title: Matigsalug language
text: # Matigsalug language
  
  Matigsalug (Matig-Salug Manobo) is a Manobo language of Mindanao in the Philippines. It belongs to the Austronesian language family.
  
  ## Distribution and dialects
  
  There are approximately at least 50,000 speakers of the language, most of whom are concentrated in Mindanao, notably in south central Bukidnon, north-northeastern Cotabato and northwestern Davao del Sur provinces. A total of 5,000 monolingual speakers of the language has been reported.
  
  Matigsalug can be divided into four major dialects: Kulamanen, Tigwa, Tala Ingod, and Matigsalug Proper. Dialects are divergent, such that Tigwa has marginal intelligibility of Matigsalug, and only Tala Ingod may have adequate intelligibility of Matigsalug.
  
  ## Writing system
  
  Matigsalug is typically written using eighteen graphemes: a, b, d, e, g, h, i, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, u, w, and y. The graphemes c, f, j, o, q, v, x, and z are used in recently borrowed words and the names of people and places. The glottal stop is represented by a hyphen when it occurs word medially, but not where it occurs intervocalically. For example, the word [manʔʌʔ] 'again' is written as man-e, while the word [tiʔaŋ] 'carry on the shoulder' is written as tiang.
  
  ## Phonology
  
  ### Vowels
  
  Matigsalug has four vowels: /i, ʌ, a, u/.
  
  Long vowels do occur in Matigsalug, albeit rarely. The orthographic convention for long vowels is to write two vowel segments. For example, the word [pa:n] 'bread' is written as paan. This is in contrast with the spelling convention of most other Philippine languages, where sequences of identical vowels are separated by a glottal stop, e.g. Tagalog saan ([sa'ʔan]).
  
  ### Consonants
  
  There are 14 Matigsalug consonants. All the stops are unaspirated. The velar nasal occurs in all positions including at the beginning of a word.
  
  ### Stress
  
  Stress in Matigsalug always occurs penultimately, that is, on the second-to-last vowel. Because it is completely predictable, stress is not marked orthographically.
  
  Matigsalug does have small one-syllable clitics. When these phonologically join to the previous word, they cause the stress to shift in order to maintain penultimate stress. For example, the word for 'father' is ámey; when the possessive determiner rin 'his/her' is added, the stress shifts to the second syllable of the word for 'father': améy rin.
  
  ## Morphosyntax
  
  ### Noun phrases
  
  Nouns are preceded by a case marker. There are three types of case markers in Matigsalug.
  
  First, similar to the better-studied ang-marking in Tagalog, the language also employs a case-marking reserved for the noun with which the verb agrees (via focus/voice morphology). This marker exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the noun is a proper noun or a common noun. Si is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; ka is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.
  
  si
  
  Focus
  
  Inday/Anggam
  
  Inday/uncle
  
  si Inday/Anggam
  
  Focus Inday/uncle
  
  'Inday/Uncle'
  
  ka
  
  Focus
  
  tirè/geyinawa rin
  
  sugar cane/breath his
  
  ka {tirè/geyinawa rin}
  
  Focus {sugar cane/breath his}
  
  'the sugar cane/his breath'
  
  Second, when the verb shows agreement with any other noun other than the agent/experiencer, the agent/experiencer is marked with a separate case marking. In other words, this would be comparable with the by-phrase in an English passive. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ni is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.
  
  ni
  
  NonFocus(Ag)
  
  Inday/Anggam
  
  Inday/uncle
  
  ni Inday/Anggam
  
  NonFocus(Ag) Inday/uncle
  
  'by Inday/uncle'
  
  te
  
  NonFocus(Ag)
  
  lukes
  
  man
  
  te lukes
  
  NonFocus(Ag) man
  
  'by the man'
  
  Lastly, there is case marking reserved for non-focused non-agent/experiencer roles in the clause. This case marking also exhibits allomorphy depending on whether the agent/experiencer is a proper or a common noun. Ki is the allomorph used when the noun is a proper noun or a kinship term; te is used when the noun is a common noun or a possessive noun phrase.
  
  ki
  
  NonFocus
  
  Inday/Anggam
  
  Inday/uncle
  
  ki Inday/Anggam
  
  NonFocus Inday/uncle
  
  'to/from Inday/uncle'
  
  te
  
  NonFocus
  
  lukes
  
  man
  
  te lukes
  
  NonFocus man
  
  'to/from the man'
  
  ### Focus/voice morphology
  
  Characteristic of Philippine-type languages, Matigsalug verbs carry what is known in the literature as focus morphology. This piece of morphology indicates the semantic roles of the participants in the clause with respect to the verb. Matigsalug can put the agent/experiencer (AF), goal (GF), location (LF), and instrument (IF) into direct focus.
  
  In the first example, the prefix eg- indicates that the ka-marked noun functions as the agent, that is, the entity doing the kicking. In the second example, the prefix eg- in combination with the suffix -en together indicate that the ka-marked noun is the goal, that is, the entity being kicked.
  
  Egsipè
  
  NonPast-kick-Agent
  
  ka
  
  Focus
  
  kuddè
  
  horse
  
  te
  
  NonFocus
  
  kuddè
  
  child
  
  Egsipè ka kuddè te kuddè
  
  NonPast-kick-Agent Focus horse NonFocus child
  
  'The horse kicks the child'
  
  Egsipeen
  
  NonPast-kick-Agent
  
  ka
  
  Focus
  
  kuddè
  
  horse
  
  te
  
  NonFocus(Ag)
  
  kuddè
  
  child
  
  Egsipeen ka kuddè te kuddè
  
  NonPast-kick-Agent Focus horse NonFocus(Ag) child
  
  'The child kicks the horse'
  
  