AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
LANGUAGES OF ROMBLON PROVINCE
Jason William Lobel
jasonlobel@hotmail.com

1. Introduction

Most linguists doing research on Philippine languages have concentrated on major languages like Tagalog, Ilokano, or Cebuano, or languages in areas that are of political or economic importance to the researcher's institution. By all these criteria, it is not surprising that the topic of "The Languages of Romblon Province" has slipped through the proverbial cracks: None of Romblon's languages-Romblomanon, Asi, and Onhan-are spoken by much more than 100,000 people; Romblon has never been a strategic province for domestic or international affairs; and despite all its beauty with its abundance of world-class marble and unspoiled nature, Romblon isn't the easiest Philippine province to reach, and therefore this cluster of small islands has been overlooked by many researchers.

Perhaps the first and so far most comprehensive work on the these languages was done by Dr. R. David Zorc in the 1960s-1970s, not as part of a project specifically targeting the languages of Romblon, but as part of the research for his 1975 dissertation titled "The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction". Since then, about the only noteworthy work on any of these languages has been done by the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) en route to their goal of publishing the Bible in Asi (a.k.a. Bantoanon) and Romblomanon. The SIL has published such pertinent articles as "Bantoanon Phonology", "Emotion Verbs in Bantoanon", and "The Affix 'pa-' and Movement in Romblomanon". Unfortunately, these papers have not been written with the goal of exploring each language in the context of its related languages, and despite the SIL linguists' sharp transcription and translation skills, the features that have been described are usually found in most of the related Central Philippine languages and therefore have often already been described by other linguists.(1)

In this paper, we take the approach that the appreciation and understanding of a language must begin with a good descriptive work that is accessible to all. Therefore, we will take a look here at the Onhan, Asi, and Romblomanon languages, starting with a brief introduction to Romblon and its neighboring islands, then to each of the languages, outlining their position in the Bisayan language group, some of their noteworthy features, and their similarities to and differences from one another.

2. The Province of Romblon
2.1 Geography

The province of Romblon consists of 14 islands and islets, the largest of which are Tablas, Sibuyan, and Romblon. Together, the province covers a land area of 1,533.45 sq. km., about half a percent of the total land area of the Philippines. There are a total of 17 municipalities, the most populated of which are Odiongan and Romblon.

According to the National Statistics Office, preliminary census counts for the year 2000 indicate that 263,922 people live in the 17 municipalities of Romblon province, with about a third of the population split between Odiongan (39,069) and the provincial capital, Romblon (36,612). Another third of the population lives in the towns of Looc (19,898), San Agustin (21,643), Cajidiocan (19,369) and San Fernando (21,214).

The province of Romblon lies near the center of the Philippines and borders on Mindoro Island to the west, Marinduque Island to the north, Masbate Province to the east, and Panay Island to the south. Its people can be characterized as Bisayan, as they all speak Bisayan languages. In fact, Romblon was part of the province of Capiz on Panay Island from 1818 until 1917. However, it is now politically a part of the 11-province Southern Tagalog Region, although the people of Romblon learn as their first language not Tagalog but one of the three Bisayan languages native to Romblon Province.

2.2. Languages
2.2.1. Romblon's Languages and the Austronesian Language Family

The languages of Romblon, as well as all languages native to the Philippines, belong to the Austronesian language family, which includes languages spoken in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Micronesia, Papua New Guinea, Guam, Hawaii, Samoa, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and 25 other countries in insular and mainland Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. It is the 2nd largest language family in the world with 1,262 known languages, second only to the Niger-Congo family's 1,489 languages. All of the languages of the Philippines except Samalan (Blust 1991) are classified as Philippine languages under the Western Malayo-Polynesian branch of Austronesian. The Philippine language group has three main branches: Northern, Southern and Central, the latter of which is composed of the Bisayan, Bikol and Tagalog languages.

