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Ilocano

Ilocano

Summary

Ilocano is spoken by about 7.6 million people, primarily in northern Luzon in the Philippines, where it serves as a lingua franca across several regions. Written in the Latin alphabet, it has an agglutinative grammar and verb-subject-object (VSO) word order. Ilocano culture is deeply rooted in traditions such as epic poetry, folk songs, and dances, as well as in its cuisine and strong diaspora communities in Hawaii, California, and beyond.

Stats

  • Language Family: Austronesian

  • Writing System: Latin

  • Writing System Type: Alphabet

  • Writing Direction: L to R

  • Tones / Pitch Accent: N

  • Morphology: Agglutinative

  • Cases: 2

  • Grammatical Gender / Noun Class: 0

  • Number of Verb Tenses: 3

  • Word Order: VSO

  • Number of Vowels (Monophthongs): 6

  • Number of Consonants: 16

Areas Where Spoken

  • Philippines (6.6%) (7.64 mil)

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