Karay-a language

Not to be confused with Karayá language.

Karay-a
Harayan
Kinaray-a, Hiniraya, Binisaya nga Karay-a
Native to	Philippines
Region	Antique, southern and central Iloilo, southern part of Guimaras, southern Aklan, Occidental Mindoro particularly in Ilin Island, western Capiz, some parts of Palawan, and a few parts of Soccsksargen
Ethnicity	Karay-a
Native speakers	1.1 million (2023)
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Central Philippine Bisayan Western Bisayan Karay-a
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Regional language in the Philippines
Regulated by	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino
Language codes
ISO 639-3	krj
Glottolog	kina1250
Area where Karay-a is spoken

The Karay-a language (Kinaray-a, Binisayâ nga Kinaray-a or Hinaraya; English: Harayan) is an Austronesian regional language in the Philippines spoken by the Karay-a people, mainly in Antique.

It is one of the Bisayan languages, along with Aklanon/Malaynon, Capiznon, Cebuano, and Hiligaynon.

History

Kinaray-a, Kinaray-a Bukidnon, or Hiniraya, possibly deriving from "Iraya." It was the primary language spoken by the majority of the Panay people whom the first Spanish colonizers encountered upon their arrival and subsequent settlement in Ogtong (now Oton, Iloilo) between the late 16th and early 17th centuries. This was before the linguistic evolution that eventually led to the Hiligaynon language of Iloilo gaining dominance as the common language over Kinaray-a on the island. However, in modern times, Kinaray-a remains in use as a primary language in the province of Antique and the western part of Iloilo province.

Geographical distribution

Kinaray-a is spoken mainly in Antique. It is also spoken in Iloilo province as a primary language in the city of Passi, in the municipalities of Alimodian, San Joaquin, Lambunao, Calinog, Leon, Miag-ao, Pavia, Badiangan, San Miguel, Guimbal, San Enrique, Tigbauan, Igbaras, Leganes, Pototan, Bingawan, San Rafael, Mina, Zarraga, Oton, Santa Barbara, Cabatuan, Janiuay, Maasin, New Lucena, Dueñas, Dingle, and Tubungan, and certain villages in Palawan and Mindanao – especially in the Soccsksargen region (particularly the province of Sultan Kudarat) by citizens who trace their roots to Antique or to Karay-a-speaking areas of Panay island. Inhabitants of most towns across the latter areas speak Kinaray-a while Hiligaynon is predominant around coastal areas particularly in Iloilo. It is also spoken in Iloilo City by a minority, particularly in the Arevalo district and few parts of southern Mindoro and parts Capiz and Aklan provinces, as well as Guimaras and some parts of Negros Occidental.

Dialects

Map of the Dialects of Panay Languages including Kinaray-a

Historically, there had not been much formal linguistic study on the dialects of Kinaray-a, though speakers of both Kinaray-a and Hiligaynon readily observed differences in pronunciation and vocabulary between towns. However, recent lexicophonetic research has established well-defined dialectal groupings, noting that while Antique shares substantial linguistic connections with Iloilo due to sustained historical contact, it contains highly distinct internal varieties.

Based on these studies, mainland Antique can be divided into five specific dialect areas under the "Antique Kinaray-a Zone", categorized from north to south:

