Western Subanon (also known as Siocon Subanon or simply Subanon) is an Austronesian language belonging Subanen branch of the Greater Central Philippine subgroup. It is spoken by c. 300,000 people () in the southwestern part of the

Zamboanga Peninsula Zamboanga Peninsula ( tl, Tangway ng Zamboanga; cbk, Peninsula de Zamboanga; ceb, Lawis sa Zamboanga) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces ( Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga S ...

region of Mindanao.

Distribution and dialects

The Western Subanon speech area includes the villages Malayal, Lintangan, Lanuti, and Limpapa in the municipality of Sibuco, and parts of

Siocon Siocon, officially the Municipality of Siocon ( ceb, Lungsod sa Siocan; Subanen: ''Benwa Siocan''; Chavacano: ''Municipalidad de Siocan''; tl, Bayan ng Siocan), is a 1st class municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Norte, Philippines. Acc ...

, Baliguian,

Labason Labason, officially the Municipality of Labason ( ceb, Lungsod sa Labason; Subanen: ''Benwa Labason''; Chavacano: ''Municipalidad de Labason''; tl, Bayan ng Labason), is a 3rd class municipality in the province of Zamboanga del Norte, Philippine ...

, Surabay, and Ipil, all located in the

region. The dialects are Siocon and Western Kolibugan (Western Kalibugan).

Phonology

Western Subanon has 15 native consonants.

Consonants

Vowels

Western Subanon has five vowels. The diphthongs of Western Subanon are , , , , , and .

Grammar

Western Subanon has a typical Philippine-type voice system. Unlike most other

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 (languages ...

, it only has three voice categories.

Sample text

The chorus of the Western Subanon song "" 'Let's plant' is shown.