A Contrastive Study of Ibanag and Itawis Morphological Processes

by

MarlyVea Clarisse L. Elli

Abigail Loren J. Isidro

In Partial Fulfillment
Of the Requirements for
Linguistics 120

OCTOBER 2013
Elli and Isidro

A Contrastive Study of Ibanag and Itawis’ Morphological Processes

MarlyVea Clarisse L. Elli, Abigail Loren J. Isidro

This paper discusses the morphological processes found in the languages

Itawis and Ibanag. The gathered data were compared to one another to see the
similarities and differences. Data that were only retrieved from the informants were
used in this research. Both languages have their own morphological processes. Some
morphological processes are found in the other while some are not present. With the
support of the morphological processes and the morphemes being used, this paper
may contribute to the documentation of the languages.

Keywords: contrastive, morphological processes, Ibanag, Itawis

1. Introduction

Itawis, also called as Itawes or Tawit, is spoken by 134,000, according to 1990 census of SIL,
mainly in the Cagayan Province, Luzon, Philippines (Summer Institute of Linguistics, 1990).
Ibanag, with an alternate name of Ybanag, on the other hand is spoken by 500,000 in Isabela
and Cagayan Provinces, Luzon, Philippines. Reid (1974, 2006) classifies Ibanag as a member of the
Cagayan Valley sub-group of the Northern Cordilleran Group of Northern Luzon. The other
members of the Cagayan Valley sub-group are Itawis, Ga’dang, Northern Cagayan Agta, Atta, Yogad,
and Isnag. Both languages as mentioned came from Ibanagic subgroup of Cagayan Valley family.
Contribution to Ibanag and Itawis as neighbouring languages was found in the study of
Canapi (1928), showing maps of the Cagayan Valley.
Ibanag and Itawis have a mutual intelligibility of 69%. However, if Itawis is compared to
South Ibanag dialect of the Ibanag language, it is 72% (SIL, 1990). With these data presented, some
might think that the languages are just dialects of each other.
The researchers found interest on the morphological processes because of De Guzman’s
(1996) focusing on the affixation and reduplication of the lexical categories in Tagalog.

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2. Review of Related Literature

Up until recently, there are only a few known studies about Ibanag and Itawis. Some of these
are the works of Rocero (1982) which focuses on the records of the different biological names like
plant names, papers of Jalotjot (1937) and Vinuya (1967) which discussed about the orthography,
phonemic and morphophonemic structures.
The phonetic and phonemic aspect of Ibanag language was focused on the study of Vinuya
(1931). It enumerated the environment of each speech sounds, and the phonemic conclusion was
long, presenting the restrictions of the significant sounds and their occurrences. It may not help on
the morphological processes, but this study may be used as a reference for confirmation and validity
of the morphemes used and the structure of the clause given by the informants. In the study of
Jalotjot on Itawis (1937), the paper is concerned verbal clause its description, because no
morphological processes have been explained.
As far as the researchers’ knowledge about the past studies, there have been some papers
that deal with the morphological processes. Some studies discussed the reduplication process in
Ibanag language and other related topics. Morphological pattern of reduplication in a semantic level
in Ibanag was focused on the study of Manaligod (1935). It shows that morphology is also related to
semantics without mentioning syntax (in which it is significant).
Dita (2011a) described the types and functions of the nominal marking system of Ibanag by
looking at the constituent order of a typical NP. It also discussed the properties of each noun. With
another article by Dita (2011b) focusing also on nouns, she illustrated the morphological processes
involving reduplication and derivational affixes, providing also syntactic properties.
From the sources above, Ibanag has been previously studied. The studies had concentrated
on morphophonemics and recently on morphosemantics. There are, on the other hand, fewer
studies about Itawis.
The significance of the study will provide morphological processes which have not been
entirely revealed, and help in enriching the studies about both languages, although the reduplication
patterns in Ibanag had already been studied. In Itawis, only the description of verbal clauses had
been studied, and therefore, no actual morphological processes have been explored. Few studies
have been explored about these two languages in the library and even in cyberspace, so it would be
an opportunity for these languages to be considered.

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Morphophonemics and morphosyntax would be excluded in the study. Only a few

reduplication processes will be mentioned. For further studies about reduplication, please refer to
Dita (2011) and Manaligod (1935).
The study will be able to update and add knowledge about the languages. This may also
serve as guide or may help the future researchers that are interested in the same field.
Focusing mainly on the morphological aspect of both languages and the perception of their
speakers on each other’s language, the study aims to answer questions about the morphological
processes involving Ibanag and Itawis languages, their similarities and differences, how are Ibanag
and Itawis closely-related through these processes, and the perceptions of the native speakers of
either or both languages in each other’s languages.

