Hiligaynon Language Services

Hiligaynon, often referred to as Ilonggo, is an Austronesian language spoken in the Western Visayas region of the Philippines. Hiligaynon is concentrated in the provinces of Iloilo and Negros Occidental, but is also spoken in the other provinces of the Panay Island group, including Capiz, Antique, Aklan, Guimaras, and in many parts of Mindanao including Koronadal City, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and parts of North Cotabato. Further, it is spoken as a second language by Karay-a speakers in Antique, Aklanon and Malaynon in Aklan, Cebuano in Siquijor[citation needed], and Capiznon in Capiz. There are approximately 7,000,000 people in and outside the Philippines who are native speakers of Hiligaynon, and an additional 4,000,000 who are capable of speaking it with a substantial degree of proficiency. It is a member of the Visayan language family. It is distinctive from most Filipino languages for its sing-song intonation, much like Italian, particularly in the Bacolodnon dialect, a characteristic that is derived from the large number of mestizos de sangley (Chinese mestizos) in the region. The language is referred to as “Ilonggo” (Spanish: ilongo) in Iloilo and in Negros Occidental. Many argue, however, that this is an incorrect usage of the word “Ilonggo.” In precise usage, “Ilonggo” should only be used in relation to the ethnolinguistic group that are native inhabitants of Iloilo and the culture associated with native Hiligaynon speakers, they argue. The disagreement over the usage of “Ilonggo” to refer to the language extends to Philippine language specialists and native laymen. Dialects > Similar to many languages in the Philippines, very little research on dialectology has been done on Hiligaynon. Some of the widely-recognized varieties of the language are urban Iloilo or Ilonggo, Bacolodnon, Guimaras and Koronadal. Native speakers also consider Kinaray-a (or Antiqueño) and Capiznon as dialects of Hiligaynon; however, these have been classified by linguists as separate languages. Related languages > According to H. Otley Beyer and other anthropologists, the term Visayan was first applied only to the people of Panay and to their settlements eastward in the island of Negros, and northward in the smaller islands, which now compose the province of Romblon. In fact, at the early part of Spanish colonialization of the Philippines, the Spaniards used the term Visayan only for these areas. While the people of Cebu, Bohol, and Leyte were for a long time known only as Pintados. The name Visayan was later extended to these other islands because, as several of the early writers state, their languages are closely allied to the Visayan dialect of Panay.