Professional Documents
Culture Documents
I. Introduction
There are several dialects of Waray Waray, often referred to by their place name.
For example, towns in Leyte like Barugo, Carigara, Jaro and their capital city;
Tacloban. People from Barugo have some differences in intonation and accents
compared to those from Carigara. And people from those two towns can easily
determine those from Jaro, which is known in their place to have softer intonation and a
substitution of schwa [ə] sound on the usual sound of [ɔ] and [u] in most “o” and “u”
vowels in their words. And people from those three towns may know that whom they are
talking to is from Tacloban since people from Tacloban have an intonation that is more
similar to those from Samar Regions. The dialects of Northern Samar are the most
conservative. They maintain [s] in their common word marker while other dialects have
innovated [h]. Vowel-length in the verb prefix paradigm for the Northern Samar dialect is
absent except in the active potentate form náka-. Zorc (1975) identifies the following
three major dialects: Samar-Leyte spoken in Central Samar and the northern half of
Leyte, Waray spoken in southern and eastern Samar, and the Northern Samar dialect. But
as of now, there are two main dialects that are being considered: the “S-Waray” and “H-
Waray”. S-Waray is mainly spoken in the Northern and Eastern parts of Samar and
Biliran, while H-Waray is spoken in the remaining areas. The reason for the names is the
differences in the word markers: H-Waray using “ha” and S-Waray using “sa”.
There are about 3 million people that speak Waray-waray, but as of present time,
there is no official orthography commonly accepted; there exists two different spellings
of many words. Waray-waray is a harsh sounding language, but because there are many
different types of tones across the Waray-waray dialects, some sounds sweeter than the
others. The literal meaning of Waray is “nothing” or “none”.
In history, the Westerners’ first contact with Waray peoples was on March 31,
1521, when Magellan found the Leyte gateway. Very little is known about pre-Hispanic
Waray history, but linguistic, ethnographic, and archeological evidence help to classify
the Warays as the easternmost extension of the Visayan peoples, a relatively
homogeneous group inhabiting the central Philippine Islands named after the great
Sumatran empire of Sri Vijaya. Warays today are predominantly Roman Catholic, many
practicing with a blend of pre-Hispanic animistic elements. They are the most culturally
conservative of the Visayans.
There are no much efforts to preserve, promote and protect the Language.
Although Waray Waray ranks among the top eight languages of the Philippines, there has
been very little done in the way of propagating the language through literature or the
media. No works of literature have been produced prior to the 1900s during the early
American period of occupation and nothing substantial is being produced in Waray to
this day. Norberto Romualdez was the first accomplished writer in Waray, staging his
first play, An Pagtabang ni San Miguel (The Assistance of St. Michael), in 1899 at the
age of 24. In 1908 he produced a Bisayan Grammar and organized the Sanghiran san
Binisaya or “Bisayan Language Academy” the following year but the academy is no
longer active.
There are some related studies in this research like the one anonymously
conducted and posted in the internet entitled Waray-Waray Explained. A paragraph there
says: Waray-waray is a language that has been around for a long time, and has change a
lot over the last couple hundred of years, because of the Spanish and English influences.
You may notice a lot of Spanish and English words are now used in Waray-waray.
Waray-waray isn’t an easy language to learn for English speakers as many of its concepts
are different to those we’re used to in English. It has being said that Waray-waray is rated
4 out of 5 (5 being the hardest) for hardness to learn. But there were some noticeable
mistakes in the study, especially in the given examples and the instruction of how words
are to be pronounced in Waray way. An in-depth verification of existing documentation
was carried out in order to avoid the errors committed in previous research.
Christopher Sundita's Salita Blog claims too that: Waray-Waray not only has a
definite and indefinite distinction, but also a temporal one! This means a distinction
between past and the non-past. He was able to use examples too where he explained:
“The genitive forms are simply the addition of h or s, depending on the dialect. I will use
h since that is used in Tacloban.” Such explanation by him before citing examples,
remind readers again of the considered 2 major dialects of Waray language, the “S” and
“H”.
Siting some examples, he said that in Tagalog, to express "a man called" one
could say may tumawag na lalaki or tumawag ang isang lalaki; and yes, tumawag ang
lalaki is also possible. In Waray-Waray, the indefinite article gets rid of the ambiguity,
it'd be tinmawag in lalaki. May-ada tinmawag nga lalaki is also possible.