Unlike other islands or provinces in the Philippines where all local languages are classifiable under the same subgroup of languages, the three languages of Romblon each actually belongs to a different subgroup of the Bisayan language group. Romblomanon belongs to the Central Bisayan subgroup, which spans from Waray-Waray on Samar and Leyte, through Masbatenyo and Romblomanon, and as far west as Hiligaynon and Capiznon on Panay. Onhan, on the other hand, belongs to the Western Bisayan subgroup, which includes Kinaray-a and Aklanon as well as several minor languages spoken on Mindoro, Palawan, and some small islands in between. Finally, Asi is not classified under any specific subgroup of Bisayan, and instead makes up its own immediate branch of Bisayan.

It is important to remember that, although linguists subgroup languages by shared similarities and differences in order to discover the historical relationships between these languages, each language may also have similarities to languages from other groups, especially when two languages have been used in close proximity to one another. For example, Onhan, Romblomanon and Asi, although not genetically close beyond all obviously being Bisayan languages, may exhibit mutual similarities due to the fact that they have inhabited the same general area-neighboring islands-for at least a few centuries. They could also be expected to have borrowed from Hiligaynon and Capiznon, due to the fact that Romblon was administrated from Capiz Province for some time. More recently, all of these languages have borrowed from Tagalog, especially since it is used in the media and is taught in schools as the national language of the Philippines.

The Asi language is not classified under any subgroup of Bisayan, and instead makes up its own immediate branch of Bisayan. In lay terms, this indicates that the speakers of Asi were probably extremely isolated for hundreds or even a thousand years from the groups speaking other Bisayan languages. Zorc (1977) characterized Asi as "intermediate between West Bisayan and Central Bisayan", and stated in his dissertation that:

because of its lower scores with most other Bisayan dialects on any of the comparisons used in this study, it may be proposed that the Banton group was one of the first Bisayan groups in the area. Later, after the Romblomanon and West Bisayan dialects moved in and surrounded the group, Banton began to borrow heavily from the (perhaps more prestigious) newcomers, so that its original source was obscured. (p. 278)

Still, with the lack of written language samples and historical records representing pre-Spanish times, we may never know the true origin of the Asi-speaking people.

3.1.1. Phonological Description

Most Central Philippine languages have a basic phoneme inventory of three vowels /a i u/(3) and 16 consonants / b k d g h l m n ng p r s t w y ? /. Asi has the same inventory of sounds but several phonological changes have taken place in Asi that have not most affected other Central Philippine languages. These are (1) the sound that is pronounced /l/ (or /r/) in most CPh languages is usually pronounced /y/ in Asi; (2) the sound pronounced /d/ in most CPh languages is usually pronounced /r/ in Asi; and (3) the sound pronounced /y/ in most CPh languages is usually pronounced /d/ in Asi.

While looking odd at first to a reader unfamiliar with the Asi language, meaning can be extracted from Asi words by reverting the y, r, and d to their equivalencies in other CPh languages.

The restrictions on these phonological changes can be characterized as follows:

(1) CPh /l/ becomes Asi /y/ except when bordering on a coronal phoneme (i.e., the vowel /i/, the semivowel /y/, or the consonants / d t l s /).

(2) CPh /y/ becomes Asi /d/ except in word-initial and syllable-final positions.

(3) CPh /d/ becomes Asi /r/ in all positions.

3.1.2. Vocabulary

Asi has borrowed vocabulary from WBis and Bik, including taó “to give” (also WBis, Bik), inggwa (cf. Bik, Mas, Rom igwá), búsoy (cf. WBis búsul), rámoy (cf. WBis dám«l), and ilam “I don’t know” (also WBis).

