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“Who” in every Philippine language

Who across 9 languages, and what the differences tell you.

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Side by side

Who in 9 Philippine languages and English
LanguageWho
EnglishWho
TagalogSino
IlocanoSiasino
CebuanoKinsa
HiligaynonSin-o
WarayHin-o
BikolSiisay
KapampanganNinu
PangasinanSiopa

What the pattern shows

Hiligaynon 'sin-o' and Waray 'hin-o' differ by a single consonant, and that s→h shift runs through the whole of Waray. It is the single most reliable way to tell the two apart.

No two languages here use the same word. That is unusual even on this list, and it is the clearest possible answer to whether these are dialects of one another.

More question words

Where this comes from

This row is one of 84 concept pages drawn from a parallel set of everyday vocabulary held across nine languages. You can browse all of them, download the whole set under CC BY-SA 4.0, or paste text to find out which language it is.

Compiled from published general reference and pending review by native speakers. If something here is wrong in a language you speak, please tell us.