If it's definite, you say tinmawag an lalaki (The man called).
Other translations.
Natawag an lalaki = The man was calling. (note an, past definite)
Natawag it lalaki = The man is calling. (note it, non-past definite)
Matawag it lalaki = The man will call.
Matawag an lalaki is also possible and it could imply that the person being spoken
to knows the man.
Waray, like other Philippine languages, does not have any exact equivalent to the
English linking verb be. In Tagalog, for example, the phrase "Siya ay maganda" (She is
beautiful) contains the word ay which, contrary to popular belief, does not function as an
attributive copula predicating maganda (beautiful) to its subject and topic Siya (he or
she). The function of Tagalog's ay is rather a marker of sentence inversion, which is
regarded as a literary form but somewhat less common in spoken Tagalog. The same
phrase may be spoken as Maganda siya, which has the same meaning. The Waray
language in comparison would express "She is beautiful" only as "Mahusay hiya" or
sometimes "Mahusay iton hiya" (iton functioning as a definite article of hiya, she), since
Waray doesn't have a present-tense copula or even an inversion marker. As in other
Philippine languages, attributive statements are usually represented in predicate-initial
form and have no copula at all. Take for example the ordinary English sentence "This is a
dog" as translated to Waray: Ayam ini. The predicate Ayam (dog) is placed before the
subject ini (this); no copula is present. Another example:
Amo ito an balay han Winaray o Binisaya nga Lineyte-Samarnon nga Wikipedia.
Despite the debate regarding the Waray copula, it would be safe to treat
structures like magin (to be), an magin/an magigin (will be or will become), and an nagin
(became) as the English treat linking verbs:
The information that the researchers researched from the internet have been
printed, analyzed and some were shown to the respondents too for confirmation and
comparison.
Here are the Waray Language grammatical components:
A B K D E G H I L M N NG O P R S T U W Y
These days there are 28 letters in the alphabet, in order to accommodate words of
Spanish and English origin. The letters include:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N Ñ O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
The table above was the summary table of the Waray language’s pronouns and
markers. To explain this more clearly, we then regrouped them to classes and functions.
In Waray – Waray there are two kinds of pronouns:
1. Personal Pronouns ( I, you, we, my, your, etc.)
2. General Pronouns ( this, that, those, here, there, etc.)
Singular Plural
akó I kitá we(incl)
kamí we ( excl)
ikáw / ka You kamó you
hiyá he / she hira they
The personal pronoun Ikaw only has the short from which is ka. The personal kita
is “inclusive”, that is, it includes those to whom one is speaking; kami is “exclusive”, that
is, it excludes some or all.
I Class Personal Pronoun marks the “Topic” of the sentence. The topic is the most
important thing in the sentence. In English the speaker usually emphasizes particular
words by using it louder, or by his intonation or pitch. In Waray-waray, words in a
sentences are given relative importance by “marking” them with a I Class word.
Sometimes this I Class words are the subject of the sentence; at other times they are the
object of the action, or the recipient or the beneficiary of the action. (The latter will be
explained later in this research paper.)
Examples:
1. Pilipino ka. You are a Filipino.
2. Amerikano ako. I am an American
3. Estudyante hiya. He / She is a student.
4. Mahusay hiya. She is beautiful
5. Hataas ako. I am tall.
6. Riko hira. They are rich.
7. Mga lalake kita. We (incl) are men (male)
8. Mga babaye kami. We (excl) are women (female)
9. Mga sangkay kita. We (incl) are friends.
10. Mga Pilipino kami. We (excl) are Filipinos.
“Mga” is a pluralizeer, indicating a plural form of the noun following.
The examples of Waray sentences given above were Equational Sentences. There
is no verb in these Waray sentences. The noun or adjective is “equated” (=) with the
pronoun. The English translation it is noticeable that it uses the “to be” verb.
I Class Markers
Just as there are three classes of personal pronouns in Waray-waray, there are also
three classes of markers. A I Class Marker “marks” the TOPIC, or the “emphasized”
word, of the sentence. Markers are used with proper nouns (people’s names) and
common nouns.
