Masbateño language
Masbateño or Minasbate is a Bikol-Bisaya or Bisakol language mainly spoken by over 600,000 people in the province of Masbate in the Philippines. It is similar to Capiznon, Hiligaynon and Waray, which are all spoken in the Visayas. It is recognized as a Bisakol language, meaning a language between the Bisaya and Bikol languages.
| Masbateño | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masbatenyo Minasbate | ||||
| Native to | Philippines | |||
| Region | Masbate province (almost whole portion of Masbate island proper, entire Ticao island and southern half of Burias island) | |||
| Ethnicity | Masbateño people | |||
| Native speakers | 680,000 (2010) | |||
| Language family | Austronesian
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| Language codes | ||||
| ISO 639-3 | msb | |||
 Areas where Masbateño is spoken | ||||
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Pronunciations
Masbatenyo has sixteen consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are three vowels: i, a, and u/o. The vowels u and o are allophones, u is always used at the beginning and sometimes at the end of a syllable, and o is always used at the end of a syllable. It is one of the languages in the Philippines where the [ɾ]-[d] allophone is not included.