Agusan language

Agusan is a Manobo language of northeastern Mindanao in the Philippines.

Distribution and dialects

Agusan Manobo is spoken in the following areas.

Agusan del Sur Province: western area, southeast of Lake Buluan
inland areas of Surigao del Sur Province
southwest of Lanuza Peninsula to Lianga Bay in Surigao del Sur Province
western Agusan del Norte Province
Davao de Oro and Davao del Norte provinces: continuous strip along northern borders
Surigao del Norte Province: southern tip, inland
scattered small border areas of Bukidnon and Davao Oriental provinces

Dibabawon Manobo is spoken in the following areas.

northern Davao de Oro Province: upper Agusan River area
Davao Oriental Province: Boston and Cateel municipalities
Davao del Norte Province: Asuncion municipality

Rajah Kabunsuwan Manobo is spoken in the following areas.

northern border of Davao Oriental Province
southeast corner of Agusan del Sur Province
southern Surigao del Sur Province: Lingig

The Omayamnon, Dibabawon, and Rajah Kabunsuwan dialects are divergent.

Phonology

Consonants

In Agusan, the stops have unreleased variants when occurring before another consonant, silence, and in syllable-final position. The glottal stop occurs in all consonant positions. Of the continuants, all occur in syllable-initial position and all except in word-final position. The consonants and are used interchangeably.

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive
Nasal
Fricative
Flap
Approximant

Vowels

Agusan has only five vowels,,,,, and. Vowels may appear alone, after a consonant, or between consonants in a syllable. All vowels, with the exception of, may occur "in a sequence of identical vowels separated by a glottal stop". The vowel never occurs next to the consonant.

	Front	Central	Back
High
Mid
Low