Morphological Paradigm of Nouns and Verbs: Meaning and Functions in Bisakol, a Philippine-type language

Morphological Paradigm of Nouns and Verbs: Meaning and Functions in Bisakol, a Philippine-type language Ana Cristina G. Fortes Sorsogon State University Sorsogon City, Philippines anacristinafortes05@gmail.com Abstract The linguistic documentation of Philippine-tyoe languages and efforts to revitalize them have increased with the introduction of the MTB- MLE to the primary grades. Language varities in Sorsogon, including the Southern Bisakol, are widely used but less studied by native speakers. Among the grammatical categories investigated are nouns and verbs. They are content words and are usually introduced in the primary grades. Using Payne’s (1997) morphosyntax and Nolasco’s (2007) stem- based hypothesis, this descriptive study employed structural analysis on the transcribed and compiled Bisakol corpus. Significant findings show that nouns and verbs are derived forms with specific morphemes that may be attached either to the root or to the stem. The affixes of Bisakol have some conditioning and restrictions in the linguistic environment. Hence, Bisakol morphemes, especially their affixes, are highly multifunctional with every affix carrying a meaning that may either modify the semantics of the root or change the concept category of the new form entirely. 1 Introduction Philippine-type languages (PL) have many complexities and intricacies that entice many scholars of linguistics to investigate. Among the many Philippine-type languages that exhibit diversity and complexity are the Bikol and Visayan languages. Bikol is a macro language that has widely varying dialects and closely related languages. The individual languages that correspond to a macro language are very closely related, and there must be some domain in which only a single language identity is recognized (Lewis, Simons, & Fenning, 2015). In many areas in the region, speech varies dramatically over a few kilometers from one town to the next (Lobel and Tria (2000). Interesting in Sorsogon, a province in the Bicol region, is the language variety that the speakers themselves believe to have been a mixture of Bikol and Binisaya languages. Natives would name their language Bisakol. Ethnologue names this language as Sorsoganon, Northern; Sorsoganon, Southern; and Masbateno. Earlier linguistic studies particularly, McFarland (1974) and Zorc (1977) confirmed that Southern dialects including the Northern Masbate, Northern Sorsogon and Southern Sorsogon or Gubat belong to the Central Visayan subgroup, of which Hiligaynon and Samar-Leyte are members (p. 299). The geographical location of the province has a major contribution to why these varieties are linguistically Visayan rather than Bikol. The absence of the speaking roads that linked Bikol towns with one another for a long period of time, and the transportation by water brought about this present- day linguistic situation. The proximity of Sorsogon to Samar and Masbate and the water transportation that happened from Samar to Sorsogon, and vice versa, can explain the mixture of Binisaya and Bikol in the dialect in Southern Sorsogon. At present, there has been a dearth of studies on the languages spoken in Sorsogon area. The differences among the varieties of Bikol Sorsogon are validated in the dialectology of Cunanan (2015). Escalante (1978) and Nolasco (1994) made studies on the grammar of …

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