Blaan, also known as Bilaan, is an Austronesian language of the southern Philippines spoken by an indigenous ethnic group of the same name who inhabited many areas of Soccksargen and Davao Occidental.
Blaan | |
---|---|
Native to | Philippines |
Region | Mindanao |
Ethnicity | Blaan |
Native speakers | 240,000 (2000–2007)[1] |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | Either:bpr – Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad)bps – Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao) |
Glottolog | blaa1241 |
Blaan belongs to the Bilic microgroup of the Philippine language subgroup, along with Giangan Manobo, Tiruray, and Tboli.[2]
There are two major varieties of Blaan: Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad) and Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao).
According to the Ethnologue, Koronadal Blaan is spoken in:
Sarangani Blaan is spoken in:
Blaan has fifteen consonant and seven vowel phonemes.[3] Unlike most other Philippine languages and Austronesian languages in general, Blaan (as its related language Tboli, permits a variety of consonant clusters at the onset of a syllable. This is evident in the name of the language, /bla'an/. This contraction of the original schwa sound exists in other Austronesian languages (such as Javanese, a major language of Java in Indonesia), but is rarely seen outside of the Bilic group within the Philippines.
Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||
Plosive | voiceless | t | k | ʔ | ||
voiced | b | d | ɡ | |||
Fricative | f | s | h | |||
Approximant | w | l | j |
Front | Central | Back | |
---|---|---|---|
High | i | u | |
Mid | ɛ | ə | ɔ |
Low | a | ɑ |
/i, ɛ/ are also heard as [ɪ, e]. /ə/ can also be heard as [ɨ, ʌ] within syllables.
Blaan uses word order to indicate the thematic roles of nominal elements in the sentence.[4]
Kamfe
AV.catch
kuku
cat
ungeh.
rat
'The cat catches the rat'
Similar to other Philippine-type Austronesian languages, Blaan uses verbal morphology to indicate voice (or focus, as it is usually called in the literature).[5] Here are some examples of voice/focus types in Blaan:
Agent voice/focus (-m-)
Magin
AV.accompany
nga
child
do.
me
'The child accompanies me.'
Patient voice/focus (-n-)
Nebe
PV.bring
libun
girl
ale.
them
'The girl brings them.'
English | Blaan |
---|---|
chicken | anuk |
flower | bulek |
horse | kura |
corn | agul |
needle | dalum |
basket | been |
broom | fune |
rat | unge |
money | filak |
goat | uhe |
scissors | gunting |
mat | igem |
clouds | labun |
fish | nalaf |
eye | mata |
pestle | sung |
leaf | doon |
bone | tulan |
lamp | salo |
snake | ulad |
crow | wak |
foot | bli |
mother | ye |
father | ma |