Bontoc language

Bontoc (Bontok) /bɒnˈtɒk/ is a macrolanguage native to the indigenous Bontoc people of the Mountain Province, in the northern part of the Philippines.

Ethnologue reports the following locations for each of the five Bontok languages. Speaker populations from the 2007 census, as quoted in Ethnologue.

• The archiphoneme /r/ has [l], [ɻ], and [ɺ] as its allophones. The allophone [l] occurs word-initially, adjacent to /i/, as the second member of a consonant cluster consisting of a coronal consonant and /r/, and as the second member of any consonant cluster preceded by /i/. [ɻ] occurs in free variation with [l] word-initially, but otherwise occurs in complementary distribution with it. [ɺ] occurs in free variation with [l] and [ɻ] word-initially, and with [ɻ] elsewhere. These /r/ sounds are even applied to loanwords from Ilokano and Tagalog, and Spanish loanwords from the 2 languages.
• The plosives /t/, /ɡ/, /b/, and /d/ have, respectively, [t̪] (representing an interdental consonant), [kʰ], [f], and [t͡s] as their syllable-initial allophones.
• The voiced stop /b/ also has [b̪] and [v] as its allophones. Both of these allophones occur as the first member of a geminate cluster. They are in free variation.
• The approximant /j/ has one allophone: [ɥ]. [ɥ] occurs after /o/.

/e/ becomes a slightly centralized [e̞] when in a syllable whose coda is /k/. When in the nucleus, /a/ and /o/ are slightly raised and /i/ is lowered.

There are two degrees of stress in Bontoc: primary and secondary. Primary stress is phonemic and secondary stress is predictable. Both types are right-oriented and occur on one of the last three syllables. Stress's effects include higher pitch, louder volume, and lengthening of the syllable nucleus, though these are all subject to certain rules pertaining to word prosody.

• Talking Dictionary of Khinina-ang Bontok - online Bontoc Dictionary based on the speech community of Guina-ang, compiled by Lawrence A. Reid