Vol. 8 September 2015 Vol.

8 · September 2015
Print ISSN 2244-1530 • Online ISSN 2244-1549
International Peer Reviewed Journal
doi:
This journal is produced by IAMURE Multidisciplinary Research,
an ISO 9001:2008 certified by the AJA Registrars Inc.

The Discourse Grammar of Sinurigao

FRANCIS TOM A. PAREDES
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5277-302X
[email protected]
Alegria National High School
Surigao del Norte, Philippines

Gunning Fog Index: 13.77 Originality: 96% Grammar Check: 93%

Flesch Reading Ease: 35.98 Plagiarism: 4%

ABSTRACT

Sinurigao is not widely studied and its speakers in the province of Surigao del
Norte, Philippines are slowly decreasing due to the intrusion of major languages
(Dumanig & Jubilado, 2006). The informants are Surigaonons in Siargao
Island, Surigao City and Mainit, Surigao del Norte. Using mixed-method
research: discourse and sociolinguistic analyses with Transitivity Hypothesis and
Stem-based Affixation Analysis of Nolasco (2005), this research examined the
Sinurigao morphology, syntax, phonology, and semantic features. This study also
delineated the effect of the contact of Sinurigao with other Philippine Languages
(PLs). Modification on subject-verb agreement was made to suit the condition
of Sinurigao language. The results reveal that Sinurigao morphology has <ag>
affix for intentional, <a> for unintentional, <u> for usual statement(s), glottal
visarga has written form like the -h- in tigmatahay to join the affix –ay to the
stem. It also has unwritten form as observed in mata[h] and ba[h]ta`. Aside
from possibility, ability and necessity, modality of doubt, dismay and shock are
observed in Sinurigao. Furthermore, the study found out that economic crisis
caused by colonization and neo-colonization affect Sinurigao and that social
belonging forced speaker to shift own language to social language and frequent

27
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

contacts of different languages affect the minor languages like Sinurigao. These
results justify the generation of Sinurigao Yare Ameliorator Grammar Establisher
Theory (SYAGET).

KEYWORDS

Language, Pormada (Morphology), Tunada (Phonology), Plastada (Syntax)

Pasabot (Semantics), S<in>urigao, Surigao-non, mixed-method design,
Philippines

INTRODUCTION

Status of Sinurigao
Suriganon language speakers in the province of Surigao del Norte,
Philippines are slowly decreasing due to the intrusion of major languages such
as English, Cebuano, and Tagalog (Dumanig & Jubilado, 2006). Code-mixing
of these languages is rampant in social networks, business areas, schools, church,
radio stations, televisions, transportation vehicles and even in every home of
Surigaonons which causes huge destruction in the original Sinurigao.
Mundiz (2010) somewhat refuted Dumanig and Jubilado’s notion of major
languages intrusion by concluding that languages in the Surigao provinces are
actually aberrant forms of the Cebuano Visayan language—making Surigaonon
and the compared languages a linguistic varieties of the language. Mundiz (2010)
further concluded that Surigaonon, naturalis and even Cantilangnon, and
Bisliganon Kamayo are Cebuano Visayan language variants, and delineated that
speakers from the languages can understand each other without really having
to speak the kind of language each speaker is acquainted with. Lewis (2009)
has classified Kamayo language as intelligible with that of Surigaonon; while the
latter is intelligible to the Cebuano language.
Dumanig and David (2013) explicated that the aforementioned three major
languages are used in official domains of communication in schools, church
services, and government transactions; usually in the written form particularly
in printed and online newspapers, and orally heard in news stories on the radio
and church services. In sharp contrast, the Surigaonon language is used only in
the home and other informal domains of communication and is frequently used
orally, usually when talking with friends and family members.

28
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Surigao del Norte is located at the northeastern of Mindanao with Southern

Leyte and Dinagat Provinces at its north, Agusan del Norte and Butuan City
at the south and Surigao del Sur at the west (Gentile, 2004). Surigao del Norte
is known as the north gateway to Mindanao with various tourist spots such as
Siargao’s Cloud 9 at General Luna, Magpupongko Beach at Pilar, Union Beach
at Dapa, Sohoton Cave at Socorro, Caub at Del Carmen, and Surigao City’s
Buenavista Cave and Mabua Pebble Beach, Togonon Falls and Mapaso Hot
Spring at Mainit, Mahucdam Lake at Tubod, and Lumondo Falls at Alegria.

Figure 1. The Philippines and Surigao del Norte Map

Dumanig and David (2013) expounded that the Surigaonon language is one
of the minor languages of the Philippines: it is not widely studied. In the 1990
census, there were 345,000 speakers of the language and this fell, in 2003, to
344,974 speakers of the Surigaonon language (Lewis, Paul, Simons, & Fennig,
2013). A survey conducted in the CARAGA region revealed, approximately
88,129, speakers of Surigaonon which is equivalent to 22.40% of the total
population of the CARAGA region (Census, 2002). This data can be misleading
because of the high rate of bilingualism in Cebuano.
Dumanig articulated that extensive bilingualism has affected the development
of the Surigaonon language (Dumanig & Jubilado, 2006). Such phenomenon
might lead to Subtractive bilingualism, the result of the erosion or loss of primary
language (Fillmore, 1991). Most of the Surigaonons testified that they are
ashamed of using Sinurigao when they visit other places due to teasing, and some
decided to use the language of the place visited or stayed to be easily understood
or to belong.
Dumanig and Jubilado illustrated the consonant and vowel sounds, stress,
intonation pattern and morphophonemic processes of Surigaonon language
(Dumanig, & Jubilado, 2006). Their study clearly showed that Surigaonon
language is a distinct language, and because of that they encourage more studies
29
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

relevant to their research to provide more information about the language to

preserve and promote it especially that today’s young generations no longer use
the Sinurigao of elders due to the fact that they engage more in code-mixing,
code-switching or code-changing for socialization, business or work purposes.

Sinurigao: Morphophonemic Processes and Affixation

Dumanig delineated that Surigaonon language consists of 18 consonants
and three vowels with five sounds. Sinurigao also has 25 noun clusters and four
diphthongs. Some Sinurigao words are spelled the same. However, they vary in
meaning depending on how each syllable is stressed. The findings of Dumanig
also show that Sinurigao follows two intonation patterns like the rising and
falling intonations. The rising one is usually used in asking yes or no queries and
the falling intonation happens in ending indicative and imperative statements.
Furthermore, Dumanig empirically elucidated that there are morphophonemic
permutations in the Sinurigao and it happens through deletion, alternation and
metathesis (Dumanig, & Jubilado, 2006).

Sinurigao: Morphosyntax Analysis

Dumalagan found out that Surigaonon language inflects on focus and
aspect and it employs a procedure in verbal affixation in the actor, objective,
instrumental, and locative-benefactive focus.

Prefixation is more commonly used than infixation and suffixation, and other
features that have been found to affect verbal inflection are plurality and
reciprocity of action (Dumalagan, 2001).

The previous researches have contributed a lot in understanding Sinurigao

or Suriganon. Their works are appropriate guides in studying the language.
Though, there were no discussions on the specific effects of language contacts on
the morphophonological, morphosyntactical and semantic features of Sinurigao.
In this light, the need to understand Sinurigao in another approach must be
done. There is a need to study Sinurigao using Stem-based Analysis in affixation
for its morphological features and Transitivity Hypothesis for syntactical features
(Nolasco, 2003, 2005, 2007). In phonological features, Praat phonetics computer
program created by Boersma and Wennink (1992-2013) is one of the advanced
programs appropriate to be employed in analyzing Sinurigao. Further, there is
a need to look at the situation of Sinurigao in contact with other Philippine

30
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

languages (PLs) using Thomason’s (2001) language contact hypothesis to know

how other PLs influence morphophonological, morphosyntactic and semantic
features of Sinurigao.
Thus, this paper is conducted to look into the morphology, phonology,
syntax, semantics of the language and its contact with other languages.