I Class Markers
Singular Plural
w/ Proper Nouns Hi hira
w/ Common Nouns an an mga
Examples
There are also three classes of general pronouns. The general pronouns are
sometimes called demonstrative pronouns. In English, these are the pronouns this, that,
these, and those. In Waray, these pronouns are based upon their relative location from the
speaker.
I CLASS GENERAL PRONOUNS
A “I Class General Pronoun” functions as the “topic”, or the emphasized word, or the
sentence.
Example:
The following are equational sentence using the I Class General Pronouns.
1. Tubig ini. This is water. (very near)
2. Lamesa ini. This is a table. (near)
3. Kahoy adto. That “over there” is a tree. (far)
4. Papel ini. This is a paper.
5. Hira iton. That’s them “over there”
6. Mga estudyante ito. Those are students.
7. Tawo iton. That is a person.
8. Dagat iton. That “over there” is the ocean.
9. Karsada ito. That is a road.
10. Mga libro ini. These are books.
Linker
There is a word called “nga” [ŋa] in the Waray language. It links the adjective
and other object together. To illustrate the function of “ nga” here are some example.
You say for example, if you say a toy, you will say the following:
However saying “Ini nga uyagan” is not a complete sentence though it looks like
one, since Ini functions like this(near the speaker) in English language and one might
mistook nga in the sentence to function like verb be. That is wrong. “Ini nga uyagan”
when stated in Waray will not make sense if spoken plainly. To make it a complete
sentence, use of descriptive word first or adjective before the phrase is a must. To
illustrate this, we use the word “ mahusay” or beautiful as a word to describe the
“uyagan” (toy). Now we have: “Mahusay ini nga uyagan”, which now means: This toy
is beautiful.
More examples:
English – blue ball white house hard rock
Waray – Asul nga bola busag nga balay matig-a nga bato
When descriptive words which use the nga linker are used in equational
sentences, the word order is as follows:
W/ I Class Markers (an,hi)
Descriptive word + nga + noun + I Cl Marker + rest…
Examples:
1. Hataas nga babaye hi Ruth. Ruth is a tall woman.
2. Matambok nga lalake hi George. George is a fat man.
3. Malipayon nga tawo hi Paul. Paul is a happy person.
4. Daragita nga babaye an bugto ni Jess. Jess’ sister is a young girl.
5. Buotan nga tawo an nanay ni Suzie. Suzie’s mother is a nice person.
When I Class Personal Pronouns or I Class General Pronouns are used, they come
between the descriptive word and the nga. The personal pronouns, however, are not
usually contracted. The nga remains in its full form.
The II Class Personal Pronouns function as a “Possessor” when they are attached to a
noun.
Examples:
In the previous discussion the I Class Markers (hi, hira, an, an mga) were given.
Those mark the topic of the sentence. The II Class Markers, like the II Class Personal
Pronouns above, also function many times as POSSESSORS. The hin Marker marks the
object of a verb. (This will be learned in a later in the discussion.)
II CLASS MARKERS
Singular Plural
w/ PROPER NOUNS Ni nira
w/COMMON NOUNS han / hin han mga / hin mga
han – equivalent to the English definite article the in a verbal sentence, and it shows
possession
hin – equivalent to the English indefinite article a in a verbal sentence, and it shows
possession also and marks the object of a verb.
One may use it interchangeably. It depends upon the context and the place.
Examples:
Waray English
lapis ni Lorna Lorna’s pencil (pencil of Lorna)
balay ni Lorie Lorie’s house (house of Lorie)
kwarta nira Rico ngan Bobong Rico and Bobong’s money (money of Rico
and Bobong)
saruwal nira Tata ngan Jojo Tata and Jojo’s pants (pants of Tata and
Jojo)
libro han maestro Teacher’s book (book of the teacher)
uyagan han mga bata Children’s toy (toy of the children)
lamesa han director Director’s table (table of the director)
Bibliya han mga pastor Pastor’s Bible ( Bible of the pastor)
bado ni Stacey Stacey’s dress (dress of Stacy)
sapatos han panday Carpenter’s shoes (shoes of the carpenter)
Waray verbs also have tenses like English. There are past, present, and future
tenses. There is also a command form, or imperative of the verbs.
