Maranao language

Maranao (Mëranaw; Kirim: باسا أ مراناو) is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and the cities of Marawi and Iligan City in the Philippines, as well as in Sabah, Malaysia. It is a subgroup of the Danao languages of the Moros in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

Iranun was once considered a dialect of Maranao.

Unique among other Danao languages, Maranao is spoken with a distinct downstep accent, as opposed to stress accent. Additionally, Maranao features aspirated "hard consonants", which also raise the quality of following vowels.

Distribution
Maranao is spoken in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and in northwestern Maguindanao, northwestern Cotabato, northwestern Bukidnon, and parts of Zamboanga del Sur all of which are located in the island of Mindanao in southern Philippines.

Writing system
Maranao was historically written in Arabic letters, which were known as Batang Arab. It is now written with Latin letters. Though there is no officially proclaimed standard orthography, Maranao is more or less written as influenced by contemporary Filipino conventions. The following are the letters used in writing out native words:

A, B, D, E, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, NG, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y

In general, double vowels are pronounced separately, for example, kapaar is pronounced as.

The final sound in diphthongs and "w" were marked with "-o" in older orthographies, as in other Philippine languages, but both are nowadays spelled as "w". Also, "i" was used in older orthographies to transcribe, which is currently spelled as "Y".

"H" is only used for Malay loanwords, and "sh" (pronounced as ) is normally used for Arabic loanwords and names such as Ishak (Isaac).

"Di" or "j" are used to transcribe the sound, such as radia/raja (from the Sanskrit word for 'king', "Rāja") or the English name John.

In representing the mid central vowel (or schwa), different authors have employed various means to represent this sound (e.g. "E" or "U"). In social media, speakers use either of the two letters or just leave it blank (e.g. saken can also be spelled sakn and sakun on the internet). Meanwhile, the Commission on the Filipino Language recommends spelling this sound using "Ë" for different Philippine languages in its 2013 Ortograpiyang Pambansa.

In a revised Maranao Dictionary by McKaughan and Macaraya in 1996, the digraph "'ae" was introduced and used to represent the supposed presence of the vowel. However, analysis by Lobel (2009, 2013 ) showed that this may actually be an allophone of after hard consonants. McKaughan and Macaraya also used "q" for the glottal stop regardless of position. Diphthongs such as were spelled as "ao, ai, oi".

The orthography used in the study by Lobel (2009) was the one developed by Aleem Abdulmajeed Ansano of Taraka (1943–2008), Senator Ahmad Domocao "Domie" Alonto of Ramain (1914– 2002), and Shaiekh Abdul Azis Guroalim Saromantang of Tugaya (1923–2003). In this orthography, the "hard consonants" are written as "ph, th, kh, z".

Phonology
Below is the sound system of Maranao including underlying phonetic features.

Vowels
Maranao has four vowel phonemes that can become more close or higher when in certain environments (see hard consonants below). The vowel raising effects of hard consonants may have led earlier studies to Although previous studies have analyzed the sound as a separate phoneme (written with ae) instead of a raised allophone of.

Vowel [e] only occurs in loanwords from Spanish through Tagalog or Cebuano and from Malay.

Consonants
According to Lobel (2013), Maranao has the following consonants:

In Maranao, is not phonemic word-initially (similar to non-Philippine English). Hence, layok aken ('friend of mine') is smoothly pronounced.

Since the heavy consonants developed from consonant clusters, they are only found word-medially.

Orthography-wise, "r" is used for, "y" is used for , and "ng" is used for

Fricative [h]
According to Lobel (2013), only occurs in a few recent Malay loanwords: Earlier Arabic loanwords with "h" that entered Proto-Danao or earlier Maranao were realized as k.
 * tohan 'God'
 * tahon 'astrological sign'
 * hadapan 'in front (of God)'


 * kalal 'halal (anything permissible in Islam)'
 * karam 'haram (anything not permissible in Islam)',
 * kadî 'hadji (title for a man who has made the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca)'
 * Kadis 'Hadith'

Consonant elongation
Consonants are also pronounced longer if preceded with a schwa. However, this process is not a form of gemination since consonant elongation in Maranao is not distinctive as seen in other Philippine languages such as Ilokano and Ibanag. Some of these are:
 * tepad 'get off a vehicle'
 * tekaw 'startled; surprised'

