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Wáray-Wáray Waráy Winaray
Spoken in:	Philippines
Region:	Eastern Visayas
Total speakers:	3.1 million
Language family:	Austronesian  Malayo-Polynesian   Borneo-Philippines    Central Philippine     Visayan      Central Visayan       Wáray-Wáray Waráy
Writing system:	Latin (Filipino variant); Historically written in Baybayin
Official status
Official language in:	none
Regulated by:	Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language)
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	war
ISO 639-3:	war
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Wáray-Wáray or Waráy (commonly spelled as Waray; also referred to as Winaray or L(in)eyte-Samarnon) is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte (eastern portion), and Biliran in the Philippines.

The Warayan group of languages consists of Waray, Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon. Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon are called Bisakol because they are intermediate between Visayan and Bicolano languages. All the Warayan languages belong to the Visayan language family and are related to Cebuano and more closely to Hiligaynon and Masbatenyo.

Contents 1 Pronouns 2 The Waray copula 3 Existential 4 Modal 5 Interrogative Words 6 Orthography issues 7 Sounds 7.1 Numbers 7.2 Some common words and phrases 8 See also 9 External links

	Absolutive	Ergative	Oblique
1st person singular	ako, ak	nakon, nak, ko	akon, ak
2nd person singular	ikaw, ka	nimo, nim, mo	imo, im
3rd person singular	hiya, siya	niya	iya
1st person plural inclusive	kita, kit	naton	aton
1st person plural exclusive	kami, kam	namon	amon
2nd person plural	kamo	niyo	iyo
3rd person plural	hira, sira	nira	ira

Waray, as in other Philippine languages, does not have any exact equivalent to the English linking verb be. In Tagalog, for example, the phrase "Siya ay maganda" (She is beautiful) contains the word ay which, contrary to popular belief, does not function as an attributive copula predicating maganda (beautiful) to its subject and topic Siya (he or she). The function of Tagalog's ay is rather a marker of sentence inversion, which is regarded as a literary form but somewhat less common in spoken Tagalog.

The Waray language in comparison would express "She is beautiful" only as "Mahusay hiya" or sometimes "Mahusay iton hiya" (iton functioning as a definite article of hiya, she), since Waray doesn't have a present-tense copula or even an inversion marker. As in other Philippine languages, attributive statements are usually represented in predicate-initial form and have no copula at all. Take for example the ordinary Waray sentence "This is a dog":

Ayam ini.

The predicate Ayam (dog) is placed before the subject ini (this); no copula is present. Another example:

Amo ini an balay han Winaray o Binisaya nga Lineyte-Samarnon nga Wikipedia.

In English: "This is the Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". The predicate Amo ini is roughly translated as "This here" but the rest of the sentence then jumps to its subject, marked by the particle an. A more literal translation would therefore be "This is the Waray/Leyte-Samar Visayan Wikipedia". Unlike Tagalog, it is grammatically impossible to invert a sentence like this into a subject-head form without importing the actual Tagalog inversion marker ay, a growing trend among younger people in Leyte.

Despite the debate regarding the Waray copula, it would be safe to treat structures like magin (to be), an magin/an magigin (will be or will become), and an nagin (became) as the English treat linking verbs:

Makuri maging estudyante. ([It's] hard to be a student.)

Ako it magiging presidente! (I will be the president!)

Ako an naging presidente. (I became the president.

 WARAY              TAGALOG                 ENGLISH

 may-ada            meron/mayroon           there is
 wara/waray         wala                    none

 WARAY          TAGALOG                 ENGLISH

 puyde          maaari/pwede            may/can
 diri puyde     hindi maaari/pwede      may/cannot

• Waray of Leyte (Winaray nga pan Leyte)

 WARAY      TAGALOG     ENGLISH
 
 hin-o       sino        who
 kay-ano     bakit       why
 diin        saan        where
 kanay       kanino      whose
 paanano     paano       how
 san-o       kailan      when
 nano        ano         what

• Waray of Samar (Winaray nga pan Samar)

 WARAY      TAGALOG     ENGLISH
 
 sino        sino        who
 kay-ano     bakit       why
 diin        saan        where
 kankanay    kanino      whose
 guinaano    paano       how
 san-o       kailan      when
 nano/ano    ano         what

While the now-defunct Sanghiran San Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte (Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) formulated and recommended a standard orthography, this was never widely disseminated and therefore as of present there is still no official orthography commonly accepted. In effect, there may exist two spellings of the same word (these usually limited to differences in vowels only), such as