FRAMEWORK

Sinurigao Yare Ameliorator Grammar Establisher Theory (SYAGET) is

established or drawn from the data of Sinurigao Morphology, Syntax, Phonology,
and Semantics. Below are explanations of the assertions of the aforementioned
theory.

Linguistic Unity despite Orthographic Diversity. This asserts that there

is linguistic unity in Philippine languages despite its orthographic diversity.
There is no difference in word meaning but evident in word formation due to
morphophonological diversity which depicts language and culture identity.

Situation-Based Language. This claims that Surigaonon speakers like other

Philippine language speakers anchor their statement(s) and its language structure
on situation(s). Speakers can cleary separate the intentional, unintentional and
usual statement(s) with the use of affixes.

Modals in Sinurigao is gender influenced. This avows that there is gender

in Sinurigao modals and apparent when speakers express doubt, dismay and
schocked. There are modals used mostly by masculine and feminine and there
are common and neutral.

Glottal visarga in Sinurigao has written and unwritten forms. This posits
that a Sanskrit postvocalic sound or group of sounds produced by keeping the
vocal organs above the glottis in the same position as for the preceding vowel and
continuing to expel air from the lungs but not vibrating the vocal cords named
glottal visarga has written and unwritten forms in Sinurigao.

Colonization and neocolonialism affect language. The Philippines suffered

from Spanish, American, and Japanese colonizations which directly affected
the languages of the country, including the original Sinurigao. Technological

31
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

advancements, the use of social networks like Facebook, and economic crisis are
part of neo-colonization which affect Sinurigao.

Social belonging forced speaker to shift own language to social language.

This establishes the typical situation that when L1 speaker migrates to new
habitat, he/she tends to adapt the language of the society. However, the huge
number of migration affects the language of the new habitat.

Frequent contact with different languages affects the minority. This

establishes the linguistic situation when Sinurigao and other Philippine
languages have contact. When major and minor languages contact frequently,
the minor language will be affected, in this study Binisaya is the major language
and Sinurigao is the minor language.

Below is the theoretical framework of the study which illustrates that the
linguistic parts of this study are carried out with;

Universal Grammar (UG) is concerned with the core grammar which entails
principles, parameters, and the knowledge of the lexicon and syntax of the
language. UG is conceptualized as part of the human genetic constitution that
makes a child acquire language when he is exposed to the said language. In the
term of a layman, it means that the child is already hard-wired or predisposed to
learn a language as part of his natural make-up, in this study is Sinurigao. The
next thing he needs after birth is the primary language data available to him in
his environment (Jubilado, & Manueli, 2010).

Grammaticality judgment (GJ) of Chomsky (1957) is used in this study

to consider the intuition of a native Surigaonon speaker as enough to define
the grammaticalness of sentence. Tremblay (2014) said that GJ tasks are one
of the most widespread data-collection methods that linguists use to test their
theoretical claims. In these tasks, speakers of a language are presented with a set
of linguistic stimuli to which they must react. The elicited responses are usually
in the form of assessments, wherein speakers determine whether and/or the
extent to which a particular stimulus is correct in a given language. The use of
GJ tasks in linguistic theory is necessary because it provides a means to: (a) assess
the speakers’ reactions to sentence types that only occur rarely in spontaneous
speech; (b) obtain negative evidence on strings of words that are not part of the

32
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

language; (c) distinguish production problems (e.g., slips, unfinished utterances,

etc.) from grammatical production; and (d) isolate the structural properties of the
language that are of interest by minimizing the influence of the communicative
and representational functions of the language (Schütze, 1996).

Analogy linguistics is used in this study to intellectualize the linguistic

form of a Sinurigao lexeme. It reduces word forms perceived as irregular by
remaking them in the shape of more common forms that are governed by rules.
an alternative mechanism to generative rules for explaining productive formation
of structures such as words.

Contact linguistics in sociolinguistics is used in this study to thoroughly

discriminate the loanwords even bound morphemes like the prefix gi-. It was
hypothesized that closely related languages are highly vulnerable to contact effects
while more indistinctly related languages are assumed to be less likely influence
one another (Thomason 2001).

The following, as the core of theoretical linguistics, are used in this study to
carefully look into the rules of Sinurigao and establish its grammar;

Morphology, this study employs Sapin-sapin hypothesis or a stem-based

analysis in dissever word formations. The stem-based analysis claims that a word
with multiple affixes will have a layered structure (Nolasco, 2003). Hirschberg
(2007) expounded that morphology parsing takes a word or string of words as
input and identifying the stems and affixes: prefix, infix, suffix and circumfix.

Syntax, This study employs Phrase Structure Rules which incorporate claims
specified to the right of the arrow about the constituents structures of phrases
specified to the left of the arrow and Transformational Rules of Generative
Grammar which explicates the movement of arguments from object to subject
position and the other way around, these two rules are used in this study to show
the subject-verb agreement. This study also employs Transitivity Hypothesis
(Nolasco, 2006). Saclot (2005) said Nolasco explicated two important concepts.
First, that Hopper and Thompson (1980)’s transitivity parameters as revised
to fit the Philippine setting provided the necessary semantic and pragmatic
criteria for identifying high and low transitivity in PLs. The revised list of
Nolasco include: distinctness of the A and P vs. S; action vs. state; telic vs.

33
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

atelic; punctual vs. non-punctual; deliberate vs. volitional; particular vs. general;
external vs. internal; effortful vs. effortless; total affectedness of the P vs. partial
affectedness of the P; and high individuation of the P vs. non-individuation
of the P. The first member of the pair correlates with high transitivity and the
second with low transitivity or in other words, intransitivity. Second, that high
and low transitivity are grammatically expressed in the voice and case system of
PLs. Using Tagalog, Cebuano and Ilokano data, Nolasco made the following
characterization of Philippine transitive and intransitive constructions: (a) In an
intransitive construction, the verb is marked by the intransitive voice affix -um-
or its allomorph m-. The only grammatical argument is assigned the absolutive
case (case 1 or the ang case). It is possible for an intransitive construction to have
a semantic agent and a semantic patient. Here, the semantic agent is assigned
the absolutive case (case 1) while the patient takes the oblique case (case 3 or 4).
This construction is semantically transitive but grammatically intransitive; (b) In
a transitive construction, the verb is marked by any of the transitive affixes, -in,
-an and i-. These affixes coindex the most affected entity (P) in the clause, on top
of identifying the particular semantic role or thematic relation of that entity. The
P bears the absolutive case (case 1), while the source of the action (A) assumes
the ergative case (case 2). In sum, Nolasco’s analysis supported the view that
there were three (3) kinds of transitive constructions in PLs and only one kind of
intransitive construction.

Phonology, Praat is a computer software used to analyze speech sounds. In

this study, Praat is employed to document and interpret glottal visarga and stop.

Semantics, Discourse Analysis is used to identify and describe the meanings

and expressions in Sinurigao.

They provide linguistic representations of the language being studied

(Sinurigao). Furthermore, the said theories are precise reflections of social
interactions or phenomena in which the linguistic and sociolinguistic analyses
of the study are determined. Above all, this framework strengthens the assertions
and implications of the linguistic and sociolinguistic theories employed in this
study, which serve as intellectual bases for the analysis and interpretation of
data. Thus, this model or framework reinforces in establishing interconnectivity
among the elements and aspects of this present study.

34
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Figure 2. Theoretical-Conceptual Framework of the Study

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

Using descriptive research methodology and adapting the linguistic and

sociolinguistic theories: Universal Grammar, Grammaticality Judgment,
Analogy Linguistics, Stem-based Affixation Analysis (Nolasco, 2005; 2007),
and Transitivity Hypothesis (Nolasco, 2005, 2006), the study examined the
morphological, phonological, syntactical and semantic features in Sinurigao; the
language used by Suriganons in translating English to Sinurigao; Understanding
Modality in Sinurigao and the Sinurigao Yare Ameliorator Grammar Establisher
Theory (SYAGET) that was generated based on the findings of the study.

