In a Multilingual Country

Being in a country that has so many islands is never easy. Especially when there are local dialects here and there for each of these islands big or small. Which is why I'm quite reluctant to travel by myself.

Our Own Island

Even here in our province/island, which is composed of many cities. Local dialects are never the same in every city. Because we are in between Iloilo Province and Cebu. Which means our province is divided into two regions too.

Our Local Dialects

One side speaks Ilonggo, the other speaks Bisaya. But here in our little town or city, we speak Hiligaynon. If your wondering what that is, we'll it's a little bit a mix of both language. We speak kind of Ilonggo but with less intonation, I think. And we can understand Bisaya words. But in my case, I can only understand a few.

So let me teach you a few things on how to speak Hiligaynon. So if you ever visit our little town of Cadiz City, which is right in the middle of the way if you're going to Bacolod City from San Carlos City or vice versa.

Let's start with the greetings, shall we?

Good Morning everyone. - "Maayong Aga sa Tanan"

Good Noon - "Maayong Udto"

Good Afternoon - "Maayong Hapon"

Good Evening - "Maayong Gab-e"

Okay, on to the next, which is counting.

1(Isa), 2(Duwa), 3(Tatlo), 4(Apat), 5(Lima), 6(Anum), 7(Pito), 8(Walo), 9(Siyam), 10(Pulo).

Then directions, so if ever you decided to roam around and you ask a local who doesn't speak fluent English for directions, you can understand them.

"Unhan Pa" (this is usually said when you're near your destination but you just need to take a few steps further.

Liko sa Tu-o/Tuo (this translate to making a Right turn)

Liko sa Wala (you guessed it, it means turn Left.)

Likod sang Balay nga Pink (let's say you're looking for a specific person's house, and the person you asked from said this, it means it's right at the back of the Pink House.)

And yeah, I just made a reference to one of my neighbours house btw.

My Languages

So again to the topic of our country having many local dialects, which I couldn't figure out how many, we do have one that's considered a national language though. It's called Filipino, which is like Tagalog but much more like a standard version.

But hey, we call it Tagalog anyway.

Anyways, besides my Local Dialect or Mother Tongue which is Hiligaynon, I also speak Filipino but not too much. Because I born here in our Province which the Negros Province btw, also previously known as the Negros Island.

Not like my two older siblings who were born in Manila. But hey, I'm not much of an expert of Hiligaynon either, even if I was born here. There are still lots of words that's too deep for me.

And like I said earlier, I can understand bits of Bisaya words but not entirely either. Unlike my two older siblings again, who used to live in Cebu when they graduated from college. My mama also know a little bit of Bisaya. Though she's a Bicolana by birth, she never really taught us much about their dialect.

Oh if you're asking about my Papa, well like me, he's born here in our town too. So yeah, he speaks Hiligaynon also, but sometimes mixed with bits of Tagalog words. Which confuses me a lot when he asks me to find things for him. I always have to ask him what that means in our local dialect lol.

Lastly, I also speak English. Well clearly, I wrote all of this in English. But if you think I learned how to speak it in school. Nope, I learned it by watching English movies when I was a little. And yes, I also tend to copy their accents too. But yes, school sure did help a lot. But I just feel like English is my main Language,lol.

Remarks

I hope you guys learn a little bit in this little article I've made. @Jane inspired me to write this article btw. I simply thought of teaching you guys a little bit on how to speak our local language here in Negros, in case you guys ever thought of visiting our island or province in the Philippines. This in relation to the prompt : Language of miss @JonicaBradley and @TengoLoTodo btw. I just hope I'm not too late to submit my entry.