            Zorc proposed that Asi may have a Cebuano substratum, but conceded that the evidence is “far from conclusive…[but] deserves consideration in the light of future research on the substrata and superstrata of [Asi] and other Bs dialects.”  (Zorc, 1977, p. 278)

            Asi also has a number of unique vocabulary items which are either innovations or independent retentions, some examples of which are shown in the following table:

Romblomanon has the same phonemic inventory as Asi, which is the general Central Philippine phonemic inventory. It is classified as a central Bisayan language, and possibly developed as a type of creole (4) when speakers of the various Central Bisayan languages like Hiligaynon, Capiznon, and Masbatenyo intermingled with Cebuanos and Bikolanos who immigrated to Romblon and Sibuyan Islands. Some borrowings from Bikol include igwa "have" (also Mas), sinda "they" (also Mas), úyo "to defecate" (cf. Bik, Mas udô) and indo "your (plural)" (cf. Bik, Mas saindo). Romblomanon also has borrowings resulting from contact with the Asi and Onhan languages, like bahóy (cf. WBis bahól) and ilam "I don't know" (also WBis). Furthermore, there are also a small number of terms that are unique to Romblomanon, like bayong "drunk", púwak "throat", lupús "easy", and táyog "earwax".

The following sentences show the similarity of Romblomanon to other Central Bisayan languages:

Where will you go tomorrow?
Diin ka makadto buwas? (Hiligaynon, Romblomanon, Masbatenyo, Waray-Waray)

Do you remember that movie that we watched last week?
Nadudumduman mo pa ba adtong sine nga ginsiro/gintan-aw naton nang isa nga semana? (Rom)
Nahinumduman mo pa ba adto nga ginkita naton hadton una nga semana? (War)
Nahinumduman mo pa ba ito sine nga ginkit-an naton sadto sayo nga semana? (Northern Samarenyo)
Natatandaan mo pa ang sine na kinita naton sadto saro linggo? (Central Sorsoganon)

Bring some food here.
Pagdaya ning pagkaon diri. (Rom)
Pagdara hin pagkaon ngadi. (War)
Pagdara sin pagkaon didi. (N-S)
Magdara kamo sin pagkaon didi. (CSor)

I fell because the floor was slippery.
Nahuyog ako kay sobra kadayunot ang sayog. (Rom)
Nahulog ako kay sobra hin dalunot han salog. (War)
Nahulog ako kay an salog masyado nga madalunot. (N-S)
Nahulog ako kay sobra ang hinlas san salog. (CSor)

Romblomanon has also undergone the phonological change wherein which the sound pronounced as /l/ (or /r/) in most CPh languages has become /y/ in Romblomanon. Although it is tempting to attribute this phonological change to influence from (or on) Asi, this becomes less likely when we consider that identical changes have also taken place in Bantayan Bisaya and the more distant Surigaonon, Jaun-Jaun, Naturalis and Kantilan languages (South Bisayan languages spoken in Surigao del Norte and Surigao del Sur on Mindanao). Thus, it is just as likely that the /l/ > /y/ change took place independently in these languages, perhaps as a result of the instability of the *l and *r proto-phonemes in Proto-Central Philippine.

The /l/ > /y/ change occurs in Romblomanon in more restricted environments than in Asi. In Romblomanon as in Asi, /l/ doesn't become /y/ when before or after a coronal (/ i y d t l s /), and additionally, /l/ does not become /y/ in word-initial position. The following table shows the results of an analysis of lexical items in several Romblomanon texts:

3.3 Onhan

Like Romblomanon & Asi, Onhan also has the full set of basic Central Philippine phonemes. Onhan is a member of the West Bisayan branch of the Bisayan languages, making it related to Kinaray-a, Aklanon, Bulalakawnon across the Tablas Strait on Mindoro, and the languages spoken on the Semirara and Cuyo Islands and parts of Palawan (see Map 1). The West Bisayan branch is one of the lesser-known branches of Bisayan, for when the word "Bisayan" is used, it is usually either Cebuano or a Central Bisayan language like Hiligaynon (a.k.a. Ilonggo) or Waray-Waray that comes to mind. As a matter of fact, many people are surprised to find out that Hiligaynon and Kinaray-a are not classified under the same branch of Bisayan (see Figure 1).

