Wiktionary:About Ilocano

This page covers special considerations for Ilocano entries and Ilocano translations of English entries.

Spelling
Ilocano lemmas should generally use Tagalog-based spellings, with some significant differences. Spellings using the older Spanish-based orthography or forms in the kur-itan (Baybayin) script are allowed, but should generally serve as soft redirects to modern forms. Kur-itan forms can be listed on the headword, especially native vocabulary.

The latest orthography of the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) on Ilocano, Tarabay iti Ortograpia ti Pagsasao nga Ilokano (Guide to the Orthography of the Ilocano Language), was released in December 2021 (uploaded here), a revised version of the original orthography published in 2012, which based its rules from the Bannawag magazine. A supplement was published in September 2019. The current orthography supersedes the Ortograpiya ti Pagsasao nga Ilokano published in October 2018, which was not well-received by most Ilocano writers.

Common non-standard spellings are to be entered as alternative forms of the word with the standard spelling. As much as possible, the spelling rules in the appendix above should be followed when writing Ilocano example sentences. In cases where the orthography is still unclear as to which spelling should be used, the Ilocano-English dictionary of Rubino (2000, 2009) or popular Ilocano periodicals can be consulted, but this should only be done after exhausting all rules or recommendations written in the appendix.

Lemmas
In general, lemmas for Ilocano are generally the same as in Tagalog. Some considerations:


 * Nouns: Both bare roots or stems, derived affixed or compound forms.
 * Verbs: All possible affixed infinitives and a few monomorphemic verbs (ex., , etc). Since Ilocano is an agglutinative language, roots only become verbs when affixed, except for a few cases such as the ones mentioned above.
 * Adjectives: Both bare roots and affixed forms derived from noun roots.

Inflection
(nouns and adjectives only)

Conjugation
(verbs only)

Alternative forms
As a descriptive dictionary, Ilocano entries in Wiktionary should also list alternative forms, that are soft redirects to the standard spelling, such as:


 * Dialectal or regional variants
 * Clipped, contracted, or shortened variants
 * Historical or alternative spellings
 * Common non-standard spellings

Ilocano entries are generally written in Latin script and without diacritics (except the ñ found in proper nouns and ë found in loanwords from certain Philippine languages). Historically, the kur-itan script (a variation of the baybayin script) was used, and is recommended to be written alongside the headword, but not mandatory for most Ilocano entries, especially for modern borrowings.

The main Ilocano entry should generally follow the current KWF orthography, which is explained in Spelling.

Etymology
Many native Ilocano words are homographs, which may derive from different ways, so there may be multiple "Etymology" headers. In this case, use the following basic format:

[Part of speech]
Ilocano descends from Proto-Northern Luzon (not yet supported by Wiktionary), then from Proto-Philippine, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, and Proto-Austronesian, all of which are not attested, but reconstructed from evidence on related languages.

Ilocano words may derive from these methods:
 * Inherited words
 * Words formed from affixes
 * Compounds and blends
 * Borrowings
 * Neologisms

Affixed words
The origin of Ilocano words formed by adding affixes can be added using the or  template, which is more flexible and can substitute all the, , , and  templates. Here is a demo on how to use the template on some Ilocano words.



Compounds and blends
Words that are compounds and blends can be specified using the  and  templates. For example:



Loanwords and inherited terms
Ilocano words that are inherited or borrowed fall in three major categories: inherited terms (from Proto-Philippine, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, and Proto-Austronesian), early borrowings (from Sanskrit, Malay, Arabic, Chinese), and modern borrowings (from Spanish, English and others, including borrowings from early modern Spanish).


 * Inherited terms: Terms inherited from the reconstructed ancestors of Ilocano: Proto-Philippine, Proto-Malayo-Polynesian, and Proto-Austronesian. Words from those are tagged with . Some entries may include Proto-Northern Luzon etyma, but this proto-language is not yet supported by Wiktionary.
 * Early borrowings: Terms borrowed before any institution of Spanish rule. This include borrowings from Hokkien and Old Malay (which also gives words from Sanskrit, Arabic, or Persian), and there are some early borrowings from other Philippine languages as well. (Cross-check Blust's ACD with Carro's Vocabulario to ensure that a word is an early borrowing, since the ACD may also list modern borrowings.) Borrowed words from Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, and Old Malay should be marked with, while those from other languages should be marked with.
 * Modern borrowings: Terms borrowed since Western contact and colonization, and modern Philippine history. Words were borrowed from Spanish since the Spanish colonization, English since the American colonization, and other languages from different times in history and contacts with other cultures. There were also borrowings from other Philippine languages, especially from Tagalog, to fill lexical gaps or be used as slang. Words borrowed since the 16th century are generally indicated with.

