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Blaan, also known as Bilaan, is an Austronesian language of the southern Philippines.

Blaan
Native to	Philippines
Region	Mindanao
Ethnicity	Blaan
Native speakers	240,000 (2000–2007)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine South Mindanao Blaan
Language codes
ISO 639-3	Either: bpr – Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad) bps – Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao)
Glottolog	blaa1241

Classification

Blaan belongs to the Bilic microgroup of the Philippine language subgroup, along with Giangan Manobo, Tiruray, and Tboli.[2]

Distribution

There are two major varieties of Blaan: Koronadal Blaan (Tagalagad) and Sarangani Blaan (Tumanao).

According to the Ethnologue, Koronadal Blaan is spoken in:

• eastern South Cotabato Province
• Sarangani Province
• Sultan Kudarat Province (Lutayan area)
• Davao Occidental Province

Sarangani Blaan is spoken in:

• almost the entire area of Sarangani Province
• South Cotabato Province (General Santos and north)
• Davao Occidental Province (language area across from Sarangani Province's northern border)

Phonology

Blaan has fifteen consonant and seven vowel phonemes.[3] Unlike most other Philippine languages and Austronesian languages in general, Blaan (as its related language Tboli, permits a variety of consonant clusters at the onset of a syllable. This is evident in the name of the language, /bla'an/. This contraction of the original schwa sound exists in other Austronesian languages (such as Javanese, a major language of Java in Indonesia), but is rarely seen outside of the Bilic group within the Philippines.

Blaan Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Plosive	voiceless		t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative		f	s			h
Approximant		w	l	j

Blaan Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid	ɛ	ə	ɔ
Low	a		ɑ

/i, ɛ/ are also heard as [ɪ, e]. /ə/ can also be heard as sounds [ɨ, ʌ] within syllables.

Syntax

Blaan uses word order to indicate the thematic roles of nominal elements in the sentence.[4]

Similar to other Philippine-type Austronesian languages, Blaan uses verbal morphology to indicate voice (or focus, as it is usually called in the literature).[5] Here are some examples of voice/focus types in Blaan:

Agent voice/focus (-m-)

Patient voice/focus (-n-)

Vocabulary

English	Blaan
chicken	anuk
flower	bulek
horse	kura
corn	agul
needle	dalum
basket	been
broom	fune
rat	unge
money	filak
goat	uhe
scissors	gunting
mat	igem
clouds	labun
fish	nalaf
eye	mata
pestle	sung
leaf	doon
bone	tulan
lamp	salo
snake	ulad
crow	wak
foot	bli
mother	ye
father	ma

[6]

References

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