A Study of the Aklanon Dialect. Volume One: Grammar

UNIT ONE: PREUMINARY REMARKS ON AKLANON.

1. LOCATION OF AKLANON. Aklanon, which is spelled "Akeanon" by its writers,
and pronounced /Ak^non/ by its speakers," is spoken by some 360 thousand people in
or bordering on the province of Aklan on the island of Panay in the Philippines . The dia-
lect is somewhat understandable to the people of neighboring provinces and islands who
speak any one of six West Visayan dialects. These dialects are a family of dialects
whose ancestor might be called proto-West Visayan, which in turn was a member of the
Malayo -Polynesian family of languages, to which such languages as Tagalog and Cebuano
belong.

2. CHART: THE MALAYO-POLYNESIAN FAMILY OF LANGUAGES. Before beginning
any formal comparison of Aklanon to other dialects or languages, it would be best to see
the dialect in its proper perspective, namely in its place today after many centuries of de-
velopment.

Granting that language change is a long, slow process and that it is actually difficult
if not impossible to determine an actual "stage" of development, the following chart is.
meant as an outline of a very difficult to define evolution of proto-languages into pres-
ent day Aklanon:

proto -Malayo -Polynesian (c . 3500 B.C.)

proto -Polynesian

Northern Philippine

proto-Indonesian

proto-Philippine

1300 B.

proto-Malay

Southern Philippine (c. 200 A.D.)

Central Visayan West Visayan Tagalic (c. 709^ A.D)

Iloc'ano Cebuano Romblon [ Aklanon ^ Ilohgo Tagalog Malay Javanese
Hawaiian Odionganon Kjnaray-a (current)

It is our present purpose to show Aklanon*s relationship to the other descendants of West
Visayan. This examination will be cursory and no attempt will be made to go deeply into the
problems of how or why the languages have changed since our purpose is merely to illustrate
general similarities among these various sister dialects.

See Unit Two for an explanation of our phonological transcription.
2

These dialects are found variously throughout the six provinces of the Western Visayasc

Aklan (Aklanon), Antique (Kinaray-a and Hinaray-a), Capiz (Capisnon, a Hiligaynon -variant),
lloilo (Ilongo, another Hiligaynon-variant), Romblon (Romblomanon on Romblon island and
San Agustin, Tablas; Odionganon in Odiongan, Tablas; and Loocnon-Alcantaranon in Looc and
Alcantara, Tablas respectively), and Negros Occidental (Hiligaynon). Despite the different
names relating to the province in which the dialect is spoken, there are six basic dialects. All
others are admixtures of two or more of the basic six dialects.

-1 -

Zorc, R. David Paul, and Beato A. de la Cru2. 1968. A Study of the
Aklanon Dialect. Volume One: Grammar. KaHbo, Aklan: Peace Corps.