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What’s with this “Wren” thing?
The oldest extant version of the fable
we
are presenting here appeared in 1913 in the first volume of a two-volume anthology
of Low
Saxon folktales (Plattdeutsche
Volksmärchen “Low German Folktales”)
collected by Wilhelm Wisser (1843–1935). Read
more ...
Cebuano
The
Sinulog Festival, one of many festivities in bustling
Cebu City.
Language information:
Cebuano (also known by the native name Sinugboanon) is one of the most important
languages of the Philippines in terms of native speaker number (currently at
least 20 million) and in terms of its historical and cultural roles. Had
it not been for certain historical events and political turns that ended up
favoring Tagalog and thus increasing the number of Tagalog speakers,
it would have been Cebuano that would have come out in the national lead. In
fact, many Cebuano speakers still resent the Tagalog advantage, including Tagalog
as the sole basis of the national Filipino lingua franca. They have been calling
for special recognition of Cebuano on a par with that of Tagalog,
given
not only the large number of its speakers (having been the country’s largest linguistic group until the 1970s), but also given the important colonial
past and cultural leadership of Cebu City, long a stronghold of political opposition
to Manila’s alleged Tagalog-based “arrogance.” Cebuano is used by most inhabitants of Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental
and some parts of Leyte and Samar islands as well as throughout Mindanao, with
some speaker communities in Samar as well. Cebuano is an important literature
languages and is prominantly featured in the local media. Cebuano television
soap operas are very popular and are broadcast outside the Philippines as well.
Cebuano of Mindanao
has developed particular dialects, especially since the 1950s when the island attracted numerous immigrants from other parts of the Philippines. The
predominant languages there are Hiligaynon (Ilonggo) and Tagalog besides Cebuano.
There are mutual influences between them, making for Visayan and specifically
Mindanoa color in all of them.
Cebuano
is popularly referred to as Visayan or Bisaya. However, these are collective names
for several languages among which Cebuano is one.
Many consider Boholano a dialect group of Cebuano, while others, especially native speakers of Boholano,
consider
it a language in its own
right.
Genealogy: Austronesian > Malayo-Polynesian > Western > Philippines > Central > Visayan > Cebuan
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