Western Subanon language

Western Subanon (also known as Siocon Subanon or simply Subanon) is an Austronesian language belonging Subanen branch of the Greater Central Philippine subgroup. It is spoken by c. 300,000 people (as of 2018^[update]) in the southwestern part of the Zamboanga Peninsula region of Mindanao.

Western Subanon
Siocon Subanon
Native to	Philippines
Region	Western Mindanao
Native speakers	300,000 (2018)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Subanen Western Subanon
Dialects	Siocon Western Kolibugan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	suc
Glottolog	west2811

Distribution and dialects

The Western Subanon speech area includes the villages Malayal, Lintangan, Lanuti, and Limpapa in the municipality of Sibuco, and parts of Siocon, Baliguian, Labason, Surabay, and Ipil, all located in the Zamboanga Peninsula region.^[1] The dialects are Siocon and Western Kolibugan (Western Kalibugan).^[2]

Phonology

Western Subanon has 15 native consonants.^[3][1]

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Semivowel				j	w

Vowels

Western Subanon has five vowels.^[3][1]

Monophthongs

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e		o
Low		a

The diphthongs of Western Subanon are /au/, /ua/, /io/, /oi/, /ai/, and /ia/.

Grammar

Western Subanon has a typical Philippine-type voice system. Unlike most other Philippine languages, it only has three voice categories.^[4][5]

Voice affixes

	volitional		non-volitional
	realis	irrealis	realis	irrealis
Actor voice	‹um›‹in› mig-	‹um› mog-	miko-	moko-
Patient voice	‹in› pig-	-on pog-	mi-	mo-
Goal voice	‹in› -an pig- -an	-an pog- -an	ki- -an	ko- -an

Sample text

The chorus of the Western Subanon song "Momula ita" 'Let's plant' is shown.^[3]

Gumani ita Gumani ita Landu’ da’da’an ta Po’ gumani ita Gumani ita Gumani ita Di’ na mobon sinsaan ta Gumani ita

We will harvest (or, Let's harvest) We will harvest Great is our rejoicing Because we will harvest We will harvest We will harvest Our suffering will not last long We will harvest