3. Design and Method

Comparison of two languages would be the key procedure of the study.

The study would be using the modified version of Swadesh list to elicit data from the
language consultants from the organizations in UP Diliman: UP Anna na Cagayan (ANC), and UP
Lambak. The language consultants are chosen because they are first-language speakers of Itawis and
Ibanag, and they are living in Metro Manila just recently to study in college. Age group is between 16
– 18 years old and they are using the languages as home languages. The translated modified Swadesh
list will then be recorded for pronunciation verification. The Swadesh list was modified to
accomodate the processes and other factors that would help in gathering data about the Philippine
languages.
The researchers would also interview the informants and ask them about their language and
to tell a story spoken in their first languages. The interview and a translated version would be
recorded and the former would be used for the matched guise experiment. The matched guise
experiment is a method of investigating people’s opinions about the languages. Discourse-based
analysis may be considered. After eliciting the data, it would then be analyzed.
The data which are only relevant in the study would be used. The researchers would organize
data and tabulate for appropriate interpretation. The information on the data would be grouped with
regards to the similarity of meaning or the type of morphological processes in each language. The
researchers would compare both languages to see their similarities and differences in the
morphological processes.

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After summarizing, the data will be compared and see whether the languages are closely
related to each other or if they are dialects of a language.

4. Results and Discussion

Morphological processes found in Ibanag are stress placement, affixation, reduplication, and
other linguistic factors. Morphological processes found in nouns are stress placement, full
reduplication, affixation, branding, and adding of free morpheme. In adjectives, affixation, partial
reduplication, and added morpheme are found. Stress placement, affixation, added morpheme, and
full reduplication are also found in verbs.
Itawis has affixation, compounding, reduplication, and other linguisic factors. Morphological
processes found in nouns are affixation, branding, and adding of another free morpheme. In
adjectives, affixation, reduplication - partial and full, compounding, and addition of another
morpheme are found. Affixation and reduplication are the only morphological processes found in
verbs.
Stress placement means that the stress is phonemic. A stress on the first syllable would have
a different meaning with the word that is stressed on the second syllable. Affixation is a process that
adds an affix to the word. That affix may be prefix, suffix, infix, or circumfix. Reduplication refers to
the repetition of a syllable, syllables, or the whole word. A repetition of a syllable or some syllable
but not the whole word is called partial reduplication (which will be shortened to PR). If the whole
word is repeated, it is called full reduplication (which will be shortened to FR). Two words that were
combined and has a different meaning is a process that is called Compounding. When the brand of a
certain object is used as a common name, it is Branding. Adding of free morpheme is when the
added free morpheme changes the meaning of its head or the phrase itself.
Based on the data and analysis, both languages have the same processes, although the exact
affixes are different from each other. There is no occurrence of compounding in Ibanag, while there
is no stress placement in Itawis.
Itawis has less morphological processes in nouns and verbs than Ibanag because of its lack
of full reduplication in nouns, stress placement and added morpheme in verbs, and stress placement
for both. It is the opposite when it comes to adjectives, because Ibanag has no compounding and
full reduplication.

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Both languages are quite closely-related, given that the morphological processes are almost
the same. It may be almost same, however, the morphological processes in the other language
creates ambiguity in a way that it is not mutually understood. The differences are found in verbs,
which is very crucial in the language since it carries almost all the thought of the sentence.
The native speakers of either languages found that Ibanag and Itawis are closely related
through some of the root form of the verbs, but still are languages because of the conjugation and
the use of the words when they are inflected or derived, and when used in the sentence.
Below are the tables illustrating the comparison the morphological processes of both
languages. In the Stress placement process, the data presented were in IPA form to illustrate the
change in meaning when the stress (represented by the apostrophe symbol) shifts, and when there is
a glottal stop (represented by the question mark). Other data were in orthographic form. Some
symbols are Sp which means it originates in Spanish, V1 as the first vowel, C1 as the first consonant,
C2 as the second, and so on.