• Pandan Kinaray-a: Spoken in the northernmost towns of Pandan and Libertad. Due to their geographical isolation from Antique's commercial centers and closer proximity to Aklan, this dialect is sharply divergent and heavily associated with Akeanon. It uses unique vocabulary not found in the rest of Antique, such as /ʔuŋaʔ/ (child; standard KRJ: /bataʔ/), /pajuk/ (coconut milk; standard KRJ: /gataʔ/), and /ʔasawʔasaw/ (drizzle; standard KRJ: /tarithiʔ/).
• North Antique Kinaray-a: A transitional zone covering Sebaste and Culasi. While it shares a huge proportion of features with the southern towns, its accent is reported to be more similar to Pandan.
• Cangaranan-Tibiao Kinaray-a: A transitional zone in the middle of Antique, bridging the northern and southern towns around Laua-an, Barbaza, and Tibiao. It is characterized by the distinct use of the ngan and kan emphatic particles.
• San Jose-Sibalom Kinaray-a: Assumed as the basis for standard Antique Kinaray-a, radiating from the Sibalom River. This core dialect covers San Jose de Buenavista and the satellite towns of Sibalom, Belison, Hamtic, Patnongon, and parts of Bugasong and Valderrama.
• South Antique Kinaray-a: Spoken in the rugged, bypassed southernmost towns of Tobias Fornier and Anini-y. It is described as having a soft, rising-falling rhythm and is closely associated with the speech of neighboring San Joaquin in Iloilo. (There are also reports of a distinct mountain dialect in Hamtic called Hamtikanon that may relate to this southern grouping).

Separate from the mainland is the Caluyanon Zone. Because of the Caluya archipelago's extreme isolation and a mining-driven economy that draws laborers from across the Philippines, Caluyanon is considered extremely distinct. It exhibits a high level of spoken unintelligibility, heavily mixing Kinaray-a with Tagalog and Cebuano-Bisaya, to the extent that locals sometimes consider it an entirely separate language.

Outside of Antique, the differences and degrees to which the dialects differ depend largely on an area's proximity to other language-speaking regions. A distinct dialect of Karay-a is spoken in central Iloilo where many Hiligaynon loanwords are utilized, and some Kinaray-a words are pronounced harder, such as using giya ('here') in Janiuay and Santa Barbara compared to rigya or ja in southern Iloilo and San Jose de Buenavista. Two highly accented dialects of Kinaray-a can also be heard in the Iloilo towns of San Joaquin, Leon, and Tubungan.

Across all regions, some dialects differ only in consonant preference, such as alternating y and h (e.g., bayi vs. bahi for 'girl') or l and r (e.g., wala vs. wara). Other areas feature entirely distinct vocabulary differences, such as using sayëd vs. kadë ('ugly') or rangga vs. gëba ('defective').

Intelligibility with Hiligaynon

Due to geographic proximity and mass media Kinaray-a-speakers can understand Hiligaynon (also known as Ilonggo) speakers. However, only Hiligaynon speakers who reside in Kinaray-a-speaking areas can understand the language. Those who come from other areas, like Iloilo City and Negros Island, have difficulty in understanding the language, if they can at all.

It is a misconception among some Hiligaynon speakers that Kinaray-a is a dialect of Hiligaynon; the reality is that the two belong to two different, but related, branches of the Bisayan languages.

However, most Karay-a also know Hiligaynon as their second language. To some extent, an intermediate dialect of Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a is spoken in Mindanao, mainly in Sultan Kudarat province.

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ə ~ ɨ	u
Mid	e ~ ɛ		o
Open		a

The phonemes /e/ and /o/ are used mostly in non-Karay-a words and were formerly allophonic with /i/ and /u/, respectively. The phonemes /i/ and /u/ may also be pronounced as [ɪ] and [ʊ]. Among some speakers, /u/ may be pronounced as [ə], such as when subâ is uttered as [səˈbaʔ] instead of as /suˈbaʔ/.

Vowel comparison of Karay-a, Hiligaynon and Tagalog cognates

English	Karay-a	Hiligaynon	Tagalog
mine	akën	akon	akin
dark	madëlëm	madulom	madilim
food	pagkaën	pagkaon	pagkain
head	ulo	ulo	ulo
ball	bola	bola	bola
animal	sapat, hayëp	sapat	hayop
plant	tanëm	tanom	pananim, halaman
six	anëm	anom	anim

Consonants

Kinaray-a Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative			s			h
Tap/Flap			ɾ
Approximant			l	j	w

Orthography

There are two official orthographic conventions currently in use: a four-vowel-grapheme system released by the Komisyon sa Polong Kinaray·a in 2016 in coordination with the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), and a six-vowel-grapheme system recommended by the KWF in 2018. The latter builds on Brigadier General Vicente Pangantihon's introduction of a separate letter ⟨ə⟩ for /ɨ/ through the publication of Karay-a Rice Tradition Revisited, but using ⟨ë⟩ in ⟨ə⟩'s place. Karay-a writings predating Pangantihon's innovation had not graphemically distinguished between /ɨ/ and /u/. In 2018, the KWF elaborated,

Harmonization is not compulsory for older users of the language or individual organizations; it is specifically aimed at helping the Department of Education and teachers to teach any of the native languages. Other organizations are free to adopt their own stylebook in their own publications.

