regional
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
Romblon
Romblon (, , ), officially the Province of Romblon, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines located in the Mimaropa region. Its main components include Romblon, an archipelagic municipality of the same name that also serves as the provi ...
,
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 ...
. Asi originated in the island of Banton, Romblon and spread to the neighboring islands of Sibale, Simara, and the towns of Odiongan, San Andres and Calatrava on Tablas Island. The Asi spoken in Odiongan is called Odionganon, Calatravanhon in Calatrava, Sibalenhon in Concepcion, Simaranhon in Corcuera, and Bantoanon in Banton. The Asi language is closer to Western Visayan language like Karay-a than to Cebuano and Waray
Specifically, it is spoken on the following islands within Romblon:
* Tablas: the
municipalities
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
of Odiongan, San Andres and Calatrava, situated respectively on the western and northern parts of the island. The Odiongan dialect has more outside influences and is more widely used in literature.
* Banton, encompassing the whole municipality of Banton
* Simara, encompassing the whole municipality of Corcuera
* Maestre de Campo, also known as Sibale, encompassing the whole municipality of Concepcion
Linguist David Zorc notes that Bantoanon speakers may have been the first Bisayan speakers in the
Romblon
Romblon (, , ), officially the Province of Romblon, is an archipelagic province of the Philippines located in the Mimaropa region. Its main components include Romblon, an archipelagic municipality of the same name that also serves as the provi ...
region. He also suggests that Asi may have a Western Visayan
substratum
Substrata, plural of substratum, may refer to:
*Earth's substrata, the geologic layering of the Earth
*''Hypokeimenon'', sometimes translated as ''substratum'', a concept in metaphysics
*Substrata (album), a 1997 ambient music album by Biosphere
* ...
and that many of its words may have been influenced by the later influx of other languages such as Romblomanon.
Nomenclature
While ''Bantoanon'' is the original and most common name of the language, the name , meaning 'why', is also commonly used especially in formal and academic papers. The
Commission on the Filipino Language
The Commission on the Filipino Language (CFL), also referred to as the (KWF), is the official regulating body of the Filipino language and the official government institution tasked with developing, preserving, and promoting the various local ...
or KWF prescribes the use of ''Ási'' with the
acute accent
The acute accent (), ,
is a diacritic used in many modern written languages with alphabets based on the Latin alphabet, Latin, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic, and Greek alphabet, Greek scripts. For the most commonly encountered uses of the accen ...
on the Á, although the native pronunciation is closer to with the acute Á and a
grave accent
The grave accent () ( or ) is a diacritical mark used to varying degrees in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Catalan and many other Western European languages as well as for a few unusual uses in English. It is also used in other ...
on the ì. Considering that the language has four other dialects other than Bantoanon: Odionganon, Calatravanhon, Sibalenhon, and Simaranhon, ''Asi'' is occasionally used instead of Bantoanon to distinguish between the language and the dialect of it spoken in Banton. Speakers of dialects that have evolved through the Bantoanon diaspora prefer ''Asi'', or just their dialect's name. In casual speech, however, native speakers often refer to the language as ''Bisaya'', not to be confused with other
Bisayan languages
The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages spoken in the Philippines. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the Central Philippine languages. Mo ...
.
Sounds
Bantoanon has sixteen consonant phonemes: /p, t, k, ʔ, b, d, ɡ, s, h, m, n, ŋ, l, ɾ~r, w, j/. There are three vowel phonemes: /i, a, u/. The three vowels each have allophones of �, e, ɛ, ə� /i/ is always used as when it is in the beginning and middle syllables, , ɛis always used when it is in final syllables, �when in open-prestressed syllables, and as �in word-final post-stressed syllables before /ɾ~r/. �is heard as an allophone of /a/ when in closed syllables. The vowel is an allophone of /u/, and is always heard when it is in final syllables. This is one of the Philippine languages that do not exhibit - allophony.
Grammar
Pronouns
Cardinal Numbers
Bantoanon speakers prefer using Spanish-derived or English numbers for financial situations.
For numbers 11 to 90, Bantoanon speakers rarely use Bantoanon numbers, but instead their Spanish-derived counterparts even in contexts not related to finances.
Ordinal Numbers
Legend
''In Italics'' = rarely used and/or reconstructed based on existing vocabulary and grammar.