Excerpt

In the present paper an exposition is attempted of the principal ones of those sound-changes in the Ibanág language which, in the formation of sentences, occur at the beginning or at the end of a word, and which are caused thru the influence of a preceding or a following sound. Sound-changes of this kind are termed ‘sandhi’, a name originally used by the ancient Indian grammarians for similar phenomena in Sanskrit. As is generally done, we widen the scope of this term somewhat, and consider under it also those sound-changes which in present-day grammar are observed in the building up of words thru the addition of formative elements.

The Ibanág language is spoken in Cagayán, a province occupying the whole northeastern corner of Luzón and extending from there in a narrow western strip along the greater part of the north coast of this island. Neighboring territories are, in the west, the districts of Apayao and Kalinga, both subdivisions of the Mountain Province, and, in the south, the province of Isabela where Ibanág is also spoken. Ibanág, meaning primarily ‘people by the Bánnag’ (i.e. outlying suburbs) of Amulung, Iguig, Piat, Tuao, and Enrile, further the barrios of Tuguegarao, Solana, and Peñablanca use the Itawit, a dialect closely allied to Ibanág. The centers of the three last mentioned municipalities, however, speak a pure and uniform Ibanág. In fact, since Tuguegarao has already since Spanish times been the capital and intellectual center of the province, the Ibanág here spoken represents the most polished form of this language, and to it we principally refer in this paper.