Ma – Actor Focus
In Actor Focus, the emphasis is on the actor, or the doer of the action (the subject
of the verb). Ma – is the prefix used before the verb root in the future tense. The past is –
in m infix and present tense is na – prefix. The following chart shows the verb root, the
past, present form, and the future form.
In the past form, if the root word ends in a consonant, Waray put the –in m infix
after the first letter of the word but if the root word ends in the vowel they put the –in m
prefix connected by the root word.
MA – ACTOR FOCUS
Past Tense Present Tense Future Tense
Root inm + root na + root ma + root
Ist letter + inm +root
-sakay sinmakay nasakay Masakay
-palit pinmalit napalit Mapalit
-hatag hinmatag nahatag Mahatag
-kaon kinmaon nakaon Makaon
-lakat linmakat malakat Malakat
-Inom inminom nainom Mainom
-sunod sinmunod nasunod Masunod
-kadto kinmadto nakadto Makadto
-simba sinmimba nasimba Masimba
-balhin binmalhin nabalhin Mabalhin
ADDITIONAL NOTE:
The ma- prefix is generally used with verbs of motion or movement. It usually
refers to an instantaneous action, or “short –lived” action. Later, the mag- actor focus
which is usually used with verbs whose action extends over a longer period of time will
be discussed.
Ma –verb + I Class Actor
Examples (in simple form)
The verb usually precedes the noun in Waray. Examples:
1. Mapalit ko I will buy (I’m going to buy)
2. Nakaon hiya. He is eating.
3. Matindog kita. We (incl) will stand (We are going to stand)
4. Nasimba kami. We (excl) are worshipping.
5. Nakadto hi John. John went.
6. Tinmawag kamo. You (pl) called.
7. Masunod an bata. The child will follow.
8. Nabalhin hira Mike ngan hi Kristi. Mike and Kristi are moving.
Ma – Actor Focus (w/Object and Location)
Formula
Ma- Verb + I Cl Actor + II Cl Object + III Cl L/D/B
This is the usual pattern though not every sentence will have all of these parts.
Some will not have an object; others will not have a location/direction or beneficiary.
Sometimes modifiers or time cues are also added.
Other Functions Han and Hin
In the example sentences above, the word han and the word hin are used in
different ways. Before the objects (saging, libro, tinapay), the hin and the han mark the
object. The hin was then translated into “a” (like an indefinite article), and the han is
translated “the” (like a definite article).
Hin and han are often used interchangeably by Waray. The ha before the location
word (tindahan, eskwelahan, balay) shows location. It functions like a preposition and is
usually translated “in, on, or at”
The III Class General Pronouns above may be used alone by themselves to show
a location or direction, or with another location word. When it is combined with another
location, the general pronoun added emphasis.
Examples of III Class General Pronouns:
SINGULAR PLURAL
w/Proper Nouns kan kan ngan kan
w/Proper Nouns ha ha mga
The kan and the ha function somewhat similar to the function of the English preposition
“for”. They are sometimes preceded by the Waray words which means “for”, or “in the
behalf of.” This word is para.
Examples (w/ para/)
The examples below use the III Class Markers and the III Class General Pronouns
to show the beneficiary and/ or the location/ direction of the action:
The III Class Personal Pronouns have several variations as the following chart illustrates:
I II
Ákon ha ákon
Ímo ha ímo
Íya ha íya
áton (incl) ha áton
ámòn (excl) ha amon
Íyo ha íyo
Íra ha íra
The form in column II is just a variation of the “real” pronouns in column I. For
example, look at the pronoun akon in column I. Notice the difference in each column:
Either way is acceptable, but the last is more common. Notice that the II Class
nakon always follows the noun, while the III Class akon always precedes the noun as in
the following examples:
akon uyab my girlfriend
imo ngaran your(singular) name
iya lawas his body
aton Diyos our(incl) God
amon apoy our(excl) grandmother
iyo uma your(pl) farm
ira kaharani their neighbor
The following examples demonstrate how this possessive pronoun is used in a ma- actor
focus sentence:
The pronouns in the next examples show the Beneficiary or the Direction Of The
Action Of The Verb. The ha or ka when added before the root pronoun makes it will
function like a prepositional phrase. The most commonly used English translation are:
“to, at, for, with, or from” followed by the III Class pronoun.
