9 A PEDAGOGIC GRAMMAR FOR CEBUANOVISAYAN Dr Angel O

9 a pedagogic grammar for cebuano-visayan dr. angel o. pesirla vpaa, cebu normal university introduction: the need f

9
A PEDAGOGIC GRAMMAR
FOR CEBUANO-VISAYAN
Dr. Angel O. Pesirla
VPAA, Cebu Normal University

Introduction: the Need for
Adequate and Powerful Linear Description of Cebuano-Visayan
This academic paper is premised on the need for a Cebuano-Visayan
pedagogic grammar based on descriptively adequate and powerful linear
description as a required academic component in the General Education
Curriculum for B.A. and B.S. programs per CNU B.O.R. approval in 2000
of the CMO # 44, s. 1997 full implementation.
A pedagogic grammar presents the structural description of a language
for teaching-learning purposes. This includes basically the making of
descriptive statements about the target language to be learned through
teaching in such a form that its structures (sound, word, sentence)
will be more readily learned (Corder, 1973).
This grammatical description must be observationally adequate (a
measure of the degree to which the statements of a description accord
with the observed relevant facts), and descriptively adequate (a
measure of the degree to which it succeeds in corporating all the
facts which the goals of the description consider relevant).
Furthermore, it must be more economical or powerful in the degree to
which it accounts for the same facts with a smaller number of
statements or rules, or alternatively, more facts with the same number
of rules (1973).
The adequate linguistic description of Cebuano-Visayan is basically
anchored on its natural linear structure as Malayo-Polynesian language
belonging to the Austronesian family of languages spoken throughout
Southeast Asia across the Pacific and Indian Oceans toward Continental
Asia (http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa_Melayu), thus, closely, through
phylogenetic variation, relating to the linear linguistic
characteristics of Bahasa Malay (Pesirla 2007).
The observationally adequate and powerful linear description of
Cebuano-Visayan concretizes the following comprehensive instructional
components of its pedagogic grammar:
A.
Phonology-Orthography Correspondence: Sound-Letter System;
B.
Morphology: Word System;
C.
Syntax: Sentence System.
Each structural component reflects a corresponding “teaching
implication” for the applied linguist (teacher of language) to utilize
in constructing learning tasks with a learning text, focusing on the
specific linguistic / grammatical unit.
Basically, the three instructional components delved into by this
pedagogic grammar of Cebuano-Visayan reflects these universal
commonalities with its mother tongue (Bahasa Malay):
● A phonetic language, Cebuano-Visayan phonology needs to follow the
alphabetic phonetic spelling system (spelled as sounded) observing
phoneme-grapheme correspondence of three vowels and fifteen consonant
sounds.
● An agglutinative language, Cebuano-Visayan morphology shares common
characteristics with Bahasa Malay where affixes and particles dictate
meaning, function, form class of words.
● The predicate construct in Cebuano-Visayan syntax, as in all
Austronesian / Malayo-Polynesian and Philippine languages, assumes the
linear marker for its basic unit of thought. Hence, Cebuano-Visayan
sentences begin with the predicate and end with the subject. Thus,
Cebuano-Visayan sentences are introduced by noun predicates, adjective
predicates, adverb predicates, prepositional phrase predicates,
intransitive verb predicates, transitive verb predicates.
Hence, Cebuano-Visayan should be linguistically and pedagogically
described as such for accuracy and adequacy.
Phonology-Orthography Correspondence: Sound-Letter System
