THE PHILIPPINE KANKANAEY -AN MORPHEME

Language is a significant aspect of every culture. Kankanaey is one of the most widely spoken languages in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Philippines. Regrettably, the study of this language has very few resources and material available for it. This study presents the Kankanaey language centering on -an morpheme words, how they developed, the present situation, and how they can be improved or enriched to meet the needs of the present and future times and generations in terms of linguistic knowledge. It examines the range of words that are formed with the Kankanaey -an morpheme, then it attempts to classify the input words according to affix/es used, part of speech, and aspect. It also figures out the meanings of the -an morpheme; summarizes some of the morphological phenomena that were observed during the study; and defines the conditioning factors that govern the rules in the usage of the Kankanaey -an words. More so, it uses qualitative descriptive analysis through observation, classification and analysis, inquiry, abstraction, and verification and revision. It was revealed in the study that the input Kankanaey -an words are made up of one or more prefixes, infixes, the -an suffix, and base words. It appears that the -an suffix has many meanings, so it represents many morphemes; its number of meanings corresponds to its morpheme count or number that appears in nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Kankanaey verbs are inflectable for three aspects: perfective, imperfective, and contemplated. Because of this verb characteristic, including the transitiveness of some verbs, Kankanaey verbs are governed by grammar rules when they are used in sentences. Similarly, morphological changes were observed in attaching -an suffix whether alone or with other affixes to base words and conjugating derived -an verbs.