Boholano () is a variant of the

Cebuano language Cebuano ( )Cebuano
on Merriam-Webster.com is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken i ...

spoken in the island province of

Bohol Bohol (), officially the Province of Bohol (; ), is an island province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region, consisting of the island itself and 75 minor surrounding islands. It is home to Bohola ...

in the

Visayas The Visayas ( ), or the Visayan Islands (Bisayan languages, Visayan: ''Kabisay-an'', ; Filipino language, Filipino: ''Kabisayaan'' ), are one of the three Island groups of the Philippines, principal geographical divisions of the Philippines, a ...

and a major portion of

Southern Leyte Southern Leyte (; Kabalian: ''Habagatan nga Leyte''; ; ), officially the Province of Southern Leyte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas region. Its capital and largest city is Maasin. Southern Leyte comprised the ...

, as well as parts of

Mindanao Mindanao ( ) is the List of islands of the Philippines, second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and List of islands by population, seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the ...

, particularly in

Northern Mindanao Northern Mindanao (; Maranao language, Maranao: ''Pangotaraan Mindanao''; ) is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region X. It comprises five Provinces of the Philippines, provinces: Bukidnon, ...

and

Caraga Caraga, officially the Caraga Administrative Region (or simply known as Caraga region) and designated as Region XIII, is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines occupying the northeastern section of Mindanao. Th ...

. It is sometimes erroneously described as a separate

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

even though Binol-anon originated as a

dialect continuum A dialect continuum or dialect chain is a series of Variety (linguistics), language varieties spoken across some geographical area such that neighboring varieties are Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible, but the differences accumulat ...

of the

Cebuano language Cebuano ( )Cebuano
on Merriam-Webster.com is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken i ...

. Boholano, especially as spoken in central Bohol, can be distinguished from other Cebuano variants by a few

phonetic change In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chang ...

s: *The semivowel ''y'' is pronounced as is the ''ll'' sound (similar to Spanish

Yeísmo (; literally "Y-ism") is a distinctive feature of many dialects of the Spanish language, characterized by the loss of the traditional palatal lateral approximant phoneme (written ) and its merger into the phoneme (written ). It is an examp ...

): is pronounced ; * is pronounced as ; *Intervocalic ''l'' is occasionally pronounced as when following ''u'' or ''o'': is pronounced as (the same as

Metro Cebu Metropolitan Cebu, or simply Metro Cebu (; ), is the main urban center of the province of Cebu in the Philippines. Metro Cebu is located along the central eastern portion of the island including the nearby island of Mactan. It accounts for 19. ...

dialect).

History

The Bohol dialect developed in the region after the Cebuano language arrived there from

Cebu Cebu ( ; ), officially the Province of Cebu (; ), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 surrounding islands and islets. The coastal zone of Cebu is identified as a ...

. The

Cebuano language Cebuano ( )Cebuano
on Merriam-Webster.com is an Austronesian languages, Austronesian language spoken i ...

, descended from

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify in ...

(ca. 6000 years ago), originated in the ''Sugbo'' heartland and then "has spread from its base in Cebu" to

, thus beginning the Bohol Cebuano dialect.

References

External links

The Boholano LanguageBoholano
Cebuano dialects Languages of Bohol {{CPhilippine-lang-stub