A Handbook of Cebuano Visayan

Book excerpt: A handbook of the Cebuano language spoken in the Visayas region of the Philippines, with a glossary of essential words, a comprehensive grammar section and a list of common everyday phrases. Second, revised and expanded edition. - a comprehensive description of the Cebuano language written with the absolute beginner in mind but suitable for learners who already have acquired some competence in the language- easy readability and comprehensibility throughout Included sections: 1) an introduction to the alphabet and the pronunciation 2) a list of common everyday phrases, arranged according to situational contexts to facilitate finding the right ones as smoothly as possible. 3) a Cebuano-English glossary, arranged thematically and with examples of use in sentence context 4) a comprehensive grammar section. Features typical of Cebuano but not present in e.g. English, such as definitizers and linkers, are handled in detail. The chapter on verbs handles both the active and the passive voices and provides numerous comparison sentences to illustrate the coining of the various passive constructions. Particles used frequently in everyday speech are treated exhaustively in their own chapter, as well. All in all, this book will help the reader a long way in getting a good grasp of Cebuano. Although it starts from the fundamentals, it will provide the reader with a broad overall view of the workings of the language and give them a competence that is well past the beginner level.