Hiligaynon

The Hiligaynon, also called Ilonggo, are the second-largest Visayan subgroup, whose language is native to Panay and Negros in the Western Visayas. Their name comes from the Spanish Hiligueinos, from an older Visayan word meaning people of the coast, while Ilonggo derives from Ilong-ilong, the old name of Iloilo.

Panay's first inhabitants were Negrito Ati foragers; tradition holds that ten Malay datus fleeing Borneo in the thirteenth century bought the island from the Ati and founded Madja-as.

When the Spanish reached Panay in 1569 they found a well-organized coastal society, soon converted to Catholicism by missionaries. From 1822 the colonial government sponsored Hiligaynon migration to Negros to work sugarcane haciendas, carrying their language and customs.