Morphological and Semantic Features of Nominatives in Inete Language

AUTHOR(S)

Armando S. Katalbas, PhD

ABSTRACT

This linguistic study aimed to preserve the Inete language of Sitio Nagpana, Barangay Lipata, Barrotac Viejo, Iloilo for future generations through the production and publication of the Inete to Hiligaynon Dictionary and Reference Grammar from the speech community for future generation. This study could be a relevant contribution to the preservation of one of those many Indigenous languages which are dying in an alarming rate. The study used the Memory Banking Epistemology and theoretical perspective underpinning the process in Language Documentation (LD) or Documentary Linguistics in gathering lexemes of Inete language in the corpora. The researcher also utilized the Direct Translation (DT) and Conversational Method (CM) in eliciting the lexemes from Fluent Native Speakers (FNSs) composed of six Fluent Native Elders (FNEs) and one Key Informant (KI). Word lists were at the same time used to elicit Inete lexemes as inputs for Inete to Hiligaynon Dictionary and categorized and analyzed these lexemes into different linguistic features to produce Inete Reference Grammar based on the theoretical frameworks of Philippine languages. Based on the findings of the study, the very rare one to two-vowel semantic words, the words i and e-ѐ; the inflection of plural marking infix ma in nominatives with initial ta are distinct to Inete morphological features.