Segmental Vowels While there is no official dialectology for Ilocano, the usually agreed dialects of Ilocano are two, which are differentiated only by the way the letter
e is pronounced. In the
Amiánan (Northern) dialect, there exist only five vowels while the older
Abagátan (Southern) dialect employs six. • Amianan: , , , , • Abagatan: , , , , , Reduplicate vowels are voiced separately with an intervening glottal stop: • : 'no' • : 'thorn' The letter in
bold is the graphic (written) representation of the vowel. For a better rendition of vowel distribution, please refer to the
IPA Vowel Chart. Unstressed /a/ is pronounced in all positions except final syllables, like ('cannot be') but ('mouth') is pronounced . Unstressed /a/ in final-syllables is mostly pronounced across word boundaries. Although the modern (Tagalog) writing system is largely phonetic, there are some notable conventions.
O/U and I/E In native
morphemes, the
close back rounded vowel is written differently depending on the syllable. If the vowel occurs in the
ultima of the morpheme, it is written
o; elsewhere,
u.
Example: • Root: 'cook' • 'to cook' • 'to cook (something)'; example: Instances such as , '''''You will manage to find it, to need it', are still consistent. Note that is, in fact, three morphemes: (verb base), (pronoun) and (future particle). An exception to this rule, however, is ('west'). Also,
u in final stressed syllables can be pronounced [o], like for ('water'). The two vowels are not highly differentiated in native words due to fact that was an
allophone of in the history of the language. In words of foreign origin, notably Spanish, they are
phonemic.
Example: 'use'; 'bear' Unlike
u and
o,
i and
e are not allophones, but
i in final stressed syllables in words ending in consonants can be , like ('child'). The two closed vowels become
glides when followed by another vowel. The
close back rounded vowel becomes before another vowel; and the
close front unrounded vowel , .
Example: 'money'; 'bitter melon' In addition,
dental/
alveolar consonants become
palatalized before . (See
Consonants below). Unstressed /i/ and /u/ are pronounced and except in final syllables, like ('beauty') and ('fear') but ('other side') and ('grace/blessing') are pronounced and . Unstressed /i/ and /u/ in final syllables are mostly pronounced and across word boundaries.
Pronunciation of The letter represents two vowels in the non-nuclear dialects (areas outside the Ilocos provinces) in words of foreign origin and in native words, and only one in the nuclear dialects of the Ilocos provinces, .
Diphthongs Diphthongs are combination of a vowel and /i/ or /u/. In the orthography, the secondary vowels (underlying /i/ or /u/) are written with their corresponding glide,
y or
w, respectively. Of all the possible combinations, only /aj/ or /ej/, /iw/, /aw/ and /uj/ occur. In the
orthography, vowels in sequence such as
uo and
ai, do not coalesce into a diphthong, rather, they are pronounced with an intervening glottal stop, for example, 'hair' and 'sew' . The diphthong is a variant of in native words. Other occurrences are in words of Spanish and English origin. Examples are (from Spanish , 'queen') and ('trainer'). The diphthongs and may be interchanged since is an allophone of in final syllables. Thus, ('fire') may be pronounced and ('pig') may be pronounced . As for the diphthong , the general rule is to use /aw/ for native words while /au/ will be used for spanish loanword such as the words
autoridad, autonomia, automatiko. The same rule goes to the diphthong .
Consonants All consonantal phonemes except may be a syllable
onset or
coda. The phoneme is a borrowed sound (except in the negative variant
haan) and rarely occurs in coda position. Although the Spanish word 'clock' would have been heard as , the final is dropped resulting in . However, this word also may have entered the Ilokano lexicon at early enough a time that the word was still pronounced , with the
j pronounced as in
French, resulting in in Ilokano. As a result, both and occur. The glottal stop is not permissible as coda; it can only occur as onset. Even as an onset, the glottal stop disappears in affixation. Take, for example, the root , 'use'. When prefixed with
ag-, the expected form is . But, the actual form is ; the glottal stop disappears. In a reduplicated form, the glottal stop returns and participates in the template, CVC, . Glottal stop
sometimes occurs non-phonemically in coda in words ending in vowels, but only before a pause. Stops are pronounced without aspiration. When they occur as coda, they are not released, for example, 'answer', 'response'. Ilokano is one of the Philippine languages which is excluded from - allophony, as in many cases is derived from a
Proto-Austronesian *R; compare (Tagalog) and (Ilokano) 'new'. The language marginally has a trill which is spelled as
rr, for example, 'to enter'. Trill is sometimes an allophone of in word-initial position, syllable-final, and word-final positions, spelled as single , for example,
ruar 'outside' [] ~ []. It is only pronounced flap in affixation and across word boundaries, especially when vowel-ending word precedes word-initial . But it is different in proper names of foreign origin, mostly Spanish, like
Serrano, which is correctly pronounced . Some speakers, however, pronounce
Serrano as .
Prosody Primary stress The placement of primary stress is lexical in Ilocano. This results in
minimal pairs such as ('wood') and ('you' (plural or polite)) or ('class, type, kind') and ('see'). In written Ilokano the reader must rely on context, thus and . Primary stress can fall only on either the
penult or the
ultima of the root, as seen in the previous examples. While stress is unpredictable in Ilokano, there are notable patterns that can determine where stress will fall depending on the structures of the penult, the ultima and the origin of the word. •
Foreign words – the stress of foreign (mostly Spanish) words adopted into Ilokano fall on the same syllable as the original. • '''CVC.'CV(C)#
but CVŋ.kV(C)#''' – in words with a closed penult, stress falls on the ultima, except for instances of where it is the penult. •
C(j/w)V# – in words whose ultima is a glide plus a vowel, stress falls on the ultima. • '''C.'CV:.ʔVC#''' – in words where VʔV and V is the same vowel for the penult and ultima, the stress falls on the penult.
Secondary stress Secondary stress occurs in the following environments: • Syllables whose coda is the onset of the next, i.e., the syllable before a geminate. • Reduplicated consonant-vowel sequence resulting from morphology or lexicon.
Vowel length Vowel length coincides with stressed syllables (primary or secondary) and only on open syllables except for ultimas, for example, 'tree' versus (second person plural ergative pronoun).
Stress shift As primary stress can fall only on the
penult or the
ultima,
suffixation causes a shift in stress one syllable to the right. The vowel of open penults that result lengthen as a consequence. == Grammar ==