The Bisayan languages or Visayan languages are a subgroup of the

Austronesian languages The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...

spoken in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. They are most closely related to Tagalog and the Bikol languages, all of which are part of the

Central Philippine languages The Central Philippine languages are the most geographically widespread demonstrated group of languages in the Philippines, being spoken in southern Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao, and Sulu Province, Sulu. They are also the most populous, including T ...

. Most Bisayan languages are spoken in the whole

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 ...

section of the country, but they are also spoken in the southern part of the

Bicol Region The Bicol Region, designated as Region V, is an administrative region of the Philippines. It comprises six Provinces of the Philippines, provinces, four on the Bicol Peninsula (the luzon#Southeastern Luzon, southeastern end of Luzon): Albay, Ca ...

(particularly in

Masbate Masbate, officially the Province of Masbate (Masbateño language, Masbateño: ''Probinsya san Masbate''; ), is an island Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located near the midsection of the nation's archipelago. Its provi ...

and Sorsogon where several dialects of Waray are spoken), islands south of

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

, such as those that make up Romblon, most of the areas 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 ...

and the province of

Sulu Sulu (), officially the Province of Sulu (Tausug language, Tausūg: ''Wilaya' sin Lupa' Sūg''; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province of the Philippines in the Sulu Archipelago. It was part of the Bangsamoro, Bangsamoro Autonomous R ...

located southwest of Mindanao. Some residents of

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila ( ), commonly shortened to Metro Manila and formally the National Capital Region (NCR; ), is the capital region and largest List of metropolitan areas in the Philippines, metropolitan area of the Philippines. Located ...

also speak one of the Bisayan languages. Over 30 languages constitute the Bisayan language family. The Bisayan language with the most speakers is Cebuano, spoken by 20 million people as a native language in

Central Visayas Central Visayas (; or ) is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines, numerically designated as Region VII. With only two Provinces of the Philippines, provinces: Cebu and Bohol, as well as three Cities of the Phi ...

, parts of Eastern Visayas, and most of

. Two other well-known and widespread Bisayan languages are Hiligaynon (Ilonggo), spoken by 9 million in most of

Western Visayas Western Visayas (; ; ) is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines, numerically designated as Region VI. The region comprises the islands of Panay and Guimaras Island, Guimaras. It consists of five Provinces of the ...

and

Soccsksargen Soccsksargen (officially stylized in all caps; ), formerly known as Central Mindanao, is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region of the Philippines, designated as Region XII. Located in south-central Mindanao, its name is an List of g ...

; and Waray-Waray, spoken by 6 million in Eastern Visayas region. Prior to colonization, the script and calligraphy of most of the Visayan peoples was the badlit, closely related to the Tagalog

baybayin Baybayin (,), also sometimes erroneously referred to as alibata, is a Suyat, Philippine script widely used primarily in Luzon during the 16th and 17th centuries and prior to write Tagalog language, Tagalog and to a lesser extent Visayan lang ...

Nomenclature

Native speakers of most Bisayan languages, especially Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray, not only refer to their language by their local name, but also by ''Bisaya'' or ''Binisaya'', meaning ''Bisayan language''. This is misleading or may lead to confusion as different languages may be called ''Bisaya'' by their respective speakers despite their languages being

mutually unintelligible In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intellig ...

. However, languages that are classified within the Bisayan language family but spoken natively in places outside of the

do not use the self-reference ''Bisaya'' or ''Binisaya''. To speakers of Cuyonon, Surigaonon, Butuanon and Tausug, the term '' Visayan'' usually refers to either Cebuano or Hiligaynon. There have been no proven accounts to verify the origins of ''Bisaya''. However, there is an ethnic group in

Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...

and

Brunei Brunei, officially Brunei Darussalam, is a country in Southeast Asia, situated on the northern coast of the island of Borneo. Apart from its coastline on the South China Sea, it is completely surrounded by the Malaysian state of Sarawak, with ...

who call themselves with the same name. However, these

ethnic groups in the Philippines The Philippines is inhabited by more than 182 Ethnolinguistic group, ethnolinguistic groups, many of which are classified as "Indigenous Peoples" under the country's Indigenous Peoples' Rights Act of 1997. Traditionally-Muslim minorities from ...

must not be confused with those in

Borneo Borneo () is the List of islands by area, third-largest island in the world, with an area of , and population of 23,053,723 (2020 national censuses). Situated at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, it is one of the Greater Sunda ...