Examples:
These III Class Pronouns show the beneficiary or the direction of the action of the verb.
In a ma- actor focus question, the ba also follows the first full word of the
sentence.
The formula is the same.
Ka + ba
There is an exception to the rule above. When the short form of the pronoun ikaw
(the pronoun ka) is used with the question word ba, then ka will come before ba. This
short form of the pronoun ikaw, or ka, is a VIP word. It usually comes before other
particles.
Particles – na and pa
The small particles na and pa are often confusing to non Filipino speakers of
Waray. However, if one learns how to correctly use them and practice them, they will not
be confused.
Na shows that the action is being done now, or that the action has already been
done.
The na or pa is placed after the first full word of the sentence. (except with ka). If
other particles are also used, the na/pa always comes FIRST. They are VIP particles.
Na
Pa
Ka +Na/Pa
The same exception is true for na and pa when the short pronoun KA is used. The
na or pa will follw the ka. It is more VIP na and pa.
Many times na and pa are used with the question word ba. When this occurs, the
ba follows the na/pa. When short pronoun ka is used, it again always comes before the
particles. It is the VIP word.
This may seem very complicated. The correct word order is the most difficult
thing. The following summary formula will be of help. Remember the VIP words come
first. The VIP pronoun ka always comes before any particles. The VIP Particles na/pa
always are the first particles in the sentence.
Summary Formula:
The particles ba, na, and pa are very important for us to know. But there are also
other several particles aside from that, and one of them is the particle liwat. Below is the
lesson on how to use the particle liwat.
Examples:
Also/Too or Again
The conrext will usually determine the appropriate meaning.
The particles hin duro is used with a descriptive word to intensify it. “Hin duro”
– means “very” or sometimes “so” or “extremely”. It usually follows the descriptive
word.
When hin duro modifies a I Class Personal Pronoun (ako, ikaw, hiya, etc.), the word
order is often changed. The hin duro comes after the descriptive word and the I Class
Pronoun. However, Filipinos often Place it after the descriptive word. Either way is
acceptable.
Descriptive Word + I Cl Pronoun + hin duro + rest…
[or]
Descriptive Word + hinduro + I Cl Pronoun + rest…
Waray and Diri. These are two of the most confusing words for non-native Waray
speakers. However, each is to be used with a specific form. In ma- actor focus sentence,
both Waray and Diri means NOT or NO.
WARAY is used when referring to PAST or Present Action.
waray pa / diri pa
waray na / diri na
These most often, follow a question that uses na or pa. However, they are also
used in sentences without na or pa to show the various meanings below:
The word order for a negation response with I Class Personal Pronouns is as
follows:
The word order for a negation response with I Class General Pronoun or I Class
Markers is as follows:
If the subject of the sentence is marked by a I Class General Pronoun (ini, iton,
adto), or a I Class Marker (hi, hira, an, an mga), the verb comes after the waray or diri
(except when there are particles). The subject then follows the verb.
For example:
Q: Are you going to church?
A: No. I’m not going to church today.
The double negator is also often in Waray. This adds emphasis and more explanation.
For example:
Q: Matan-aw ba kamo hin sine?
A: Diri. Diri kami matan-aw hin sine.
Q: Nahatag ba hi Gener hin mangga ha imo?
A: Waray. Waray humatag hi Gener hin mangga ha akon.
If I Class Personal Pronouns are used, the pronoun precedes the verb (as before).
However, the particle comes after waray/diri.
na ba ba liwat/gihapon na ba liwat/gihapon
pa ba na liwat/gihapon pa ba liwat/gihapon
pa liwat/gihapon
If I Class General Pronouns or I Class Markers are used, the verb precedes the general
pronoun or marker (as before). The particle again comes after waray/diri.
This focus is used the same way as Ma – Actor Focus, the Topic of the Mag –
Actor Focus sentence is the actor, or the doer of the action (the subject of the verb).
The following chart shows the verb root, the past/present form, the future form, and the
command form of some common mag- actor focus verbs.
Some verbs in Waray usually use the mag- prefix, while other verbs usually use
the ma- prefix. However, some verbs use either of the two prefixes depending on the
intended meaning. The ma- verbs usually intend to show action that is of short duration.
