Ilocano is an Austronesian language
spoken in the Philippines. The language is also known as Ilokano, Iloko, Iluko or Iloco.
Native names for the language include Ilokano and Pagsasao nga
Ilokano. The Ilocano people call themselves Samtoy, a
contraction from the Ilocano phrase saö mi ditoy, meaning "our
language here".It is the third most-
spoken native language in the country and officially recognized as
a provincial language, along with Filipino and English, in La Union
province in the Ilocos region of Luzon, and recognized as an
auxiliary offical language in other regions where it is spoken.
There are 11 million speakers, including 9.1 million native speakers. There
are also about 85,000 Ilocano speakers in the USA, mainly in
Hawaii, and 26,000 in Canada.
Ilocano has been used in Philippine
schools since 1897. It is currently used in schools in the
Ilocos and Cordilleras region until grade 3.
Ilocano was first written with a version of the Baybayin script
known as Kur-itan or Kurdita. This was gradually replaced by the
Latin alphabet when the Spanish arrived in the Philippines in the 16th
century. One of the first publications in Iloko was the Doctrina
Cristiana of 1621. There have been proposals
to revive the kur-itan script by teaching it in Ilokano-majority public
and private schools in Ilocos Norte and Ilocos Sur.
The Ilocano people are almost entirely Christian (99%).