A phonetic language, Cebuano-Visayan is spelled as sounded – each
phoneme (vowel as well as consonant) corresponds to a particular
grapheme (letter of the alphabet), hence the alphabetic spelling
system is the most appropriate, observationally and descriptively
adequate powerful linear description of its orthography in
correspondence to its phonology.
Cebuano-Visayan phonology contains only three vowel phonemes which are
spelled as such, as shown below.
Vowels
Phonemes
Graphemes
Key Words
Front
/ i /
I i
ILIS ilis DILI dili LIKIT likit
(change) (no) (roll)
Center
/ a /
A a
BANA bana SAKSAK saksak ASA asa
(husband) (stab) (where)
Back
/ u /
U u
ULU ulu SUKUD sukud TUKUD tukud
(head) (measure) (build)
Cebuano-Visayan has three dipthongs or vowel
combinations: / a / + / u / / aw /;
/ a / + / i / / ay /; / u / + / i / / uy / as reflected below.
Phonemes
Graphemes
Key Words
/ aw /
AW aw
AYAW ayaw YAWYAW yawyaw KAGAW kagaw
(no) (mumble) (germ)
/ ay /
AY ay
TATAY tatay PATAY patay KAMAY kamay
(father) (dead) (sugar)
/ uy /
UY uy
KAHUY kahuy TUMUY tumuy LAHUY lahuy
(tree) (tip) (through)
C ebuano-Visayan also contains a semi-vowel phoneme, the
glottal stop, after each of the three vowels in both stressed and
unstressed final positions. Because glottal stops are not pure vowels,
they do not have graphemic symbols (letters), thus they are marked as
accents over their preceding vowels ( ) in unstressed position and ( ^
) in stressed position, as follows.
Preceding Vowels in final position
Post-vocalic Glottal Stop in unstressed final position
Post-vocalic Glottal Stop in stressed final position
Accent Marks
Key Words
Accent Mark
Key Word
/ a /
À à
BAGÀ bagà
(lung)
 â
BAGÂ bagâ
(thick)
/ i /
Ì ì
DILÌ dilì
(not)
Î î
PUTÎ putî
(white)
/ u /
Ù ù
ATÙ atù
(our)
Û û
MUBÛ mubû
(short)
A glottal stop in medial position is marked as a hyphen ( - ), either
between two vowels or between a consonant and a vowel, as exemplified
below.
Glottal Stop Between Two Vowels
Glottal Stop Between a Consonant and a Vowel
PA-A pa-a (thigh)
TI-IL ti-il (foot)
HA-IN ha-in (where)
SU-UN su-un (imitate)
LUY-A luy-a (ginger)
SUD-AN sud-an (food)
NAKIT-AN nakit-an (seen)
TIMAN-I timan-i (remember)
DAD-A dad-a (bring)
PAG-ANTUS pag-antus (sacrifice)
SAD-AN sad-an (guilty)
Cebuano-Visayan has fifteen consonant morphemes which are written out
using the same consonant graphemes, as shown below.
Consonant
Phonemes
Consonant
Graphemes
Key Words
/ p /
P p
PAPA papa PAPAS papas PAPIL papil
(daddy) (erase) (paper)
/ t /
T t
TUTUK tutuk TADTAD tadtad TITIK titik
(stare) (chop) (letter)
/ k /
K k
KATKAT katkat KITKIT kitkit KAKÂ kakâ
(climb) (nibble) (spider)
/ b /
B b
BABUY babuy BABAYI babayi BATBAT batbat
(pig) (female) (discuss)
/ d /
D d
DAKDAK dakdak DUTDUT dutdut DAD-A dad-a
(thrown down) (push) (bring)
/ g /
G g
GANTI ganti GAMIT gamit GUGMA gugma
(prize) (use) (love)
/ m /
M m
MAMA mama TANUM tanum HUMAN human
(mommy) (plant) (finish)
/ n /
N n
NINDUT nindut ANDAM andam TANAN tanan
(nice) (ready) (all)
/ ng /
Ng ng
NGITNGIT ngitngit SINGGIT singgit IRING iring
(dark) (shout) (cat)
/ l /
L l
LALUM lalum LALAKI lalaki LALIK lalik
(deep) (male) (sculpt)
/ r /
R r
SARING saring BARAW baraw LARUT
(classroom) (knife) (pull out)
/ s /
S s
USISA usisa SAKSI saksi SUSU susu
(investigate) (witness) (breast)
/ h /
H h
HAYHAY hayhay HAKUT hakut HAPIT hapit
(hang) (gather) (almost)
/ w /
W w
WAL Â walâ HAWAN hawan WALU walu
(none) (empty) (eight)
/ y /
Y y
YUGYUG yugyug YUTÀ yutà YAMUG yamug
(shake) (land) (mist)
The consonant digraph (two-letter combination) MG mg and the vowel
grapheme Aa, when combined, become MGA mga, sounded as /manga/, a
particle to a noun indicating plurality.
BALAY balay MGA BALAY mga balay
(house) (houses)
TAWU tawu MGA TAWU mga tawu
(man) (men)


