there are lots of Visayan dialects, cebuano, ilonggo,karay a, hiligaynon, waray, which one are you needing? i suggest you have to read some local news, easiest thing ti do and they are lots,but that if you are in the Phils.
I am not in the Philippines; my gf speaks good English but her parents do not. Her father is Illongo and her mother is Bisaya but they seem to understand each other; they have been married for more than forty years by now. They both come from the Canlaon area in Negros, which is pretty much on the border line between the Hiligaynon speakers and the Bisaya speakers, but they live in Zamboanga del Sur. I just want to be able to carry on a simple conversation with the prospective inlaws this Christmas!
I see, they do refer Cebuano dialect as Bisaya, but should not be .All of the dialects i mentioned are all Bisaya, doalects from the visayas region.You are right, Ilonggo(my dialect) can easily be understood by Cebuano speaking, just some few difference.Anyway, since you are abroad, the best thing is use on line translator or a cebuano [english dictionary can help. Maayong buntag kanimo-Good morning to you!
Google has translators for Filipino and Cebuano on-line and there are several phone apps available that make use of Google Translator. It appears that one or both of your in-laws-to-be do not speak Filipino or Tagalog so you are probably stuck with an English to Cebuano translator, assuming they can understand that dialect. I think the output will be in text only (speech output is only available on more common languages) You may also want to hunt down an app that displays its output in large text.
Post your query here and @Nickel and I will translate it for you It's quite difficult which dialect to choose. In my case, my dad's Cebuano, my mom's half Tagalog half Ilonggo. Grew up speaking Tag-lish, was sent to Chinese school, graduated in a university in an Ilonggo community and now I'm based in Cebu. I usually inter-change the words of each dialect or even combine all four in a sentence! Anyway, you can download dictionaries online or you can buy a couple of thick books in National Bookstore I have an American uncle, now retired here in Cebu, who bought a large English-Cebuano dictionary prepared by a Jesuit priest. He can greet, say thanks and welcome, bid farewell and say crazy in Cebuano
Anne, I remember my attempt to speak more than a few words of Tagalog, twenty years ago. I found some books in National Bookstore and brought them home. One was called "The Twenty Main Verbs in Tagalog". It was an inch thick! I gave up, and I have never got much beyond kanan, kaliwa. derecho, para! salamat, kumusta* mabuti, ang gusto mo, sarap, etc! * I have a problem with kumusta ; because I spoke some Italian as a child I tend to reply "Va bene, gazie!" instead of "mabuti!"
Bisayon is not the easiest language to learn, just learn the basics. https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&r...bEWJEj2ypQJirpTTUIz5-NQ&bvm=bv.74649129,d.d2s
What do I need to say...? Let' see... "Hello again. It's good to see you. Nice to be back!" "Happy Christmas!" This is an English Christmas Pudding, I made it myself. It should be steamed for a few hours before eating." " I still want to marry your youngest daughter, if she will have me!"
Is that it? Just eight very short sentences?! How long you going there for?! Either you're going to be uncharacteristically silent for most of your visit or they're going to be rather bored with your succinct cookery lesson!
