# **[BOIE’NEN \[bɔ̆ɪ̆ɛ̋’n̆ɜ̆n]{.underline}**\] **[LANGUAGE]{.underline}** ## ABOUT THE BOIE’NEN LANGUAGE **Boie’nen** **\[bɔ̆ɪ̆ɛ̋’n̆ɜ̆n**\] (**ISO 639-3: UBL**) is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian branch spoken principally in the municipality of Buhi, Camarines Sur, Philippines. It belongs to the Inland Bikol subgroup of the Greater Central Philippine branch. Although the municipality is officially known as Buhi, the preferred endonym adopted in this dictionary is Boie’nen, reflecting the language’s indigenous phonological system. Historical records indicate that the town name passed through several colonial spellings—Buy, Buji, and eventually Buhi—according to changing Spanish orthographic conventions. In 2026, a formal request was published by the [ISO 639-3 Registration Authority to change the reference name of ISO 639-3](https://iso639-3.sil.org/code_changes/change_request_index/data) **ubl** from *Buhi’non Bikol* to the community autonym [*Boie’nen* (Claveria 2026, Change Request 2026-002](https://iso639-3.sil.org/sites/iso639-3/files/change_requests/2026/2026-002.pdf)). Boie’nen is characterized by its agglutinative morphology, aspect-prominent verbal system, voice-oriented clause structure, suprasegmental distinctions, honorific vocabulary, gender-absent pronouns, four-vowel system, phonemic glottal contrasts, and the distinctive posterior continuant phoneme /X/. ### **AUTOGLOTTONYMN, PRONOUNCIATION, and ORTOGRAPHY** **The Phonological Identity of the Name Boie’nen** **Boie’nen** is the indigenous autoglottonym (the name by which speakers identify their own language) of the people of Buhi, Camarines Sur, Philippines. Its spelling reflects distinctive features of the language’s sound system. **Boie’nen is pronounced in two syllables: BOIE’–NEN, not BO-I-E’-NEN.** The first syllable, **BOIE’**, begins with the consonant /b/ and contains a complex vowel sequence, *o + i + e*, followed by the moraic okina (’), a held glottal closure. The second syllable, **NEN**, follows a consonant–vowel–consonant (CVC) pattern, with /n/ as both its onset and coda and Pepet-e as its vowel nucleus. A particularly distinctive feature is the **palatal onglide \[j\]**. In the first syllable, the written *i* may become a short, nonsyllabic glide leading into the following Pepet-e. This pronunciation is especially noticeable among older Boie’nen speakers. The *i* glide does not create another syllable. Pepet-e remains vocalic, while the okina marks the glottal closure that ends the first syllable. Under the proposed Boie’nen phonological analysis, this closure contributes moraic weight. The spelling **Boie’nen** therefore makes three features explicitly visible: - **The vowel sequence *oie***, including its distinctive gliding articulation. - **Pepet-e**, a vowel with phonetic realizations \[ɛ \~ ɘ \~ ɜ\], rather than simply an unstressed or reduced schwa. - **The okina (’)**, represented independently as a held, moraic glottal closure. These distinctions are less transparent in the alternative KWF 2023 spelling *Boînën*, which uses a circumflex to indicate a glottal feature and does not explicitly preserve the same written *ie* sequence. Historical Spanish-era renderings, including *Buy*, *Buji*, and *Buhi*, invite further investigation into how non-native recorders perceived and transcribed the indigenous pronunciation. Their precise phonetic relationship to *Boie’nen*, however, remains a historical-linguistic hypothesis rather than an established derivation. This dictionary uses **Boie’nen** to foreground the language’s indigenous identity and speaker-informed phonotactics. The analysis of its vowel transitions, glottal articulations, and syllable structure remains an ongoing part of community-based linguistic documentation. ### **HOW THIS DICTIONARY IS ORGANIZED** This dictionary employs a structured organizational system designed to reveal the grammatical architecture of Boie’nen while maintaining clean machine sorting within the Living Dictionaries platform. Entries are organized according to the following hierarchy: 1. **(particle)**\ Parentheses identify grammatical particles such as (yo), (nyo), (na), and (pa). Because particles are central to Boie’nen syntax and discourse structure, they are intentionally sorted at the beginning of the dictionary. 2. **\[morpheme\]**\ Brackets identify affixes, linkers, connectors, discourse markers, and morphological families. Examples include \[na\], \[ni\], \[om\], \[pa\], and \[pang\]. These entries highlight the language’s agglutinative structure. 3. **/phoneme/**\ Slashes identify phonemic entries such as /x/, /g/, and /e/, allowing the sound system itself to be documented as part of the lexicon **(phoneme, allophones, minimal pairs, phonological behavior).** 4. **{grapheme}**\ Curly braces identify orthographic symbols and letters, such as {Xx}, when discussion concerns writing rather than phonology **(alphabet position, grapheme, orthographic conventions, relation to the phoneme).