PHONOLOGY

2.0. Introduction. The minimal phonological units of Ilokano described in this chapter consist of consonants and vowels, stress, length, pitch and pitch terminals. These minimal units combine with one another to form larger phonological units.

2.1. Consonants. Ilokano has seventeen (17) consonants: b, d, f, g, h, k, l, m, n, ng, p, q, r, s, t, w, y. Note that the digraph ng represents the velar nasal, and that q represents the glottal stop. The consonants are arranged in a phonetic chart below which shows their important articulatory properties.

The voiceless stops are unaspirated or very weakly aspirated in all their positions.

The consonants f, h, and q do not occur as freely nor as frequently as the others. Except for the oc­currence of q at the end of two prefixes, agáq- ‘to 3smell like’ and pagáq- ‘to reach up to’, all three consonants occur only in syllable-initial position.

The fricative f occurs only in a few words bor­rowed from Spanish in which it is usually replaced by p.

The fricative h also occurs in a few borrowed words.

One notable occurrence of h is in the negative haan (not a borrowed word) which varies dialectically with saan.

The glottal stop q occurs automatically before a word-initial vowel and between two adjacent vowels, except when the first vowel is i followed by a vowel other than itself, or u or o followed by a, i, or e. In the positions where its occurrence is automatic, the glottal stop q will not be represented in the ordinary transcription.

2.2. Vowels. Ilokano has five vowels: i, e, a, o, u. The vowel chart below shows the articulatory properties of the vowels.

4The vowel o varies freely with u in word-final syllables, except in some borrowed words. Also in some borrowed words, o occurs in positions other than word-final in free variation with u. In some words, o and u contrast in positions other than word-final position; i.e. o cannot be replaced by u without a resultant change in meaning.

The vowels i, u, and o are nonsyllabic when they occur after a consonant and before another vowel in the case of i, and before a, i, or e in the case of u and o.

2.3. Long consonants. Each of the consonants, except h and f, may occur short or long. A long con­sonant will be represented in the ordinary transcrip­tion by a sequence of two identical consonant symbols, except the long glottal stop which will be represented by a hyphen.

2.4. Consonant clusters. In Ilokano, two con­sonants may form a cluster at the beginning of a syl­lable, especially in word-initial position. Almost all initial consonant clusters in Ilokano are found in borrowed words.

5In the initial consonant clusters, only s, l, and r can occur as the second consonant and certain consonants occur before these to form clusters. If the second consonant is s, only t occurs as the first consonant.

If the second consonant is l, any one of the labial and velar stops (i.e. p, b, k, g) occur as the first consonant.

If the second consonant is r, any one of the stops, except q, and f occur as the first consonant.

A few syllable-final consonant clusters consisting of two consonants also occur in Ilokano borrowed words. The most common of these clusters are -ks, -ns, and -rt.

2.5. Diphthongs. The rising diphthongs found in Ilokano are ay, aw, uy, oy, ey, and iw. The diph­thongs uy and oy do not seem to appear in contrast with each other.

6All the possible falling diphthongs, except wu and wo, are found in Ilokano.

2.6. Stress and vowel length. A syllable in Ilokano is either stressed or unstressed. In disyllab­ic words, either the penultimate or the final syllable is stressed. If a word has more than two syllables, the second syllable before a stressed syllable may also be stressed.

The penultimate or antepenultimate stress is normally the loudest (marked by ') and the final stress the least loud (marked by '). Also, the stressed vowels, except those in word-final syllables, are normally long with those in open syllables longer than those in closed syllables.

2.7. Pitch and intonation. The pitch of a normal Ilokano sentence or utterance generally stays on one level with only slight rises over stressed syllables. At the end of a sentence or utterance, the pitch may rise sharply after which it is cut off abruptly, as in yes-or-no and echo questions; or it may be cut off abruptly, without any appreciable rise or fall, as in ordinary statements. Within a sentence at phrase or clause breaks, and in hesitations, the pitch may be held or suspended momentarily at the same level. We shall call these three kinds of pitch terminals the question intonation, the declarative intonation, and the suspensatory intonation, respectively.

72.8. Orthography. The orthography to be adopted in the succeeding chapters will be based on the follow­ing conventions:

1) The consonants and vowels will be represented by the symbols listed above with only one exception. The glottal stop will not be represented by q, or by any other symbol, except when it occurs after a conso­nant and before a vowel where a hyphen (-) will be used to represent it. A long glottal stop will also be represented by a hyphen.

2) Vowel length and pitch will not be marked in the transcription.

3) Stress will be symbolized by an acute accent

4) The question intonation will be symbolized by a question mark (?), and the declarative intonation by a period (.). The question mark will also be used after interrogative sentences with a declarative in­tonation.

The suspensatory intonation will be symbolized by a comma (,) after a phrase or clause, and by three dots (…) after a hesitation.

5) The first letter of the first word of a sent­ence or utterance and that of a proper noun will be capitalized.