The Iraya language is spoken in Northwest Mindoro by over ten thousand people. It has a number of known dialects, such as: Abra-De-Ilog, Alag-Bako, Pagbahan, Palauan-Calavite, Pambuhan, and Santa Cruz. The term iraya means man or adult in the Iraya language, and is used by the Irayas as the common autonym. Genetically, it is a Western Austronesian language of the Northern-Mindoro group of languages, a small group consisting of Iraya, Tadyawan and Alangan.

Phonology

Phonological Inventory
p t k ‘
b d g
s h
m n ng
l r w y
i e u a

Voiceless stops are unaspirated and unreleased of with delayed release in final position. T and D are dentals, and K and G are slightly backed. S followed by N sometimes becomes [ts]. R occurs as a flap, retroflex, or rolled. Retroflexion is usually word-initial. R following n sometimes becomes [dr]
   Of the vowels, I E U are high and A is low. E is described by Tweddel as a high, back unrounded vowel.
   Syllable types include: CV: ma.ma.li.ya.ngu ‘large lizard’; CVC: may ‘resemble, like’; CCV: kwi.tis ‘Sp. fireworks’; CCVC: pwis.tu ‘Sp. place, put’. In consonant clusters, only w and r can occur as the second consonant.
   Stress is phonemic on the penultimate of ultimate syllable, e.g. láwig ‘long life’ vs lawíg ‘foreigner’. Stress shift occurs with suffixation, e.g. ubán ‘tie, string’ > ubanán ‘carry by headband’.
   Although most stems are disyllabic, monosyllabic stems occur (CV, CVC), as do polysyllabic ones (CV.CV.CV; CV.CV.CVC; CV.CVC.CVC; CVC.CV.CV; CVC.CV.CVC; CV.CV.CVC.CVC; CV.CVC.CV.CVC; CVC.CV.CV.CVC).
   Various internal sandhi processes occur in Iraya, such as vowel agreement with suffixation. The suffix –en is represented by its allomorph –un after the vowel /u/: lingu-wun ‘to forget’; tudyu-wun ‘don’t be suspicious’. In both these cases w is epenthetic.

Lexical Classes

Pronouns
 

	Nominative	Genitive
I	aku	na’ay
you (sg.)	kawu	kumu
he/she/it	iya	kunin
we all (incl)	tamu
we all (excl.)	yamen
we two (incl.)	kita, kidawa
you (pl.)	kuyu
you two	kandawa
they all	kura
they two	sidawa

Deixis

General: aru ‘which’; ruma ‘other, another’; tawa ‘he who, who’
Specific: tiya’ ‘this’; naba ‘that (near addressee); nata’ ‘that (distal)’; sika ‘that, the last’; sa’i ka ‘one (thing)’.
Locatives: tuwa’ ‘here’; saba ‘there (near addressee)’; sata’ ‘there (distal)’; baya’ ‘near, nearly, almost’; betek ‘exactly.
Temporals: aray ‘a little while ago’; bali ‘time recently past’; naruwa’an ‘past time, previously’; nguna ‘now’; baywi ‘still’; andi’ ‘while’; duma’ ‘in the future’.

Interrogatives
 

bidu’	how much; much
umaning	how much, e.g. how big
kayu, pakayu	what
nakay	why, what
saru	where

Examples:

Bidu’ mada dayu’ ag gura’an? How far (how much distance) is it to town?’
Umaning aku kuyay kawu? How much older am I than you?
Kayu da ay tembag? What are you going to answer?
Ma’ nakay kawu agtartaruy? Why are you trembling?
Saru ginaru? Where were (they) taken from?

Numbers
 

	Cardinal	Ordinal	Distributive	Multiplicative	Aggregative
1	sa’i	una	tigsa’i	(kasa’i)
2	darawa, darwa	ikadarawa, ikarawa	tigarawa	kadarawa, karwa	asdanan
3	tatlu	ikat(at)lu	tagatlu	katatlu, makatlu	katlu’an
4	apat, upat	ika’apat	tig’apat	ka’apat	kapatan

Numeratives:

tanan ‘both’; pad ‘plural number’ panga ‘plural number’; balen ‘no more, not anymore’; buhida ‘few, some’; bu’u’ ‘all, whole’; dapu ‘more, still yet, last past’; iben-te’ ‘small, fine, few’; uman ‘some, next time’; sibay ‘enough, sufficient’; tay-ma’ ‘each, every’; te’ ‘small, little, some’.

Other Particles:

Clause connectors: da’ ‘then, but, and, by and by’; matang ‘then, so’; maraw ‘so, while, then, because’; patluy ‘then, directly, continue’.
Phrase connectives: aw ‘yes or no; or’; ay ‘included in the group, by name’
Subordinators: angan ‘as far as, until; directly’; baygira ‘before’; ibat ‘from, beginning’; isag ‘soon, so that’; kalbas ‘after, finishing’; kaya’ ‘when, so when, therefore, what happened’; nu ‘if, when’; nga’ ‘just, then only, because’; paka ‘more than, as..as, if, after’.
Numeral ligature: ka, e.g. ag sa’i ka bukar ‘one fruit’; ag ma’usun ka bukar ‘many fruits’
Articles: ag, da, ka
Directional/Relationals: kapet ‘in, on, to’; sa ‘in, at, on, to, from, by’; taga ‘from, belonging to’; pan ‘to, for’.
Copulative: ba, e.g. Aku ba sa kunin awakan. I am at his back (behind him).
Existential: maki ‘have, there is/are’
Negatives: ayaw ‘don’t’; wala’ ‘no, not, not yet, without’.

