Waray language

Waray is an Austronesian language and the fifth-most-spoken native regional language of the Philippines, native to Eastern Visayas. It is the native language of the Waray people and second language of the Abaknon people of Capul, Northern Samar, and some Cebuano-speaking peoples of western and southern parts of Leyte island. It is the third most spoken language among the Bisayan languages, only behind Cebuano and Hiligaynon.

Nomenclature

The term Waray comes from the word often heard by non-speakers meaning 'none' or 'nothing' in the language; similarly, Cebuanos are known in Leyte as mga Kana and their language as Kana. The Cebuano pronunciation of Waray is walay with the same meaning.
During the Spanish period, texts refer to the language as simply being a dialect of "Visayan". In contrast, most contemporary linguists consider many of these "Visayan dialects" to be distinct languages, and the term Visayan is usually taken to refer to what is called Cebuano in contemporary linguistic literature. Domingo Ezguerra's 1663 Arte de la lengua bisaya de la provincia de Leyte refers to the "Visayan tongue of the province of Leyte", Figueroa's Arte del idioma Visaya de Samar y Leyte refers to the "Visaya language of Samar and Leyte". Antonio Sanchez's 1914 Diccionario español-bisaya refers to the speech of "Sámar and Leyte".

Dialects

Linguist Jason Lobel considers there are 25 dialects and subdialects of Waray-Waray.

Tacloban: "standard" dialect: the dialect used in television and radio broadcasts and in education
Abuyog, Leyte: heavy Cebuano influence
Culaba, Biliran: heavy Cebuano influence
Catbalogan: "original" dialect: Pure Waray, central part of Samar Island
Calbayog: mixture of the Tacloban dialect and the dialect of Northern Samar
Allen, Northern Samar: mostly Waray Sorsoganon mixed with Northern Samarenyo. Dialects in neighboring towns have also borrowed extensively from Waray Sorsoganon.

Many Waray dialects feature a sound change in which Proto-Bisayan *s becomes in a small number of common grammatical morphemes. This sound change occurs in all areas of Samar south of the municipalities of Santa Margarita, Matuginao, Las Navas, and Gamay, as well as in all of the Waray-speaking areas of Leyte, except the towns of Javier and Abuyog. However, this sound change is an areal feature rather than a strictly genetic one.
Most Waray dialects in northeastern and Eastern Samar have the close central unrounded vowel as a reflex of Proto-Austronesian *e.

Usage

Waray is one of the many regional languages found in the Philippines and used in local government. It is widely used in media particularly in television and radio broadcasts, however, not in print media because most regional newspapers are published in English.
The language is used in education from kindergarten to primary level as part of the Philippine government's K–12 program since 2012 in which pupils from kindergarten to third grade are taught in their respective indigenous languages.
Waray is also used in the Mass in the Roman Catholic Church and in the worship services of different Christian sects in the region. Bibles in Waray are also available. In 2019, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures was released in Waray-Waray. However, there is a growing population of Muslims in the region with the first mosque, Tacloban Mosque and Islamic Center, through a charity built by a Turkish Islamic religious authority in Tacloban at 2017 which teaches the scriptures and offers Friday sermons in both Waray and Cebuano in general.

Phonology

Vowels

Most Waray dialects have three vowel phonemes:, and . Some dialects have an additional vowel ; words with in these dialects have in the majority dialects.

	Front	Central	Back
Close/Mid
Open

Consonants

Waray has a total of 16 consonant phonemes:. Two extra postalveolar sounds are heard when occurs after, further proceeding another vowel sound.

	Labial	Alveolar	Dorsal	Glottal
Nasal
Stop
Fricative
Rhotic		~
Approximant

Alphabet

The Waray alphabet consists of 18 letters: 17 letters of the ISO basic Latin alphabet, alongside one digraph: NG.

Number	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Upper case	C	E	F	J	Ñ	O	Q	V	X	Z
Lower case	c	e	f	j	ñ	o	q	v	x	z

These ten letters are not used in any native Waray words. Aside from foreign loanwords, they are usually replaced by other letters.

Writing system

Waray, like all Philippine languages today, is written using the Latin script. There is no officially-approved orthography for the language and different writers may use differing orthographic styles. In general, it has become common to write the language following the current orthographic conventions of Filipino.

Vocabulary

Waray uses many different words to specify a particular thing. These words might not be the same in spelling and in construction but they share the same meaning, making it a very diverse language.
Here are some examples of demonstratives and adverbs together with their equivalent definition in Waray-Waray:

English	Waray
what	ano, anyá, náno
where	diin, ngain, háin
who	hino/sino
when	sán-o, kakán-o, kasán-o
how	páno, gin-áano, gin-áanya
here	didi, dinhi, ngadi, nganhi, áanhi, áadi
there	ngada, dida, ngadto, didto, aadto, aada
that	iito, iton, ito, it
those	adto, adton, aadto
these	aadin, adin, inin
why	kay, kay ano, kay ngano, ngano
this	ini, inin, adin, adi

Numbers

Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers. Some, especially the old ones, are spoken alongside the Spanish counterparts.

English	Native Waray	Derived from Spanish	Spanish
one	usá	uno	un/uno una
two	duhá	dos	dos
three	tuló	tres	tres
four	upat	kuwatro	cuatro
five	limá	singko	cinco
six	unom	sais/says	seis
seven	pitó	syete	siete
eight	waló	otso	ocho
nine	siyám	nuebe/nuybe	nueve
ten	napúlô	dies/dyis	diez
eleven	napúlô kag-usá	onse	once
twelve	napúlô kagduhá	dose	doce
thirteen	napúlô kagtuló	trese	trece
fourteen	napúlô kag-upat	katorse	catorce
fifteen	napúlô kaglimá	kinse	quince
sixteen	napúlô kag-unom	disisays/disisais	dieciséis
seventeen	napúlô kagpitó	disisyete	diecisiete
eighteen	napúlô kagwaló	disiotso	dieciocho
nineteen	napúlô kagsiyám	disinuybe	diecinueve
twenty	karuhaàn	baynte	veinte
twenty one	karuhaàn kag-usà	baynte uno	veintiuno
twenty two	karuhaàn kagduhà	baynte dos	veintidós
thirty	katluàn	traynta	treinta
forty	kap-atàn	kuwarenta	cuarenta
fifty	kalim-àn	singkwenta	cincuenta
sixty	kaunmàn	saysenta/sisenta	sesenta
seventy	kapituàn	sitenta	setenta
eighty	kawaluàn	otsenta/ochienta	ochenta
ninety	kasiyamàn	nobenta	noventa
one hundred	usa ka gatòs	syen	cien
one thousand	usa ka yukòt	mil	mil
one million	usa ka ribo	milyon	un millón

Loanwords and cognates

Waray has borrowed vocabulary extensively from other languages, especially from Spanish. These words are being adopted to fill lexical gaps of the recipient language. Spanish colonialization introduced new systems to the Philippine society.