Leksyon 1 Cebuano Sounds (phonemes)

(Lesson 1)

 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. KeyCeb. Words Eng. KeyCeb. Words
/b/~ bankba'ta (child) /ng/~ ringng'ipon(teeth)
/k/~ carpetk ape' (coffee) /p/~penpapel'(paper)
/d/~ diked alan (road) /r/~ redrelo'(clock)
/g/~ gateg a'tas (milk) /s/~ soapsabon'(soap)
/h/~ hoth ag'dan (stair) /t/~ tapt'wo(person)
/l/~ lucklamas'(spice) /w/~ washwa'say(ax)
/m/~ manmanok'(chicken> /y/~ yenya'wi(key)
/n/~nownut'buk(notebok) /?/~ ?uh?uhamo'?(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.

    Note:
  • 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]

    E-mail your comments and questions on this lesson to
  • jaguar@languagelinks.org or to
  • ijr@rocketmail.com.

Next Lesson: Introducing yourself in Cebuano

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

/jaguar-310898

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