Hard consonants and vowel raising
Since 2009, it has been proposed that previous studies on the phonology of Maranao had overlooked the presence of "heavy" consonants, these four "heavy" consonants being. Vowels that follow these consonants are raised in position. There are four possible environments for that determine whether the vowel will be raised or not:


 * 1) Non-raising –
 * 2) Obligatory raising –
 * 3) * Tohan is pronounced as instead of
 * 4) Optional raising –
 * 5) * Evidenced by some younger speakers writing gagaan as gegaan.
 * 6) Transparent –  – the raising from the consonant before it will "pass through" and affect the following vowel.

Historical development
Consonant cluster homogenization occurred in earlier Danao and Subanon, where the articulations of the first consonant followed that of the second (Ex: *-gp- > *-bp-).

A study by Allison noted that Proto-Danao *b, *d, g* were lost in modern Maranao when found before other consonants with the same place of articulation (Ex: *bp > *p), but preserved elsewehere.

Lobel noted that this sound change actually resulted in two features of Maranao phonology: heavy consonants and raised vowels (* > ). Aspirated consonants also developed in a similar way in Southern (Lapuyan) Subanon, but without the vowel-raising.

Case markers
In contrast to Tagalog which has three case markers (ang/ng/sa), and Iloko which has two (ti/iti), Maranao has four: (so/ko/o/sa). Curiously, the sa is indefinite in Maranao, whereas it is definite/specific in Cebuano and Tagalog.

Pronouns
Maranao pronouns can be free or bound to the word/morpheme before it.

Common words
Below are common words found in Maranao sentences, their translations in English, Cebuano, and Tagalog, and similar words in distant Philippine languages.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Maranao:Langon a taw na inimbawata a ndudon so kapaar ago ndatadatar sa bantogan ago kabnar. Bigan siran sa kabnar ago gagaw na aya patot a di kapakasusurota o omani isa ko kapakiphapagariya. Cebuano:Ang tanáng tawo kay gipakatawo nga may kagawasan ug managsama sa kaligdong. Silá gigasahan og pangisip ug tanlag ug mag-ilhanáy sa usá'g usá sa diwà managsoon. English:All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Noun phrases
These phrases were taken from Alonto's Maranao Drills. Legend: topic, direct object, indirect object, possessive, verb

Object-focus Sentences
{| class="wikitable" Time !Tense !Maranao !Cebuano !English
 * Present
 * Pemasaan ko so libro.
 * Palitón nakò ang libro.
 * I am buying book.
 * Past
 * Pipesa ko so walay.
 * Gibaligyà nakò ang baláy.
 * I sold the house.
 * Present
 * Pemasaan aken so libro.
 * Palitón nakò ang libro.
 * I am buying book.
 * Past
 * Piyamasa aken so kamays.
 * Palitón nako ang mais.
 * I bought the corn.
 * Future (-en)
 * Barbikiun giya i.
 * Barbikyuhon nakò ni.
 * I will barbecue this.
 * Future (-en)
 * Kupiyaan giya i.
 * Kopyahon nakò ni.
 * I will copy this.
 * Future (i-)
 * Ipelebeng aken anan.
 * Ilubóng nakò nâ.
 * I will say that.
 * Future (i-)
 * Imbegay aken anan.
 * Ihatag nakò nâ.
 * I will barbecue that.
 * Future (-an)
 * Pembisitaan aken anan.
 * Bisitahan nakò nâ.
 * I will visit that.
 * Future (-an)
 * Bayadan aken anan.
 * Bayran nakò nâ.
 * I will pay that.
 * Command (-a)
 * Pageda ngka ini.
 * Sakyi ni.
 * Ride this.
 * Command (-an)
 * Sigopan angka nan.
 * Suyopi nâ.
 * Smoke that.
 * Command (-i)
 * Galidi ngka nan.
 * Aniha nâ.
 * Harvest that.
 * Pageda ngka ini.
 * Sakyi ni.
 * Ride this.
 * Command (-an)
 * Sigopan angka nan.
 * Suyopi nâ.
 * Smoke that.
 * Command (-i)
 * Galidi ngka nan.
 * Aniha nâ.
 * Harvest that.
 * Aniha nâ.
 * Harvest that.


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