METHODOLOGY

Design
Mixed-method research was used in this study. For Qualitative Method:
Discourse Analysis and Contact linguistics analysis were used in some text
messages received by the researcher, open-ended items in questionnaire, Facebook
wall posts and private messages sent to the researcher by few of the target
informants. For Quantitative Method: Questionnaire with closed and open-
ended questions transferred to quantitative was used to gather needed perceptions
of the informants which were statistically analyzed. Purposive sampling for better
and easy administration of the test was used.

35
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Ethics and Gathering Procedure

The following steps were done to ethically gather the data needed:

Step 1. The researcher oriented the survey team on the significance of

research ethics in gathering the data with the use of Research Ethics
by P.V. Kamat (2015).
Step 2. The researcher then requested the LGU officials of the identified
areas to approve the conduct of the study in documenting the
Surigaonon language (Sinurigao);
Step 3. Upon the approval of the request, the questionnaires were circulated
to the target informants and after they had answered the FTAP-
SVP Survey Team immediately collected the instruments for data
analyses.

Informants
One hundred eighty-two informants from Surigao City composed of Taft 48,
Lipata 35, San Juan 69 and Washington 30, Mainit 101, Dapa 60, Del Carmen
Town Proper 75, Sayak Del Carmen 47, Pilar 61 except Other (Siargao) 36 were
chosen in this study.

Area
Four Main communities of Surigao City namely: Taft, Lipata, San Juan, and
Washington. Municipality of Mainit, Dapa, Del Carmen, Pilar. The said places
were chosen for traces of similar morphosyntax were observed in the said areas.

Instruments
Sinurigao was used in writing the questionnaire. Part I of the questionnaire
asked for the profile of the informants: Name (Optional), Age, Address, Origin
of Informants, Origin of Parents, Language of Parents, Educational Attainment,
Years of Stay in Current Address, and Reason for Residency. This study also
recorded the knowledge of the informants in their language. Part II contained
questions on the Sinurigao Grammar: Morphology, Syntax, Phonology,
Semantics, and their language use in translating Sinurigao to English.

Data Analysis
The tools used were frequency count and percentage computation for the
quantitative data which was drawn from the knowledge-based questions,

36
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

discourse analysis and sociolinguistic analyses were used for the qualitative data
from the answers of the informants on open-ended items, text messages, FB wall
posts and private messages.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

On Profile of Informants
Most of the informants’ age 10 – 20 with 287 counts followed by 21 – 30
with 83, 51 – 60 with 56, 31 – 40 and 41 – 50 with 48 counts each, 61 – 70 with
24, 71 – 80 with 12 and 81 – 90 with 4. This shows that most of the informants
are from the new generation of Surigaonons who are perhaps more influenced by
bilingualism or multilingualism.
Most of the informants are from Surigao City with 182 counts which are
composed of Lipata with 35, Taft with 48, Washington with 30 and San Juan
with 69. Next to the most numbered informants is Municipality of Del Carmen
with 122 composed of Town Proper with 75 and Sayak with 47, Municipality
of Mainit with 101 or, Municipality Del Pilar with 61, and Municipality of
Dapa with 60. This shows that all target research locations are represented for
proper documentation of its existing used language. Mainit and Del Carmen are
believed to be the places of preserved prehistoric Sinurigao language.
Most of the informants assert that they are Suriganons with 436 counts
followed by Mainitnon with 66 then Others with 39, Boholano with 9, Cebuano
with 8 and Gigaquitnon with 4.
For the factor on Origin of Mother, Most of the informants show No Response
(NR) with 270 followed by Sinurigao with 124, Del Carmen 46, Sayak with
40, Siargaonon with 17, Bisaya with 13, Mainitnon and Tagalog with 9 counts
each, Others with 8, Leyteño with 6, Other Siargaonon with 5, Dapanon and
Caridadnon with 4 counts each, Cebuano with 3, and Cantilanon and Carrascal
with 2 counts each. This shows that most of the informants don’t know the origin
of their mother which implies that not only the close family tie of Surigaonons
is long affected but the language of Surigao (Sinurigao) has been eroding as well.
The factor on Origin of the Father shows that No Response (NR) dominates
with 264 followed by Sinurigao with 117, Del Carmen with 48, Sayak with
40, Bisaya with 20, Siargaonon with 18, Tagalog with 12, Others with 10,
Mainitnon with 8, Dapanon and Leyteño with 6 counts each, Other Siargao with
5, Caridadnon and Cebuano with 4 counts each. The same result with the origin
of mother is hereby recorded. Others, Bisaya, Leyteño and Cebuano origins who

37
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

have stayed or are temporarily or permanently residing in Surigao City or Surigao

del Norte for years are contributing factors of extensive bilingualism. Knowing
the history of colonization in the Philippines, these NRs might be migrants.
For the Used Languages of Fathers, Sinurigao as commonly used language
has 384 counts followed by Binisaya with 188, English with 39, Tagalog with 34,
Other languages with 10, Binutuanon with 8, and Waray with 5. This result shows
that code-mixing or code-switching of Sinurigao – Binisaya, Sinurigao – English,
Sinurigao – Tagalog, Sinurigao – Other languages, Sinurigao – Binutuanon, and
Sinurigao – Waray do exist which contribute a lot to subtractive bilingualism as
explicated by Fillmore (1991). This result also supports the claims of Dumanig
and Jubilado (2006) that extensive bilingualism has affected the development
of the Surigaonon language and its speakers in the province of Surigao del
Norte, Philippines are slowly decreasing due to the intrusion of major languages:
English, Cebuano, and Tagalog.
For the Used Languages of Mother of the Informants, the results vary only
with the languages of father in Sinurigao with 392, Binisaya with 189, English
with 38, Tagalog with 33, Waray with 7 and same for Other languages with 10
and Binutuanon with 8.
The educational attainment of the informants is counted most from Secondary
with 237 followed by College with 142, Elementary with 119, None with 60,
Masters with 3, zero for doctorate, and others with 1. This result shows that
most of the informants have undergone education. Thus, they are influenced by
language subjects such as Filipino (Tagalog) where they learned to use gitling (-)
and English where they learned hyphen (-) as symbol for impit or glottal stop.
The informants resided in their residences for years. 16 years – Above is the
highest factor with 350 counts followed by 11 – 15 years with 105, 06 – 10 years
with 36, Mobile with 21, 04 – 05 with 15, 00 – 01 with 13, 05 – 06 with 7, 01 –
02 with 6, and 02 – 03 with 4. A long period of stay in a place contributes a lot in
learning the language of the area but too many migrants contribute to extensive
bilingualism (Dumanig, 2006) which might lead to subtractive bilingualism
(Fillmore, 1991). Mobile informants are presupposed to be students, workers,
travelers. This result supports the assumptions in SYAGET that Social belonging
forced speaker to shift own language to social language and Frequent contact of
different languages affects the minority.
The reasons of the stay of informants in their respective residences are counted
most for Birth with 352 followed by School with 86, Marriage with 58, No
Particular Reason (NPR) with 33, Work with 31, Conflict at previous residence

38
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

with 1 and other reason with 1. This result shows that most of the informants are
Surigaonon by birth, and others stayed in Surigao del Norte only for marriage,
school, work, conflict and no particular reason at all.

On Morphological Feature of Sinurigao

Table 1. Morphology of Sinurigao

Form Prefix Form Infix Form Suffix
Tag 164 Tagpan- 133 Tag-/-han/-an 129
Gi 7 Gipan- 11 Gi-/-han/-an 12
Other 0 Other 0 Other 0
Same 377 Same 357 Same 370
TOTAL 548 TOTAL 501 TOTAL 511

As reflected in Table 1, prefix tag-, infix pan- with prefix tag-, and suffix -han/-
an with prefix tag- are commonly used by Surigaonons than prefix gi-, infix pan-
with prefix gi-, suffix -han/-an with prefix gi-. And both affixes tag- and gi- are
alternatively used by Surigaonons.
Gi- and tag- function equivalently which signifies intentional and realis
action. In the corpora collected, all are observed. Gi- is common at Del Carmen
and Salvacion, Pilar, Surigao del Norte and Tag- in Surigao City especially in
San Juan, at Mainit, and Dapa. With the inevitable contact of Surigaonons
with Cebuano or Bisaya, most unconsciously use gi- as an alternative prefix for
tag-. This result supports the assumption in SYAGET that Frequent contact of
different languages affects the language of minority.
However, the tense analysis lacks the syntactic and semantic sense of
intentionality, unintentional, and usual statement(s) which is established by the
situation-based language assumption in SYAGET. This is also delineated in the
Transitivity Hypothesis modified by Nolasco (2003).