** 5. **Lexical Entries**\ Ordinary nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and other lexical items follow thereafter in standard alphabetical order. This arrangement allows grammatical particles, morphemes, phonemes, graphemes, and lexical entries to coexist in a single searchable dictionary while preserving both linguistic transparency and machine-sort consistency. ### **Dictionary Content** [Professor Yamada (1972) observed as follows: “***The glottal fricative /h/ is so weakly pronounced in natural speech that one might suspect that Buhi Bikol lacks it.”*** (1972) *p. 13-14*](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/090f670e-fc3f-45a9-91ab-0cf418b22cb4?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22yamada%22%7D) The [**autonymn BOIE’NEN** was proposed by Alfonso Claveria to Ethnologue](https://marayum.ph/front_matter/bikol-boienen-english/) as well as asked for the recognition that **Boie’nen has its own dialects**. His inspiration for doing this came from Judge Benjamin Claveria who wrote [Our Buhi Language ](https://buhiclaveria.tripod.com/language.htm)in the 41st KJS Anniversary Magazine of Buhi that he and his son uploaded online eventually. All the Boie’nen interpretations of popular Bicol Songs in said article of Judge Claveria will be included in this Dictionary with adaptation in line with the writing convention of this dictionary. ### **Dual Phonetic Convention** This dictionary employs a **dual phonetic convention** in representing Boie’nen pronunciation. Two forms of phonetic notation may appear: **1. Broad Phonetic Representation** Broad phonetic forms are intended for: - general linguistic description - readability - phonemic comparison - dictionary accessibility These forms use simplified IPA notation reflecting the major phonological structure of the word. Example: /beteng/ → \[bɛ.t**ɘŋ** \~ bɛ.t**ɜŋ**\] This level highlights the characteristic Boie’nen pepet vowel without excessive phonetic detail. \ **2. Narrow Playback-Oriented Representation** Some entries may additionally include a narrower phonetic rendering specifically adjusted for compatibility with digital IPA playback systems such as IPA Reader. These forms may contain: - timing adjustments - vowel shortening - release suppression - devoicing marks - centralization markers - articulatory detail not normally required in broad transcription Example: \[**b̪:ɛ̆̚.’t̪::ʊ̈ŋ̊̚**\] These narrow renderings are not intended as standard orthographic or pedagogical notation, but rather as **playback-oriented approximations** designed to reproduce Boie’nen pronunciation more faithfully in external speech engines.\ **Purpose of the Dual System** The Boie’nen sound system contains phonetic qualities that are not always reproduced accurately by standard IPA playback tools or by English-oriented phonetic assumptions. In particular: - the Boie’nen pepet vowel - glottal timing - consonantal tension - syllable release patterns may require additional phonetic detail for closer digital approximation. The dictionary therefore distinguishes between:

Type	Function
Broad phonetics	linguistic readability and analysis
Narrow playback phonetics	digital pronunciation approximation

### **Note on the Boie’nen Pepet** The Boie’nen vowel written **e** represents a central vowel traditionally compared to the Austronesian *pepet*. Unlike the English schwa, this vowel may occur in stressed syllables and functions as a full phonemic vowel. Its common realizations include: /e/ → \[ɛ \~ **ɘ** \~ **ɜ**\] ### **[Alfonso Alexander Tayag Claveria]{.underline}** is the primary mover of this dictionary project. He is a native-born (1953) Boie’nen. He had extensive discussions with the first-referenced material‘s author below, the late Dr. Dominga Portugal (2000), about her book. He made [written communications with Professor Yukihiro Yamada, circa 2000](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/aaf7b693-b9be-4b1c-b16d-35eabdbed0f0?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22yamada+yuk%22%7D), who mailed him from Japan a copy of his Buhi Vocabulary List (1972), consisting of 513 lexemes, with his own “pen-and-Ink” revision on his ”list” for what he penned as the “**ordinary writing” of Boie’nen with just the use of the then ubiquitous manual-typewriter keyboard.