◙
Teaching Implication
Text:
● Let the learners bring to class CLIPPINGS of Cebuano-Visayan
editorials, feature articles
of their choices.
● Let the learners explain in Cebuano-Visayan the RATIONALE of their
choices of TEXTS;
● Let the class interact with these choices in Cebuano-Visayan.
◙ Tasks:
● Let each learner read orally in good and correct Cebuano-Visayan
pronunciation each
clipping / text chosen, sounding like a reporter / broadcaster.
● Let each learner (working specific chosen text) underline the
misspelled Cebuano-
Visayan words based on the lessons on phoneme-grapheme correspondence
principles.
● Let each learner rewrite each chosen text using the standards set by
the lessons on
Cebuano-Visayan phoneme-grapheme correspondence.
Morphology: Word System
The word structure of a language is made up of morphemes, the basic
unit of form and meaning. When the morpheme is meaningful by itself,
it is a free morpheme (commonly called root). When the morpheme can
only be meaningful when attached to a free morpheme, it is a bound
morpheme (the prefix, suffix, infix-affixes). Cebuano-Visayan
morphemes are exemplified below.
Words
Free Morphemes
(Roots)
Bound Morphemes
(Affixes)
PINAKATAM-ISAN
(sweetest)
TAM-IS
(Adj – sweet)
PINAKA – (prefix)
– AN (suffix)
PAGMINAHALAY
(mutual loving)
MAHAL
(V – love)
PAG – (prefix)
– IN – (infix)
– AY (suffix)
MALINAWUN
(peaceful)
LINAW
(N – peace)
MA – (prefix)
– UN (suffix)
Free morphemes can be lexical when meaningful alone and grammatical
when they specify the relationship among lexical morphemes in a
sentence. Lexical morphemes are parts of speech that are called
content words (N,V,ADJ,ADV) and grammatical morphemes are parts of
speech that are called function words (PRON, PREP, CONJ,
INTJ).Cebuano-Visayan lexical and grammatical free morphemes are
exemplified as follows.
CONTENT WORDS (LEXICAL FREE MORPHEMES)
Parts of Speech
DAGWAY BUKTUN BUHUK
(face) (arm) (hair)
NOUN
(NGALANPULUNG)
KATKAT SULAT BASA
(climb) (write) (read)
VERB
(PULUNGDIWÀ)
LAPAD PULA NIPIS TAMBUK
(wide) (red) (thin) (fat)
ADJECTIVE
(DAGWAYNGALAN)
KA-AYU KUSUG HINAY
(very) (fast) (slow)
ADVERB
(DAGWAYDIWÀ)
FUNCTION WORDS (GRAMMATICAL FREE MORPHEMES)
AKU IKAW SILA
( I ) (you) (they)
PRONOUN
(HULIPNGALAN)
SA NI KANG
(in / of / at) (of – person) (of –person)
PREPOSITION
(BAHINPULUNG)
UG APAN HINU-UN
(and) (but) (however)
CONJUNCTION
(DUGTUNGPULUNG)
HALA! HUY! UY!
(Watch out!) (Hey!) (Oh!)
INTERJECTION
(TUWAWPULUNG)
Bound morphemes are inflectional when they are affixed to free
morphemes without changing their parts of speech. In Cebuano-Visayan,
bound morphemes are either attached as affixes or detached as
particles, as exemplified below.
Words
Parts of Speech
Free Morphemes
Bound Morphemes
Inflection
KINADAKU-AN
(biggest)
Adj.
DAKU
(big)
KINA –
– AN
Superlative Degree of Comparison of Adjectives
NAGKA-UN
(eat)
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
NAG –
Simple Present tense form of the verb
MIKA-UN
NIKA-UN
NAKAKA-UN
(ate)
Verb
Verb
Verb
KA-UN
KA-UN
KA-UN
(eat)
MI –
NI –
NAKA –
Simple Past tense form of the verb
MUKA-UN
MAGKA-UN
MAKAKA-UN
(will eat)
Verb
Verb
Verb
KA-UN
KA-UN
KA-UN
(eat)
MU –
MAG –
MAKA –
Simple Future tense form of the verb
NAKA-UN
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
NA -
Passive Voice:
Present tense of the Verb
GIKA-UN
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
GI –
Passive Voice:
Past tense of the verb
KA-UNUN
MAKA-UN
Verb
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
– UN
MA –
Passive Voice:
Future tense of the verb
SULTI-I
PAMATI-A
Verb
SULTI
(tell)
PAMATI
(listen)
– I
– A
Imperative of the verb
NANAGKA-UN
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
NANAG –
Plurality of Doer:
Paste tense
MANAGKA-UN
Verb
KA-UN
(eat)
MANAG –
Plurality Doer:
Future tense
NANGHUGAS
Verb
HUGAS
(wash)
NANG –
Frequentive Action in
the Past
MANGHUGAS
Verb
HUGAS
(wash)
MANG –
Frequentive Action in
the Future
With C-V nouns, the inflectional bound morpheme of plurality MGA is