(1) Taglaung < tag+laung < t<ag> + laung ‘said’

“Intentionally said”
(2) Nalaung < na+laung < n<a> + laung ‘said’
“Accidentally said”
(3) Nulaung <nu+laung < n<u> + laung ‘said’
“said”

39
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

The t- in (1) could be changed to n-/m-/p-, these are affixes which show tense/
aspect while <ag> is an affix which depicts intentionality. The <a> in (2) is an affix
which show accidental/unintentional or chance while affix <u> or the Binisaya
<i> in (3) shows acquiescence/usualness. Thus, “Taglaung” is “Intentionally said,”
“Nalaung” is “Accidentally said,” and “Nulaung” is “said.”
Nominalized:

Singular: Tagsulti
(4) An tagsulti ni Loloy.
“The opinion of Loloy”

(5) Uno may gilaong kuman?

“ What is the topic now?”

Plural: Tagpansulti
(6) An (mga) tagpansulti ni Loloy an angay sundon.
“ The opinions of Loloy are the right ones to follow.“

Perfective Verb Form:

Plural: Tagpansultihan in English is have told.
(7) Tagpansultihan na kamo ni Loloy.
PT1: “Loloy intentionally told you already.”
PT2: “You were intentionally told already by Loloy.”

In (4-5) tagsulti or gilaᵾng are nominalized singular form which means

opinion for the former and topic for the latter. Nominal marker ‘an’ is observed
in (4) which signals that ‘tagsulti’ is not a verb. In (5) Nominal marker ‘uno
may’ signals the nominality of ‘gilaᵾng’. (6) affix <pan> signals the plurality
and nominal marker ‘an’ signals the nominality of the word ‘tagpansulti’. In
(7) the circumfix tag--<pan>--han signals the perfective verb form of the word
‘tagpansultihan’ which has two preferred translations (PTs), PT1 shows the
transitive – active sentential structure while PT2 shows the intransitive – passive
– plural form sentential structure.
We can perceive in the cartography of Figure 4 DUDU Morphology Parsing
that mata (wake/awake/awaken) is conjugated. Tagpamata (woke/awoken/
awakened) has affix tag- which signals preterit and in some sentences present/
pluperfect or realis; they normally function in transitive while intransitive for
napamata (woke/awoken/awakened), Pamatha (wake) and Pamathon (wake) are

40
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

both irrealis. They function in imperative mood and contemplative aspect, and
both have theta roles of agent, theme, and goal or in agentive case.

Figure 3. DUDU Morphology Parsing

Source No.: SG 327

Tig/Man-matahay (waker/awakener) is a noun named to person who wakes/

awakes other. For sentential samples of Figure 4, hereafter are the given sample
sentences:
(8) Tagpamata ni Sheila si Ranzi.
PT: Sheila woke Ranzi.
(9) Tagpamata ako ni Sheila.
PT: Sheila awakened me.
(10) Napamata ni Sheila si Ranzi.
PT: Ranzi was awakened by Sheila.
(11) Pamatha si Sheila sanan Ranzi.
PT: Wake Sheila and Ranzi.
(12) Ako pamathon si Sheila.
PT: I will wake Sheila.
(13) Sija an tig/manmatahay namo.
PT: He/She is our waker.

The morphosyntactic analysis in (8-9) is t- is tense/aspect affix, <ag> is

volitional/deliberative affix which makes this sentence transitive, <pa> is
41
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

causative affix, ‘mata’ is the stem, ‘ni’ is the agent marker, ‘Sheila’ is the agent, ‘si’
is the patient marker, ‘Ranzi’ is the patient. (10) n- is the tense/aspect affix, <a>
is the accidental/chance affix which makes this sentence intransitive or passive
(Tanangkingsing, 2007). (11-12) has –a and –on, the voice affixes which show
intentionality but not yet done thus making this sentence intransitive. (13)
The circumfix tig/man--<>--hay with the nominal marker ‘an’ signal that ‘tig/
manmatahay’ is a nimonalized form.
You can see in Figure 5 that an Atop Morphology Parsing of sulti (word/
opinion/idea) was created. This is a proof of how rich the Sinurigao language is.
Sultisulti (gossip/murmur) is a derived language of sulti (word/opinion/idea).
Isultihay, sultihanan, sultihonon, tagpansulti, tagpansultihan and nasultihan are
in the circumfix form. Isulti and Isultihay are imperfective and imperative. I-
according to Bantawig is an inflectional bound morpheme indicating present
active or future passive voices (Bantawig, 2014). Sulti-han and sulti-hi are
imperfective and imperative as well.

Figure 4. Atop Morphology Parsing

Source No.: SG 351

Nag- functions intentional-realis-intransitive. Ni- or nu- functions usual-

realis-intransitive and mu- functions to in infinitive phrase/nominalized and
will for contemplative and usual-irrealis-intransitive. The Tense-Aspect-Mood

42
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

(TAM) in Sinurigao will follow the signals from affixes. Sentence examples of
various conjugations are given below.

(14) Isulti an tinuod bay. PT: Tell the truth my friend.

(15) Isultihay pa nija an tinuod. PT: He will be telling the truth.
(16) Sultihan nako sija nan tinuod. PT: I will tell him the truth.
(17) Sultihi sija nan tinuod. PT: Tell him the truth.
(18) Nagsulti sija nan tinuod. PT: He tells the truth.
(19) Nisulti sija nan tinuod. PT: He told the truth.
(20) Nusulti sija nan tinuod. PT: He had told the truth.
(21) Mu sulti nan tinuood PT: To tell the truth is
an angay himuon na butang. the right thing to do.
(22) Mu sulti sija nan tinuod. PT: He will tell the truth.

(14) shows jussive mood by commanding his friend to tell the truth. While
(15) shows surmise mood done by the speaker. In (16), affix –an after glottal
visarga -h- coindex the most affected entity (P) in the clause which is sija. The P
bears the absolutive case, while the source of the action (A) assumes the ergative
case which is nako and the oblique case is the nan tinuod. (17) shows causative
mood by commanding the unmentioned second person to tell the third person
the truth. (18-20) shows subject, action, atelic, non-punctual, volitional, general,
external, effortless, partial affectedness of the P, non-exclusive P which qualifies
for semantically transitive but grammatically intransitive. (21) is a stative form
while (22) is an irrealis structure.

Table 2. Affixes in Sinurigao

Prefix Meaning Example

Tigmatahay
(Waker)
Tig- Nominalizer affix
Tiglutoay
(Cook)

Tinguyan
Ting- Adjectivizer affix
(rainy season)

43
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Manmatahay
Nominalizer affix (Waker)
Man-
Neutral/Pluralizer, Irrealis affix Manjagan
(will run)

Nan- Neutral/Pluralizer, Realis affix Nanlaba

Pan- Neutral/Intentional/Voice Affix Panlaba

Tagpamata
Tag- Intentional/Realis Affix
(Awakened)
Isulti
I- Jussive/Irrealis/Voice Affix
Isulti+hay
(+ay/hay) Dynamic/Irrealis/Voice Affix
Isuyat+ay

Na- Realis/Accidental Affix Nasulti

Ma- Irrealis/Accidental Affix Masulti

Pluralizer affix, follows noun +an Katanlakan

Ka- Abilitative verb forming affix Kajagan
Intensifier affix Kalami
Ha- Stative verb affix Halami
Pa- Jussive/Causative/Irrealis Affix Pakauna

