Phonological idiosyncrasies of the Southern Sorsogon dialect in Bulan, Philippines

This research sought to examine the Southern Sorsogon (Sso) dialect's distinctive phonetic features in Bulan, Philippines. In the urban and rural communities of Bulan in the province of Sorsogon, six native speakers were specifically selected based on the selection criteria. The qualitative text analysis approach used in this study was based on the transcripts of in-person interviews and other contacts between the researchers and native speakers. The Sso dialect's segmental sounds and phonological characteristics were examined to unravel its phonetic characteristics. The results showed that there were four vowels with unique vowel lengths [a], [i], [u], [ʊ], fourteen consonants [b], [p], [m], [d], [t], [s], [n], [r], [l], [g], [k], [ŋ], [ʔ], [h], and two semiconsonants [w], [y]. Sounds like voiced alveolar-fricative [z], labiodental [v], [f], interdental [ð], [θ], palatal-fricative [Ʒ], [ƒ], post alveolar fricative consonant [sh], and palatal-affricate [ʤ], [tʃ] were non-existent in the Sso dialect. Other features detected were the gliding consonants, the widespread use of /r/ for further plurality, the suffix /-on/ for comparative, superlative, or exaggerations, and lexical variations for emphatic expressions and even angry registers. Although this study contributes to the documentation, preservation, and enrichment of the Sso dialect for its future in machine translation, further investigations are recommended to confirm the findings.