detached as a particle, as follows.
SINGULAR PLURAL
BATA bata MGA BATA mga bata
(child) (children)
BULAK bulak MGA BULAK mga bulak
(flower) (flowers)
TANUM tanum MGA TANUM mga tanum
(plant) (plants)
Bound morphemes that change the parts of speech of the content words
when attached to them are derivational. Cebuano-Visayan derivational
bound morphemes are shown below.
Derivative
Words
Parts of
Speech
Roots
Parts of Speech
Derivational Bound Morphemes
KAHILAKUN
(sad)
Adj.
HILAK
(cry)
Verb
KA – – UN
IKASULTI
(statement)
Noun
SULTI
(say)
Verb
IKA –
PASIDAD-AN
(warning)
Noun
DA-AN
(old)
Adj.
PASI –
KATARUNG
(righteousness)
Noun
TARUNG
(right)
Adj.
KA –
NAGSAPATOS
(wore shoes)
MAGSANINA
(will dress up)
Verb
Verb
SAPATUS
(shoes)
SANINA
(clothes)
Noun
Noun
NAG –
MAG –
MAKUYAWAN
(will be scared)
NAGMALIPAYUN
(enjoying)
MAGMALIPAYUN
(will enjoy)
Verb
Verb
Verb
KUYAW
(scary)
LIPAY
(happy)
LIPAY
(happy)
Adj.
Adj.
Adj.
MA – – AN
NAGMA – – UN
MAGMA – – UN
Particles in Cebuano-Visayan are actually detached bound morphemes
which are said as separate words before the content words that they
are grammatically linked as markers, as shown below.
Content Words
Content Words with Particle-markers
Functions
NOUNS
• Part. + Proper Nouns
SI RAMON
SILA NI RAMON UG JOSE
SILA SI RAMON UG JOSE
KAMI NI RAMON UG JOSE
markers for person’s names (no English equivalents)
ADJECTIVE
• Noun + Part. + Adj. Modifier
BABAYI NGA MATAHUM
• Adj. Mod. + Part. + Noun
MATAHUM NGA BABAYI
markers for adjectival modification (no English equivalents)
OBJECTS OF VERBS
• Verb + Part. + Object
MUKA-UN UG UTAN
MIPILI UG PALITUNUN
markers for objects of verbs (no English equivalents)
ADVERBS
• Verb + Part. + Adv.
NIKANTA UG PADAYUN
NILAMUY UG WALA’Y HUNUNG
markers for adverbial modification (no English equivalents)
NOUNS WITH ARTICLES / COUNTERS
• Counters + Part. + Noun
USA KA BATA
DUHA KA MGA BATA
markers for counters of nouns (no English equivalents)
Teaching Implication
◙ Text:
● Let each of the learners copy a long paragraph from a
Cebuano-Visayan magazine of
their own choices and bring it to class.
● Let the learner support his / her choice of text by discussing it in
class in Cebuano-
Visayan.
● Let the class interact with these varied choices in Cebuano-Visayan.
◙ Tasks:
● Let each learner read orally the chosen Cebuano-Visayan text to the
class.
● Let each learner analyze the morphologic constructs of the content
and function words
used in the chosen text using the linguistic morphologic standards for
Cebuano-
Visayan.
● Let each learner rewrite each chosen text based on the standards set
by the lessons on
Cebuano-Visayan morphology.
Syntax: Sentence
In Cebuano-Visayan (as in all Philippine languages), the predicate
assumes various sentence constructions. This predicate may be a noun,
adjective, adverb, prepositional phase, transitive verb, intransitive
verb with various complements. Therefore, Cebuano-Visayan sentences
always begin with the predicate and end with the subject as their
natural sentence patterning.
S
N + N English Equivalents
Magtutudlu si Ramon. Ramon (is) a teacher.
Puthaw ang haligi. (The) pillar (is) iron.
Ang tabanug papel. (The) kite (is) paper.
entence Pattern 1: Noun Predicate (N + N)
• Notice that C-V sentence pattern N + N is verbless: merely N
complement + N subject.
S
ADJ + N English Equivalents
Ma-anyag si Emma. Emma (is) lovely.
Humut ang bulak. The flower (is) fragrant.
entence Pattern 2: Adjective Predicate (ADJ + N)
• Notice again that the C-V sentence pattern ADJ + N is verbless:
merely ADJ complement
/ modifier + N subject.
S entence Pattern 3: Adverb Predicate (ADV + N)
• Again, this C-V sentence pattern ADV + N has no verb: merely ADV
modifier + N
subject.
S entence Pattern 4: Prepositional Phrase Predicate (PP + N)
• Notice again these verbless PP + N sentences: merely preposition
phrase predicates +
noun subjects.
S entence Pattern 5: Intransive Verb Predicate (Vin + S + Com)
• Predicate is an intransitive verb + the subject + prepositional
phrase modifier.