Ni- / Nu- Common/Usual Affix Nisulti

Ki- Stative verb affix Kilaya/Kibali

Hi- Verbalizer affix Hilabut/Hilabi

Nag- Intentional/Realis/Intransitive affix Nagsulti

Mag- Intentional/Irrealis/Intransitive affix Magsulti

Pag- Intentional/Irrealis/Intransitive affix Pagsulti

Infix Meaning Example

Na-
Ma-
Semanteme source of accident, usually functions
-a- Ka-
with prefixes n, m, k, h, and p.
Ha-
Pa-

44
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Tag-
Semanteme source of intentionality, Nag-
-ag-
usually functions with prefixes t, n, m, and p. Mag-
Pag-

Tan-
Pluralizer/neutral affix, Nan-
-an-
usually written with prefixes t, n, m, and p. Man-
Pan-

K(-in-)abuhi
(K(-in-)a)-ija
-in- Nominalizer affix
Sinultihan
(utterance)
Tagpansulti
(Opinions)
-pan- Pluralizer usually inserted between tag- or pag- and root word.
Tagpanlabak
(Thrown)

-pa- Causative affix Tagpakaun

N-i-laya
Habitual affix
-i- K-i-laya
Follows N, K, H and adjective/adverb/verb
H-i-labi
-si- Stative verb affix Ka-si-laung
-sig- Simultaneous affix Nag-sig-laba
-sin- Continuative affix Nag-sin-laba

-sinka- Repetitive affix Nagsin(ka)sulti

Nakigamigu
Comitative affix
-akig- Makigamigu
-ki- source of relation usually inserted in -ag-
Pakigamigu

Glottal visarga Siradu-h-i

-h- Connects the suffixes to stem, Sulti-h-an
usually with a loan Spanish stem or that ends with vowels Saka-h-on

Suffix Meaning Example

-a Voice/ jussive affix Kauna
Voice/ jussive affix Kauni
-i
Locative-near affix Dir-i

-ha Glottal visarga -h- with Voice/ jussive affix Abriha

45
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Glottal visarga -h- with Voice/ jussive affix Abrihi

-hi
Locative-proximal affix Dinh-i
-han Glottal visarga -h- with Voice/ jussive affix Abrihan
-hon Glottal visarga -h- with Voice/ jussive affix Abrihon
-hanan Glottal visarga -h- with nominalizer affix Abrihanan
-honon Glottal visarga -h- with nominalizer affix Abrihonon
-an Voice/ jussive affix Bantajan
-nan Nominalizer affix Patjanan
-anan Nominalizer affix Patajanan

Voice/ jussive affix Kaunon

-on
Locative-middle affix Did-on
Patj(a>u)-non
-non Nominalizer-classifier affix
Surigaonon
Kaunonon
-onon Nominalizer-classifier affix
Suyatonon
Voice/ jussive affix Kadtu
-to
Locative-distant affix Did-to

Table 2 shows few affixes of March 2015 Sinurigao Orthography Report

recorded by the researcher of this study. In previous studies Tag-, Nag-, and
Mag- are analyzed as prefixes, after thorough analysis using the Stem-based
Affix Analysis of Nolasco (2005, 2007) infix -ag- is delineated as the source of
intentionality when attached to verb stem. Thus, t, n, m denote present, preterit,
and future respectively and function most of the time with the infix -ag- and -an-.

Figure 5. Sinurigao Tense-Aspect-Mood (STAM)

46
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Figure 5 presents the summary of Sinurigao Verbal Tense-Aspect-Mood. In

Minainit, they use <san> than <sin> e.g. nasan(ka), nagsan(ka), magsan(ka), and
<mag> than <sig> e.g. tamag, namag and mamag.

Figure 6. Sinurigao Orthography Project and Visarga (:) Recognition

Figure 6 shows the morphophonemic analysis with the use of Change,

Syncope, Metathesis. Visarga as well was noted making Sinurigao as closed
syllablic language of Philippines. This phenomenon is explained further in
Tunada (Phonology) section.

Figure 7. Mata v. Bata

Roach, P. (2000) explained the occurences of glottal stop just before p, t,

k or ts, e.g.: Nature [neɪɁtʃə]. Figure 7 shows the frame length of spectrogram
using Praat phonetic analyzer computer program. It is observed that in word
mata, there is a glottal before the letter t and glottal visarga after the last letter
a. While in word bata, there is glottal visarga before the letter t and glottal stop

47
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

after the last letter a. This result shows the claim of SYAGET that glottal visarga
in Sinurigao has written and unwritten forms.

Figure 8. Hypothetical Relationship Binutuan, Kinamayo

and Sinurigao Greetings

Figure 8 shows the hypothetical relationship of Binutuan, Kinamayo and

Sinurigao Greetings, and the morphophonemic relationship of Laro, Dola and
Duwa or play in English with the use of Conant’s (1911) theory on phonetic
changes of letters R, L, D, G, H, Y and J. This analysis supports the assumption
of SYAGET that there is linguistic unity despite orthographic diversity.

On Syntactical Features of Sinurigao

Table 3. Syntax of Sinurigao

Plastada F %
VSO 48 8.5
SVO 55 9.8
BOTH 459 81.7
Total 562 100.0

As shown in Table 3, the informants confirmed that they could understand

both samples of VSO (V)Nagduwa (S)si Intoy sanan Langga (O)nan bola and
SVO (S)Si Intoy sanan Langga (V)nagduwa (O)nan bola. Using the transitivity
hypothesis of Nolasco (2006), the given sentences have IV, S, Obl.

48
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

VSO and VOS patterns are normally used by Surigaonons in conversation.

SVO is observed in some corpora and some uttered statements, like in Figure 9:

Figure 9. Facebook Wall Posts

Source No.: SG 1

(23) Negosyante n<ag>reklamo kay…

PT: Businessman complains because…
(24) Ini na sitwasyon koman nakatawag na…
PT: This situation now has called already…
(25) Amo jaon taglaong…
PT: Truly that is called…

Though <ag> is apparent in (23), n- from m- which is analyzed by Nolasco

(2006) signals that there is no certain accomplishment in this sentence, and
conjunction ‘kay’ supports the argument which makes this sentence intransitive.
(24) naka is an abilitative/modal auxilliary with ‘na’ as realis particle. (25) t<ag>
signals that this is a transitive sentence, the sentence starts with adverbial situation
marker ‘amo’.

49
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Figure 10. Syntactic Parsing of Sinurigao SDOTVAdvP/STVDOAdvP Patterns

Source No.: SG 189

Phrase Structure Rule (PSR) is used to break down Sinurigao sentence

into its constituent parts (also known as syntactic categories) namely phrasal
categories and lexical categories (aka parts of speech). In Figure 11 upper portion,
the sentence (S)Ako (DO)ini (TV)ipaskil (Obl)‘sa FB Wall nako’ has SOV or
SDOTVObl pattern using PSR.
To transform the Sinurigao sentence pattern from SOV to SVO or from
SDOTVObl to STVDOObl pattern in Figure 11 lower portion, Transformational
Rule (TR) is used. The sentence is now (S)Ako (TV)ipaskil (DO)ini (Obl)‘sa FB
Wall nako’. The Uniformity Theta Assignment Hypothesis (UTAH) is necessary
for using PSR and TR to solve the Linking Problem. The UTAH would rule out
cases where the Theme is variously a specifier or a complement, or the Agent can
be either the specifier of vP or the specifier of VP. You can see that the function
of the UTAH is to rule out classes of analyses (Adger, 2002).

(26) Taghagkan ni Azi an uyab.

“Azi intentionally kissed the girlfriend.”
(27) Taghagkan an uyab ni Azi.
“The girlfriend of Azi was intentionally kissed.”

50
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

PSR and TR also show the subject-verb agreement (SVA) but in this study,
SVA is not the same with English interpretation. As observed in (26), the agent
Azi did the intentional kissing (verb) to the unidentified girlfriend (the patient),
maybe his girlfriend but most probably not. While in (27), the patient is certainly
the girlfriend of Azi but the intentional kissing (verb) is not done by him.

