Maranao language


Maranao, sometimes spelled as Maranaw, Meranaw, or Mëranaw, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and their respective cities of Marawi and Iligan located in the Philippines, as well found also in Sabah, Malaysia. It is spoken among the Moros within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
It is more closer to Iranun than to Maguindanao within the Danao subgroup.

Distribution

Maranao is spoken in the following provinces of:
All of which are located within the island of Mindanao in southern Philippines.

Writing system

Maranao was historically written in Perso-Arabic letters called Jawi, which were known as Batang-a-Arab or Batang Arab. It is now written with Latin letters. Though there is no officially proclaimed standard orthography, Maranao is more or less written as influenced by contemporary Filipino conventions. 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
In general, double vowels are pronounced separately, for example, kapaar is pronounced as.
The final 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, which is currently spelled as "Y".
"H" is only used for Malay loanwords, and "sh" is normally used for Arabic loanwords and names such as Ishak.
"Di" or "j" are used to transcribe the sound, such as radia/raja or the English name John.
In representing the mid central vowel, different authors have employed various means to represent this sound. In social media, speakers use either of the two letters or just leave it blank. Meanwhile, the Commission on the Filipino Language recommends spelling this sound using "Ë" for different Philippine languages in its 2013 Ortograpiyang Pambansa.
In a revised Maranao Dictionary by McKaughan and Macaraya in 1996, the digraph "'ae" was introduced and used to represent the supposed presence of the vowel. However, analysis by Lobel showed that this may actually be an allophone of after hard consonants. McKaughan and Macaraya also used "q" for the glottal stop regardless of position. Diphthongs such as were spelled as "ao, ai, oi".
The orthography used in the study by Lobel was the one developed by Aleem Abdulmajeed Ansano of Taraka, Senator Ahmad Domocao "Domie" Alonto of Ramain, and Shaiekh Abdul Azis Guroalim Saromantang of Tugaya. In this orthography, the "hard consonants" are written as "ph, th, kh, z".

Phonology

Below is the sound system of Maranao including underlying phonetic features.

Vowels

Maranao has four vowel phonemes that can become more close or higher when in certain environments. The vowel raising effects of hard consonants may have led earlier studies to Although previous studies have analyzed the sound as a separate phoneme instead of a raised allophone of.
FrontCentralBack
Close//
Mid//
//
Open//

Vowel only occurs in loanwords from Spanish through Tagalog or Cebuano and from Malay.

Consonants

According to Lobel, Maranao has the following consonants:
In Maranao, is not phonemic word-initially. Hence, layok aken is smoothly pronounced.
Since the heavy consonants developed from consonant clusters, they are only found word-medially.
Orthography-wise, "r" is used for, "y" is used for, and "ng" is used for

Fricative h

According to Lobel, only occurs in a few recent Malay loanwords:
  • tohan 'God'
  • tahon 'astrological sign'
  • hadapan 'in front '
Earlier Arabic loanwords with "h" that entered Proto-Danao or earlier Maranao were realized as k.
  • kalal 'halal '
  • karam 'haram ',
  • kadî 'hadji '
  • Kadis 'Hadith'

Consonant elongation

Consonants are also pronounced longer if preceded with a schwa. 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:
  • tepad 'get off a vehicle'
  • tekaw 'startled; surprised'

Hard consonants and vowel raising

Since 2009, it has been proposed that previous studies on the phonology of Maranao had overlooked the presence of "heavy" consonants, these four "heavy" consonants being. Vowels that follow these consonants are raised in position.
There are four possible environments for that determine whether the vowel will be raised or not:
  1. Non-raising –
  2. Obligatory raising –
  3. * Tohan is pronounced as instead of
  4. Optional raising –
  5. * Evidenced by some younger speakers writing gagaan as gegaan.
  6. Transparent – – the raising from the consonant before it will "pass through" and affect the following vowel.
Similar vowel raising can be also found in Madurese.

Historical development

Consonant cluster homogenization occurred in earlier Danao and Subanon, where the articulations of the first consonant followed that of the second.
A study by Allison noted that Proto-Danao *b, *d, g* were lost in modern Maranao when found before other consonants with the same place of articulation, but preserved elsewehere.
Lobel noted that this sound change actually resulted in two features of Maranao phonology: heavy consonants and raised vowels. Aspirated consonants also developed in a similar way in Southern (Lapuyan) Subanon, but without the vowel-raising.
Proto-Greater Central PhilippineProto-DanaoMaguindanaonMaranao
*-gp-, *-dp-, *-bp-*-bp--bp--ph-
*-gt-, *-dt-, *-bt-*-dt--dt--th-
*-gs-, *-ds-, *-bs-*-ds--ds--z-
*-gk-, *-dk-, *-bk-*-gk--gk--kh-

Grammar

Case markers

In contrast to Tagalog which has three case markers, and Iloko which has two, Maranao has four:.
Curiously, the sa is indefinite in Maranao, whereas it is definite/specific in Cebuano and Tagalog.

Pronouns

Maranao pronouns can be free or bound to the word/morpheme before it.
MeaningNominative
Nominative
Genitive/Ergative
Oblique
Isakenkoakenraken
you sekakakareka
he/she/itsekaniyansekaniyaniyanrekaniyan
we sektatatarekta
we sektanotanotanorektano
we sekamikamimirekami
you sekanokanoiyorekano
theysiransiranrankiran

Common words

Below are common words found in Maranao sentences, their translations in English, Cebuano, and Tagalog, and similar words in distant Philippine languages.
MaranaoCebuanoTagalogOther PH regional language or dialectEnglish
nakayayis
nadayontáposampa then
anganathat is
timanbuokpirasopiece
dennanaren already
penpapawill, soon
didilihindidi' won't, isn't
dawalahindiwala' didn't
dawalawalaway/waruun nothing
adenadunaymayroonawn, adda there is...
inomaoiyo it is such
agougatiban and
atawakon, ooatawa or
ogaidapan, perongunit, subalit, perosa'/sagawa'/saga'/ malayngkan however, but
o didili pud, dili sabhindi rinbukun isab/bukun sab nor
languntananlahatkatān all
imantokaronngayonbihaun now
owayoooo/opohuun yes
sabaptungod, kaydahil, kasisabab, kalna' or karna' because
sedaisdaisdaista' fish
sapi'bakabakasapi' cow
pagariigsuonkapatidlanggung, taymanghud sibling
bagobag-obagobagu, baro new
tahontuigtaontahun year
koda'kabayokabayokura' horse
sorabsuwabtalimsulab blade
doniya'kalibotanmundoduniya' world
dalendegdalugdogkulogdawgdug thunder
sorga'langitlangitsulga' heaven
narka', diyahanamimpyernoimpyernonalka'/narka', jahanam hell
mataednindot, tsadamagandamalingkat nice, elegant
otinutin, tintintiti, utenutin male genitalia, penis
papanoklanggamibonmanuk-manuk bird
diyandi'kasabotan, saadkasunduuan, pangakojanji' agreement, promise
ngaranngalanngalan/pangalanngān
nagan 		name

Sample texts

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Maranao:
.

Cebuano:
.

Tagalog:
.

English:
.

Noun phrases

These phrases were taken from Alonto's Maranao Drills.
Legend:,,,,
MaranaoCebuanoEnglish

MaranaoCebuanoEnglish

Time and Space

MaranaoCebuanoEnglish