THE SEGMENTAL PHONEMES OF BLAAN IN GENERAL SANTOS CITY: A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to determine the Segmental Phonemes of the Blaan language in General Santos City in terms of vowels, consonants, diphthongs, semi-vowels, and glides. This study utilized an ethnolinguistic descriptive design and used conversational questions to gather the needed data from the IP residents who are native speakers of the Blaan language. Articulatory Phonetics and Auditory Phonetics were the approaches used by the researcher to analyze the recorded data. The participants of the study, who were chosen through purposive sampling, were fifteen (15) legal residents of the participating barangays namely, Brgy Conel, Brgy. Olympog, and Brgy Upper Labay in General Santos City. Results revealed that the Blaan language spoken in General Santos City has seven (7) vowel phonemes. Three (3) of which are front vowels; one (1) is a center vowel; and three (3) are back vowels. There are five (5) diphthongs, fifteen (15) consonants, two (2) glottal stops, two (2) semi-vowels, and two (2) glides. Results also suggest that the Blaan language used in General Santos City is a phonetic language as it is pronounced as it is spelled. Therefore, it is not a variation. It is either Koronadal Blaan or Sarangani Blaan and not a mixture nor a combination of both.