Aklanon
4
egids
"Aklanon" originally pertains to the people of Aklan province, as well as their language and culture. According to their popular folklore, the name Aklan was derived from a river they originally called Akean. The people are found in the province of Aklan, known one of the four major province of the island of Panay in the Western Visayan region of the Philippines.
Aklan is located in the northern part of Panay Island along with its other major provinces namely Capiz, Iloilo and Antique. It is evident on the Philippine map and popularly described as the triangle-shaped island. It is bound by Antique in the west, by Capiz in the east and the Visayan sea to its north.
The people of Aklan speak their language called Aklanon (mostly referred to as Akeanon or Inakeanon) which is one of the subclassifications of the Visayan language, and one of the two Visayan languages that are native to the province of Aklan (the other one being Malaynon). Since the language belongs to the Visayan range, noticeably it is known to have a high mutual intelligibility with Hiligaynon. Evidently, people use Aklanon as well as Hiligaynon, more known as their second language, for their everyday language use.
According to Aklanon speakers, they originally pronounce their language as Akeanon substituting the phonetic sound /e/ for /l/ pronounced with a rolling /r/ sound. This sound change came to be from their popular legend where their first ruler, 'Datu Bangkaya' who had a short tongue that he could not pronounce the /l/ sound. Then making the pronunciation of Aklanon, originally as Akeanon. This unique sound has distinguished their language from other Visayan languages, making it distinct mark of Aklanon.
SOUNDS OF AKLANON
Aklanon has eighteen (18) consonants: p, b, t, d, s, n, l, m ,w, n, l, k ,g, Ɂ, ŋ, h, r, j, ʟ and ɣ. The /e/ in their orthography, which is believed to be an /l/ with a rolling /r/ sound, was represented by the velar lateral approximant /ʟ/ in the transcription. The /ɣ/ which is the voiced velar fricative, is also present in the elicited data. The two phonemes, /ʟ/ and /ɣ/ are considered as unique sounds in Aklanon that clearly distinguishes it from other Visayan languages and dialects.
Aklanon has five (5) vowels namely, 1) high front /i/ 2) high-mid front /e/ 3) central low /a/ 4) high back /u/ and 5) mid back /o/.
SOME AKLANON WORDS
AN AKLANON STORY
du amo ag bao
May isaeang ka amo ag bao. Ku amo ngara kay pirmi gid lang nagapinangloko ag uwa’t ginaintindi kundi ra sarili. Habang du bao mat-a hay maaeam. Isaeang ka adlaw hay nagkasubeang du daywa. Nagreklamo du amo nga gutom eon gid imaw nga mayad ag imaw rato man du bao kaya nagkasugot sanda nga dungan mag-usoy it makaon. Nakakita sanda it puno it saging nga kaabu-abu nga bunga. Nag-isturya sanda ag nagkasugot nga tungaon du puno. Ginpili ku amo ru ibabaw nga parte sa bao ru idalom. Pageaom ku amo hay mas magtubo anang habuoe tungod sa hato ru may bunga. Ugaling pagkaubos ku anang mga bunga hay uwa eon inan imaw it hakaon samtang nakita na nga ru putoe nga kahoy ni bao hay nagtubo eot-a.
The monkey
and
the turtle
There is a monkey and a turtle. The monkey always fools around and only minds himself. Meanwhile, the monkey is kind. One day, the two of them met. The monkey complained that he is hungry and the turtle felt the same way so they agreed to find food together. They saw a fruitful banana tree. They talked and agreed to divide the tree.The monkey chose the top part and the monkey had the bottom part. The monkey thought that his part would grow faster because it already has fruits. But after he finished eating the fruits, he had nothing left but he saw the turtle’s tree is full of fruit.
WORKS ON AKLANON
Black, H.W. (1942). “Tense aspect and mode in the Aklan dialect.” PMSAL 27 (4):497-
504 Bureau of Education. (1956). “Mga sugilanan sa akean.” Manila: Bureau of Printing.
Chai, N.M. (1960).” Adescriptive analysis of Aklan syntax.” (Unpublished MA Thesis).
Pennsylvania University.
Chai, N.M. (1971). A Grammar of Aklan. Ann Arbor: UMI.
Constantino, E. (1975). An English-Aklanon Dictionary. Quezon City: University of the
Philippines
de la Cruz, B.A. (1958). Contributions of the Aklan mind to Philippine literature. San Juan,
Rizal: Kalantiao Press.
de la Cruz, B.A. (1958). The Aklan Language. Np.
de la Cruz, B.A. & Zorc, R. (1968). A Study of Aklanon Dialect. Quezon City: University of
the Philippines
de la Cruz, L.A. (1958). Fables in Aklan. San Juan, Rizal: Kalantiao Publications Inc.
Flores, I.Y. (1982). “Some coparative and synchronic notes on the segment /l/ in four
Bisayan languages: Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Aklanon, and Waraywaray.”Likha 4, 26-34.
Ilio, D.I. (1939). “Measures of length in Aklan valley.” PM 4, 456-458.
Jensen, K. & Barlaan, R.R. (1992). A preliminary study of demonstratives in Aklanon
narratives. Studies in Philippine Linguistics 9, 9(1, S.1), 37-157. Laserna, V. (1918). Sungkaan sa pagsueat, pagbasa ag paghambae it inakeanon. Manila: ‘El 1916’
Salas Reyes, V. (1968). Dictionary (of root words and derivations), Aklanon to English.
Manila: Peace Corps.
Tuason, R.R. (1937). “Kinship terns among Aklanon.” PM, 34, (552,571).
Undoy, T. (1957). Mga Bilisad-on. San Juan, Rizal:Kalantiaw Publications Inc.
Yamada, Y. (1988). “Aklanon, Albay, Bikol, Gaddang, Ilokano, Kapampangan, and about 50
other languages of the Philippines.” In K. Takahashi, R. Kōno and C. Eiichi (eds.) Gengogaku Daijiten [The Sanseido Encyclopedia of Linguistics] 2. Tokyo: Sanseidō.
Zorc, R., Solas Reyes, V. & Prado, N.L. (1969). A study of the Aklanon dialect: Aklanon-
English dictionary II. Aklan: Aklan Printing Center.
Zorc, R. (1977). The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction.
In Pacific Linguistics: Series C, 44 (xxi+328). Canberra: Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University.
