A systematic orthography for writing Ifugao

3 Pages·1991·0.24 MB·English

by  Conklin, Harold

A SYSTEMATIC ORTHOGRAPHY FORWRITING
IFUGAO1
HAROLD CONKLIN
C.
Yale University
SYMBOLS
1.
Asimpleway ofwriting Ifugaorequiresonly 19lowercase letters(5 vowelsand 14
consonants)and 1 longmark.
.
PHONETICNOTES
3.
Ifugao words always begin with a consonant (C), though they may end in either a
consonant or a vowel (V). Intervocalically, consonants occur as -C-, -CgC,-, or -CjC,-.
Vowelsmayoccurmediallyorfinallyas-V,-V(Vl9or-VtV2. Inpiefinalsyllablestheymay
occurinlong (V)aswellasin short, unmarked(V)form.
In syllable-initialposition, thelax, voicedstops, b, d, andg, show awide varietyof
affricationandothertypesofcoarticulation.7 Similarly,insyllable-finalposition,thelateral
/andfricativehcoverabroadphoneticrangefrom[1] to[&>asintheAmericanEnglish r]
and from [h] and 0] to [s], respectively. These noncontrastive positional variants are
automaticallydeterminedbythephonologicalrulesofeachdialectanddonotrequireminute
differentiationorthographically. Thisphoneticrichness,however,partlyaccountsforthe
manyandfrequentlyinconsistentandconsequentlyconfusing waysthese phonemeshave
beenwrittenovermanydecadesbydifferentforeignandlocalwriters. Forexample,/q/has
beenindicatedbyahyphen,anapostrophe,graveandcircumflexaccents,j,h,ornothing;
/b/byb, f, bf,ph,py,orwf;/d/byd, ts,orch;titby1,r, g,ore;Ihlbyh,j, s, ornothing.
ThedisplaybelowsummarizessomeofthepertinentdataforBaynTnanIfugao. Similar
tablescanbedrawnupforanyIfugaodialectandinmostcasesthephonemicorthography
usedwillremainintact. (ThesystemusedonthemapsandinthetextoftheEthnographic
AtlasofIfugao is congruent with the analysis presented here. Vowel length is marked
identically, glottalstop isalwaysindicatedbyaraisedcomma, t)iswrittenasng; andin
initiallycapitalizedpropernames,/qV-/becomesV-,e.g.,AmgSnad. Similarlycongruent,
since 1968, aretheorthographiesusedinSummerInstituteofLinguistics worksonBatad
Ifugaolexicography.)
/*/• [q]
M
tn~[V:]
¥
[£l
IXI [£)
*Intomedialects,thesethreeconsonantsoccurinitiallyasfricatives.
*Virgules//enclosephonemic symbols,squarebrackets [J setoffsubphonemic,allophonic variants.
Q
Diacriticsusedtoindicatephoneticdetailinclude: tenseness,JJUxuess,Q'palatalizatibu,and(funreleased
closure^standsforanonsyllabicretroflexed unroundedmidcentralvowel.
OntypewritersandcomputerslackingmeansofrepresentingdietwononstandardEnglishkeyboardsigns,
hand ,theformercanbetypedasN, a*r(aletternotusedintheIfugao'alphabet'sothatonlythehookedlower
righttail'needstobeaddedbyhand:g),orinmostcasesasng;inplaceofthelatter,afollowingcolon(:)orany
availableaccentcanbeused(e.g.,~,\or*)inasmuchasonlyonephonemicmarkisneeded.Thus,bu.tung, btituN
orbfanforMm?. Where[s]hasbecomeanoncontrastivebutcommonpronunciationforAi/inpositionsother
thanafter/!/,underscoringmaybeemployed. Thus,fyenh^h**wellashenhuh,for'census*
CONKLIN
iki [iC]-[k]
/b/ \&fr\.\&\.\.&}
AJ/ l&- ]-[&].[rf]
/g/ [Jg(a)-],[J&],[-iP
IM [1- ],[-y]~[Eng."-r"]
W
[h- ],[-(i)'s]•,'[{-{:o}].x ]
4. SAMPLETEXT9 (andfreetranslation)
nanqaatdipanBdoqtuqudbaynihan
nan panudoqtuqud bayninan ya maphod ti qagqagah bahSon muqun qinnlla nan
naqohhayanannaduwwankanhenenqumatgohnannaqofahayanannaduwwanbawel,
qihaqqSdanhigalihnanbaqtundibawelqanmaqSyundipaqali,yaquhalongonanq
yananqbiqawadandiqahapfllanda,taqinnilaonhinahamaddiqaton.nanmeklon("*)
yaquhalon qanpaqalih hinanbaqtun dibawel qanmaqayun dipaqali, qumathinan
qtme, qttyun,qaliguyun, baqjbaq, balluha, y&pentolan.nanqyaqohankanhenenqan
quhalonmuqunmakohhSpetdibagaqqunqayyonhinanhfpun,gawwaha,yadiqpuhdi
bapet qumat hinan qamat, qemog; baqi, bTqal; baqlo, hulqud; ya habloq, qaggeq,
qayyoq, yaqSlaq. yanangyapaddugnanpagalihnan 'ng' qanqohaykanhenenqan
qumathinanrfidan, qoqal, gtqa, botqeyabaqbai)
OurSystemofWriting inBayninan
Baynihanwritingworkswell,it'seasytoreadbecausewedistinguishsingleanddouble
consonantsaswellassingleanddoublevowels,placealineoverlongvowels,andalways
use q's and q's to mark needed glottal stops and bad: nasals, respectively. More
explicitly,amacron(~)isusedtomarkthevowelsinlongsyllables,suchasinqime,
A
qttyun,qaligByun,batfban,ballttha,andpentdlan. 4marksinitial,internal,andfinal
glottalstops,suchasinqamat,qemog;bkqi,bTqal;baqlo, hulqud;andhabloq,qaggeq,
qayyoq,andqalaq. An9standsforthedigraph4ng'whenitrepresentsasingleconsonant,
suchasinifidan, qoryil, guja, botqeandbaqbaq.
A
Conklin,Harold. 1991. systematic orthographyforwritingIfugao.
PhilippineJournalofLinguistics 22:1-2:31-36.
9WrittcibyBOganDoyog.