Maranao language

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Not to be confused with Melanau language.

Maranao

Mëranaw

Pronunciation [ˈmәranaw]

Native to Philippines

Region Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur

Ethnicity Maranao people

Native speakers (780,000 cited 1990 census)[1]

Language family Austronesian

 Malayo-Polynesian
o Philippine
 Greater Central Philippine
 Danao
 Maranao

Writing system Latin;

Historically written in Arabic

Official status

Official language in Regional language in the Philippines

Regulated by Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino

Language codes

ISO 639-3 mrw

Glottolog mara1404 [2]

 Area where Maranao is spoken

Maranao (Mëranaw [ˈmәranaw])[3] is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in the
provinces of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur in the Philippines, and in Sabah, Malaysia.
Iranun was once considered a dialect.
Unique among other Danao languages, Maranaoan is spoken with a distinct downstep accent, as
opposed to stress accent.

Contents

 1Distribution
 2Orthography
 3Phonology
o 3.1Vowels
o 3.2Consonants
 3.2.1Velar fricative [h]
 3.2.2Consonant elongation
 3.2.3Hard consonants and vowel raising
 4Grammar
o 4.1Case markers
o 4.2Pronouns[7][10]
 5See also
 6References
 7External links

Distribution[edit]
Maranao is spoken in the following areas (Ethnologue).

 Lanao del Sur

 Lanao del Norte
 northwestern Maguindanao
 northwestern Cotabato
 northwestern Bukidnon

Orthography[edit]
Maranaoan was historically written in Arabic letters, which were known as Batang Arab. It is now
written with Latin letters.[4] Though there is no officially proclaimed standard orthography, Maranao is
more or less written phonetically as influenced by Filipino. The following are the letters used in
writing out native words:
A, B, D, E, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, NG, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y [5]
In representing the mid central vowel (or schwa) /ә/, different authors have employed various means
to represent this sound (e.g. "E" or "U").[6] Consequently, Maranao social media use either of the two
letters or just leave it blank (e.g. saken can also be spelled sakn and sakun in the internet). "Ë" may
also be used as recommend by the Komisyong ng Wikang Filipino's Ortograpiyang Pambansa of
2013.
In 1996, McKaughan and Macaraya, in their revised Maranao dictionary, the digraph "ae" was
introduced and used to represent the supposed presence of the vowel /ɨ/.
Double vowels are pronounced separately. For example, "kapaar" is pronounced as /kapaʔaɾ/.
In some older orthographies, "q" is used for the glottal stop regardless of position,[7] while in others
an apostrophe is used. Outside of linguistic literature, the glottal stop, regardless of position, is not
marked in contemporary spelling.
The final /w/ sound in diphthongs and "W" were marked with "-o" in older orthographies, as in other
Philippine languages, but both are nowadays spelled as "W". Also, "i" was used in older
orthographies to transcribe /j/, which is currently spelled as "Y".
"H" is only used for Malay loanwords[4], and "sh" (pronounced as /ʃ/) is used for Arabic loanwords and
names such as "Ishak" (Isaac)[7].
"Di" or "j" are used to transcribe the /d͡ʒ/ sound, such as "radia/raja" (from the Sanskrit word for
"king", "Rāja") or the English name "John"[7].

Phonology[edit]
Below is the sound system of Maranao including underlying phonetic features.[6]
Vowels[edit]
Maranao has four vowel phonemes that can become more close or higher when in certain
environments (see hard consonants below).[8] Although previous studies have analyzed the ɨ sound
as an ae phoneme.

