Bikol

The Bikol languages are a group of Central Philippine Austronesian languages, spoken on the Bicol Peninsula of southeastern Luzon. Their varieties are often mutually unintelligible; Central Bikol serves as the regional literary and urban standard. Before Spanish rule Bikol was written in a local baybayin syllabary.

A Spanish expedition under Juan de Salcedo reached Naga in 1573 and Franciscan missionaries began converting the region in 1578, after which the Latin alphabet and a thick layer of Spanish loanwords took hold, alongside older Sanskrit loans from maritime contacts.

The Franciscan Marcos de Lisboa compiled the first Bikol vocabulary between 1602 and 1611, though it was printed only in 1754, and Andres de San Agustin's grammar appeared in 1647. The languages preserve a special angry register, a coded vocabulary reserved for forceful speech.