The following are some examples of sentences in some West Bisayan languages:

I didn't go.
Uwâ akó nag-ayán kahápon. (Onhan)
Warâ ako nag-ayán kahápon. (Bulalakawnon)
Arà akó mag-ayán kaápon. (Caluyanun)
Arâ akó nag-ayán kaápon. (Datagnon)

He is not rich.
Bukón imáw manggaránon. (Onhan)
B"k"Ûn tána manggarán"n. (Caluyanun)
Bukún tána it mayáman. (Bulalakawnon)
Bukún tana mayaman. (Datagnon)

They have a house.
May baláy sanda. (Onhan, Caluyanun, Bulalakawnon, Datagnon)

Rice can't be bought now.
Ang bugás indî mabakál kadya. (Onhan)
Ang b"gás ay indì r"n mabakál ngadya/kadya. (Caluyanun)
Ang bugás indî mabakál ngadyá. (Bulalakawnon)

This is the money they'll use to buy the carabao.
Imáw ya ang kwárta nga ibakál nanda it kárbaw. (Onhan)
Imáw dya ang kwarta nga ibakál nánda sa karabáw. (Caluyanun)
Imáw dia ang kwarta nga ibakál nanda it karabáw. (Bulalakawnon)
Dia ang kwarta nga ibakál nanda karabáw. (Datagnon)

4. Comparisons & Contrasts
4.1. Similarities in Vocabulary

The Romblomanon, Asi and Onhan languages are all Bisayan language, and as such, they all contain a number of lexical (vocabulary) items that are part of the general Bisayan lexicon and aren't generally found in other Central Philippine languages like Tagalog or Bikol.

I didn't go.
Uyâ akó gipágto it tahapon. (Asi)
Wayâ akó nagpánaw kahápon. (Romblomanon)
Uwâ akó nag-ayán. (Onhan)

That is a very rich man.
Kató ay abángyáman nak táwo. (Asi (Odiongan))
Inâ ay kamanggaranon kaayo nga táwo. (Rom)
Rato hay manggaranon gid nga tawo. (Onh)

He will leave within three days.
Sida ay mapaawan sa suyór it tatlong ádlaw. (Asi (Odg))
Magahalín siyá sa suyód ning tuyó ka ádlaw. (Rom)
Mabuhì imáw sa sákop it tatlong ádlaw. (Onh)

Peter and his group was shot by Paul.
Sa Pedro ay ingbaríl ni Paul. (Asi)
Siná Pedro ay binaríl ni Paul. (Rom)
Sánday Pedro ginbaríl ni Paul. (Onh)

4.2. Pronouns

The pronoun system of the Philippine languages is inherited for the most part from the parent language, reconstructed as Proto-Philippine, so it should come as no surprise that there are major similarities in the pronouns of any Philippine language. The only major innovations in any of the languages of Romblon are the pronouns imaw in Onhan where most other languages have a form of siya, and nana and ana corresponding to MOST niya and iya/kaniya.

The demonstrative pronouns vary from language group to language group. In the following chart, we can see the similarities between Romblomanon and the other Central Bisayan languages, and Onhan and the other West Bisayan languages. Note that Asi is somewhat similar to the Central Bisayan set, but not as similar as the Central Bisayan languages are to each other.

4.4. Numbers

Like the pronoun system, the numbers in the Philippine languages are also inherited from proto-Philippine. As such, there are only minimal differences between the numbers in the different languages. most notably, we see that the numbers in Asi bear similarities to both Central Bisayan languages like Romblomanon and West Bisayan languages like Onhan (Looknon dialect represented here).

4.6. Verb Affixes

The verb affixes are remarkably similar in the various languages we are looking at. The most notable differences between Asi and the other two languages of Romblon are that (1) Asi marks present tense with repetition of the first syllable of the root (e.g. nagbabasa), instead of with the infix -a- (e.g. Onh gabasa, Rom (na)gabasa), and (2) Asi marks the future of Object Focus verbs with the prefix a- (e.g. abasahon).

The Romblomanon, Asi and Onhan languages are all very much still in use throughout the province of Romblon in most everyday situations, while Tagalog is taught in schools and commonly used in communication between people who otherwise wouldn't understand each other's native language. (Such usage of Tagalog is common throughout the Philippines when speakers of two or more different languages come into contact.) English is also taught in schools and used in higher education.

