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Leksyon 1 - Cebuano Sounds ( Phonemes )

Leksyon 1

Cebuano Sounds (Phonemes)

Cebuano has 16 consonant and 3 vowel sounds, to wit:
/b, k, d, g, h, l, m, n, ng, p, r, s, t, w, y, ?/ and /a, i, u/ respectively.

These are articulated as follows:

Eng. Key	Ceb. Words	Eng. Key	Ceb. Words
/b/~ bank	ba'ta (child)	/ng/~ ring	ng'ipon(teeth)
/k/~ carpet	k ape' (coffee)	/p/~pen	papel'(paper)
/d/~ dike	d alan (road)	/r/~ red	relo'(clock)
/g/~ gate	g a'tas (milk)	/s/~ soap	sabon'(soap)
/h/~ hot	h ag'dan (stair)	/t/~ tap	t'wo(person)
/l/~ luck	lamas'(spice)	/w/~ wash	wa'say(ax)
/m/~ man	manok'(chicken>	/y/~ yen	ya'wi(key)
/n/~now	nut'buk(notebok)	/?/~ ?uh?uh	amo'?(monkey)

/a/ is low central vowel -- asu’kar (sugar), pa’pa (dad), abog’ (dust), awto (car)

/i/ is mid-front vowel -- it has two forms: [ i ] and [ e ] -- ikaw’ (you), tse’ke (check), papel’ (paper), sek’retar,yo (secretary), tiil (feet)

/u/ is mid-high back vowel -- it has also two forms: [ o ] and [ u ] -- tu’o (v. believe) tinu’od (true), bas’tos (ill-mannered), u’lo (head), tu’hod (knee), tubig (water)

**Stress is indicated by an apostrophe [ ‘ ]. Stress is phonemic in Cebuano.

tu’o (believe) -- tuo’ (right hand)>
wala? (none) -- wala’ (left hand) -- wa’la (get lost)
a’mo? (ours) -- amo? (monkey) -- a’mo (master)

**Common phrases

kape ug asukar (coffe and sugar)
papa sa bata (father of the child)
tiil ug tuhod (feet and knee)
relo sa tawo (the man’s watch/clock)
sabon ug tubig (soap and water)
yawi sa awto (the car key)

[ug -- and; sa -- possessive of]

**dialog + vocabulary and grammar notes + common expressions list

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