• diri or dire ("no")
• hira or hera ("them")
• maopay or maupay ("good")
• guinhatag or ginhatag ("gave")
• direcho or diritso ("straight [ahead]")

The Waray language has sixteen consonants: p, t, k, b, d, g, m, n, ng, s, h, w, l, r and y. There are three main vowels: [a], [ɛ]/[i], and [o]/[ʊ]. [i]/[ɛ] and [ʊ]/[o] sound the same, but [o] is still an allophone of [ʊ] in final syllables. But they now have separate sounds for each. Consonants [d] and [ɾ] were once allophones but cannot interchange, like palaron (to be lucky) [from palad, palm (because someone's luck is seen in the palm] but not paladon and tagadiín (from where) [from diín, where] but not tagariín.

Native numbers are used for numbers one through ten. From eleven onwards, Spanish numbers are exclusively used in Waray today, their native counterparts being almost unheard of by the majority of native speakers while some, specially the old ones, spoke alongside the Spanish counterparts.

   One          Usá               Uno
   Two          Duhá              Dos
   Three        Tuló              Tres
   Four         Upat              Kuwatro
   Five         Limá              Singko
   Six          Unom              Siez/says
   Seven        Pitó              Siete/syete
   Eight        Waló              Ocho/otso
   Nine         Siyám             Nuebe/nueve
   Ten          Napúlô            Diez
   Eleven       (Napúlô kag usá)  Onse
   Twenty       (Karuhaan)        Baynte
   Thirty       (Katloan)         Trenta
   Forty        (Kap-atan)        Kwuarenta
   Fifty        (Kalim-an)        Singkwenta
   Sixty        (Kaunman)         Siesenta
   Seventy      (Kapitoan)        Setenta
   Eighty       (Kawaloan)        Ochienta
   Ninety       (Kasiaman)        Nobenta
   One Hundred  (Usa ka Gatus)    Cien
   One Thousand (Usa ka Yukut)    Mil

Below are examples of the Waray spoken in Metropolitan Tacloban and the nearby areas:

• Good morning (noon/afternoon/evening): Maupay nga aga (udto/kulop/gab-i)
• Can you understand Waray?: Nakakaintindi/Nasabut ka hin Winaray? (hin or hiton)
• Thank you: Salamat
• I love you: Hinihigugma ko ikaw or Ginhihigugma ko ikaw or Pina-ura ta ikaw
• Where are you from? : Taga diin ka? or Taga nga-in ka? or Taga ha-in ka?
• How much is this? : Tag pira ini?
• I can't understand: Diri ako nakakaintindi
• I don't know: Diri ako maaram or Ambot
• What: Ano
• Who: Hin-o
• Where: Hain
• When (future): San-o
• When (past): Kakan-o
• Why: Kay-ano
• How: Gin-aano?
• Yes: Oo
• No: Dire or Diri
• There: Adto or Didto or Ngad-to
• Here: Didi or Nganhi
• Front or in front: Atbang or Atubangan
• Night: Gab-i
• Day: Adlaw
• Nothing: Waray
• Good: Maupay
• Who are you?: Hin-o ka?
• I'm a friend: Sangkay ak.
• I'm lost here: Nawawara ak didi.

where are they?

• Waray literature
• Languages of the Philippines
• Filipino
• Cebuano
• Kapampangan
• Chabacano
• Pangasinan
• Visayan languages
• Bikol
• Ilokano
• Hiligaynon

• Onine Museum of Everything Waray
• Online Lineyte-Samarnon (Waray) - English Dictionary
• Waray lessons
• Online Waray dictionary
• Bansa.org Waray Dictionary
• Ethnologue Report for Waray
• A downloadable Waray dictionary with etymologies and Cebuano, Tagalog cognates by Andras Rajki
• Waray Explained (Online Tutorial)

v • d • e Languages of the Philippines
Official languages	Filipino • English
Recognized regional languages	Tagalog • Cebuano • Chavacano • Ilokano • Hiligaynon • Waray-Waray • Kapampangan • Bikol • Pangasinan
Recognized auxiliary languages	Arabic • Spanish
Language groups	Borneo-Philippines {Central Philippine (Bikol {Inland • Pandan} • Visayan {Aklan • Bisakol}) • (Batanic • Sambalic)}