Kabalian language

Kabalian
Cabalianon, Kinabalianon
Kinabalian
Native to Philippines
Region Leyte
Native speakers
 14,000 (2009)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 cbw
Glottolog kina1252[2]

The Kabalian (Cabalian) language, Kinabalian, is spoken on the southeastern tip of the island of Leyte in the Philippines. It is closely related to Waray-Waray.

Native speakers refer to the language as Cabalianon or Kinabalianon. This language shares certain characteristics with Cebuano, Boholano, and Surigaonon mainly because of the seafaring livelihood of pre-Hispanic inhabitants of Cabalian, documented by Spanish explorers. Waray did not make inroads into the southern portion of Leyte because of the mountains separating the north and south portions of the island. This is coherent under the principle of mountains divide; seas unite in the spread of Philippine languages.

The heaviest influence on Cabalianon is Surigaonon, owing to the contact between Cabalian and Surigao in the early Spanish period. Cabalianons, as well as the natives of Sogod, regularly travelled to Surigao and Butuan to obtain gold, a fact recorded by the Augustinian Fray Agustín María de Castro in the Osario venerable.

Kabalian Cabalian#Sermo is spoken in 6 villages in San Juan (Cabalian) town, Southern Leyte Province. These barangays are located in the eastern portion of the town. The predominance of Cabalianon in this side of the town is due to the fact that migrants from Cebu and Bohol settled in the western portion of the town, particularly Pong-oy, as well as in Himatagon, the business hub of Saint Bernard, formerly a part of Cabalian, resulting in the gradual disappearance of the language in these parts.

Although Kabalian is a Warayan language, it has mixed elements of Boholano, Cebuano and Surigaonon, a similar pattern which is also found in Baybayanon. However, Kabalian is not mutually intelligible with either Waray-Waray, Boholano, Cebuano or Surigaonon. Kabalian speakers do not ethnically or linguistically identify themselves with speakers of either of these languages.

References

  1. ↑ Kabalian at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. ↑ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Kinabalian". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 8/7/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.