Notes on the Grammar of Bisaya in Santa Josefa

Gideon P. Tiongson
gideon.tiongson@deped,gov.ph
Pag-asa Elementary School, Philippines

DOI: https://doi.org/10.54476/apjaet/45497

                                                                                          Abstract

This study investigates the grammatical structure of Bisaya as spoken in Santa Josefa, a linguistic variety that serves as a marker of community identity and reflects the speakers’ deep appreciation for their language. Anchored in a pedagogic grammar framework and employing a qualitative descriptive research design, the study utilized discourse analysis of data drawn from Pear Film narratives, procedural (“how-to”) interviews, and a 200-word translation task. These data were supplemented by acoustic vowel analysis using PRAAT to capture phonetic and phonological features. The findings reveal salient morphological, phonological, morphosyntactic, and syntactic characteristics of the Bisaya variety in Santa Josefa. Its phonemic inventory comprises sixteen consonants and three vowels, with notable phonological features including minimal pairs, diphthongs, and distinct phonotactic patterns. The language demonstrates productive morphological processes and exhibits an ergative–absolutive alignment alongside a predominantly verb-initial sentence structure. The study concludes that the Bisaya spoken in Santa Josefa possesses a systematic and culturally grounded grammatical system that reinforces linguistic identity. The grammar notes generated from this research contribute to the documentation of this local variety and offer a valuable resource for the development of instructional materials in Mother Tongue-Based education, thereby supporting language preservation and pedagogical effectiveness.

Keywords: Grammar Notes, Bisaya, Santa Josefa, Philippines

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