Nouns

Ibanag Itawis
 Stress placement –  No Stress placement found
daga – blood, daga? – sand
‘vulan – moon, vu’lan – month
 Reduplication (FR)  No Reduplication (FR and PR) found
balay-balay – ‘house to house; each and
every house’
 No reduplication (PR) found
 No Compounding found  No Compounding found
 Other linguistic changes  Other linguistic changes
 Branding – payless ‘noodles’, colgate  Branding – pentel pen ‘marker’, colgate
‘ toothpaste’ ‘ toothpaste’
 Added morpheme (pluralization)-  Added morpheme (pluralization)-
Y + root + ira – y latoyira ‘humans’ root + ira – abbing ira ‘children’

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 Affixation  Affixation
 Root + an; pa + C1 + root + an – ‘place  Root + an; pa + root + an – ‘place
where the root is done’ (gemminate) where the root is done’ (gemminate)
 paN-+Root ‘instrument used in doing  taga-+Root ‘place where the person
the verb-root’ pampakarenu , pammula came from’
 taga-+Root ‘place where the person
came from’

Table 1. Morphological processes of Nouns in Ibanag and Itawis

Adjective

Ibanag Itawis
 Affixation  Affixation
 ke+ C1 + root : kekkaru – plenty,  Intensive : C1 + V1 + root –gagwapa
kekkasta – beautiful ‘very beautiful’
 Intensive : maka- + C1 + root –  Superlative : ka + root + n – kagwapan
makakkasta ; ‘most beautiful’
- C1 + V1 + root –gagwapa  Ordinal : meka- + root – mekatallu ‘third’
 Superlative :pinaka- + root –  Distributive : Taggi- + CarN – taggitallu
pinakagwapa ‘most beautiful’ ‘three each’
 Cardinal :kara- + C1 + CarN – karattallu
‘thirteen’
 Ordinal :meka- + root – mekadwa
‘second’
 Reduplication (PR)  Reduplication (PR)
 Distributive  Restrictive
- C1 + V1 + (C1) + r + V1 + root - C1 + V1 + C2 + CarN – taltallu
tadday ->tattaradday ‘only three’
 Restrictive  Pluralization
- C1 + V1 + (C1) + root - C1 + V1 + -ra- + root –
tadday ->tattadday gagwarapa ‘beautiful(pl.)’

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 No Reduplication (FR) found  Reduplication (FR)

 Distributive – tallu-tallu ‘three (in
each group)’
 Other linguistic changes  Other linguistic changes
 Added morpheme  Added morpheme
- Comparative :mas + root – mas - Comparative :mas + root – mas
gwapa ‘more beautiful’ gwapa ‘more beautiful’
- Cardinal: - Cardinal:
(hundredths) Sp. + siyentos– Dos (hundredths) Sp. + siyentos– Dos
siyentos ‘two hundred’ siyentos ‘two hundred’
(thousandths) Sp. + mil – dyes (thousandths) Sp. + mil – dyes
mil ‘ten thousand’ mil ‘ten thousand’

 No Compounding found  Compounding

agaw-buhay – ‘brink of death’
Table 2. Morphological processes of Adjectives in Ibanag and Itawis

Verb

Ibanag Itawis
 Stress Placement  No Stress placement found
ka’ru? – takbo
‘karu – dami
 Affixation  Affixation
 Perfective – (-)in- + root  Perfective – n- replacive affix + root
inagal ‘called’ nanadag ‘stood’
guminatang ‘bought’ naggatan ‘bought’
-um- + root – guminatang ‘bought’  Imperfective and Contemplative
- na + C1 + root - ma + C1 + root
nakkaru ‘ran’, nakkatrug ‘slept’ makkansyon ‘will sing’
 Imperfective and Contemplative mazzihut ‘is taking a bath’
- ma + C1 + root  Causative – nappa + root

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makkaru ‘is running, will run’ nappatangit ‘A caused B to cry’

makkatrug - ‘is sleeping, will - pina- + root
sleep’ pinatangit ‘B was caused by A to
maggatang ‘will buy’ cry’
- (Imperfective) - -um- + root –  Agent focus – maN- + root
gumagatang – bumibili mangan ‘ate’
 Causative – nappa + root  Patient focus – -in- + root
Nappagatang ‘A caused B to buy kinnan ‘ate’
something’  Benefactive Focus–-in- + root + -an
 Agent focus –na+ C1 + root, -um- + ginatangan ‘something was used to
root buy something’
 Patient focus – -an + root - ne + C1- + root
Nasingan ‘saw’ netturak ‘something was used to
gatangan ‘bought’ write something’
agalan ‘called’  Locative Focus – n- replacive affix +
- -in- + root root + -an
kininnan, kinan ‘ate’ naggatangan ‘the place where
 Locative / BenefactiveFocus– someone bought something’
- -in- + root + -an  Instrumental Focus – pina- + C1 +
inagalan ‘something was used to root
called something’ pinatturak ‘something was used to
ginatangan ‘the place where someone write something’
bought something’  Reason Focus – ne- + C1 + root
 Instrumental Focus – ipina- + C1 + neppetay ‘the reason why someone
root died’
ipinattura ‘instrument used to cut
something’
 Reason Focus – ika- + -in- + root
ikinamatay ‘the reason why someone
died’

