I left a message on Luiza’s tagboard with the words, “…ayo ayo,” a Cebuano phrase which means ‘take care’. Well, I just miss talking to some cebuanos lately (you know how I so love Cebu) and I know she understood what I meant ‘coz most of her tagboard is filled with the dialect. The next time I dropped by her site, I got this reply, “car..bisaya diay ka??”
It was a simple question asking me if I’m bisaya, but it got me tongue-tied (or rather finger-tied?). I couldn’t reply immediately ‘coz I’m not sure if she meant bisaya as somebody from Cebu or bisaya as a dialect.
Anyway, I got ‘finger-tied’ because of these two premises:
1. Bisaya could mean either a person or a dialect.
I got a little help from Wikipedia on this.
Bisaya as a person means somebody living primarily “…in the Visayas and northeastern Mindanao but others have migrated elsewhere in the Philippines, including Manila. Several linguistic groups in the Philippines are primarily of Bisaya descent. The largest of these groups are the speakers of Cebuano, Hiligaynon and Waray-Waray.” (read more…)
On the other hand, bisaya as a dialect refers to Visayan languages which “…along with Tagalog and Bikol, are part of the Central Philippine language family. Most Visayan languages are spoken in the Visayas region but they are also spoken in the Bicol Region (particularly in Sorsogon and Masbate), islands south of Luzon such as those that make up Romblon, the northern and western areas of Mindanao, and the province of Sulu located southwest of Mindanao.” (read more…)
Sometimes both terms cebuano and bisaya are used interchangeably which usually creates confusion.
(more…)
Ideas are powerful. A train of thought can make or break, build or destroy. The choice is ours. Our ideas become our future. I believe that life’s meaningful lessons are best learned when shared with others.
