A number of Cebuano Study books have been written by John U. Wolff in the 60's and Maria Bunye in the 70's, these might be obtainable second hand. Simpler introductions are available from the US ERIC system. A Cebuano Grammar written in Cebuano is available on the Internet Archive. This is however of very little help if you do not speak the language.--Jeroen.

Thanks for your help! Byron

This is a word used to fill in a gap or to avoid a taboo word, you will need to guess what is meant from the context.--Jeroen.

Consider how useful Cebuano is outside the Visayas and Mindanao, and you have your answer. Your ancestors didn't go out to explore, conquer, and colonize half the world, unlike the English.--Jeroen.

Of course, this is actually based on Peacecorps material, a US federal government agency, which claims no copyright on its works.--Jeroen.

Cebuano is written much more phonetically than English. For the consonants, it will be workable if you pronounce them as in English. If you want to be more precise, you should try to pronounce plosive consonants, such as k, g, t, d, p, and b without aspiration, that is, without a 'puff' of air. Furthermore, the t and d are formered by touching the front of the upper teeth with the tongue, instead of touching the back of the upper teeth. The ng is often considered a single letter, is pronounced as in the English "sing", but can also appear at the beginning of a word.

The Cebuano vowels should be pronounced as in Spanish or French. Note that many speakers do not distinquish between e and i, and also not between o and u, leaving Cebuano with just three vowels: a, e, and o. If two vowels appear in a row, you should pronounce them seperately: maayo is pronounced as ma-ayo.

The biggest problem will come from the so-called cut-short vowels that exist in Cebuano, but are typically not written. Some dictionaries indicate them with accents. In such dictionaries, you will find three accents: the acute (`), the grave (´), and the circumflex (^). The acute is used to indicate stress, and the grave to indicate this cut-short vowel. The circumflex is used when the stress and cut-short vowel come together. Technically, this sound is the glottal stop. It can be heard in English in the first syllable of the exclamation "uh-oh!" The first "uh" here is suppressed (remember the Teletubbies). In some dialects of English, it can also be heard in the pronunciation Ma'am (Madam).

Both stress and the glottal stop are important distinctions in Cebuano. For example, sukà is vinegar, while suka is vomit. If you ask for the latter to add to your food, people will be in for a good laugh.

We will try to add the accents to this phrase-book soon.--Jeroen