Akeanon, also known as Inakeanon, is an

Austronesian language The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...

of the Bisayan subgroup spoken by the Aklanon people, the locals of the province of Aklan on the island of Panay in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. 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 such as in the autonyms ''Akean'' and ''Akeanon''. However, this phoneme is also present in other but geographically scattered and distant

Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (language ...

, namely Itbayat, Isneg, Manobo, Samal and Sagada. The Malaynon dialect is 93% lexically similar to Aklanon and has retained the "l" sounds, which elsewhere are often pronounced as "r".

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 The glottal stop or glottal plosive is a type of consonantal sound used in many Speech communication, spoken languages, produced by obstructing airflow in the vocal tract or, more precisely, the glottis. The symbol in the International Phonetic ...

, and the

voiced velar fricative The voiced velar fricative is a type of consonantal sound that is used in various spoken languages. It is not found in most varieties of Modern English but existed in Old English. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents ...

. There are six vowels: the three native vowels i, a, and u, which are typical for a Bisayan vowel inventory, the additional e and o for loanwords and common nouns, and a distinct phoneme argued by Zorc (2005) to be a close-mid back unrounded vowel . The voiced velar fricative /ɣ/ was also analyzed by Rentillo and Pototanon (2022) as having a

voiced velar approximant The voiced velar approximant is a type of consonantal sound, used in some Speech communication, spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is , and the equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is M\. The c ...

as an allophone.

Vowels

Consonants

from loanwords can also be heard as palatal stops . can also be heard as and can also alternate with .

Common phrases

Philippine national proverb

Here is the Philippine national proverb in various languages. * * Akeanon: * Malaynon: * * English: 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. *"Ambeth". ''Philippine Panorama'', August 14, 1994. *"Emergency Room". ''The Aklan Reporter'', December 7, 1994, p. 10 *"Eva, Si Adan!" (Finalist Sa Unang Premyo Openiano A. Italia Competition, January 1993, Duenas, Iloilo) *"Ham-at Madueom Ro Gabii Inay?" ''Philippine Panorama'', March 27, 1994, p. 29. (First Aklanon poem published in the ''Philippine Panorama''), also in ''The Aklan Reporter'', April 6, 1994, p. 8. *"Hin-uno Pa". ''The Aklan Reporter'', February 23, 1994, p. 8. Also in ''Ani'' December 1993, p. 44 *"Inay". ''Philippine Collegian'', October 4, 1973, p. 3 (First Aklanon poem in the ''Philippine Collegian'') *"Limog sa Idaeom". ''Ani'' December 1993, p. 48 *"Mamunit Ako Inay". ''The Aklan Reporter'', December 28, 1994, p. 10 *"Manog-Uling". ''The Aklan Reporter'' July 29, 1992, p. 9. Also in ''Ani'' December 1993, p. 50 *"Owa't Kaso", Saeamat. ''Mantala'' 3:97 2000 *"Ro Bantay". ''The Aklan Reporter'', September 6, 1995, p. 7 *"Competition", March 13, 1998, UPV Auditorium, Iloilo City *"Sa Pilapil It Tangke". ''Ani'' December 1994, p. 46 *"Toto, Pumailaya Ka". ''Pagbutlak'' (First Aklanon in ''Pagbutlak'') *"Welga". ''Mantala'' 3:99 2000

Learning resources

*"Five-language Dictionary (Panay Island)" , 2003 Roman dela Cruz Kalibo, Aklan *"A grammar of Aklan". 1971. Chai, Nemia Melgarejo. Ann Arbor: UMI. (Doctoral dissertation, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania; xiv+229pp.) *"Aklanon". 1995. Zorc, R. David. In Darrell T. Tryon (ed.), Comparative Austronesian dictionary: an introduction to Austronesian studies: Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter. pp. 359–362. *"A study of the Aklanon dialect" / Authors: Beato A. de la Cruz, R. David Paul Zorc, Vicente Salas Reyes, & Nicolas L. Prado; Public Domain 1968-1969; Kalibo, Aklan ** "Vol.I Grammar" ''Smithsonian Institution Libraries call# 39088000201871''
Full text on ERIC
** 'Vol.II A Dictionary (of root words and derivations) Aklanon to English" ''Smithsonian Institution Libraries call# 39088000201889''
Full text on ERIC

"The functions of ‘hay’ in Aklanon narrative discourse"
1990. Brainard, Sherri and Poul Jensen. *"A preliminary study of demonstratives in Aklanon narratives". 1992. Jensen, Kristine and Rodolfo R. Barlaan.

References

External links

Aklanon Wordlist at the Austronesian Basic Vocabulary DatabaseAklanon proverbs
{{Languages of the Philippines Languages of Aklan Languages of Capiz Visayan languages