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 Other linguistic changes  No other linguistic changes found

 Added morpheme
- Kababalin ‘recently completed’
kababalinmakkatrug ‘just slept’
- maddaggun ‘current action’
maddaggunkuminan ‘is eating’
 Reduplication (FR)  Reduplication (PR)
V + na + V Maka + C1V1 + V ‘ doing something
Gumatang na gumatang ‘is buying again again and again’
and again’ Makadadalan ‘walking again and again’
Kuminan na kuminan ‘is eating again and  No Reduplication (FR) found
again’
 No Reduplication (PR) found
Table 3. Morphological processes of Verbs in Ibanag and Itawis

The data presented were based on the modified Swadesh word and sentence list, and the
informant’s answers and stories in the interview about their own language.
The informants cannot answer some of the Ibanag and Itawis words because they do not
really know them or have not encountered them; there is no equivalent word because of their culture
(e.g. octopus); they cannot express them as one word only, and; most of the words are not often
used even in their home. Even so, enough information was provided to illustrate the morphological
processes with examples.
The matched guide experiment was not fully accomplished due to time constraints and busy
schedule of the informants, but the researchers asked their views about the other language, and
provided them with data to compare with their own. The informants were surprised to see a high
lexical similarity.
The researchers highly encourage future researchers to find an adult informant to explore
the possibilities of other morphological processes. More time to research is a great advantage in
encountering other linguistic factors. Transcription is important to determine the suprasegmentals
(e.g. stress, pitch, etc) which can also aid in the study.
The results are significant for a general contrastive study of Ibanag and Itawis languages.

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References:

Canapi, Aurora C. (1928). An annotated bibliography of Ibanag culture and history : a prelimary
survey.

De Guzman, Videa P. (1996). Lexical Categories in Tagalog. 4th International Symposium on

Language and Pan-Asiatic Linguistics. Bangkok, Thailand.

Dita, Shirley N. (2011a). Ibanag nominal marking system. In S.N. Dita (Ed.), Issues and trends in
Applied Linguistics in the Philippines: A decade in retrospect (pp. 152-165). Manila, the
Philippines: Vibal Publishing.

Dita, Shirley N. (2011b). The Structure of Ibanag Nominals. Philippine Journal of Linguistics, 42
(2011), 41-57

Jalotjot, Editha.(1937).Diskripsyonngklosna verbal ngwikangItawit.

Manaligod, Araceli. (1935). Ibanag reduplication patterns as signals of meaning - a descriptive

analysis. Quezon City :s.n.: 1969.

Reid, Lawrence A. (1974).The Central Cordilleran subgroup of Philippine languages. Oceanic

Linguistics 13:511–60.

Reid, Lawrence. (2006). On reconstructing the morphosyntax of Proto-Northern Luzon, Philippines.

Philippine Journal of Linguistics 37.1-64.

Rocero, Mamerta. (1982). Ethnobotany of the Itawes of Cagayan Province

Philippines.Rocero.Manila : National Museum.

Vinuya, Maria Remedios. (1967). The segmentals of Ibanag : a descriptive study.

Modified Swadesh list - provided by Ms. Kristina Gallego, faculty of Department of Linguistics in
the University of the Philippines-Diliman

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Appendix – Informant’s profile

For Ibanag: (from UP Lambak)

Name: RenzCatembung
Provincial Address: Tumauini, Isabela
Age: 17 years old
Contact number: 09069455001

Name: Mitzi Syjongtian

Provincial Address: Tumauini, Isabela
Age: 17 years old
Contact number: 09059483807

Name: Chad Aquino

Provincial Address: Tumauini, Isabela
Age: 17 years old
Contact number: 09161021784

For Itawis: (from UP Anna na Cagayan; UP ANC)

Name: Princess Angiemore Guzman

Provincial Address: Tuguegarao City, Cagayan
Age: 17 years old
Contact number: 09173050296

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