Phonology of Central Bontok

Abstract

This phonology is based upon the dialect of about 1,500 people living in Guinaang, in the sub-province of Bontoc, Mountain Province, Philippines. This dialect is part of the Central Bontok language which is spoken in the majority of the barrios of the Bontoc municipality. Each barrio has a vocabulary containing words peculiar to its own area, and distinctive intonational and subphonemic changes. Yet despite this, mutual intelligibility is high, and the phonemes set forth in this paper are valid for the whole area. Although Guinaang shows less cultural change than the surrounding barrios, its central position and the high degree of monolingualism present have provided a good basis for the study of the dialect. Materials upon which this statement is based were gathered in Guinaang between August 1959 and June 1961, under the auspices of the Summer Institute of Linguistics.