Analysis on the Morphophonemic Changes of the Cebuano-Binisaya of Davao del Norte

Abstract

Language variation analysis and studies are becoming increasingly evident at different linguistic levels. These variations can manifest at the morphological and phonological level, highlighting the uniqueness of the language spoken in a particular area. These linguistic features of variations can be observed in the morphophonemic changes in the Cebuano-Binisaya language of Davao del Norte. This paper describes the morphophonemic changes in the Cebuano-Binisaya language spoken in Davao del Norte. The main objective of this study is to analyze and document the morphophonemic changes of Cebuano-Binisaya in Davao del Norte, which covers three (3) cities and eight (8) municipalities. The descriptive linguistic method was used to document the language, and the dialect geography approach was utilized in analyzing and presenting data. The data were collected through personal interviews and eliciting material containing 280 lists by Swadesh, and there are 330 informants from all the cities and municipalities. Based on the results, Cebuano-Binisaya in Davao del Norte exhibits seven (7) substitutions of the phoneme, five (5) deletions of the phoneme, one (1) metathesis, and one (1) assimilation. The limitations of results indicate that the language spoken in Davao del Norte is a dialect of the same language exhibiting a minimal range of morphophonemic changes. The results also suggest that Cebuano-Binisaya in Davao del Norte exhibits linguistic consistency, is influenced by cultural and historical aspects, and serves as a social identity. It is grounded in the emergence of possible dialectal isoglosses, revealing its dynamics.