Pseudo-Hispanisms are not as prevalent in Ilocano as they are in Tagalog, thus the orthography does not pay much attention to these. However, if a word can be indeed considered a pseudo-Hispanism, its etymology should contain the template where an explanation of how English influenced a Spanish borrowing or vice versa is written. Pseudo-Hispanisms may also be categorized manually by adding below the entry.

There are also Spanish-sounding words with Spanish or English loanwords with Spanish-derived affixes. The etymologies of these words should be explained using the template. Since Wiktionary is a descriptive dictionary, both pseudo-Hispanisms and their recommended replacements should have separate entries.

Pronunciation
In general, IPA transcriptions of Ilocano words should cover both the northern and southern dialects when the letter ⟨e⟩ is present in native words. IPA transcriptions of Ilocano can be created automatically through the template or entered manually using. To specify whether an IPA transcription describes pronunciations for the northern or southern dialects, use the before the transcription (ex. ).

Hyphenations of words is explained in the Syllables and Hyphenation section of the Ilocano spellings appendix. In general, Ilocano words are hyphenated by syllable.

Core
Ilocano entries can have these headers:
 * Part of speech: Adjective, Adverb, Conjunction, Contraction, Interjection, Noun, Numeral, Particle, Pronoun, Proper noun, Verb
 * Morphological features: Prefix, Suffix, Circumfix, Infix
 * Symbols and characters: Diacritical mark, Letter, Number, Punctuation mark, Symbol
 * Phrases: Phrase, Prepositional phrase, Proverb

Headwords should preferably use standard templates using Module:ilo-headword as the back-end. Accented forms as a pronunciation guide, which are helpful to distinguish homographs, and Kur-itan forms, are generally inserted there.


 * Adjectives:
 * Adverbs:
 * Nouns:
 * Proper nouns:
 * Verbs:
 * Other parts of speech:

Diacritics
Refer to the Use of Diacritics section of the Ilocano spelling appendix.

Labels
Dialectal, regional, figurative, idiomatic, archaic, obsolete, colloquial, slang, or vulgar entries or senses should be marked. Dialectal and regional labels may be further specified by the geographic places or regions in which the entries or senses are used.

For technical entries or senses, the specific context/s (field of science or art, etc.) wherein they are used should also be indicated as much as possible.

Derived terms
List here the words that are morphological derivatives of the word in the same language. In Ilocano, both affixed and compound words that are lemmas are considered derived terms. This section is usually found on nouns or adjectives that serve as the root of many other words.

Related terms
List here words that are etymologically related but are not derived words.

Inflection/Conjugation
For nouns, use the inflection template. For verbs, use the various verb inflection-table templates. Note that the verb conjugation templates are still in development and may not output the correct conjugated forms.

Inflected forms
In Ilocano, verb forms inflected by aspect and plural forms of nouns and adjectives are non-lemmas. Entries for those are formatted as follows, and are soft redirects to the lemma forms.

Historical or nonstandard spellings
Ilocano has been using both Spanish-based and Tagalog-based spellings which resulted in multiple spellings of the same word throughout history. Entries to historical or nonstandard spellings do not have any definitions, and should serve as soft redirects to the standard modern form. Headwords of historical and nonstandard spellings do not need to be marked with accents.

For historical (Spanish-based) spellings, is used in the definition.

Example for :

Adjective


Kur-itan forms are also considered as historical forms, but the template is used instead.

For nonstandard spellings, is used in the definition. A usage note should also be inserted to explain which rule or recommendation is not being followed by the spelling.

Example for :

Usage note

 * This spelling does not follow the rules of spelling open diphthongs according to the 2012/2021 orthography. See Ilocano spellings.

The following usage note templates (still in development) may also be used for convenience:
 * - general template
 * - for nonstandard spellings of open diphthongs, including the rules of ending ⟨e⟩/⟨i⟩ and ⟨o⟩/⟨u⟩ attached to suffixes
 * - for nonstandard spellings of non-diphthongs
 * - for nonstandard spellings where ⟨n⟩ is not assimilated
 * - for nonstandard spellings of Spanish loanwords containing ⟨e⟩
 * - for nonstandard spellings of Spanish loanwords containing ⟨o⟩
 * - for nonstandard usages of ⟨o⟩ and/or ⟨u⟩
 * - for nonstandard spellings where words ending with the structure (C)eC do not retain the ⟨e⟩ when suffixed
 * - for nonstandard spellings where words ending with the structure (C)oC do not retain the ⟨o⟩ when suffixed

Variants with standard spellings and contractions
Entries of variants that follow the orthography use in their definitions, serving as soft redirects to the more common form.