** [Karl Alexis Taburnal Claveria]{.underline} co-manages this dictionary. [Maria Luisa Taburnal-Claveria]{.underline} provides general and miscellaneous support for this project. [Paz-Valerie Claveria-Blanca]{.underline}, support staff. [Erika-Mae Claveria-Santos]{.underline}, support staff. **Threatened Language** Boie’nen is a critically threatened language primarily by language convergence or language blending. Boie’nen remained practically an isolate language (Bicol’s linguistic lake) even during the almost four centuries of Spanish colonization. This may be attributed to the harsh controls the Spaniards imposed to the native communities freedom of geophysical mobility evinced by the family-name indexing edict of November 1849 when the appointed Governor-General, Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa – spurred by increasing complaints from the Regidor or Treasury Account – [issued a decree](https://narrastudio.com/blogs/journal/remnants-of-our-colonized-names#:~:text=The%20pre%2Dcolonial%20Filipino%20identity,to%20make%20the%20census%20easier.) that forced the natives to adopt Spanish surnames **in a bid to make the census easier** https://narrastudio.com/blogs/journal/remnants-of-our-colonized-names#:\~:text=The%20pre%2Dcolonial%20Filipino%20identity,to%20make%20the%20census%20easier. ### **[REFERENCES]{.underline}**: These were favored for this dictionary amongst the many other extant scholarly papers on Boie’nen. [**Dr. Portugal (2000**) - ](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/241ecb81-d880-4b5c-8f43-6bf2302716f5?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22portu%22%7D)she was a native-born Boie’nen and her work provided it the very first and most extensive lexical and phonological studies. [***Yamada, Yukihiro***\* - ](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/aaf7b693-b9be-4b1c-b16d-35eabdbed0f0?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22yamada+yuk%22%7D)An Asian himself from Japan; he most accurately identified the most unique Boie’nen phonemes particularly the [IPA RHO notation \[ **ʁ** \]](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/b3dJ3QJy8a9bFmkZJmfG?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22phon%22%7D) or the **Voiced-Uvular Fricative** that he represented with the Latin letter “X” and named it [Phoneme-X](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/b3dJ3QJy8a9bFmkZJmfG?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22phon%22%7D). [**Portugal, Dominga L**. J. *Buhi Dialect (Boînen)* San Francisco: D. J. Portugal Publications (2000)](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/241ecb81-d880-4b5c-8f43-6bf2302716f5?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22portu%22%7D) [***Yamada, Yukihiro***\*. A Buhi Bikol vocabulary Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Kochi University, No. 24, Series I. Kochi: Faculty of Education, Kochi University (1972)\*](https://livingdictionaries.app/boienen-old-buhi-langua/entry/aaf7b693-b9be-4b1c-b16d-35eabdbed0f0?q=%7B%22query%22%3A%22yamada+yuk%22%7D) [**Mintz, Malcolm W.**, Bikol Grammar Notes](https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/8d4e5a36-48b7-499b-9c78-7cc8bb5c71d4/content), University of Hawaii 1971 [Boie’nen Master Wordlist](https://www.sil.org/system/files/reapdata/27/08/88/27088847336658687483847864657522133504/vw_Bicol_Buhi_non.pdf) (1966 Draft) **[Olson, K. S., Ballenas, E. T., & Borromeo, N. M]{.underline}**. (2009). [Buhi’non (Bikol) Digital Wordlist: Presentation Form. Language Documentation & Conservation](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/5103314.pdf), 3(2), 213-225 [Claveria, Alfonso T. (2026). *C*](https://iso639-3.sil.org/sites/iso639-3/files/change_requests/2026/2026-002.pdf)*hange request number [2026-002](tel:2026-002): Change the reference name for ISO 639-3 \[ubl\] from “Buhi’non Bikol” to “Boie’nen”*. ISO 639-3 Registration Authority, SIL Global. ### **BOIE’NEN-WORDS CONSERVATORY** This Old-Boie’nen Dictionary Project is an initiative that aims to preserve and protect Boie’nen words, phrases from falling out of use, becoming obsolete, or being lost over. This aims to document, archive, and promote the use of endangered Boie’nen words to start with; identify various dialects of Binoie’nen, as well as to create a safe space for language preservation and revitalization using the digital-age’s crowd-sourcing approach from **Facebook‘s Boie’nen-English Dictionary Project** group page. **Boie’nen Word Conservatory** strives to safeguard the linguistic diversity of Boie’nen culture, ensuring that the unique characteristics, nuances, and expressive powers of Binoie’nen are not lost. **Boie’nen Words Conservatory**’s immediate objectives: 1. **Language documentation**: Creating detailed records of Boie’nen including its grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. 2. **Lexical preservation**: Collecting and preserving words, phrases, and expressions that are at risk of being forgotten or lost. 3. **Language Activism and** **Community Engagement**: Collaborating with language communities to support language preservation and revitalization efforts, and to raise awareness about the importance of **Old-Boie’nen-Language Conservation**. 4. **Digital archiving:** Use the free **Living Languages** digital-platform/app as its primary repository to store and make accessible Boie’nen-language data, including texts, audio recordings, and videos. Some similar organizations and initiatives dedicated to language preservation and documentation: • The Endangered Languages Project • The Language Conservancy • The International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage • The UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger

Boie'nen (Old Buhi)