Blaan, also known as Bilaan, is an Austronesian language of the southern Philippines.

Classification

Blaan belongs to the Bilic microgroup of the Philippine language subgroup, along with Giangan

Manobo The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous people in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially adopte ...

, Tiruray, and Tboli.

Distribution

There are two major varieties of Blaan: Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad) and Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao). According to the '' Ethnologue'', Koronadal Blaan is spoken in: *eastern

South Cotabato Province South Cotabato ( hil, Bagatnan Cotabato; ceb, Habagatang Cotabato; Maguindanaon: ''Pagabagatan Kutawatu'', Jawi: ڤاڬابڬتن كوتاواتو; tl, Timog Cotabato), officially the Province of South Cotabato, is a province in the Philippine ...

Sarangani Province Sarangani, officially the Province of Sarangani ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sarangani; hil, Kapuoran sang Sarangani; Maguindanaon: ''Dairat nu Sarangani'', Jawi: دايرت نو سارڠني; fil, Lalawigan ng Sarangani), is a province in the Philipp ...

* Sultan Kudarat Province ( Lutayan area) * Davao Occidental Province Sarangani Blaan is spoken in: *almost the entire area of

( General Santos and north) * Davao Occidental Province (language area across from

's northern border)

Phonology

Blaan has fifteen consonant and seven vowel phonemes. Unlike most other Philippine languages and Austronesian languages in general, Blaan (as its related language Tboli, permits a variety of consonant clusters at the onset of a syllable. This is evident in the name of the language, . This contraction of the original schwa sound exists in other Austronesian languages (such as Javanese, a major language of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

), but is rarely seen outside of the Bilic group within the Philippines. are also heard as . can also be heard as within syllables.

Syntax

Blaan uses word order to indicate the thematic roles of nominal elements in the sentence. Similar to other Philippine-type Austronesian languages, Blaan uses verbal morphology to indicate voice (or focus, as it is usually called in the literature). Here are some examples of voice/focus types in Blaan: Agent voice/focus (-m-) Patient voice/focus (-n-)

Vocabulary

References

Languages of South Cotabato Languages of Sarangani Languages of Davao Occidental South Mindanao languages {{philippine-lang-stub