The Kinaray-a Dialect


                          
"Kinaray-a or hinaraya is derived from "iraya" meaning "upstream", "ka" meaning "companion", with infixation "in" meaning "to have undergone something."  It refers to the language of Antique (from Hamtik "or large, red ant or wasps) and the upland parts of Iloilo and Capiz.

Kinaray-a, says the writer Leoncio Deriada, is the "mother of mellifluous West Visayan lingua franca, Hiligaynon (Ilongo) and the less well-known child, Aklanon."  He adds that Kinaray-a "is the Ilongo contribution to the mixed languages of Romblon, Palawan, and Cuyo Islands, some parts of Mindoro and Masbate and the southern towns of Negros Occidental and Oriental."

Kinaray-a speakers outnumber Ilongo speakers in Antique, most of Capiz, all of the central Iloilo towns, and the coastal towns of Iloilo City; Ilongo is mainly limited to Iloilo City and all the coastal towns to the north as well as in Bacolod and most of Negros Occidental (Ani 19:11).

Ilongo has long enjoyed primacy in the region because it is the language spoken by the ruling classes in the region, namely the hacenderos on both shores of the Guimaras Strait and the Chinese compradores from the Molo Parian, while Kinaray-a has long been identified as "the language of the sacada and the muchacho" (Ani 19:12).  The Spanish priest added to the development of Ilongo by publishing grammars and cathechisms in that language, while producing none in Kinaray-a.

Despite having a disparate vocabulary, with usage differing slightly from town to town (for example, the English "here" could be rigya, rugya, digya, di-a, depending on the location).  Kinaray-a speakers understand one another whether they come from Antique, Capiz or Iloilo.  Apart from the population of Antique, which was 419,000 in 1990, the population of Iloilo towns west, north and northeast of the towns of Tigbauan, Santa Barbara, Pototan, Anilao and Dingle inclusive and the towns of Tapaz and Jamindan in Capiz, all speak Kinaray-a.  All in all, there may be around 1,000,000 Kinaray-a speakers.


Excerpts from: Antique, Banwa Nga Hamili (Facebook)
06.08.2012

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