogatives^[4][5]

		Classical Cebuano (1663)		Modern Cebuano
		Cebu	Bohol
WHAT		unsa		unsa
OF/TO WHAT		sa unsa		sa unsa
WHO (DIR)	Singular	sinsa ~ kinsa		kinsa
	Plural		sainsa
WHOSE (IND)	Singular	ninsa ~ niinsa		ni kinsa
	Plural		nainsa
TO WHOM (OBL)	Singular	kansa	kaninsa	kang kinsa
	Plural		kainsa
WHICH		ang hain	kasa	hain
OF/TO WHICH		sa hain	niasa	sa hain

See also

• Cebuano language
• Cebuano grammar
• Bisayan languages
• Waray language
• Pigafetta's dictionary