Transcriber’s Note

Translation of the title in English: Expressions inEnglish and Visayan.

This 1905 book was primarily meant for use by Cebuano speakers tolearn English ‘by example.’ Given its ‘nogrammar’ approach, it works equally well (or not) the other wayround. The book starts with thematic lists of words, followed by anumber of translated sentences on various themes, short sample letters,and concludes with a pronunciation guide (of English).

For modern users, two caveats apply: First, the spelling used is theold Spanish-derived orthography. This is fairly distinct from themodern orthography. The most conspicuous changes are: c is nowwritten as either k or s, depending on the context;qui becomes ki, and gui becomes gi. Thesemivowel w is represented by o (For example,adlao for adlaw ‘sun’, or oala forwala ‘not’), and the semivowel y is notalways written (for example, sia for siya‘he’). The g with a tilde in the combinationng̃ is no longer used: modern Cebuano simply uses ngin that case. The preceding n is enough to indicate the correctpronunciation; when the g is to be pronounced, ngg isused. Second, the Cebuano used is sometimes rather formal, and does notreflect modern usage in many cases. Often, Spanish words have beenabandoned in favor of English equivalents. Common contractions as usedin speech have not been applied. Even a native Cebuano speaker mighthave trouble understanding some of the sentences, and will consider thelanguage very ‘deep‘.

For English readers, a translation of the table ofcontents has been added.

Some more up-to-date resources for learning Cebuano on the internetare available from binisaya.com, bohol.ph, and sandayong.com.