Maranao language

Maranao (; Jawi: ), sometimes spelled as Maranaw, Meranaw, or Mëranaw, is an Austronesian language spoken by the Maranao people in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte and their respective cities of Marawi and Iligan located in the Philippines, as well found also in Sabah, Malaysia. It is spoken among the Moros within the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

It is closer to Iranun than to Maguindanao within the Danao subgroup.

Distribution

Maranao is spoken in the following provinces of:

Entire Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte
Northwestern municipalities of Maguindanao del Norte: Barira, Buldon, Parang, Matanog, Sultan Mastura, and Sultan Kudarat
Northwestern municipalities of Cotabato: Alamada, Banisilan, Carmen, Libungan, and Pigcawayan
Northwestern municipalities of Bukidnon: Talakag and Kalilangan
Small parts in the coast of Zamboanga del Sur

All of which are located within the island of Mindanao in southern Philippines.

Writing system

Maranao was historically written in Perso-Arabic letters called Jawi, which were known as Batang-a-Arab or Batang Arab. It is now written with Latin letters. Though there is no officially proclaimed standard orthography, Maranao is more or less written as influenced by contemporary Filipino conventions. The following are the letters used in writing out native words:

A, B, D, E, G, H, I, K, L, M, N, NG, O, P, R, S, T, U, W, Y

In general, double vowels are pronounced separately, for example, is pronounced as .

The final sound in diphthongs and "w" were marked with "-o" in older orthographies, as in other Philippine languages, but both are nowadays spelled as "w". Also, "i" was used in older orthographies to transcribe , which is currently spelled as "Y".

"H" is only used for Malay loanwords, the digraph "'ae" was introduced and used to represent the supposed presence of the vowel . However, analysis by Lobel (2009, 2013

Vowels

Maranao has four vowel phonemes that can become more close or higher when in certain environments (see hard consonants below). noted that Proto-Danao *b, *d, g* were lost in modern Maranao when found before other consonants with the same place of articulation (Ex: *bp > *p), but preserved elsewehere.

Lobel

{| class="wikitable"

!Meaning

!Nominative

(free)

!Nominative

(bound)

!Genitive/Ergative

(bound)

!Oblique

(free)

|you (singular)