Waray-Waray language

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{{language |name=Wáray-Wáray |nativename=Winaray |familycolor=Austronesian |states=Philippines |region=Eastern Visayas |speakers=3 million |fam2=Malayo-Polynesian |fam3=Borneo-Philippines |fam4=Central Philippine |fam5=Visayan |fam6=Central Visayan |iso2=war|iso3=war}}

Wáray-Wáray (commonly spelled as Waray-Waray; also referred to as Winaray or L(in) eyte-Samarnon) is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte (eastern portion), and Biliran in the Philippines.

It belongs to the Visayan language family and is related to Cebuano and more closely to Hiligaynon.

1 Grammar
- 1.1 Pronouns
- 1.2 The Waray-Waray copula
2 Orthography issues
3 Examples
- 3.1 Numbers
- 3.2 Some common words and phrases
4 See also
5 External links

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Grammar

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Pronouns

	Absolutive	Ergative	Oblique
1st person singular	ako, ak	nakon, nak, ko	akon, ak
2nd person singular	ikaw, ka	nimo, nim, mo	imo, im
3rd person singular	hiya, siya	niya	iya
1st person plural inclusive	kita, kit	naton	aton
1st person plural exclusive	kami, kam	namon	amon
2nd person plural	kamo	niyo	iyo
3rd person plural	hira, sira	nira	ira

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The Waray-Waray copula

Waray-Waray, as in 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 Waray-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 Waray sentence "This is a dog":

Ayam ini.

The predicate Ayam (dog) is placed before the subject ini (this); no copula is present. Another example:

Amo ini an balay han Winaray o Binisaya nga Lineyte-Samarnon nga Wikipedia.

In English: "This is the Waray-Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". The predicate Amo ini is roughly translated as "This here" but the rest of the sentence then jumps to its subject, marked by the particle an. A more literal translation would therefore be "This the Waray-Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". Unlike Tagalog, it is grammatically impossible to invert a sentence like this into a subject-head form without importing the actual Tagalog inversion marker ay, a growing trend among younger people in Leyte.

Despite the debate regarding the Waray-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:

Makuri magin estudyante. ([It's] hard to be a student.)

Ako an magigin presidente! (I will be the president!)

Ako an nagin presidente. (I became the president.)

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Orthography issues

While the now-defunct Sanghiran San Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte (Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) formulated and recommended a standard orthography, this was never widely disseminated and therefore as of present there is still no official orthography commonly accepted. In effect, there may exist two spellings of the same word (these usually limited to differences in vowels only), such as

diri or dire ("no")
hira or hera ("them")
pira or pera ("money") - could also mean "how many?"
maopay or maupay ("good")
guinhatag or ginhatag ("gave")
direcho or diritso ("straight [ahead]")

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Examples

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Numbers

Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray-Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers.

   One          Usá
   Two          Duhá
   Three        Tuló
   Four         Upat
   Five         Limá
   Six          Unom
   Seven        Pitó
   Eight        Waló
   Nine         Siyám
   Ten          Napúlô
   Eleven       (Napúlô kag usá)
   Twenty       (Karuhaan)
   Thirty       (Katloan)
   Forty        (Kap-atan)
   Fifty        (Kalim-an)
   Sixty        (Kaunman)
   Seventy      (Kapitoan)
   Eighty       (Kawaloan)
   Ninety       (Kasiaman)
   One Hundred  (Usa ka Gatus)
   One Thousand (Usa ka Yukut)

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Some common words and phrases

Below are examples of the Waray-Waray spoken in Metropolitan Tacloban and the nearby areas:

Good morning (noon/afternoon/evening) : Maupay nga aga (udto/kulop/gab-i)
Can you understand Waray? : Nakakaintindi/Nasabut ka hin Winaray? (hin or hiton)
Thank you : Salamat
I love you : Hinihigugma ko ikaw or Ginhihigugma ko ikaw or Pina-ura ta ikaw
Where are you from? : Taga diin ka? or Taga nga-in ka?
How much is this? : Tag pira ini?
I can't understand : Diri ako nakakaintindi
I don't know : Diri ako maaram or Ambot
What : Ano
Who : Hin-o
Where : Hain
When (future): San-o
When (past): Kakan-o
Why : Kay-ano
Yes : Oo
No : Dire
There: Adto or Didto
Here: Didi or Nganhi
Front or in front: Atbang or Atubangan
Night: Gab-i
Day: Adlaw