Aklanon language


Aklanon, also known as Aklan, is an Austronesian language of the Bisayan subgroup spoken by the Aklanon people in the province of Aklan on the island of Panay in the Philippines. Its unique feature among other Bisayan languages is the close-mid back unrounded vowel occurring as part of diphthongs and traditionally written with the letter E such as in the name Akeanon. However, this phoneme is also present in sister Philippine languages, namely Itbayat, Isneg, Manobo, Samal and Sagada.
The Malaynon dialect is 93% lexically similar to Aklanon and retained the "l" sounds, which elsewhere are often pronounced as "r".
Ibayjanon dialect has shortened versions of Aklanon words.

Phonology

Aklanon has 21 phonemes. There are 17 consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, l, r, w, y, the glottal stop, and the distinct voiced velar fricative ɣ (traditionally spelled with the Latin ⟨Ee⟩. There are five vowels, with the three native i, a, and u, which is a typical for a Bisayan vowel inventory, and the additional e and o for loanwords and common nouns.

Vowels

Consonants

Common phrases

Philippine National Proverb:
"Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makararating sa paroroonan."
"Ro uwa' gatan-aw sa anang ginhalinan hay indi makaabut sa anang ginapaeangpan."
"Ang di kausoy magbalikid sa anang ginhalinan hay indi makaabut sa anang ginaayanan."
"Ang indi makahibalo magbalikid sang iya ginhalinan, indi makaabot sa iya padulungan."
"He who does not look back where he came from, will never reach his destination."

Numbers

Literature

Note: All these poems were written by Melchor F. Cichon, an Aklanon poet.