On Phonological Features of Sinurigao

Table 4. Phonology and semantic of Sinurigao

Sulti Tunada Pasabot F %
Sakto [saak-toh] igo ra sa kinanghanlanon 497 88.43
Sakto [saak-toh] binuhatan na tarong 500 88.97
Igo [ee1-goh] sakto ra sa kinanghanlanon 488 86.83
Igu [ii1/2-guu] naigu nan butang o tawo 462 82.21
Tugnaw [tuug-naw] tugnaw na panahon 407 72.42
Tignaw [tiig-naw] tignaw na panahon 494 87.90
Tunog [tuun-ohg] tunog na panahon 405 72.06
Init [ii1-niit] Paso na panahon 483 85.94
Init [ii1-niit] libog na sitwasyon 345 61.39

As reflected in Table 4, the informants showed comprehension of the above

nine morphemes with its corresponding phonology and semantic.

The common error of Surigaonons in writing Sinurigao is the inclusion of

hyphen in most of words to signify stress or syllabification (Hyphen according
to dictionaries is used at the end of a line when a word must be divided or to
link the parts of a compound word or phrase) such as Kan-on which is rice and
Kan-un or eat in English without hyphen because these are words only and not
compound words, same with Kada-adlaw which is everyday or every day. In
Sinurigao –o~un in words Kanon (n) and Kanun (v) are affixes. Kadaadlaw can
be understood as everyday and kada adlaw for every day.

51
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Figure 11. Facebook Wall Post

Source No.: SG 120

Check [tʃek] – @HyperCollins Publishers 2009

Chart [tʃart] – @HyperCollins Publishers 2009
Ch [ts] – (Almario, Binagong Ortograpiya sa Wikang Filipino, KWF 2013 Edition)

Tsek, Tsart, Manwal for Manual is now used in the Intellectualized Filipino
Language. The researcher does not question this intellectualization of the
Filipino language.

"Sa mga bantas, isang maraming gamit ang gitling (-). Dahil dito, marami din
ang nalilito at nagagamit ang gitling sa mga pagkakataóng hindi ito kailangan,”
(KWF 2013 Edition). Ex. Pa-cute, Ipa-cremate, and maki-computer (KWF,
2013, P32).
It is apparent that the Intellectualized Filipino Language is influenced by
English sounds. Sinurigao, as mentioned earlier in Dumanig, Jubilado and other
renowned researchers, is influenced as well by Filipino (Tagalog) and English
languages. Such influence contributed great impact on the Surigaonons’ use of
hyphen or gitling in Filipino and kalit in Sinurigao.
The two sakto and init words are homographs; tugnaw and tignaw are
synonyms, and igo and igu are different verb words.
(28) Tagpaigo ra namo an sudan kuman.
“We just budgeted our dish now.”
(29) Sa imo ra tagpaigu an isturya, bai. Kay kontra man kamo.
“The grumbles are addressed only to you, bai. Because you are
enemies.”

52
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

The use of the hyphen in the English compound nouns and verbs has, in
general, been steadily declining. Compounds that might once have been
hyphenated are increasingly left with spaces or are combined into one word. In
2007, the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary removed
the hyphens from 16 000 entries, such as fig-leaf (now fig leaf ), pot-belly (now
pot belly) and pigeon-hole (now pigeonhole). The advent of the Internet and
the increasing prevalence of computer technology have given rise to a subset
of common nouns that might have been hyphenated in the past e.g. “toolbar,”
“hyperlink,” “pastebin.”
The said news on the vital change in the use of hyphen in the English language
was an appropriate foundation of nous in writing the appropriate dictionary of
an Intellectualized Sinurigao.

Figure 12. Handwriting of Grade 2 Pupil

Source No.: SG 364

Figure 12 is a corpus of Sinurigao words Kanon, Pakana, and Sodan written

by Nikki Nocon, a grade 2 pupil at Mariano Memorial Central Elementary
School (MEMCES), Surigao City, who happens to be my niece. Highschool,
College and Elder Surigaonons will write these words as Kan-on, Pakan-a, and
Sod-an for better understanding. When I asked Nikki why letter “a” in pakana
is written below, she answered there’s no more space for it. It means that gitling or
hyphen (hyphenation) is not innate to a grade 2 pupil, a hypothesis.

53
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Figure 13. Handwriting of Grade IV Pupil

Source No.: SG 365

Figure 13 is a corpus of Sinurigao of Alegrianon, Jean O. Salubre, Grade IV

pupil section Sapphire at San Pedro Elementary School (SPES), Alegria, Surigao
del Norte. Words Sud-an, Kaon, Kan-on, and Pakan-a are recorded. Jean is
7th honors during this year’s first grading recognition. Thus, he belongs to fast
learner pupils. His writing system can be interpreted he has learned already the
syllabification of words with the use of gitling or hyphen.

Figure 14. Sinurigao Phonetic Alphabet (SPA) for Consonants

Figure 14 is the proposed Sinurigao Phonetic Alphabet for Consonants. I

introduce the glottal visarga with the symbol: which is normally perceived in the
initial, medial and final positions: ma:-ta: / mʌt-h-on / ma:-ta:. When in initial
or medial sometimes written as h.

54
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Figure 15. Sinurigao Phonetic Alphabet (SPA) for Vowel

Figure 15 is the proposed Sinurigao Phonetic Alphabet for Vowel. There

are three vowels with five sounds in Philippine languages as to internationally
renowned researchers, and the UPDLing125 students with Nolasco (2015)
discovered the fourth vowel with the use of PRAAT and Jplot which is [ᵾ] as in
bᵾgas in Hinigakit. I believe this fourth vowel is also apparent in Minamanwa
lᵾgtoʔ=’sit’ and Minaranaw ibᵾt =‘ honest’. However, for different sound
representations specially when using auditory-perception method the above SPA
is proposed.

On Basic Parts of Sinurigao

Table 5. Eight basic parts of Sinurigao

Parts of Speech Meaning f %
Ngayan an tawag sa tawo, tahod sa tawo, butang, lugar, tagbati,
513 91.28
(Noun) sitwasyon, pamaagi sanan numero.
Pamuli an ipuli sa ngayan kon nagkabalikbalik na sa hanay nan
459 81.67
(Pronoun) sinultihan.
Dajig an paghatag nan balor sa pamatasan, hitsura o dagway,
438 77.94
(Adjective) sanan estado nan ngayan o pamuli.
an gihimu nan ngayan o pamuli sa hanay nan sinultihan,
Hingas
Kompleto an hanay kon jauy hingas nan naghisgut o 484 86.12
(Verb)
taghisgutan.

55
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

an pagtibu nan Oras sanan Rason para mahatag an sakto

Orason
na kagrabeghon nan sitwasyon o pasabot, panahon sanan 394 70.11
(Adverb)
lokasyon nan sulti sa hanay nan sinultihan.
gamit adiser sa ngayan o pamuli. Parte nan grupo nan
Adiser mga sulti na gigamit na may suod na koneksyon sa, sanan
488 86.83
(Preposition) naandan na gamit adiser an, ngayan o pamuli para ipakita
an ila relasyon sa lain na parte sa hanay.
Pansumpay gamit para masumpay an mga hanay, masabtan sanan
500 88.97
(Conjunction) libog na hinanay, mga sinulti sanan mga sulti.
gamit para mahatag an pwersa nan sulti o sinulti sa
Syagit
sinultihan pareho nan sakit o kurat pero kon lahi wayay 516 91.81
(Interjection)
pasabot. Pananglit: Aray!

Analogy linguistics is the standardization of linguistic forms or the

development or production of linguistic forms and patterns that resemble those
already predominating in a language. The researcher has created equivalent
terms for adverb and preposition, orason and adiser respectively with the use
of neologism: a recently coined word or phrase, or a recently extended meaning
of an existing word or phrase, (Microsoft Encarta, 2009). Orason is the coinage
of oras (time) and rason (reason), and for adiser is the extended meaning as
preposition in 8 basic parts of Sinurigao. With the data collected from 562
informants, table 5 reveals that orason and dajig are the only new words to them
as part of Sinurigao eight basic parts of speech (POS). This result means that the
informants recognize the existence of Sinurigao POS.