Contractions or shortenings of single words should also use in their definitions to serve as soft redirects to the shortened word, but contractions of multiple words should use  in their definitions with soft redirects to each word in the contraction. The part of speech should match the part of speech with the shortened word or with the main word of the contraction.

Example for :

Noun


Example for :

Nouns
Use for the headword. Insert the plural form of the noun along with the headword. For Spanish loanwords, also insert the masculine or feminine form if both have become part of Ilocano.

Proper nouns
Use for the headword. There are no special parameters to add for proper nouns.

Verbs
Use for the headword. The headword should also include the three basic aspects, the future tense of the verb, and the verb type/s. See Template:ilo-verb/documentation for all the list of possible verb types. Verb entries generally should include a conjugation section, with an appropriate conjugation table template for each individual conjugation such as, , etc. Note again that the verb conjugation templates are still in development and may not output the correct conjugated forms.

An example for :

Verb

 * 1) to buy; purchase

Adjectives
Use for the headword. Where appropriate, insert the following forms along with the headword.
 * plural: apply CV reduplication to the root
 * comparative: apply CV(C) reduplication to the root (or naC- reduplication when the root is shortened)
 * moderative: add to the root with total nasal assimilation
 * comparative superlative: add to the root
 * absolute superlative: add and CV(C) reduplication to the root (or kaC- reduplication when the root is shortened)
 * intensive: add to the root

There are some adjectives, such as those affixed with, , , , , , and , etc., which are not comparable and should be marked as such beside the headword.

For Spanish loanwords, also insert the masculine or feminine form if both have become part of Ilocano.

Particles
Ilocano particles, such as, , , and , should use as the headword.

About the language
Ilocano, also referred to as Iloko/Iluko or Samtoy (from saomi ditoy, meaning "our language here"), is an Austronesian language, and one of the Philippine languages. It is an official provincial language of La Union (but not an official language of the whole Philippines), and it is one of the 19 recognized regional languages of the country, and is taught as a subject from Kindergarten to Grade 3 in areas where it is the primary native language. Depending on the census, it is either the third or fourth most-spoken language in the Philippines (sometimes slightly behind Hiligaynon), with most of its speakers concentrated in the Ilocos Region, the Cordillera Administrative Region, Cagayan Valley, the Babuyan Islands, the western and eastern parts of Pangasinan, the northern parts of Central Luzon, and the southern parts of Zambales. There are also significant populations of Ilocano speakers in Mindoro Island and the SOCCSKSARGEN Region of Mindanao, and, outside of the Philippines, in Hawaii and California in the United States.

Ilocano makes up its own branch in the family of Northern Luzon languages, and is related to the Central Cordilleran languages of Kankanaey, Bontok, Ibaloi, Pangasinan, Ifugao, Kalinga, Itneg, etc., and to the native Cagayan Valley languages of Ibanag, Itawis, Yogad, Ga'dang, Gaddang, and the various Negrito languages of Northern Luzon. Speakers of other Northern Luzon languages also use Ilocano as a secondary language, making Ilocano a lingua franca of the region.

There is no comprehensive dialectology for Ilocano, but it is generally divided into the northern and southern dialects, mostly based on the pronunciation of the letter ⟨e⟩. Despite the wide geographical spread of the language, Ilocano dialects do not diverge much from each other compared to those in other Philippine languages, since extensive Ilocano migrations started only recently during the mid-19th and 20th centuries.

Resources

 * Carl Ralph Galvez Rubino, Ilocano-English, English-Ilocano Dictionary and Grammar (2000). An unpublished 2009 edition of only the dictionary section is available online in R. David Zorc's website here.
 * Andrés Carro, Vocabulario ilocano-español (1888) - The original Ilocano to Spanish (copy by the University of California) is available as free eBook. Words are spelled in older Spanish-based orthography. A modern English translation by Morice Vanoverbergh, the Ilocano-English Dictionary, which also contains additional words, is from 1956. Use either R:Carro 1888 if citing the original, or R:Vanoverbergh 1956 for the English version.