Evidence

David Zorc lists the following innovations as features defining the Bisayan languages as a group (Zorc 1977:241). Tausug is noted to have diverged early from the group and may have avoided some sound changes that affected the others. # *lC, *Cl > *Cl (where C is any consonant not *h, *q, or *l) # *qC, *Cq > *Cq (MOST) *qC, *Cq > *qC ( Tausug, and most Bikol languages)

Internal classification

David Zorc gives the following internal classification for the Bisayan languages (Zorc 1977:32). The five primary branches are South, Cebuan, Central, Banton, and West. However, Zorc notes that the Bisayan language family is more like 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 ...

rather than a set of readily distinguishable languages. The South Bisayan languages are considered to have diverged first, followed by Cebuan and then the rest of the three branches. Also, in the Visayas section, the province of Romblon has the most linguistic diversity, as languages from three primary Bisayan branches are spoken there: Romblomanon from Central Bisayan, Inunhan from Western Bisayan and Banton (which has an independent Bisayan branch). Notably, Baybayanon and Porohanon have Warayan substrata, indicating a more widespread distribution of Waray before Cebuano speakers started to expand considerably starting from the mid-1800s. A total of 36 varieties are listed below. Individual languages are marked by ''italics''. Bisayan Languages Tree Chart

* ''Bisayan'' ** 1. South (spoken on the northeastern coast of

) *** Butuan-Tausug **** '' Tausug'' **** '' Butuanon'' *** Surigao **** '' Surigaonon'' **** ''Tandaganon'' ** 2. Cebuan (spoken in

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 ...

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 ...

Siquijor Siquijor ( , ), officially the Province of Siquijor (; ), is a Philippines, Philippine Provinces of the Philippines, island province (List of islands of the Philippines, the third smallest in the country, in terms of population and land area) ...

, Eastern Negros, western

Leyte Leyte ( ) is an island in the Visayas group of islands in the Philippines. It is eighth-largest and sixth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 2,626,970 as of 2020 census. Since the accessibility of land has been ...

and northern, southeastern and northwestern parts of

) *** Cebuan **** '' Cebuano'' ***** '' Boholano'' ** 3. Central (spoken across most of the Visayan region) *** Warayan (spoken in eastern

Biliran Biliran, officially the Province of Biliran (Waray language, Waray-Waray: ''Probinsya han Biliran''; ; ), is an island province in the Philippines located in the Eastern Visayas Regions of the Philippines, region (Region VIII). Biliran is one of ...

and

Samar Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

) **** '' Waray'' **** '' Baybayanon'' **** '' Kabalian'' **** '' Southern Sorsogon (Gubat)'' *** Peripheral **** '' Hiligaynon (Ilonggo)'' (spoken in eastern

Panay Panay is the sixth-largest and fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total land area of and a total population of 4,542,926, as of 2020 census. Panay comprises 4.4 percent of the entire population of the country. The City of Il ...

and Guimaras, Western Negros and south-central

) **** '' Capiznon'' **** '' Bantayanon'' **** '' Porohanon'' **** ''Masbate-Sorsogon'' ***** '' Masbateño'' ***** '' Central Sorsogon (Masbate)'' *** Romblon (also the name of the

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

) **** '' Romblomanon'' ** 4. Asi (spoken in northwestern Romblon Province) **** '' Asi'' ** 5. West *** Aklan (spoken in northwestern

) **** '' Aklanon/Inakeanon'' **** '' Malaynon'' *** Karayan **** '' Karay-a'' (spoken in western and inland

) *** North-Central (spoken on Tablas Island and the southern tip of

Mindoro Mindoro is the seventh largest and eighth-most populous island in the Philippines. With a total land area of 10,571 km2 ( 4,082 sq.mi ), it has a population of 1,408,454, as of the 2020 census. It is located off the southwestern coast of ...

) **** '' Inonhan'' (language related to Karayan) *** Kuyan (spoken in the archipelagos west of

and Romblon as well as the southern tip of

) **** '' Ratagnon'' **** '' Cuyonon'' *** Caluyanon **** '' Caluyanon'' The auxiliary language of Eskayan is grammatically Bisayan, but has essentially no Bisayan (or Philippine) vocabulary. Magahat and Karolanos, both spoken in Negros, are unclassified within Bisayan.Lobel, Jason William. 2013
''Philippine and North Bornean languages: issues in description, subgrouping, and reconstruction''
Ph.D. dissertation. Manoa: University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

Names and locations

Zorc (1977: 14–15) lists the following names and locations of Bisayan languages. The recently documented languages Karolanos, Magahat, and Kabalian are not listed in Zorc (1977).

Comparisons

The following comparisons are from data gathered by Zorc (1997).

Personal-noun case markers

Common-name case markers

Reconstruction

David Zorc's reconstruction of Proto-Bisayan had 15

consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract, except for the h sound, which is pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Examples are and pronou ...

s and 4

vowel A vowel is a speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract, forming the nucleus of a syllable. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness a ...

s (Zorc 1977:201). Vowel length, primary stress (penultimate and ultimate), and secondary stress (pre-penultimate) are also reconstructed by Zorc.

References

External links

"Bisayan"
on ''

Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...

'', (23rd ed., 2020). {{Navboxes , title = Articles related to Bisayan languages , list = {{Visayan languages {{Philippine languages {{BisayaPeoplesmall {{Languages of the Philippines {{Languages of Malaysia Central Philippine languages