Understanding Sinurigao Modality

Table 6. Modal auxiliary verbs of Sinurigao: a translation of English to Sinurigao

English Sinurigao F %
1. You will really learn. Maka 154 27.40
2. Just any kind of toys so that I can just only forget the maka/
236 41.99
trembling of fears from my beloved father... mahika
3. He has repeatedly uttered that he will slap Sheila. Tag/Gi 209 37.19
4. Do you know your mistake? Na/Naka 218 38.79

5. Have you finished the chores? Na/Tag/Gi 255 45.37

6. Did you finish the work? Na/Tag/Gi 299 53.20

7. Did you deliver the book? Na/Tag/Gi 341 60.68

56
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Table 6 displays that modal auxiliary verbs exist in Sinurigao with the use
of English to Sinurigao translation. Maka for will with 154 or 27.40%, maka/
mahika for can with 236 or 41.99%, tag/gi for have with 209 or 37.19%, na/
naka for do with 218 or 38.79%, na/tag/gi for have with 255 or 45.37%, na/tag/
gi for did with 299 or 53.20% for item no. 6 and 341 or 60.68% for item no 7.

Figure 16. Translation from English to Own Language

Source No. : SG 363

The informants usually translate item no. 1 You will really learn to Mahibayo
gajud kaw and Maka hibayu gajud kaw. The similarities between the two, Ma-
and Maka normally signal possibility. The difference is Ma- is a stative-irrealis
verb prefix which shows indicative/declarative mood while Maka is a abilitative
modal auxiliary. Mahibayo gajud kaw, therefore, can be You really know and You
will really know while Makat`un, Maka kat`un, and Maka hibayu are will learn;
thus, the translations for item no. 1 should be Makat`un gajud kaw, Maka kat`un
gajud kaw or Maka hibayu gajud kaw.
In Figure 16, Makasabot in English is will understand; thus, Maka sabut gajud
kaw is You will really understand. In item no. 2 can is maka. Have in item no. 3
is tag or gi. Do in item no. 4 is na or naka. Have and did in items no. 5, 6 and
7 could function as na, tag or gi. All responses are documented with the use
of English-Sinurigao translation. For clarification on item no. 1, below are the
sentential uses of the word mahibayu and maka hibayu.

57
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

(30) Mahibayu
a. Mahibayu gajud kaw unhon pagluto nan adobo. (stative-
irrealis; indicative/declarative)
“You really know how to cook adobo.”
b. Mahibayu gajud kaw na an imo uyab may lain. (stative-
irrealis; possibility)
“You will really know that your lover has another.”
c. Mahibayu gajud kaw magmahal nan tinudanay. (stative-
irrealis; indicative)
“You really know how to love truly.”

(31) Maka hibayu, Makatun and Maka katun (expressing possibility/

ability)
a. Maka hibayu gajud kaw unhon pagluto nan adobo.
“You will really learn how to cook adobo.”
b. Makatun gajud kaw mu langoy.
“You will really learn to swim.”
c. Maka katun gajud kaw nan sakto na Sinurigao.
“You will really learn the grammatical Sinurigao.”

Almost all of the linguists who conducted research in Philippine

languages claimed that na is just a particle or linker. In this study, the researcher
explicates that na in (32) could function as modality of doubt, dismay and shock.

(32) Na ajaw pagkadtu.

“Na don’t go.”
(33) Nay ajaw pagkadtu.
“Nay don’t go.”
(34) Ay ajaw pagkadtu.
“Ay don’t go.”
(35) Ayna ajaw pagkadtu.
“Ayna don’t go.”
(36) Ajaw na pagkadtu.
“Don’t go.”

Ay in (34) is the counterpart of (32) but more intense. Both (32) and (34)
shows common and neutral genders. While (33) has another function which

58
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

is disgust. Its gender shows femine. Ayna in (35) is more intense than its
counterpart (33). When na is transferred after negator ajaw, its function changed
to firm modality. This result supports the assumption in SYAGET that Modals
in Sinurigao is gender influenced.

On Contact of Sinurigao with Other Languages

Table 7. Language used in translating English to Sinurigao

LUT F %
Pure Sinurigao 198 35.2
Sinurigao – Binisaya 27 4.8
Sinurigao – Binisaya – Filipino 203 36.1
Sinurigao – Binisaya – Filipino – English 48 8.5
Sinurigao – Binisaya – English 7 1.2
Sinurigao – Filipino 66 11.7
Sinurigao – Filipino – English 10 1.8
Sinurigao – English 3 0.5
Total 562 100.0

The translation of the informants of the seven various English sentences to

Sinurigao resulted to the code-mixing of Sinurigao – Binisaya – Filipino with
203 counts as the highest factor, Sinurigao – Binisaya with 27, Sinurigao –
Binisaya – Filipino – English with 48, Sinurigao – Binisaya – English with 7,
Sinurigao – Filipino with 66, Sinurigao – Filipino – English with 10, Sinurigao
– English with 3. This result supports the study of Dumanig and David (2013)
that extensive bilingualism occurs in Sinurigao. This result also supports the
assumption of SYAGET that colonization and neo-colonialism affect language.
The Pure Sinurigao translation has 198 or 35.2% but this result might be a
misleading one for I am a product of bilingual/multilingual education as well.
The common Bisaya words noted are JUD, UNSA, ANG, NGA and HATOD,
for Filipino TRABAHO and TAPOS, for English DELIVER and CHORES.
This result further supports the hypothesis that closely related languages are
highly vulnerable to contact effects while more indistinctly related languages are
assumed to be less likely influence one another (Thomason 2001).

59
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

The Economic crisis caused by colonization and neocolonialism also affect

language. Managupyak [ma:/na:/gup/yak], a word used by farmers in 1960s
to 1970s at San Francisco, Anao-aon, Surigao del Norte to trade for labor or
farm in exchange of rice produced from the farmed land (Betita, 2014). The
said word is already unknown, alien or weird to new generation. The 1990s to
2000s generations of farmers know Manuki [ma:/nu:/ki`], a word used to farm
the land of their usual employer in exchange of money. Money instead of the rice
produced from their labor for they can have it before or after their work, and
makes it easy for them to buy their needs.

CONCLUSIONS

Based on the results, it is concluded that the Sinurigao Yare Ameliorator

Grammar Establisher Theory (SYAGET) significantly supports the analysis of the
grammar and the contact of Sinurigao with other languages. The study discloses
that Sinurigao morphology has <ag> affix for intentional, <a> for unintentional,
<u> for usual statement(s), tig-/man- with –hay for noun forming word, <an> for
plurality, pa- for causivity, ka- for reciprocity, and the rest of affixes described in
Table 2. On Sinurigao phonology, glottal visarga has written form like the -h- in
tigmatahay to join the –ay to the stem. It also has unwritten form as observed in
mata[h] and ba[h]ta`. With the use of Nolasco’s (2005) Transitivity Hypothesis
in analyzing Sinurigao, intentional, unintentional and usual structures were
documented. Modified subject-verb agreement was drawn from the data in
Sinurigao with the use of Phrase Structure and Transformational Rules. On
semantics, meaning and function of word or stem in Sinurigao changes when
affix(es) is attached or when stress is transferred from one syllable to another. On
understanding Sinurigao modality, aside from possibility, ability and necessity,
there are doubt, dismay and shock modality too. Additionally, this study
concludes that economic crisis caused by colonization and neocolonization affect
Sinurigao. It also mirrors significant phenomenon of the contact of Sinurigao
with other languages that social belonging forced speaker to shift own language
to social language and frequent contact of different languages affects the minor
language like Sinurigao.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Given the findings and conclusions, the following recommendations are

presented: 1) Sinurigao can be intellectualized and it must start in establishing its
60
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

Discourse Grammar (DG); 2) IPA must be used as well in Sinurigao [si:/nuː/ri:/

gau:] to intellectualize the language and establish its intellectualized morphology
and phonology relationship; 3) An in-depth study on morphophonology,
morphosyntactics and semantics to unify the orthographic features of PLs must
be conducted; 4) Utilization of Sinurigao Yare Ameliorator Grammar Establisher
Theory by Francis Tom A. Paredes to researches that establish grounded theories
be taken into account by researchers and experts and, 5) Researches on local
languages contact be considered as one of the priority research agenda of
international research enthusiasts.

