Rinconada Bikol Language - Standard Rinconada Bikol

Standard Rinconada Bikol

The Iriga variant is used as the Rinconada standard for the following reasons:

1. It retains the proto-Austronesian schwa vowel /ə/ that helps eliminate homographs (words that are spelled the same way but have different pronunciations and meanings).
2. The consonant phoneme /ɣ/ is evident and pronounced more clearly.
3. It has a neutralized and flat intonation which serves to moderate between variants.
4. It has no continuum accent or fusion of variants in between boundaries.
One example of continuum accent can be heard in barangays bordering Bula and Nabua which the speakers have mixed accents of Bula-Pili variant and Nabua-Balatan variant. Same thing can be heard in the boundaries of Baao and Nabua.
5. Iriga City is the center of learning, trade and commerce in Rinconada.
6. It has fewer loan words and is less influenced by neighboring languages than any other variant except Agta.
7. It has been used for decades to represent Rinconada as a whole at the local and national level.
8. It has the most number of speakers inside and outside the Rinconada area.
9. There's no or little variation in accent among speakers. Whether a person resides in the northeasternmost part of Iriga bordering Bikol-Partido speakers or in the southernmost part of Matacon, Polangui bordering West Miraya speakers or in East Sta. Justina, Buhi bordering Buhinon speakers, all use the same accent with centralized intonation.

• Even with the usage of Iriga variant (highland dialect) as the Rinconada standard (both in spelling and pronunciation), all other variants remain official in their respective municipalities. The standard spelling must be observed in all written forms but can be pronounced differently depending on the accent of the speakers.

e.g. "lawəd" (midnight) can be pronounced as "lawod, lawəd or lawud" by speakers but MUST be written officially as "lawəd" across variants.

This language is officially called Rinconada (Rinconada Bikol) and not Iriga Bikol, Irigueño or Bikol Nabua.