Ilocano Language Guide

Official language in
Philippines
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

A study of mother-tongue education in the Philippines lists Iloko among the eight major regional languages, categorized as such because they have the greatest number of speakers. The Philippine Constitution makes Filipino and, until otherwise provided by law, English the official languages, and the regional languages the auxiliary official languages in the regions. Unicode's locale data records Iloko in the Philippines with the status official_regional.

The same study says Ilocano serves as the lingua franca of the ethnolinguistically plural population of the Northern part of Luzon and is the language of assimilation used by the indigenous peoples of the North. It describes Ilocandia, the homeland of the Ilocano people, as extending from the Ilocos Region to the Cagayan Valley and the northernmost areas of Central Luzon.

An older introductory textbook, Ilokano Lessons, says Ilokano is the dominant language in all the Northern Luzon provinces with the exception of Batanes Province, and also in Tarlac, Zambales, the non-central sections of Pangasinan, and some towns in Occidental Mindoro, Oriental Mindoro, and Cotabato.

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Script & pronunciation

The orthography published by the Commission on the Filipino Language (KWF) says the Ilokano alphabet has 29 letters, in two parts. The first part, the Abakada Ilokana, has 20 letters, including ng. The second part has 9 further letters borrowed from Spanish and English: c, f, j, ll, ñ, q, v, x and z.

The same orthography says the older ways of spelling Ilokano words with the letter c, the sequence ck, and the syllables gui, que and qui are no longer followed, and that k, kk, gi, ke and ki are written instead, except in proper names and borrowed words. This app's card for "Big", Dakkel, is spelled with kk.

A grammar of Ilokano by Constantino describes long consonants as written with two identical letters. Its transcription writes the glottal stop with a hyphen when it comes after a consonant and before a vowel. In this app, the card for "Four, five, six", Uppat, lima, innem, has the double letters pp and nn, and the card for "Sweet", Nasam-it, has a hyphen between m and i.

The KWF orthography adds that the stress mark is not required in writing, though it matters for words that differ in meaning. This app's Ilocano cards show the Ilocano text only; none of them carries a separate romanization.

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Grammar essentials

Constantino's grammar says that in a situational sentence, which is used to state ordinary situations, the center of the predicate normally precedes the subject. One of this app's cards, Agsasaokayo iti Inggles? ("Do you speak English?"), begins with its verb.

Constantino gives the simple negator as saan, with the variants haan and di, and says it occurs before the noun, before the center of the predicate, or before the marked subject followed by nga. He also says that when saan negates a predicate, the enclitics present in the predicate are transferred to the position immediately after saan. This app's cards use saan, as in Saan a nangina daytoy. ("This is not expensive.").

According to Ilokano Lessons, the ligature nga has two forms, a and nga: a is used before consonant-initial words and nga before vowel-initial words. The KWF orthography gives the same pattern, with the examples dakkel nga aso and dakkel a pusa, whereas Constantino's grammar writes the attributive particle as nga in an example such as talló nga táo, where the next word begins with a consonant, so older descriptions do not all agree with this rule. In this app, Naimbag a bigat ("Good morning") has a before the consonant-initial bigat, and Nalaingkayo nga agsao iti Ilokano! ("You speak Ilocano very well!") has nga before the vowel-initial agsao.

Constantino says a simple yes-or-no question is formed by adding kadi, or aya, after the center of the first immediate constituent of a declarative sentence. This app's cards use kadi, as in Adda kadi Wi-Fi ditoy? ("Is there Wi-Fi here?").

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Politeness & etiquette

Ilokano Lessons says the plural pronoun is often used in Ilokano as a sign of respect. Its example is that naimbag a bigat yo literally means "good morning you all", and that this formula is used as a greeting for several addressees and also as a respectful greeting addressed to a single person, usually an elder or a stranger. The same book says ka and kayo mean "you" in the singular and the plural respectively, and that Kumusta kayo, "How are you all", is likewise also used as a polite greeting for an individual, usually an elder or a stranger. In this app, Kumusta ka? ("Hello / How are you?") is described as an informal greeting for friends and younger people, while Kumustakayo? ("How are you? (polite / plural)") and Naimbag a bigatyo ("Good morning (polite / plural)") use the plural form. The card for "You (plural / polite)", Dakayo, says it is for several people, or for one stranger or elder.

Ilokano Lessons lists apo in its vocabulary as a title of respect for older people or for strangers. The app's card for "Yes", Wen, says to add apo when speaking to someone you respect: "Wen, apo." Its card for "Thank you (polite)", Agyamanak, apo, says apo is a respectful tag (sir/madam) added at the end, and that between friends plain "Agyamanak" is enough.

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