• Predicate is an intransitive verb + the subject + adverbial phrase
modifier.

• Predicate is an intransitive verb + the complement + the subject.

• Predicate is an intransitive verb + the subject.
S entence Pattern 6: Transitive Verb Predicate (Vt + Comp + S)
• The Transitive verb predicate is followed by the direct object + the
subject.

• The transitive verb predicate is followed by the subject, ending
with the direct and
indirect objects.

• The transitive verb predicate is followed by the objective
complement and the object,
ending with the subject.

• The transitive verb predicate is followed by the subject and the
object, ending with the
objective complement.

• The transitive verb predicate is followed by the subject and object,
ending with a
prepositional phrase.

◙ Text:
● Let each of the learners choose a book and copy the PREFACE, or else
a newspaper and
copy the EDITORIAL article (both should be English texts).
● Let each learner defend his / her choice of text (preface or
editorial) in class in (Cebuano-
Visayan discourse.
● Let the class interact orally to these myriad choices in
Cebuano-Visayan discourse.
◙ Tasks:
● Let the learners TRANSLATE their respective chosen texts (prefaces
and editorials) from
English to Cebuano-Visayan following the standards set by the linear
grammar
description of Cebuano-Visayan syntax.
● Let them recite / read orally akin to public speech the
Cebuano-Visayan versions of their
chosen prefaces or editorials to class.
● Let them write a discursive analytical explanation of the process
they undertook in
textual translation from English to Cebuano-Visayan.
Conclusion: the Cebuano-Visayan Speaking Filipino deserves to be
Educated in Cebuano-Visayan
Every Cebuano-Visayan native speaker (from mainstream to geographical
variations) deserves to be educated in Cebuano-Visayan, the first
language of the populace of Central Visayas and the lingua franca of
the Visayas and Mindanao in the Philippine archipelago, while being
taught to master English as an international lingua franca and to
master Filipino (Tagalog) as the national language of the Republic of
the Philippines.
The Cebuano-Visayan native speaker, thus needs a pedagogic grammar of
Cebuano-Visayan, which is the instructional version of the adequate
and powerful linear description actualized by this research-based
paper, focused on: the phoneme-grapheme correspondence of
Cebuano-Visayan speech-writing system; the agglutinative morphologic
affixation, composition, reduplication of Cebuano-Visayan word system;
the predicate structure of Cebuano-Visayan sentence patterning system.
Therefore, the Cebuano-Visayan native speaker should be the LITERATE,
EDUCATED, INFORMED Filipino who talks and writes in his / her first
language at par with the world’s intellectuals without losing his own
regional nativeness, national identity and global dignity.
References
Books and Journals
Corder, S. Pit. 1973. Introducing Applied Linguistics. Baltimore:
Penguin Education.
Cubar, Nelly and Ernesto Cubar. 1994. Writing Filipino Grammar. Quezon
City: New Day Publishers.
Gonzales, A.B., FSC. 1985. Bilingual Communities: National/Regional
Profiles and Verbal Review of Applied Linguistics.
MacFarland, C. 1994. “Subgrouping and number of the Phil. Languages or
How Many Languages Are There?” Phil.
Journal of Linguistics 25, 1-2; 75-84.
Otanes, F and Sabangan, B. 1969. Language Policy Survey of the
Philippine. Manila: LSC, PNU.
Pesirla, Angel. 2003. A Linguistic Description of Cebuano-Visayan.
Cebu City: CNU Research Center.
Santas, E. 1969. “A Study of Language, use and attitudes Toward
Language, in the Phil.” In Ohannessian et al, (Ed.)
Language Surveys in Developing Nations. Washington D.C. Center for
Applied Linguistics.
Sibayan, B. 1978. “Bilingual education in the Phil.: Strategy and
Structure.” In J. Alatis (Ed). International Dimensions
and Bilingual Education. Washington D.C., Georgetown.
Yabes, L. 1973. “Let’s Study the New Constitution: the Language
Provision.” Phil. Social Sciences and Humanities
Review, 33.
Website
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahasa_Melayu