Food & Drink in Siargaonon

29 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.

The Meals Turn Into Verbs

This is the most elegant pattern on the page, and his own notes lay it out: Pamahaw is breakfast, and mamahaw is to have breakfast. Paniudto is lunch, maniudto is to have lunch. Panihapon is dinner, manihapon is to have dinner.

The meal begins with pa-; the act of eating it begins with ma-. Change one syllable and the noun becomes the verb. English needs a whole extra word — to have breakfast — where Siargaonon just shifts the front of the word.

One Root, the Whole Timeline

Kaon is eat, and the note beside it gives the full set: mu kaon to eat, nag kaon eating, nu kaon have eaten. One root, three prefixes, three times.

Kaonon shows the other half of the system — the -on suffix, for something about to be eaten. Inom and Inomon do exactly the same for drinking. Learn the pattern once and every food verb comes with it.

Two Words for Coconut, and Neither Is Buko

Botong is the young coconut — the one you drink. Nijog is the mature one, with flesh to grate.

Most of the Philippines says buko. That is Tagalog. On Siargao the distinction between a drinking coconut and an eating coconut matters enough to have two separate words, which tells you something about how central the tree is here.

Botong is also, by his own note, Coco's favourite word.

At the Table

Kaon ta! and Mangaon ta! both mean let's eat, and either will do. Grabi kalami! is the emphatic so delicious — the ka- intensifier again, and worth using over the plain form.

Busog na ako means I am already full, with na carrying the already. Say it before the third helping arrives rather than after.

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.