International Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation ISSN: 2617-0299 (Online); ISSN: 2708-0099 (Print) DOI: 10.32996/ijllt Journal Homepage: www.al-kindipublisher.com/index.php/ijllt IJLLT AL-KINDI CENTER FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT Copyright: © 2022 the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Published by Al-Kindi Centre for Research and Development, London, United Kingdom. Page | 41 | RESEARCH ARTICLE Phonological Features of Manobo Spoken in Davao Occidental Catherine Palmera-Blanco Assistant Professor, Languages Department, School of Arts and Sciences, Mountain View College, Valencia City, Bukidnon, Philippines Corresponding Author: Catherine Palmera-Blanco, E-mail: blancocatherine3@gmail.com | ABSTRACT The study provides a description of the phonological features projected in Manobo, which is spoken in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, as an effort to monitor the status and vitality of the language. In eliciting the segmental and suprasegmental features, the respondents translated the questionnaire, a pre-determined word list of Cebuano vocabularies and sentences, and it was documented through audio-recording. The transcribed words were rated through International Phonetic Alphabet symbols. For the suprasegmental features, those focused on length, stress, and intonation in statement form and in answering WH/Yes-No questions. The study identified a total of 42 phonemic units in the Manobo language’s phonetic code: nine (9) vocoids, four (4) vocoid chains, 15 contoids, and four (4) contoid-clusters, and 10 supra-segmental phonemes. Also, factors such as age somewhat affect their phonological features. Native speakers were observed borrowing words from the dominant languages –Bisaya, Tagalog, and English, clipping some of the native words and code-switching to other languages when speaking. Manobo language is still used in home and community; however, it is not being sustained in the formal institution. Finally, the paper echoes the call for future studies of Manobo morphophonemic features of various Manobo speakers. | KEYWORDS Phonological features, Manobo, Davao Occidental, vitality of language, segmental, suprasegmental | ARTICLE DOI: 10.32996/ijllt.2022.5.5.6 1. Introduction Manobo language belongs to the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian linguistic family, and it is one of the 170 languages spoken in the Philippines. In 2018, there were approximately 375,870 Manobo speakers distributed throughout the country (Eberhard, Simons, & Fennig, 2018; Simons & Fennig, 2017) and the majority live in the regions where it is their native tongue, namely: Agusan, Surigao, North Cotabato and Davao. Manobos have heavily migrated to Agusan del Norte, Agusan del Sur, Surigao del Sur, North Cotabato, Southern parts of Davao del Sur and Sarangani (DuBois, 1976, 2016; Ethnic Group of the Philippines, 2018; Gelacio, Kwok Loong, & Schumacher, 2000; Havana, Gonsalez, & Schumacher, 1978; Otanes & Hale, 1988; SIL International, 2018). In Jose Abad Santos, the people speak multiple languages such as Bisaya, B’laan, Sangil and Manobo. These languages, however, embody Tagalog and foreign (English or Spanish) sounds [a, e, u, f, o, ng] in their phonetic code (DuBois, 1976). These sounds are in the phonetic systems of Bisaya and B’laan languages. Also, borrowing of words, such as Tagalog words and bilingualism, are visible in their speech repertoire. This means to say that these linguistic phenomena have significant implications for Manobo morphophonological structure. According to Arto Anttila (2018), language is a system that maps meaning to forms; however, mapping is not always meant that one meaning corresponds to one form because there is variation. This variation can be traced to the variability of both the segments and at the prosodic level, which can affect different features of the phonological system, such as the composition of the phonemes and allophones, phonotactic patterning of phonemes, and their lexical distribution in the language system (Aviles, 2008; Chomsky,1965; Chomsky & Hale, 1968; Ohala, 2019; ) In this case, the reason for this phenomenon must be traced back to recent and rapid standardization and to the prolonged contact with other languages (Vietti, 2019). Variation in language phonology can be traced back to two dimensions: geographic and social contacts, in which long-term