STUDIES IN PHILIPPINE LINGUISTICS Volume 1 Number 1 1977 Casilda Edrial-Luzares and Austin Hale, series eds. Rosa Pelaez-Soberano. “The dialects of Marinduque Tagalog” 53-74 ISSN: 0119-6456 © LINGUISTIC SOCIETY OF THE PHILIPPINES and SUMMER INSTITUTE OF LINGUISTICS Sample Citation Format Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista, 1977. “The noun phrase in Tagalog—English code switching”. Studies in Philippine Linguistics 1:1, 1-16. Online. URL: http://www.sil.org/asia/philippines/book_store.htmificulture [etc] + access date.53 THE DIALECTS OF MARINDUQUE TAGALOG* Rosa Pelaez~Soberano Philippine Normal College 1.0. The Problem. The small island province of Marinduque’ in Southern Luzon is consi- dered part of the Tagalog-speaking region. However, its speech is not easily understood by Tagalog speakers from the Manila area. This study attempted to examine the phonological system, the basic morphological struc- tures, and the equivalents to a 300-item list of words and expressions and the basic syntactic structures of what is referred to as Marinduque Taga- log (MT). Specifically, the study sought to: (1) discover dialectal var- iations within the island, (2) gain an insight into the most important factors causing variation, and (3) indicate the main linguistic similar: ties and differences between Marinduque Tagalog and Manila Tagalog (Mant). 1.1. Methodology. To accomplish these objectives, a survey was made of the speech of 129 native residents, fifty years old and above,” from the six population cen- ters and 113 barrios throughout the island province, covering a wide net- work of speech communities. Data were collected via tape-recorded inter- views with the aid of a language questionnaire, and spontaneous conversa~ tions with or,among the native speakers. Equivalents to the 300 Manila Tagalog words” and expressions elicited from the informants were summarized in tabulated form, In addition, translation equivalents of eighty-three sentences were examined for various morphological and syntactic features. For the purposes of this study, the linguistic. structures were analyzed on the basis of form, meaning and distribution. The description started from Phonology and proceeded to morphology and syntax. The lexical items were compared last. Dialect maps were drawn to show the distribution of ling! uistic items and to plot isoglosses. For each linguistic component, structural features which are identi- cal in Manila and Marinduque were indicated, as well as those which are different. Differences in structural features between the main Tagalog dialects of Marinduque were plotted on isogloss maps to determine the geo- graphical boundaries of use. 2.0. Summary. Findings on each of the four linguistic levels point to a division of Marinduque into two major dialect areas, Eastern Marinduque (EM) and Wes~ tern Narinduque (WM). “This paper constitutesctno-concluding chapter of my dissertation, sub- mitted to the Ateneo de Manila University-Philippine Normal College Linuistics Consortium.LAMoN BAY Q % % % ‘SIBUYAN ee ee VS" Corahast AR Sibeton T. act s Qore, Map 1--MARINSUQUE and Surrounding Islands and Provinces