Kankanaey language

Kankanaey (also spelled Kankana-ey) is a South-Central Cordilleran language under the Austronesian family spoken on the island of Luzon in The Philippines primarily by the Kankanaey people. It is widely used by Cordillerans, alongside Ilocano, specifically people from the Mountain Province and people from the Northern part of the Benguet Province.

Phonology

This language should not be confused with a related, but different, language in the Sagada area called **Kankanay**. Of particular phonological interest is the very common occurrence of what is called the "barred i" in IPA. It is the unrounded, high mid vowel on the IPA chart. The letter e in Kankanaey is to be pronounced as this sound, and not as the e in words like bet or wet. This is also one of the vowel in a few other Northern Luzon languages like Ilocano and Pangasinan.

Some words with this sound are as follows:

emey - to go

entako - let's go (a contracted form of emey tako)

ed - a preposition showing location or time marker (e.g. ed Baguio = in Baguio, ed nabbaon = in the long-ago times)

ipe-ey - to put

eng-gay - only, finish

Gallery

• 

  Cover of the Kankanay Hymnal .

• 

  An open page of the Kankanay Hymnal.

• Pile of Kankana-ey Hymnal.jpg

  A pile of Kankanay Hymnal in the Church of Saint Mary, an Episcopal Church in Sagada, Mountain Province, Philippines.

• Psalm 23 in Kankana-ey.jpg

  The 23rd Psalm in the Kankanay Psalter.