Yang Pagbul’lók-bul’lok: Varyasyon ng Wikang Mandaya sa Ilang Munisipalidad ng Davao Oriental

The study aimed to find out the lexical, phonological, and morphological variations of the Mandaya language in the municipalities of Manay, Caraga, Baganga and Cateel in the province of Davao Oriental. This research was conducted to meet the following objectives: (1) To present the terminologies used in the four municipalities based on the Indigenous Knowledge System and Practices of Mandaya in cultural farming, hunting, fishing and animal husbandry. (2) To identify the variations in the Mandaya language based on lexicon, phonology and morphology. (3) To show the distinct linguistic feature in the Mandaya language that is different from Filipino language based on lexicon, phonology and morphology. Qualitative design, descriptive and indigenous methods were used in gathering and analyzing the data. Purposive combination and snow-ball sampling were utilized in choosing the informants. It was found out in the study that there was a variation of the Mandaya language in the four municipalities. In the lexical aspect, there were three evident categories: the different in form; the slightly similar in form; and the same in form but different in pronunciation. While in the phonological aspect, it also showed three variations; the phoneme /h/; the phoneme /ᵊ/ (swa); and the glide l or /l−l/. On the other hand, in the morphological aspect, the researcher observed two things: the affix and morphological phenomena occurring in the words in different dialects in Mandaya. In general, the occurrence of variations in lexical, phonological and morphological aspects in the Mandaya language was inevitable, and this was caused by the three factors: the linguistics, sociolinguistics and psychological