Vowels

The 2018 Pangantihon–KWF orthography provides for six vowel letters: ⟨a⟩, ⟨e⟩, ⟨ë⟩ (previously ⟨ə⟩), ⟨i⟩, ⟨o⟩ and ⟨u⟩. They do not form diphthongs with each other and always indicate a separate syllable: there are as many vowels as there are syllables. Informal writing, however, contravenes this orthographic rule such as, for example, when words such as balunggay, kambiyo, lanaw, puwede, ruweda and tuáw are written as *balunggai, *kambio, *lanao, *puede, *rueda and *tuao.

⟨Ë⟩, referred to as malëm·ëk nga ⟨i⟩ and which Pangantihon had originally written as ⟨ə⟩, represents /ɨ/, a phoneme that occurs natively in Karay-a and in some other languages spoken in the Philippines such as Ivadoy, Maranao and Pangasinan. ⟨Ë⟩ is also used for integrated words of relatively recent foreign origin.

Separate glyphs for /e/ and /u/ were introduced with the arrival of the Spaniards; namely ⟨e⟩ and ⟨u⟩.

Consonants

In line with the KWF's 2018 recommendation, the alphabet has 23 consonant letters: ⟨b⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨d⟩, ⟨f⟩, ⟨g⟩, ⟨h⟩, ⟨j⟩, ⟨k⟩, ⟨l⟩, ⟨m⟩, ⟨n⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨ng⟩, ⟨p⟩, ⟨q⟩, ⟨r⟩, ⟨s⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨v⟩, ⟨w⟩, ⟨x⟩, ⟨y⟩ and ⟨z⟩. Of the above, ⟨c⟩, ⟨ñ⟩, ⟨q⟩ and ⟨x⟩ are used only in names and unintegrated loan words.

The digraph ⟨ng⟩ constitutes a single letter and represents the phoneme /ŋ/. In the old orthography, which followed the Spanish norms set forth by the Real Academia Española, this phoneme was represented by ⟨n͠g⟩, the tilde stretching over both letters in order to distinguish it from ⟨ng⟩ and ⟨ñ⟩, which represented the Spanish /ŋɡ/ and /ɲ/, respectively.

In contrast to ⟨ng⟩, the digraph ⟨ts⟩, which represents /t͡ʃ/, is not counted as a distinct letter.

Grammar

Nouns

Noun cognacy between Kinaray-a, Malay and Tagalog

Karay-a	English meaning	Malay	English meaning	Tagalog	English meaning
ayam	dog	ayam/anjing	chicken/dog	manok/aso	chicken/dog
bayi, bahi	female, woman	wanita	female, woman	babae	female, woman
bosong	abdomen	pusar/pusat	navel/central	puson/pusod	stomach/navel, core
kutî	cat	kucing	cat	kuting	kitten
damog	fodder	umpan/(pa)dang	fodder/pasture	kumpay/damo	fodder/pasture, grass
yawâ	demon	setan/awa	demon/accusation	demonyo/awa	demon/pity
makəl/uhong	mushroom	jamur	mushroom	kabuti	mushroom
kahig	foot	kaki	foot	paa	to scrape (ground)