Yet despite such widespread usage, the Asi, Onhan, and Romblomanon languages are rarely found in print. One noteworthy exception is the quarterly Silak newsletter, where Asi is used in articles, short stories, poetry and commentaries. The team behind Silak have also been involved in publishing Asi books, including a recently released book authored by Ismael Fabicon intended for children to learn how to read the language. On the internet, the Silak homepage http://silak.is-online.net/ has short stories and poetry in Asi, and Ryan Fauli's Yagting Cultural Heritage Collections http://banton.home.ph/ has Asi songs, stories, essays, jokes, and poems.

5.2. Research

The largest amount of writing in and about the languages of Romblon appears to be being done by linguists doing academic, religious, and private research. Dr. R. David Zorc, whose work was outlined in section 1, is currently revising his dissertation and the data from that dissertation for republication in both printed and electronic formats. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) continues to do linguistic research while working on the Asi and Romblomanon translations of the Bible.

The author is also currently engaged in research on the languages of Romblon, and the Bisayas in general, with the goal of producing books on both subjects within the next two years. To be included in these forthcoming books are language descriptions, grammatical and phonological outlines, comparisons, and town-by-town analyses of the various dialects of each language covered. (Check online at http://home.san.rr.com/Bikol/Romblon.htm for further details.)

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Akl Aklanon
Asi Asi/Bantoanon
Ban Banton dialect of Asi
Bik Bikol
Blk Bulalakawnon
Bnt Bantayan
Cal Caluyanun
Cap Capiznon
CBis Central Bisayan
Ceb Cebuano
CPh Central Philippine
CSor Central Sorsoganon
Disp Dispuholnon dialect of Onhan
Dtg Datagnon
Hil Hiligaynon/Ilonggo
Kin Kinaray-a
Kuy Kuyonon
Mas Masbatenyo
N-S Northern Samarenyo
Odg Odiongan dialect of Asi
Onh Onhan
Pan Pandan Kinaray-a
Rom Romblomanon
SBik Southern Bikol
Sib Sibale dialect of Asi
S-L Samar-Leyte
Snt Santa Maria
SSor Southern Sorsoganon
War Waray-Waray
WBis West Bisayan


NOTES

1. This is not meant at all to be demeaning of the SIL folks, many of whom dedicate their whole lives to translating the Holy Bible so that entire peoples who have gone unexposed to the Word of God may be able to read it in their own native language. However, it has been my observation that, without the strong background in Philippine Linguistics, many of the SIL linguists concentrate on language features that are far from unique in the Philippines. On the other hand, it is important to remember that having prior knowledge of related languages isn't always an advantage, as it may cause one to mistakenly transfer the characteristics of one language onto a related language.

2. This is only one possible sketch of the relationships among Austronesian languages, and is meant to be neither comprehensive nor definitive. The purpose is to give the reader a general idea of what languages are grouped under Austronesian and how they are related. I base my subgrouping on my own research at the Central Philippine level as well as the subgroupings of several other Austronesian and Philippine linguists.

3. Although the vowels "o" and "e" are used in spelling, they usually do not contrast (i.e. they don't cause a difference in meaning) in native words for most speakers in the spoken language, and therefore are usually considered to be allophones of /u/ and /i/, respectively. Foreign loans-especially those from Spanish-are often cited to justify the argument for a five-vowel system, but even in Spanish loans, most speakers don't pronounce "e" differently from "i", or "o" differently from "u", in normal speech. Furthermore, it is worth noting that many CPh languages, like the parent language they developed from, have a four-vowel system, retaining the /"/ vowel that the majority of CPh languages have lost.

