Basic Inabaknon for the Uninitiated

Mahalap al’law si kaam dimuan (good day to all of you) is the usual social greeting in Abaknon.

Before anything else, I would like to introduce my unique hometown called Capul where the Abaknons originates.

Where Did Our Unique Language Originates?

Capul is a beautiful speck of an island located at the northernmost point of Samar, Philippines. It is a tropical island surrounded by beautiful white beaches and swaying coconut trees. Inhabitants of this island are descendants of Abak, a Muslim ruler from Balabac, Borneo who according to oral lore, migrated to this island together with his subjects in the year 1300’s to evade Christian domination. But history would have it; the island became one of the strongholds of Christianity in the whole island of Samar. Testament to this religious conversion is the old stone house built by force labor in the year 1600’s by Spanish priests, which is one of the oldest churches in the region. In deference to this mighty ruler, we call our language Inabaknon and ourselves, Abaknon.

Inabaknon is a Malaysian dialect, wherein about 60 to 75% is still intact in its old form. The present language spoken by the locals is already a mixture of new influences from Spanish, Chinese, Waray, Cebuano and Tagalog. But for outsiders, they refer to us as the people “who speaks like birds” because of the manner of our speech (we talk fast). I would like to believe that we are the only people who speak the language in the Philippines although the other companions of Abak were supposed to have settled in other parts of Mindanao.

Basic Inabaknon Terms

Tip number one: just like any Philippine languages, Abaknon is pronounced as read. There are no silent letters or queer pronunciations.

So try this one: Mahalap al’law (Good day) is the greetings when we bump into each other or when we call somebody from outside the house. The times of day are nalong (morning), amudto (noontime), kuhap (afternoon) bayakuhap (dusk), sangom (evening), mat-ngatut-nga (midnight) and mananalong (dawn). Depending the time of day, the greetings may be time-specific like “mahalap nalong” or good morning and “mahalap sangom” or good evening.

When I was in college, I had a blast when my fellow Abaknons whenever we fooled our unsuspecting schoolmates about the local terms for common animals. We told them that the cat is called ice cream, the dog: ice drop, the chicken: ice candy (chicken), etc. But those are English words, they protested! Of course we were only joking.