The Sentence Patterns of

Twenty-Six Philippine
Languages
(Rated OK: For general patronage)

By Ernesto Constantino
Introduction
Purpose
The main purpose of
this paper is to present
a constituent analysis
and a transformational
analysis of the major
sentence patterns of
twenty-six Philippine
languages.
Languages
Tagalog (Tag), Abak (Abk), Bikol (Bkl), Bolinao (Bol),
Botolan (Bot), Hiligaynon (Hil), Ibanag (Ibg), Ilukano
(Ilk), Itbayat (Itb), Itneg (Itn), Ivatan (Ivt),
Kapampangan (kap), Malaweg (Mal), Manobo (Mnb),
Pangasinan (Png), Sama Bangingi (Smb), Samal (Sml),
Sebuano (Seb), Sta. Fe Igorot (Sfi), Tausug (Tau),
Ternate (Ter), Tinguian (Tng), Waray (War), Ylanon
(Yln), and Yogad (Yog).
Consonants and Vowels
The following consonants occur in
each of the twenty-six Philippine
languages:
/p, t, k, q (glottal stop), b, d, g,
m, n, ŋ, s, h, l, r, w, y/.
The vowels /i, a, u/ occur in each
of the twenty-six languages.

Length and Stress

The phoneme of vowel length is
represented by /./ placed
immediately after the vowel. The
stress phoneme is represented by
/’/ placed over the vowel of the
syllable that receives the stress.
Intonation Contours
Four pitch levels: low /1/,
mid /2/, high /3/, extra
high /4/; and three
terminal junctures: rising
/↑/, falling /↓/,
sustained /l/, occur in
each of the twenty-six
Philippine languages.
intonation contours:
/(2)32↓/, /(2)32↑/,
/(2)32l/, /(2)2l/, and
/(2)42↓/.
 * Any utterane has
two immediate
constituents: the
intonation pattern
and the nucleus.

Utterance
An utterance is a segment of speech before and
after which tere is silence. It is either
complete or incomplete.
Tag: /tumakbo qaŋ ba.taq↓/
The child ran away.
2 32
Intonation patterns
The intonation pattern of an utterance
may have one intonation contour or it may
have two or more:
2- 32 2- 32
Tag: /qaŋ ba.taq‫׀‬/↓ tumakbo
‘The child ran away.’
which has two: /232l/ and /232 ↓/
Nucleus
The nucleus of an utterance may
have one macrosegment or it may have
two or more. An emphatic stress
morpheme may occur within the
macrosegment on any one of the accented
syllables.
the nucleus of a complete utterance,
with or without its intonation pattern, is
called a sentence. The nucleus of an
incomplete utterance is called a fragment.