Re: One language for the world

CONLANG@LISTSERV.BROWN.EDU writes:
>Which cities and languages would those of your grandfather and grandmother
>be?
My Grandfather is from Banga in Aklan, on the island of Panay. His
language is "Aklanon" (Akeanon, the "e" represents a rolled r sound). My
Grandmother is from Panitan an the province of Capiz (also on Panay). She
speaks Ilongo (Hiligaynon). SIL says the two languages have around a 60%
mutual inteligibility. My dad doesnt really speak  one or the other
fluently because he got a mix of the two growing up, plus they also they
spoke English to him mostly.

Here's a page that compares Aklanon and Tagalog touristy phrases.

http://www.sinfonia.or.jp/~infortec/hotspots/boracay/infoakl.htm

And, here's a very extensive page on Hiligaynon (Has some lessons, a
rather large dictionary, and even a list of affixes and their uses, not to
mention the site is partly in German):

http://www.copewithcytokines.de/NAGATUON/

> Are they both from regions where cebuano is the primary language? What
>is the situation (linguistic, historical) between cebuano and Tagalog? Was
>it numbers or trading influence that made it a contender for the national
>language?
Cebuano is a part of the Bisayan branch of the Philippine languages. This
paper: http://www.bisaya.com/papers/context/welcome.html, compares
Malaysian Bisaya, and the Bisayan language group (through Cebuano. It also
shows what languages are in the Bisayan group. Cebuano has over 15 million
speakers and is the Lingua Franca (from what i have read) of its region.
The parent site may have more information than I can provide. I think one
of the reasons it was a contender is because it has such a large number of
native speakers, and Cebu is an important city in the Visayas. Though
Tagalog and Cebuano are related to each other (Both in the Meso-Philippine
group), a speaker who only knows Cebuano and one who only knows Tagalog
wouldn't be able to understand each other.


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All the simple things are simply too complicated for my life