Paper Title
Segmental Phonemes of the Surigawnun Language
Abstract
The paper examines the segmental phonemes of the Surigawnun language specifically the vowels, diphthongs and consonant. The method of recording of actual performance of natural speech was employed to get the actual quality of the voices of the participants.It was found out thatSurigawnunsegmental phonemes share with Cebuano Visayan. It has three vowels such as: [i], [a] and [i], four diphthongs such as: /aw/,/ay/./iw/ and /uy/. and sixteen consonants such as: p,b,t,d,r,k,g,s,j,h,m,n,ng,l,w and y. It is also found out to be a phonetic language just like Cebuano Visayan language, which means that Surigawnun word is spelled as it is pronounced. Lexical borrowing is also evident in the Surigawnunlanguage. Another salient feature of Surigawnun language is that its phonological innovations the so called Proto-Bisayan where l after a vowel often changes to y, and Proto-Bisayany becomes j except word-finally.
Keywords - phonemes, segmental, diphthongs, lexical, proto-bisayan, phonology