Tuesday, June 29, 2004

Rinconada Bikol

Just a little note before I begin. Today I obtained via Interlibrary Loan Tagalog Texts with Grammatical Analysis written in 1917 by linguist Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949). Interesting book. You can expect to read my comments about this book sometime after I'm done reading it.

Anyway, there are a total of four main languages spoken in the Bicol region. The region is rich in linguistic diversity. They are, according to Jason Lobel:
  1. North Coastal Standard Bikol - three main dialect groups spoken from: Daet, Camarines Norte; much of Camarines Sur including Naga and excluding the southern coast region; eastern Albay including Legazpi; northern Sorsogon; and the southern end of Catanduanes Island. The dialects of Naga & Legazpi are considered the standard.

  2. Southern Coastal & Inland Bikol - Rinconada Bikol, which is spoken in the southern part of Camarines Sur which includes the cities of Buhi, Iriga, Nabua, and Balatan; Libon; and eastern & western Miraya (from southern Camarines Sur, western Legazpi, and part of Northern Sorsogon.

  3. Northern Catanduanes - The (surprise!) northern end of Catanduanes island.

  4. Bisakol - Comprised of the words Bisaya and Bikol. This includes Central & Southern Sorsogon, Masbate island, and Ticao island.
Anyway, this entry is about Rinconada Bikol. A couple of months ago, I wrote a message in a mailing list showing the differences between the Naga standard dialect of Bikol, Rinconada Bikol, and Tagalog. I formulated the sentences from Jason Lobel's Rinconada Phrasebook and a draft copy of his Rinconada textbook.

RNC - Rinconada Bikol. NAG - Naga Bikol. TAG - Tagalog. ENG - English.

-UM- verbs
note 1: Naga Bikol doesn't make use of the -UM- prefix.
note 2: -UM- and MAG- prefixes are interchangeable and thus don't
affect meaning in Rinconada Bikol unlike in Tagalog.

RNC: Kumaon
NAG: Magkakan
TAG: Kumain
ENG: To eat (infinitive)

RNC: Kinnaon ya.
NAG: Nagkakan siya.
TAG: Kumain siya.
ENG: He ate.

RNC: Kinnakaon ya.
NAG: Nagkakakan siya.
TAG: Kumakain siya.
ENG: He is eating.

RNC: Kumkaon ya OR Kumakaon ya. (Note loss of vowel after -UM-)
NAG: Mákakan siya.
TAG: Kakain siya.
ENG: He will eat.

MAG- verbs

RNC: Magtutturo
NAG: Magtukdo
TAG: Magturo
Eng: To teach.

RNC: Nagtutturo sira.
NAG: Nagtukdo sinda.
TAG: Nagturo sila.
ENG: They taught.

RNC: Nagtututturo sira.
NAG: Nagtutukdo sinda.
TAG: Nagtuturo sila.
ENG: They are teaching.

RNC: Migtutturo sira.
NAG: Mátukdo sinda.
TAG: Magtuturo sila.
ENG: They will teach.

And some miscellany...

RNC: Isadto ya sa baloy namo.
NAG: Yaon siya duman sa harong mi.
TAG: Nandoon siya sa bahay namin.
ENG: He's there at our house.

RNC: Ono 'di?
NAG: Ano ini?
TAG: Ano ito?
ENG: What's this?

RNC: Agko ka igin?
NAG: Igwa kang aki?
TAG: Mayroon ka bang anak?
ENG: Do you have any kids?

RNC: Migtrabawo a agom ko sa Maynila udma.
NAG: Mátrabaho an agom ko sa Maynila saaga.
TAG: Magtatrabaho ang asawa ko sa Maynila bukas.
ENG: My husband will work in Manila tomorrow.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Sir,
I am a Bikolano and i have long been interested in our language which some say has the most number of dialects among Philippine languages.
I disagree that there are only 4 dialects in Bikol. An American Jesuit priest (whose name escapes me now) who published a Bicol-English dictionary in the early '70s identified 14 dialects incl Masbateno (which is considered a separate language now, at least by the Institute of National Languages of the Philippines) but excluding 2 Agta dialects. I think he is nearer to the truth.
I also disagree with Ethnologue's classification. Daraga and Buhi Bicol the same? Laughable!
The Agta languages are not part of the Bicol language. They cannot be understood by common Bicolanos.
My wife is Rinconada and I speak Miraya Bicol and several other Bicol dialects. Our common language at home is Tagalog because she has difficulty understanding our dialect esp with some of our pronounciations which cannot be transcribed in the English alphabet.
A long belt from northern Sorsogon to Manito, Legazpi to Tabaco then to Partido area then to Naga and Daet defines the area of the dominant Bicol dialect. The second biggest dialect is Rinconada from western Polangui town to Minalabac, Camarines Sur. Third biggest dialect is Miraya from Castilla, Sorsogon to Guinobatan, Albay. Bicol of Libon and central-eastern Polangui is very similar to Miraya. Oasnon Bicol covers Oas and Ligao. Buhi is a separate dialect if not a separate language. I will affirm that northern Catanduanes is a separate dialect and southern Catanduanes (Bicol Virac) might also be a separate dialect. Southern Sorsogon dialect is classified by Ethnologue as a Waray dialect and they might be right. Masbateno is probably a separate language. It is nearer to the Bisayan languages.

Anonymous said...

PSST! DUY! putayka sala sala man ito tutturo mo! taga nabua bagayton na pigkakakasta mong pigtututturo! sari mo na naman an napurot?! ayup ika magseminar ika sadto colloseum. sadto city hall. kaampang ka fire! taga nabua man kaya gayud ika duy! simtun ika di ika magparakakastang magtturu kin buko man ikang sigurado. amu duy? kastang koyka! diri mo ko bisto! ako si agoy!

Unknown said...

This is not so much a comment as it is a question. I have been wondering if there are any reference publications pertaining specifically to the Rinconada dialect... It's easy enough to find Tagalog-English language aids., but Rinconada-English? Whew...

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

The Rinconada Bikol translations on this page are of Nabua variant. It should not be mistakenly consider as the standard Rinconada Bikol because it does not bear the schwa vowel /ə/, and Nabua speakers tend to omit the first vowel of some words which makes their variant different from the mainstream. The standard Rinconada Bikol is the Iriga variant. It is more acceptable in Bula, Baao and even in Buhi and Bato, unlike Nabua variant that is sided only by the town of Balatan. Though the population of Iriga and much of Rinconada District came from Nabua during pre-Spanish period but it retains much of the original accent, lexicon and vocabularies of the old Rinconada Bikol. Though, example, Baao and Bato lost the schwa sound /ə/ and have additional intonation, but the way they speak the language are much more similar with Iriga than Nabua. Despite these differences, the various variants of this language are highly and mutually intelligible. However, for documentation, legal purposes and reference, the standard Rinconada Bikol should and must be utilized - Iriga variant. Even if the mother of all Rinconadeños is Nabua, ethnically speaking, but with respect to standardization and legalization of this rich language, Iriga variant should always be in place.

cialis online said...

Hi, thank you for sharing this great info. Was just browsing through the net in my office and happened upon your blog. It is really very well written and quit comprehensive in explaining with a very simple language.

kurr said...

how to say "let's get married" in bicol?

Anonymous said...

what do you mean by "makanuson man kamung magtaram?'

"bagla man ineyo'?

ay dae..oodo sana?"

hope u can translate it in tagalog