Variations in the Maguindanaon Language

Abstract

People who live in the same region and speak the same language still vary in some aspects of their language in terms of pronunciation, lexicon, morphology, and syntax. This qualitative study described the phonological, morphological, and lexical variations of the Maguindanaon language among the ten Maguindanao municipalities. Purposive sampling, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions were employed. The variations occurred through phonemic changes and other phonological and morphological processes. Phonological processes consisted of vowel lengthening and deletion. In the phonological variation, it was observed that there were phonemic changes from one dialect to another. For example, there was a phoneme /r/ to /l/change where the phoneme /r/ was most likely to occur in Kabuntalan like /biru/, /kurIt/, and /kɘmɅr/ while the rest of the dialects were /bilu/, /kuIɪt/, and /kɘmɅl/ respectively. Findings show that lexical and morphological variations also existed in the Maguindanaon language. Results revealed that the variation in phonology, morphology, and lexicon was associated primarily with geographic distribution.