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Yakan is an Austronesian language primarily spoken on Basilan Island in the Philippines. It is the native language of the Yakan people, the indigenous as well as the largest ethnic group on the island. It has a total of 110,000 native speakers. Despite being located in the Philippines, it is not closely related to other languages of the country. It is a member of the Sama-Bajaw languages, which in turn are related to the Barito languages spoken in southern
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Phonology


Vowels

Yakan has a simple five-vowel system: , , , , , with phonemic vowel length: , , , , .


Consonants

The following chart lists the consonant phonemes of Yakan. The consonant ''d'' is usually realized between vowels as a flap [], although some speakers use the stop [] in all positions. All consonants except for , , , and can occur as lengthened consonants. The following spelling conventions are used: , , , .


References


Bibliography

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External links


Omniglot's entry on the Yakan languageOnline Yakan-English dictionary accessible from SIL Philippines's websiteGrammar description from Brainard and Behrens (2002), accessible via Rosetta Project
{{Austronesian languages Sama–Bajaw languages Languages of Basilan Languages of the Philippines