Waray-Waray Language

Waray-Waray Language

Wáray-Wáray (commonly spelled as Warai; also referred to as Winaray or Lineyte-Samarnon) or Samarnon is a language spoken in the provinces of Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Biliran, and in the north-east of Leyte Island (surrounding Tacloban) in the Philippines. The name comes from the word often heard by non-speakers, "waray" (meaning "none", "nothing" or "not"), in the same way that Cebuanos are known in Leyte as "mga Kana" (after the oft-heard word "kana", meaning "that", among people speaking the Cebuano language).

The Waray-Waray language spoken by the Waray people of Samar island, in the north east of Leyte Island (surrounding Tacloban) and in some parts of Biliran island shows dialectal variations. Dialects are spoken in some parts of Masbate, particularly on the island of Ticao which is adjacent to Samar island.

Waray-Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon are grouped into the Waray-Waray language. Waray-Waray Sorsogon and Masbate Sorsogon are called Bisakol by the untrained because they are intermediate between the Visayan and Bicolano languages, however, all of these are just variants of the Waray-Waray language.