Central Bikol Language Guide

Official language in
Philippines
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

Mintz's dictionary says that the Bikol region dominates the southernmost peninsula of Luzon and extends into the island provinces of Catanduanes and Masbate, with Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay and Sorsogon on the mainland. Under the heading Bikol, he says, the standard dialect is usually attributed to the traditional cultural center of Naga City and its immediate environs. He says this dialect is spoken without major variation in Camarines Sur (except for a section called Rinconada), in eastern Albay including Legazpi City, and in most of northern Sorsogon.

The Philippine Constitution makes the regional languages the auxiliary official languages in the regions. A study of mother-tongue education lists Bikol among the eight major regional languages, the ones with the greatest number of speakers.

Mintz's grammar notes are based on the Naga dialect. They say that the marker su is used in the area south of Naga City and in the area to the east called Partido, while si is used in Naga and the area to the north of it toward Manila.

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Script & pronunciation

Mintz's dictionary says that Bikol as written in the dictionary is spelled as it is pronounced with very few exceptions, and that its spelling is patterned basically after the spelling adopted for Pilipino. He adds that Bikol as written in the Bikol region is based for the most part on the spelling system of Spanish, a system still in wide use then. Under the dictionary's policy, a Spanish c that sounds like k is written k, as in cuarto, written KUÁRTO.

This app's Central Bikol cards show the Bikol text only; none of them carries a separate romanization.

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Grammar essentials

Mintz's grammar notes say that Bikol has two types of sentence patterns, the verbal and the equational. They describe the verbal sentence as consisting of a verb phrase and either one or two main noun phrases.

The notes give the words that this app's cards spell Iyo and Dai as the answers "yes" and "no" to a question about a verbal sentence. They also use the same word as the negative in the sentence glossed "Why didn't you go?", where it comes before the pronoun ka and the verb. The app's card for Dai ko nasasabutan ("I don't understand") begins with Dai, followed by the pronoun ko.

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Politeness & etiquette

Mintz's grammar notes describe the word that this app's cards spell kamo as the polite singular of "you", identical in form to the plural. The notes also say that the word this app spells Tabi may be added to any sentence to connote politeness, and that it is often used with questions and commands.

In this app, the card for Kumusta ka? ("How are you?") says that it is a greeting for friends and peers and that kamo should be used instead of ka for someone older or formal. The card Igwa kamo nin locker? ("Do you have a locker?") uses kamo, and the card for Tabi ("Please") marks tabi as a word of respect.

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