Vowels[8]
 Front Central Back

/i/
Close
[ɪ ~ i]

/ә/ /o/
Mid
[ә ~ ɨ] [o ~ u]

/a/
Open
[a ~ ɤ]

Consonants[edit]
According to Lobel (2013), Maranao has the following consonants:[6]

Consonants

Bilabial Dental Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal

Nasal m n ŋ

Voiceless p t k ʔ

Stop Heavy p’ t’ k’

Voiced b d ɡ

Fricative
Heavy s’ (h)

Flap ɾ

Lateral l
 Approximant w j

Velar fricative [h][edit]

According to Lobel (2013), [h] only occurs in a select number of Malay loanwords:[6]

 tohan 'God'
 tahon 'astrological sign'
 hadapan 'in front (of God)'
Consonant elongation[edit]
Consonants are also pronounced longer if preceded with a schwa /ә/. However, this process is not a
form of gemination since consonant elongation in Maranao is not distinctive as seen in
other Philippine languages such as Ilokano and Ibanag. Some of these are:

 tëpad [tәpːad] 'get off a vehicle'

 tëkaw [tәkːaw] 'startled; surprised'
 Mëranaw is spoken by the Maranao tribe.
 Solutan [solutːan] (Sultan of Gandamatu) Sultan sa Gandamatu.
Hard consonants and vowel raising[edit]
Since 2009, it has been proposed that previous studies on the phonology of Maranao had
overlooked the presence of "heavy" consonants.[8][9][6] These four "heavy" consonants being /p’ t’ k’
s’/. Vowels that follow these consonants are raised in position.

The four Maranao vowels (a, ә, i, o) are raised when they follow hard consonants[8]
There are four possible environments for that determine whether the vowel will be raised or not:

1. Non-raising - /p t k s m n ŋ r w y/
2. Obligatory Raising - /p’ t’ k’ s’ (h)/
o Tohan is pronounced as [t̪ o.hɤn] instead of [to.han]
3. Optional Raising - /b d g/
4. Transparent - /l ʔ/ - (meaning the consonant before it will determine the raising)

Grammar[edit]
Case markers[edit]
In contrast to Tagalog which has 3 case markers (ang/ng/sa), and Iloko which has 2 (ti/iti),
Maranao has four: so ko o sa
Pronouns[7][10][edit]
Maranao pronouns can be free or bound to the word/morpheme before it.

Nominative Nominative Genitive/Ergative Oblique

Meaning
(bound) (bound) (free)
(free)

I saken (a)ko aken raken

you (singular) seka ka (ng)ka reka
he/she/it sekaniyan sekaniyan (n)iyan rekaniyan
we (dual) sekta ta ta rekta
we (including you) sektano tano tano rektano
we (excluding you) sekami kami (a)mi rekami
you (plural) sekano kano (n)iyo rekano
they siran siran (i)ran kiran

See also[edit]
 Languages of the Philippines

References[edit]
1. ^ Maranao at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2017). "Maranao". Glottolog 3.0.
Jena, Germany: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.
3. ^ "Ortograpiyang Pambansa" (PDF). Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino. Archived from the
original (PDF) on 2013-10-12. Retrieved 2013-08-28.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b "Maranao language and alphabet". Omniglot. Retrieved 2018-09-23.
5. ^ Rubino, Carl. "Maranao". iloko.tripod.com.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Lobel, Jason William (2013). Philippine and North Bornean languages: issues in
description, subgrouping, and reconstruction (PDF) (Ph.D. dissertation thesis). Manoa: University of
Hawaii at Manoa.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c d McKaughan, Howard P.; Macaraya, Batua A. (1967). A Maranao Dictionary (PDF).
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Lobel, Jason William; Riwarung, Labi Hadji Sarip (2009). "Maranao Revisited: An
Overlooked Consonant Contrast and its Implications for Lexicography and Grammar". Oceanic
Linguistics. 48 (2): 403–438. doi:10.1353/ol.0.0040. JSTOR 40783537.
9. ^ Lobe, Jason William; Riwarung, Labi Hadji Sarip (2011). "Maranao: A preliminary phonological
sketch with supporting audio". Language Documentation & Conservation. 5: 31–59. hdl:10125/4487.
10. ^ Kaufman, Daniel (2010). "The grammar of clitics in Maranao" (PDF). Piakandatu ami: Dr. Howard P.
McKaughan: 132–157 – via SIL Pacific.