Bontoc (Bontok) (also called Finallig) is the native language of the indigenous
Bontoc people
The Bontoc (or Bontok) ethnolinguistic group can be found in the central and eastern portions of Mountain Province, in the Philippines. Although some Bontocs of Natonin and Paracelis identify themselves as Balangaos, Gaddangs or Kalingas, the t ...
of the
Mountain Province, in the northern part of the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
.
Dialects
''
Ethnologue'' reports the following locations for each of the five Bontok languages. Speaker populations from the 2007 census, as quoted in ''Ethnologue''.
*
Central Bontok: spoken in
Bontoc municipality,
Mountain Province (in Bontoc ili, Caluttit, Dalican, Guina-ang, Ma-init, Maligcong, Samoki, and Tocucan villages). 19,600 speakers. Dialects are Khinina-ang, Finontok, Sinamoki, Jinallik, Minaligkhong and Tinokukan.
*
Eastern Bontok: spoken in
Barlig
Barlig, officially the Municipality of Barlig is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 4,796 people.
Geography
Barlig is bounded in the east by Natonin i ...
municipality, eastern
Mountain Province (in Barlig, Kadaklan, and Lias villages). 6,170 speakers. Dialects are Finallig, Kinajakran and Liniyas.
*
North Bontok: spoken in
Sadanga
Sadanga, officially the Municipality of Sadanga is a 5th class municipality in the province of Mountain Province, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 8,427 people.
Sadanga boundaries both provinces are Abra to the ...
municipality, northern
Mountain Province (in Anabel, Bekigan, Belwang, Betwagan, Demang, Sacasacan, Saclit, and the municipal center of Sadanga Poblacion). There are also some speakers in southern
Kalinga Province ; tl, Lalawigan ng Kalinga)
, native_name =
, other_name =
, settlement_type =
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = (from top: left to right) Bum-bag Rice Terraces, Pasil Valley, ...
. 9,700 speakers.
*
Southern Bontok: spoken to the south of
Bontoc municipality in Talubin, Bayyo, and Can-eo towns. 2,760 speakers. Dialects are Tinoveng and Kanan-ew.
*
Southwestern Bontok: spoken in
Bontoc municipality,
Mountain Province (in Alab, Balili, Gonogon, and villages in the Chico River valley, southwest of the municipal capital Bontoc, along Halsema Highway). 2,470 speakers. Dialects are Ina-ab, Binalili and Ginonogon.
[Ethnologue, Southwestern Bontok ]
Phonology
* The
archiphoneme
In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language.
For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-w ...
has , , and as its
allophone
In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...
s.
[ The allophone occurs word-initially, adjacent to , as the second member of a consonant cluster consisting of a coronal consonant and , and as the second member of any consonant cluster preceded by . occurs in free variation with word-initially, but otherwise occurs in ]complementary distribution
In linguistics, complementary distribution, as distinct from contrastive distribution and free variation, is the relationship between two different elements of the same kind in which one element is found in one set of environments and the other ele ...
with it. occurs in free variation with and word-initially, and with elsewhere. These /r/ sounds are even applied to loanwords from Ilokano and Tagalog, and Spanish loanwords from the 2 languages.
* The plosives , , , and have, respectively, (representing an interdental consonant), , , and as their syllable-initial allophones.[
* The voiced stop also has and as its allophones.][ Both of these allophones occur as the first member of a ]geminate
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from '' gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from ...
cluster. They are in free variation.
* The approximant has one allophone: . occurs after .[
becomes a slightly centralized when in a syllable whose coda is .][ When in the ]nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
*Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
* Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucl ...
, and are slightly raised and is lowered. [
There are two degrees of stress in Bontoc: primary and secondary. Primary stress is phonemic and secondary stress is predictable. Both types are right-oriented and occur on one of the last three syllables. Stress's effects include higher pitch, louder volume, and lengthening of the syllable nucleus, though these are all subject to certain rules pertaining to word prosody. ][
]
Example text
The Lord's Prayer
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
External links
Talking Dictionary of Khinina-ang Bontok
- online Bontoc Dictionary based on the speech community of Guina-ang, compiled by Lawrence A. Reid
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bontoc Language
Languages of Mountain Province
South–Central Cordilleran languages