Morphological Variations of the Dialects in Western and Southern Leyte

Abstract

Every language has its own characteristics. This study aims to find out the morphological variations of the dialect of Western and Southern Leytenos. This study used a descriptive design wherein the researcher used two kinds of instruments. This study involved 130 respondents who were purposely selected according to age and location. Results revealed that the language of Western and Southern Leyte were composed of root words, repeated, and affixes. Western and Southern Leyte languages were composed of three kinds of pagbabagong morpoponemiko (morphophonemic change). These were pagpapalit ponema (phonemic change), pagkakaltas (omission of phonemes), and metatesis (metathesis). There were phonemes which were replaced without changing its meaning such as /l-w/, /m-n/, /i-a/ /a-u/, /l-k/, , /s-l/, /r-n/, /r/, /d/, /r-h/, /g-s/, /u-i/, /h-k/, /s-t/, /j-y/, /w-t/ and /s-l/. The language of Southern Leyte has more omitted phonemes than that of Western Leyte but the omission did not change its meaning. One of the changes in pagbabagong morpoponemiko (morphophonemic change) was metatesis (metathesis) where there was a change in the positioning of phonemes in words. There was a morphological variation of Western and Southern Leytenos’ dialect. Therefore, it is suggested to conduct a study on morphological and phonological variation in Western and Southern Leyte in order to produce booklets which may be utilized as a guide/resource for the teachers who are handling mother tongue subjects.