Agusan language

Agusan is a Manobo language of northeastern Mindanao in the Philippines.

Agusan
Native to	Philippines
Region	Mindanao
Native speakers	(80,000 cited 1978–2002)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Manobo Central Agusan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Variously: msm – Agusan, Omayamnon mbd – Dibabawon mqk – Rajah Kabunsuwan
Glottolog	east2478

Distribution and dialects

Agusan Manobo (consisting of the Umayam, Adgawan, Surigao, and Omayamnon dialects) is spoken in the following areas.^[2]

• Agusan del Sur Province: western area, southeast of Lake Buluan
• inland areas of Surigao del Sur Province
• southwest of Lanuza Peninsula to Lianga Bay in Surigao del Sur Province
• western Agusan del Norte Province
• Compostela Valley and Davao del Norte provinces: continuous strip along northern borders
• Surigao del Norte Province: southern tip, inland
• scattered small border areas of Bukidnon and Davao Oriental provinces

Dibabawon Manobo is spoken in the following areas.^[2]

• northern Compostela Valley Province: upper Agusan River area
• Davao Oriental Province: Boston and Cateel municipalities
• Davao del Norte Province: Asuncion municipality (in Manguagan)

Rajah Kabunsuwan Manobo is spoken in the following areas.^[2]

• northern border of Davao Oriental Province
• southeast corner of Agusan del Sur Province
• southern Surigao del Sur Province: Lingig (in Rajah Cabungsuan)

The Omayamnon, Dibabawon, and Rajah Kabunsuwan dialects are divergent.

Phonology

Consonants

In Agusan, the stops have unreleased variants when occurring before another consonant, silence, and in syllable-final position.^[3] The glottal stop /ʔ/ occurs in all consonant positions.^[3] Of the continuants, all occur in syllable-initial position and all except /h/ in word-final position. The consonants /d/ and /j/ are used interchangeably.^[3]

Agusan Manobo consonants

	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	p b	t d		k g	ʔ
Nasal	m	n		ŋ
Fricative		s			h
Flap		ɾ
Approximant	w	l	j

Vowels

Agusan has only five vowels, /i/, /u/, /e/, /æ/, and /a/. Vowels may appear alone, after a consonant, or between consonants in a syllable. All vowels, with the exception of /æ/, may occur "in a sequence of identical vowels separated by a glottal stop". The vowel /e/ never occurs next to the consonant /r/.^[3]

Agusan Manobo vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	e
Low	æ	a

References

1. Agusan, Omayamnon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Dibabawon at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
   Rajah Kabunsuwan at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015) (subscription required)
2. Ethnologue
3. Weaver, Daniel H.; Weaver, Marilou (1963). "The phonology of Agusan Manobo (with special reference to æ)". In Wolfenden, Elmer (ed.). Papers on Philippine Languages 1. Manila: Institute for Language Teaching and Summer Institute of Linguistics. pp. 1–6.