TRANSLATIONAL RESEARCH

The outcome of this study entitled “Sinurigao: Pormada, Tunada, Plastada,

Pasabot (Sinurigao: Morphology, Phonology, Syntax, Semantic” had been
translated into original Sinurigao language and linguistics manual and was used
by college and graduate school students. The manual improved the knowledge
of college and graduate students from Surigao City, Manila, and Mindanao on
Sinurigao language rules. The translation of the study results was made possible
by the support of the Department of Education Division of Surigao del Norte
under SDS Evelyn R. Fetalvero, CESO VI and Alegria National High School
under Principal II Segundino A. Madjos, Jr.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to express my sincere thanks to my staff Rolix P. Menil and Alvin
T. Arcenal for risking their lives going to places new to them especially crossing
the big waves going to Siargao on a lantsa (boat) just to document with the use
of questionnaire the Sinurigao of Dapa, Del Carmen and Pilar. My heartfelt
gratitude to Mr. Ruel T. Buba, Mr. Jonas Robert L. Miranda, Mrs. Luz Sandra
R. Fernandez, Frater Felix O. Eduave, Engr. Danilo K. Racho, Mr. Steven Egay,
Mr. Art Cruje, Atty. Carey F. Lozada, Atty. Charlo D.C. Paredes, Mr. Judel C.
Paredes, Dr. Esperanza P. Paglinawan, Mrs. Iryn E. Cavite, Ms. Ava Marie A.
Villareal, Dr. Francis Perlas-Dumanig, Dr. Rodney C. Jubilado for their guidance
and advices. Great thanks to my family for scrutinizing my work which trained
me to defend and prove its worthy output and to the informants especially to
my FB friends for sharing their Sinurigao: Mano Bormeo Modanza, Mano Max
Tandan Jr., Mano Antonio Villareal, Mano Norberto Betita, Engr. Lem Felicio,
Mr. PidjanggaZimm Mosende, Engr. John Mark O. Tiu, Mr. Pepito Salino Jr.,
61
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Engr. Angelique Casaña, Donna Grace Dagangon, Richelly Alag-Viado, Rionald

J. Gonzalez, and Lady Love I. Plaza. A million thanks to Mr. Segundino A.
Madjos, Jr. – Alegria NHS Principal I, Dr. Evelyn R. Fetalvero, CESO VI –
Schools Division Superintendent of DEPED Surigao del Norte Division, Mayor
Ernesto T. Matugas, Cong. Francisco T. Matugas and Governor Sol F. Matugas
for supporting this endeavor.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS

Inflected/conjugated word < prefix < infix > + root word ‘English
Gloss’ – suffix, ABSolutive, Realis, IRRealis,Volition/DeliberativeAffix,
TRansitive, INTransitive, ERGative, Agent, punctuation mark, Wh-
questions, AdvervSituation, LinKeR, Acquiescence/NaturalAffix, AdverbTime,
Singular, Plural, InfinitiveVerb, ADJective, PERFectiveVerb, EMPhasis,
ActiveVoiceFutureFormat, OBLique, VerbPresentForm, Nominalizer, 1 person,
2 person, 3 person, PROXimal, MEDial, DISTal.

LITERATURE CITED

Adger, D. (2002). Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach. Retrieved on August 28,

2014 from http://goo.gl/OeUHVI

Bantawig, R. B. (2014). Siquijodnon-English Code-Mixing. IAMURE

Multidisciplinary Research. Retrieved on May 18, 2014 from http://goo.gl/
tv53IK

Boutin, M. (2009). Towards a realizational approach to morphology in Role &

Reference Grammar. Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics. Retrieved on
September 8, 2014 from http://goo.gl/e7jhmB

Dumalagan, F. M. (2001). Thesis Abstract: A Comparative Study of Surigaonon,

Kamayo-Hinatuan, and Kamayo-Bislig Verbal Affixes. Iligan City: MSU – Iligan
Institute of Technology. Retrieved on August 16, 2014 from http://www.elib.
gov.ph/downloadfile.php?uid=6d40f563c0243d0a2e2814c462792055

Dumanig, F. and Jubilado, R. (2006). A Descriptive Analysis of Surigaonon

Language. Retrieved on January 12, 2014 from http://jakarta.shh.mpg.de/

62
 Vol. 8 · September 2015

seals_abstracts.php and http://jakarta.shh.mpg.de/seals/Dumanig_SEALS_

XVI_ Abstract.pdf

Dumanig, F. D. & David, M. K. (2013). The Maintenance and Preservation of the

Surigaonon Language in Cyberspace. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of
Malaya. Retrieved on June 04, 2014 from http://goo.gl/UJA8La

Fillmore, L.W. (1991). When Learning A Language Means Losing the First.
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 6, 323-346. Retrieved January 05, 2014
from http://goo.gl/W1krFN

Gentile, G. (2004). Language Acquisition and Universal Grammar: A Survery of

Recent Reseach. Universita’ Degli Studi Di Padova. Retrieved on September 9,
2014 from https://goo.gl/foDW5H

Jubilado, R. C. & Manueli, M. K. (2010). Malay and Cebuano Ditransitives:

A Minimalist Perspective. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: University of Malaya.
Retrieved on August 28, 2014 from http://goo.gl/ZAuJpI

Kamat, P.V. (2015). Research Ethics. Retrieved on March 22, 2014 from http://
goo.gl/2mNj6F

Lewis, Paul, Simons, & Fennig (2013). Ethnologue: Languages of the World,
Seventeenth Edition. Dallas Texas: SIL International. Retrieved on January
12, 2014 from http://www.ethnologue.com/.

Lewis, M. (ed.), (2009). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, Sixteenth edition.

Dallas, Tex.: SIL International. Retrieved on August 21, 2016 from Online
version: http://www.ethnologue.com/.

Marantz, A. (2006). Generative linguistics within the cognitive neuroscience of

language. MIT: The Linguistic Review 22 (2005), 429-445. Retrieved on
September 5, 2014 from http://goo.gl/MW566J

McAdams, D. (2009). A Theory of Generative Grammar. Retrieved on September

5, 2014 from https://goo.gl/gu2i1C

63
IAMURE International Journal of Literature, Philosophy and Religion

Mundiz, M. (2010). Ipalakpak an Alima (A Study on Surigaonon and Kamayo

Dialects of Surigao Provinces in Mindanao). Retrieved on August 21,
2016 from https://www.scribd.com/doc/36887532/Ipalakpak-an-alima-A-
Study-on-Surigaonon-and-Kamayo-Dialects-of-the-Surigao-Provinces-in-
Mindanao-Part-1

Nolasco, R (2003). Ang pagkaergatibo at pagkatransitibo ng mga wikang

Pilipino: Isang Pagsusuri sa Sistemang Bose. Ph.D Dissertation. Unibersidad
ng Pilipinas Diliman Quezon City.

Nolasco, R. and Saclot M (2005). M- and S- Transitivity in Philippine Type

Languages. Retrieved on August 8, 2016 from http://linguistics.buffalo.edu/
people/faculty/vanvalin /rrg/Nolasco-Saclot%20paper%20for%20RRG%20
05.pdf

Nolasco, R (2015). Personal Interview: On Zorc’s (1977) Work on Bisayan

Languages.

Pearl, L. (2009). Testing the Universal Grammar Hypothesis. Retrieved on

September 5, 2014 from

Tremblay, A. (2013). Theoretical And Methodological Perspectives On The Use

Of Grammaticality Judgment Tasks In Linguistic Theory. Retrieved on Aug.
17, 2016 from http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/
Tremblay.pdf

Zwart, J-W (1998). Review Article: The Minimalist Program. United Kingdom:
Cambridge University Press. Retrieved on August 28, 2014 from http://goo.
gl/nrUS9w

Indexed by:

64