Getting Around Siargao

Everything on this island is a motorbike ride away, and the ride is negotiable.

The vehicles have their own names

A habal-habal is a motorcycle taxi, and it is how most of Siargao actually moves. A trisikad is a pedicab. A baroto is a boat — the outrigger kind that will take you to Guyam or Naked Island. The generic word for any ride at all is sakjanan, and note the hard J in the middle: sak-JA-nan, not sak-YA-nan.

The four phrases that get you home

Pila an plete? — how much is the fare? Ask before you get on, not after.

Taya na! — let's go. Not a formal "let us depart"; more the shout as the boat is already pushing off the sand and you are still standing on it.

Dugay pa ba? — will it still take long? Useful, and the answer is usually no.

Diri ra. — stop here, please. This is the one to have ready. Say it a beat early; a habal-habal does not brake gently.

"Left" is where the sound shift bites

The Siargaonon word for left is waya, and if you have any Cebuano you will want to say wala. Resist it.

This is the L-to-Y shift, and it runs right through the language. Where a neighbouring tongue puts an L, Siargaonon often puts a Y: ulo becomes uyo (head), balay becomes bayay (house), uran becomes uyan (rain). Once you have heard it a dozen times you will start predicting words you have never been taught, which is the point at which a language stops being a list and starts being a system.

Here, there, and over there

Siargaonon distinguishes three distances, and all three are spelled with the letter that trips up every learner: jari (here), jaon (there), jadto (over there, further off).

That J is hard. As in the English word "jump". JA-ri. JA-on. JAD-to. It is never softened to a "y" — there is no J-to-Y rule in Siargaonon, whatever your instincts from other Philippine languages tell you. Get this wrong and you will be understood, but everyone will know exactly how long you've been on the island.

The words themselves — 35 entries