Ilocano phrasebook

Ilocano, (Iloco) or (Iluko) is the main language of the Northern Philippines. According to the 2005 Census, there are about 8 million people who speak Ilocano as a mother tongue (locally called kabakketan a dildila) and still another 2 million who speak it as a second language. Although it has no official status in the country, those who use it often call it the National Language of the North. From their traditional homeland (the Ilocandia), Ilocanos have migrated southward, now forming large communities in Central Luzon, Metropolitan Manila and even in the main Urban centres of General Santos City and Zamboanga City in the Island of Mindanao.

There are also a sizable number of Ilocano speakers in the United States, especially in Hawaii, California, Alaska and Washington, as the Ilocanos were the first Filipinos to migrate en masse to the US. Speakers of this language are also found in Canada, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Belonging to the Austronesian family of languages, it is related to all the other languages in the Philippines like the larger Tagalog and Cebuano. It is also distantly related to Malagasy, Malay, Tetum, Hawaiian and other Polynesian languages.