Pronouns

	Absolutive₁ (emphatic)	Absolutive₂ (non-emphatic)	Ergative₁ (postposed)	Ergative₂ (preposed)	Oblique
1st person singular	ako	takən	nakən, ko	akən	kanakən
2nd person singular	ikaw, kaw	timo	nimo, mo	imo	kanimo
3rd person singular	-	tana	nana, na	ana	kanana, kana
1st person plural inclusive	kita	tatən	natən, ta	atən	kanatən
1st person plural exclusive	kami	tamən	namən	amən	kanamən
2nd person plural	kamo	tinyo	ninyo, nyo	inyo	kaninyo
3rd person plural	sanda	tanda	nanda	anda	kananda

Numbers

Number	Kinaray-a	Malay	Tagalog
1	isará/sará	satu	isa
2	darwa	dua	dalawa
3	tatlo	tiga	tatlo
4	apat	empat	apat
5	limá	lima	lima
6	anəm	enam	anim
7	pitó	tujuh	pito
8	waló	lapan	walo
9	siyam	sembilan	siyam
10	pulù	(se)puluh	sampu
11	napulù kag sará / unsi (from Spanish)	(se)belas	labing-isa/onse (from Spanish)
50	kalim-an/singkwenta (from Spanish)	lima puluh	limampu/singkwenta (from Spanish)
100	sangkagatos/sanggatos	se ratus	isang daan
1,000	sangkalibo/sanglibo	se ribu	isang libo
100,000	sangka gatos ka libo	se ratus ribu	isang daang libo
500,000	lima ka gatos ka libo	lima ratus ribu	lima daang libo
1,000,000	sangka milyon	satu juta	isang milyon

Common expressions

Saying Diin kaw maagto? (literally 'Where are you going?') is a common way to greet people. The question does not need to be answered directly. The usual answer is an action like Maninda (literally 'to buy something on the market') instead of Sa tinda (literally, 'to the market'.)

• Are you eating well? – Mayad man pangaën mo?
• Good. – Mayad.
• How are you feeling? – Musta bay pamatyagan mo? or: Ano bay pamatyag mo? (What do you feel?)
• I don't know. – Wara takën kamaan. / Waay takën kamaan (or simply: Maan a. / Ambay a. / Ilam a. – informal, usually an annoyed expression)
• Let's go! – Panaw ta / Halin ta ron! / Dali ron! (usually for hurrying up companions)
• Come together. – Iririmaw kita. / imaw kita. / Iribhanay kita./ Iririmaw tatən
• Why? – Manhaw/Wanhaw? (or: Andët haw/aw?)/ Insa haw? / Insaw? (informal)
• I love you. – Ginagugma ta (i)kaw. / palangga ta (i)kaw.
• My love/sweetheart. – Palangga ko.
• What is your name? – Ano ngaran mo?
• Good morning! – Mayad nga aga!
• Good afternoon! – Mayad nga hapon!
• Good evening! – Mayad nga gabiʔi!
• That one. – Amo kara. (Or simply: Ra/Ra ay.)(or: Amo ran)/ Amo ka di-a.
• How much? – Tag pira?
• Yes. – hə-əd. (Ho-ud)/ (h)ə-əd
• No. – Bukut./Bëkët. (Bëkën)/Indi
• Because. – Bangëd.
• Because of you. – Bangëd kanimo or Tëngëd kanimo.
• About you. – Nahanungëd kanimo or Parti kanimo.
• You know. – Man-an mo (or: Man-an mo man.)
• Hurry! – Dasiga! (lit. 'Fast!') or Dali-a! (lit. 'Hurry!')
• Again. – Liwan/Liwat/Riwan/Liwan (or: Uman ('again') / Umana (command to repeat).)
• Do you speak English? – Kamaan kaw maghambal kang Inglis? or Kama-an kaw mag-Inglis?
• It is fun to live. – Sadya mabuhi / Sadya ang mabuhi.
• Happy – Sadya
• Thank you – Salamat

Kinaray-a Writers

• Alex Delos Santos
• John Iremil Teodoro
• Russell Tordesillas

See also

• Language shift
• Hiligaynon
• Language revitalization

External links

• Taramdan sa Lantipulong Kinaray·a, guide to grammar (Antiqueño dialect)
• Marayum Dictionary Archived 2023-06-06 at the Wayback Machine