Many times, these are related to motion or movement. For example: matindog,
malingkod, madagan, or malakat. The mag-verbs, on the other hand, usually intend to
show action that is being done over a longer period of time.
The word order for Mag – Actor Focus sentence is the same as the Ma –Actor
Focus.
Verbalizing Nouns
Filipinos are fond of verbalizing nouns with nag-/mag-prefixes. That is, a noun is
made into a verb by prefixing it with nag-, mag-, or pag-. English nouns are often also
verbalized, especially when there is no common Waray word. Verbalized nouns are often
used as a short-cut.
For example: (verbalized nouns)
Karuyag, Buot, Kinahangla, Pwede, Mahimo are called special verbs, or pseudo-verbs.
These special verbs have many functions as verbs themselves.
For example:
However, these special verbs are most often linked to other verbs in a sentence as an
“auxiliary” to the man verb of the sentence. Used in this way, these special verbs have the
following meanings:
Special Verbs
In the following examples these special verbs are linked to another main verb of the
sentence.
Examples:
What is noticeable in the example above is that the special verbs are used with
another main verb. All the main verbs are future tense there is no reduplication of the first
syllable of the root.The main verbs are translated in English like infinitives most of the
time. (to buy, to play, to work, to go). The sentences begin with the special verbs.
WORD ORDER
The formulas below will show the word order for sentences using special verbs.
there are two common ways of arranging the words – the subject before the main verb, or
the subject after the main verb. Either way is acceptable though Waray often prefer one
or the other.
OR
Note: Examples will be given using both formulas, or word orders above. Both are used
depending upon location and personal preferences.
KARUYAG/BUOT “likes to, want to, wish to, will to (do something)”
Karuyag and buot mean same thing and may be used in the same way. The more
common usage is karuyag, but buot is also used.
Pwede and mahimo mean the same thing, and may be used in the same way.
Pwede is actually Spanish word that is commonly used by Waray. It is the more
ommon of these two in most places.
Question/Interrogative Words
Question Words
HIN-O? WHO?
NGAIN? WHERE?
HAIN? WHERE? /WHICH?
DIIN? WHERE?
TAGPIRA? HOW MUCH?
PIRA? HOW MANY?
SAN-O, KAKAN-ON? WHEN?
KAY ANO? WHY?
UNAN-O? HOW?
ANO? WHAT?
Examples:
Notice in the examples above that the I Class Markers an is used, and also the I Class
general Ponoun ini. The ano question word always is followed by a I Class word:
Either way is acceptable, but it doesn’t hurt to add the man of the time. The ano b
question word asks what something is. The response, then, should be an identification of
what a thing or person is. Responses to ano questions do not have to begin with a I class
word. Hin-o responses, on the other hand, begin with a I Class word. The first word of
the response is usually the object or person which answers the ano question.
Examples (ano with responses)
HIN-O?
The question word ano asks “what something is,” while the question word hin-o
hin-o asks “who someone is”. It is used in askng names or identifies of people.
For Example:
Notice in the examples above that hin-o also requires I a Class word. (I Class
Personal Pronoun, I Class General Pronoun, or I Class Marker).
Notice too, that the particle man is also used with ano. Other particles are placed in the
same order as before.
Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards,
Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray today, their native counterparts being
almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers. Some, specially the old ones, are
spoken alongside the Spanish counterparts.
Grammar
Waray language has no exact equivalent to the English Phrase structure. That’s
why explaining the Waray Language Phrase Structure would be difficult as there are
some irregularities especially in word inflection. Fortunately, a general pattern of saying
sentence is noticeable in them, though it doesn’t apply in general. Such pattern can be
considered their basic. Like for example: “I threw the ball to Bob”; an English sentence
that if transcribed to its phrase structure would look like:
S
NP Aux. VP NP PP
past N
If translated to Waray, the word distribution in the sentences won’t be at the same
plotting, and so the Phrase Structure would be different. To show it in a less confusing
way, we illustrate the sentence pattern to: “A O V L/R” where V=Verb, A=Actor,
O=Object, L/R=Location/Receiver. English is normally spoken in “A O V L/R” format.
On the other hand Waray is generally spoken in the following format: “V A O L/R”.
Examples: