Republic of the Philippines

Surigao del Sur State University

Rosario, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur 8300
Telefax No. 086-214-4221
Website: www.sdssu.edu.ph
________________________________________________________________________________

A Corpus-based Analysis of the Sinurigaonon Dialect

By: Ronald Allan A. Arcayera

Introduction:

Sinurigaonon as one of the Philippine languages, is spoken by Surigaonon people in the

province of Surigao del Norte, including Surigao City with Siargao Islands, province of Dinagat
Islands, and province of Surigao del Sur except in the City of Bislig, Municipalities of Carmen,
Cortes, Tago, San Miguel, Bayabas, Cagwait, Marihatag, San Agustin, Lianga, Barobo,
Hinatuan, Lingig, Tagbina and Tandag City; and some portions of Agusan del Norte.

Further, it has similar consonant and vowel sounds and stress and intonation patterns
as the Cebuano and Boholano languages. Though it is related to Cebuano, Cebuano speakers
can hardly understand Surigaonon speakers. The variety spoken in Tandag City is
Tandaganon, and it may be a separate language. Surigaonon underwent certain
morphophonemic processes, such as assimilation, deletion, alternation and metathesis
(Dumanig, 2005).

The need to come up with an orthography which is a standardized system for using a
particular writing system to write a particular language which includes rules of spelling and other
elements of written language such as hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and
punctuation surfaced as the answer to the long-sought dream for Surigaonon language to be
used more meaningfully in its formal approach being a medium of academic instruction in
schools and then being acknowledged nationally as one of this country’s unique languages.

On Phonology. Dumanig (2005) found out that there are 16 consonants (b, d, g, h, j, k,
l, m, n, ng, p, r, s, t, w, y,) with 16 sounds and 3 vowels (a,i,u) with 5 sounds. It has also 18
noun clusters (bl, br, ch, dr, gr, gw, kl, kr, kw, ng, pl, pr, pw, py, sw, sy, tr, ty) and 4 diphthongs
(aw, ay, iw, uy), which is similar to Cebuano (Rubrico, 1999). As judiciously observed and
noted, the Surigaonon language has three vowel letters with the following sounds: a /a/ as in
the words America and adore, e /i/ as in ego, Ecuador and England, o /ɔ/ as in Oslo and orbit.
Surigaonon has many unique characteristics. Here, the vowel letter e is not sounded as /Ɛ/ as
in eggplant and error but as /i/ as in igloo and ink. Surigaonon language uses the vowel e in its
spelling instead of i like edo instead of ido (dog) and o instead of u like in oyo instead of uyo
(head). Otherwise, it will become Cebuano.

Another unique feature of the Surigaonon language is the use of the letters c and s. In
the work of Ong, et al (n.d), the letter c is used and sounded as /s/ when followed by the vowel
letter e, like ceke /siki/ or foot and cele /sili/. Also, it is used and sounded as /k/ when followed
by vowel letters a and o and other consonant letters except letter y, like careton /kariton/,
canta /kanta/, coto /koto/, cwarta /kwarta/. Likewise, it is sounded as /ʃ/ as in shower and shot
when followed by the letter y, like cyamce /shamsi/ or big laddle and cyabay /shabay/ or
jellyfish. When paired with letter h, it is sounded as /tʃ/ like in the word China and catch. The
letter s is used and sounded as /s/ when followed with vowel letters a, o like in sala, sacto,
sobre and sotana.

Furthermore, another unique characteristic of the language is the use of the letter k.
Based on the same reference, letter k is used and sounded as /k/ when followed by vowel letter
e. So if one wants to have a /k/ sound together with the vowel e, letter k is used instead of c.
The letter k is used and sounded as it is only with the vowel letter e.

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 Republic of the Philippines
Surigao del Sur State University
Rosario, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur 8300
Telefax No. 086-214-4221
Website: www.sdssu.edu.ph
________________________________________________________________________________

There are Sinurigaonon words that are spelled similarly but they differ in meaning
depending on how each syllable is stressed. Sinurigaonon follows two intonation patterns -
rising and falling intonation. Rising intonation is common in asking yes-no questions and falling
intonation occurs when ending declarative and imperative statements (Dumanig, 2005).

On Morphology. There are also morphophonemic changes, such as deletion,

alternation and metathesis evident in variations occurring to some word forms like contractions
and intonation patterns with some groups of speakers from some parts of the aforementioned
provinces and specific places. Based on the Spanish language, Sinurigaonon’s spelling is
based on the Spanish alphabet and being patterned after the Spanish language, it has inherited
its uniqueness and complexities as well. There is no existing official orthography of the
Sinurigaonon language. As such, writers in the language follow the Rules of Orthography of
Filipino language of (KWF) Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino creating unity specifically on the
practice of writing, issues such as spelling, hyphenating, syllabicating, and stresses are major
causes for confusion but not so much on the consonants.

Department of Education (DepEd) Memorandum No. 74, series of 2009, mandated all
public and private schools to employ Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE)
in the first three lower grades of the Philippine elementary school system. The lack of
instructional materials in Sinurigaonon and the absence of a fixed, agreed-upon orthography
surfaced as one of the problems of the researcher. Thus, this endeavor, is a response to the
pressing need of language teachers who cannot, as of this time, produce instructional materials
in teaching the Sinurigaonon language primarily because of the absence of an orthographic
system.

Methodology:

This research employed qualitative method which included basic interview among the
oldest residents in Surigao City, Surigao del Norte. A research made instrument was used for
the informants. A sample of 5 was drawn from the identified individuals of Surigao City like
Brgy. San Juan, Brgy. Washington, and Brgy. Taft. The sample was controlled to ensure the
authenticity of the data as they represented “lumads” or native speakers of the dialect. Informed
consent was given to them prior to the conduct of the interview. Interview was recorded to
identify the informants’ production of the Sinurigaonon. The data was analyzed qualitatively
through corpus-based analysis which included the idea of phonology, morphology and syntax.

Results and Discussion

One important focus of this study was to analyze the linguistic features of Sinurigaonon
words using corpus-based method. In this, there were 10 words being investigated which were
unknown to the researcher. Each word was treated as a case study. There were 5 participants
whose ages range from 50 until 70 years old. Most of them were retired professionals in
Surigao City, Surigao del Norte.

In terms of phonology, the study of Dumanig (2005) proved that that there are 16
consonants (b, d, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, ng, p, r, s, t, w, y,) with 16 sounds and 3 vowels (a,i,u) with 5
sounds. It has also 18 noun clusters (bl, br, ch, dr, gr, gw, kl, kr, kw, ng, pl, pr, pw, py, sw, sy, tr,
ty) and 4 diphthongs (aw, ay, iw, uy), which is similar to Cebuano (Rubrico, 1999).

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 Republic of the Philippines
Surigao del Sur State University
Rosario, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur 8300
Telefax No. 086-214-4221
Website: www.sdssu.edu.ph
________________________________________________________________________________

In terms of syntax, the following words were introduced by the informants and these were
analyzed.

The word Píslok means isa ka tawo na “nakaiglip o nakatulog nang maikling oras”. In
recent, the words “nakatuyog” o “natuyog” are commonly used which is accompanied by
“kadali” which means “fast or it happens in a short time”. Example: Mo píslok asa ako kadali.
Nakapislok ako.

Kiritíw is a Surigaonon word which means “babaeng uwagan o malandi”. It is a word

derived from “kiriw” of Aklanon dialect which means “lumalandi”. Example: Arang gajud nimo
ka kiritíw na babaji kaw. An mga babaji na kiritíw dili gajud karesputuhan nan mga layaki.

Sarak-sárak means nagpanaw o nagsuroy-suroy. Sa wikang Surigaonon kadalasan ang

ginagamit na ngayon bilang katumbas sa nasabing salita ay “panaw-panaw” o “suroy-suroy”.
Example: Majaw pa nagsarak-sarák kaw didto, malingaw pa kaw tana.

Hanúgay/húgay means “ajaw pagbuhata ni”. In Sinurigaonon, it is tantamount to “ajaw” or

“hanúgay”. The word “ajaw” is similar to Sebuwano, Leyte, at Bohol. Example: Hanúgay anay
diha na samuk-samuk kay inin kahamok ako trabahoon. Hanúgay na paggawas.

Damô means “hamok or daghan”. This may be an influence from Tagalog word damo which
means “grass”. This word is used in Sebuwano, Hiligaynon, and Waray. Example: Damô na
klasi-klasi na isda an makita nimo kuman didto sa tiyangi. Damô na mga Mamanwa an
naghuya didto sa barangay Mat-i, SDN.

Mugwal means mag-himo, mag-mugna or mag-imbento. Example: Ako an nagmúgwal nan

jaon edukasyon nan Mamanwa.

Pátik means “nakasuyat o nahitatak”. Example: An mayaot na mensahe na jaon sa

Kongking na sinultihan nahipátik na sa huna-huna nan mga Mamanwa.

Úngos means magtinabangay. The word “úngos” is an influence from Tagalog which upper
lip or “nakausli o nakatudla”. Example: Mag-úngos tang tanan para dali ra mahuman an
trabahoon.

Tagbò means “magtinabangay” or “makígkíta, makipágkíta, at magkíta” instead of “tagbò”.

Example: Didto sila sa basakan nagtagbò. Magtagbò ta niju silom sa kaliguan.

Nagtikad means “nag-uma, nagtanom, at nagsaka”. Example: Sila an una nágtíkad nan
humay diha sa basakan.

The results of the study as discussed in this paper showed that Sinurigaonon is a local
language with close affinity to other indigenous languages in the Philippines. The analysis of
the Sinurigaonon words based on the conduct of interview with the native speakers, paves a
way to discovering that this is a distinct language. It shows distinctions in its consonant and
vowel sounds, stress, intonation pattern and morphophonemic processes. This is only an initial
attempt at describing the Sinurigaonon language, so, it is recommended that further studies be
made in relation to other linguistic aspects of the language. In addition, more studies are
needed in Sinurigaonon to fully realize that this is indeed a distinct language that needs to be
examined by linguists. This paper provides only a corpus-based analysis of some Sinurigaonon
words and it suggests that more studies can be conducted particularly on the structure of
Sinurigaonon, which includes the sentence construction and the parts of speech.

References:
Department of Education (DepEd) Memorandum No. 74, series of 2009
Dumanig, Francisco (2005). “A Descriptive Analysis of Surigaonon language.”
Retrievedfrom:http://lingweb.eva.mpg.de/jakarta/seals/Dumanig_SEA LS_XVI_Abstract.pdf

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 Republic of the Philippines
Surigao del Sur State University
Rosario, Tandag City, Surigao del Sur 8300
Telefax No. 086-214-4221
Website: www.sdssu.edu.ph
________________________________________________________________________________
Ong, Fredesuendo G. (n.d) et al,. Surigaonon Dictionary
Rubrico, J. G. (1999). Magbinisaya kita: Cebuano primer I. Quezon City: IJR Links and Consultant