Body Parts in Siargaonon

12 words and phrases, recorded by a native speaker of Siargaonon (Surigaonon), the language of Siargao Island in the Philippines. Part of Everyday Life.

Hearing it spoken

Written Siargaonon can only take you so far — the sounds are what give a speaker away. Two rules matter more than any other: the letter J is always hard, as in the English "jump" (never softened to a "y"), and many words that use an L in neighbouring languages use a Y here — ulo becomes uyo, balay becomes bayay. The pronunciation guide covers both in detail.

Every phrase on this page can be heard aloud, drilled with flashcards and quizzes, and scheduled for review in the free app.

Uyo, and the L That Went Missing

Uyo is the word for head, and it is the clearest single example of the sound shift that marks Siargaonon out from its neighbours. Where Cebuano and much of the Visayas say ulo, Siargaonon says Uyo. The L softens to a Y between vowels.

You will meet the same shift elsewhere: Uyan for rain, Waya for left. Learners arriving from another Bisayan language often keep the L out of habit, and it is the fastest way to sound like you learned the language from a book rather than from a person.

Words That Do Not Split the Way English Does

Sike covers leg and foot together. English insists on the boundary at the ankle; Siargaonon does not find that distinction worth making, in the same way English does not distinguish the back of the hand from the palm with separate words. Neither language is missing anything — they simply carve the body up differently.

Tijan is the stomach or belly, and it is a good place to practise the hard J. It is TEE-jan with the J of jump, never a Y sound. The J is one of the first things a Siargaonon speaker will notice you getting wrong.

And Bakoy is worth pausing on: the thumb has its own word, not a compound built from the word for finger. Languages tend to give single words to the things hands do most.

Two Words Worth Keeping Apart

Wayong is the face. Waya is left, and also none. They look close on the page and they are not related. Read them carefully while you are learning, because the difference between asking about someone's face and telling them there is nothing is not a small one.

Keep exploring

Is a word missing, or is something here wrong? This record is incomplete by definition — a living language is bigger than any one speaker. Tell us and it will be reviewed and added.