Non ordering particles:

Augmentative: din, adin, yadin ‘also, too, in addition’
Comparative: may ‘similar, like’; makay ‘similar, like, seemingly’; mayam ‘somewhat, same as’l midyu ‘Sp. somewhat’.
Completive: ani ‘already, done, finished, sure’.
Customary: layen ‘always’
Inceptive: tay, atay, batay ‘become, going to, will be, begin’; mada ‘have done, to be done’
Intensive: ada ‘certainly, really, responsibility’; bakay ‘very’; gayed ‘at once, real, strict, very, especially’; ma’ ‘so, somewhat (mild intensive)’; mana, amana ‘so then, surely’; naw ‘very’; ngani’, angani’, anga ‘surely, true, indeed, yes, in that way’.
Repetitive: akay ‘repeat, again’

Modal Particles:

Aptative: mistir ‘able, suitable’
Desiderative: disin ‘desirable, should’; dayu’, padayu’ ‘do not want/like’; kay ‘desire, request, respect’
Dubitative: gira ‘might, maybe, if’; karam ‘lest, perhaps, maybe’; kaynu ‘even, although, may it be’; la’ ‘perhaps (with negative)’; sigudu ‘Sp. via Tag. perhaps’.
Interrogative: di’a ‘perhaps, maybe’; is ‘oh, what, why’
Limitative: man ‘even, ever, any’; ngani ‘but, only, merely’; nanyani ‘only’
Negative: la’in ‘no, not’; na’ ‘no, not, do not’; nawed, ned ‘no, not’; tang ‘no, not, never’
Quotative: ika’, kunu ‘it is said’
Exclamatives: angen ‘yes, affirmative’; he’e ‘yes’; nawed ‘no’; adey ‘how terrible’; ka’ ‘there it is!’; as ‘oh’; kasuwal ‘surprise’; ati’ ‘disgusting’; kaspuk ‘conveys reproof’; gey ‘said to ward off spirits’; ‘i ‘extreme surprise’; yay ‘extreme fear’; wa ‘used to scare wild animals’; yi ‘expresses fear’.
Greetings: anta ‘greeting to a man, call for help, all right’; andaw ‘call for help to several people’; ayna ‘call or greeting to woman, dear’; pa’ay ‘greeting to someone you are afraid of’; sawa ‘Mrs, when others speak of someone’s wife’; su’an ‘term of endearment for young woman’; ta ‘greeting to strange man’; tu’an ‘greeting to a man friend’; ya ‘greeting to a strange woman’.

Affix Template
 

Prefixes			Infixes			Suffixes
			Prefix	Stem
3	2	1	1	2	1	1	2
a-
ag-
		an-
						-an (n)
							-an (v)
			-ang-
					-ar-
						‘ay
		ba-
							-en
		i-
		ika-
				-in-
ka- (v)		ka- (n)
		ku-
		ma- (n)
ma- (v)
mag-
		maka- (n)
	maka- (v)
	mal-
mamag-
		man-
	mar-
		may-
		mi-
na-
nag-
	naka-
		nan-
		ni-				-nin
pa-
	pag-
	paki-
	pal-
		pan-
	pan-
	par-
		pay-
		si-
		tag-
taga-
		tagu-
		tal-
	ti-
		tig-
				-um-

A list of some unique affixes for nouns:
 

Affix	Meaning	Example	Gloss
tal-	two related people	talyayaw	husband and wife
-nin/-in	specific, particular	amay-nin	father
ku-	two	ku-bayi	two females
pal-	two together	pal’amut	pair
kapal-	one of a pair	kapal’ebay	partner, companion
man-	general plural	man-laki	boys
ka-	person, state	kataway	enemy
ma-	agentive	ma-rket (from reket)	one who attempts
maman-	one who makes	mamamarkaya (parkaya)	fisherman, maker of traps
taga-	one who acts as	tagaramus	midwife
tagapa-	one who acts as	tagapamiya	healer
tagamagpa-	one in charge of	tagamagpataway	one in charge of contest
pan-	instrumental	panerey	eyes (from serey ‘see’)
pagpan-	thing used as	pagpandu’	pointer
pinan-	thing acted upon	pinang’apuy	something to be cooked
an-	superlative	an-yayakbang	best in climbing
tag-	season	tagsubuk	spring (subuk = grow)
tali-, tala-	sound of	tala’inga’	mooing of cow
ka- -an	state, whole	kapudihan	praise
pag- -an	place where	pagtakinan	place of hanging
pag- -anan	plural of pag- -an	pag’arunanan	stopping places

Sample sentences:

Aku ba magtabuy sa na’ay ari’an nu kayu man aku maki nga’. I give to my younger brother whatever I have.
Kura namagtabuy ag lapis sa na’ay. A pencil was given to me by all of them together.
Na’ay tay atabuy ag begas sa kunin. I can give the rice to him.
Maki iraya pandayen mamanggi’ bugnuy. There are people good at stripping bognoy.
Na’ay natabuy ani. I already gave it.
Nayawak bala’ang. The bridge was destroyed by the flood.
Sa tamu maras ba maka’angas. In our opinion (he) is happy.
Tuwa’ sa tamu puru’ ba wala’ dapu iraya maliyag marsitaway. Here in our place there are no more men who want to fight.
Aku agpanlimu aray madlem. I did frightening things last night.
Kumu kay arkan tiya’. Please smell this.
Sadhan ag dalan ba isag wala’ iraya tumultul. Close the road so that no one may pass through.

All data from this sketch hail from the manuscript of Tweddell (1958).

References:

Tweddel, Colin Ellidge. 1958. The Iraya (Mangyan) language of Mindoro, Philippines: Phonology and Morphology. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Washington.