4. I use the word "creole" with some reservations, as a creole is usually the result of the convergence of peoples speaking genetically unrelated languages, therefore resulting in a simplification of grammatical and phonological structures. To the best of my knowledge, no linguist has ever done a study on the results of the convergence of peoples speaking related languages which themselves diverged from a common ancestral language, which is the case of Romblomanon. Likewise, I have not come across any serious studies on the origins of the speakers of Romblomanon, but the language itself has elements from Hiligaynon and Capiznon combined with vocabulary from Cebuano, Asi, Onhan and Masbatenyo, the latter of which is itself a hybrid of Bikol, Waray-Waray and Cebuano (the apparent Bikol borrowings in Romblomanon may be from Masbatenyo and not Bikol itself). Romblomanon appears to be one of a series of hybrid languages along the northern Bisayan border that includes Marinduque Tagalog, Romblomanon, Bantayan Bisaya, Masbatenyo and Central Sorsoganon (as spoken in and around Sorsogon City). The development of such languages is predictable as the area borders on the Tagalog, Bikol, Cebuano and Central Bisayan areas and therefore has been the recipient of immigrants speaking all of these languages.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Ish Fabicon for facilitating my research in Romblon province as well as for inviting me to share this paper with the participants of Sanrokan 2002. Thanks are also due to those who proofread and commented on the drafts: Chris Sundita, Dr. R. David Zorc, Lyndon Fadri, Hsiu-Chuan Liao, Ish Fabicon, and Dr. Zev bar-Lev. Much of the data in this paper came from the archives of one of the greatest Austronesian linguists of our time, Dr. R. David Zorc, to whom I am indebted. The other half of the data came from the citizens of Romblon who spent their own personal time assisting me in my research, and to whom I am likewise indebted. Thanks to Phyllis Rappa of the Summer Institute of Linguistics for sharing with me the work she has done on Romblomanon. Special thanks are also due to all the people who helped me in any way during my stay in Romblon province.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jason Lobel finished his M.A. in Linguistics at San Diego State University in California. He has co-authored four books on the languages of the Bikol Region, and has taught at several Philippine universities as well as having lectured in the U.S. on issues relating to a variety of Philippine languages. He is currently involved in several projects on the Bikol and Bisayan languages, including audio CDs and CD-Roms for learning Bikol, a book about the languages of Romblon province, and a reference book about the Central Philippine languages. His available publications may be viewed online at http://home.san.rr.com/bikol/ and news on upcoming Romblon-related releases can be found at http://home.san.rr.com/bikol/romblon.html.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blust, Robert. (1991). The Greater Central Philippine Hypothesis. Oceanic Linguistics 30 (2), 73-129.

English, Leo J. (1986). Tagalog-English Dictionary. Mandaluyong City: National Book Store.

Fadri, Lyndon F. (ed.). (1998-2000). SILAK. Manila.

Fadri, Lyndon F. (2001). Silak homepage [online]. Available: http://silak.is-online.net/ [March 2002].

Fauli, Ryan. (2002). Ryan Fauli's Yagting Cultural Heritage Collections [online]. Available: http://banton.home.ph/ [March 2002].

Law, Rence. (1998). The Affix 'pa-' and Movement in Romblomanon. In Sherri Brainard (ed.), Localist Case Grammar and Philippine Verbs, 35-43. Linguistic Society of the Philippines, special monograph issue, 45. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

Ma, Young-Rye and Sherri Brainard. (1998). Emotion Verbs in Bantoanon. In Sherri Brainard (ed.), Localist Case Grammar and Philippine Verbs, 35-43. Linguistic Society of the Philippines, special monograph issue, 45. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

National Statistics Office. (2002). Population Census [online]. Available: http://www.census.gov.ph/ [April 2002].

Summer Institute of Linguistics. A Phrase Book for Bantoanon (Asi). Manila: Summer Institute of Linguistics.

Summer Institute of Linguistics. (1998). Ang Istorya tungod kay Jose (The Story of Joseph: Genesis 37 to 50). Manila: International Bible Society.

Summer Institute of Linguistics. (2002). Ethnologue: Languages of the World, (14th ed.) . Available: at http://www.ethnologue.com/ [April 2002].

Zorc, R. D. P. (1977). The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction. Pacific Linguistics, Series C, No. 44. Canberra: The Australian National University.

Please direct any comments, suggestions, or corrections to the author at:

via postal mail: Jason Lobel
8111 Kenova St.
San Diego, CA 92126-3121

via e-mail: jasonlobel@hotmail.com