Waray is an Austronesian language and the fifth most spoken native regional language of the Philippines, native to the Eastern Visayas region. It is the first language of the Waray people and a second language for the Abaknon people of Capul in Northern Samar and some Cebuano speakers in western and southern Leyte, and it ranks third among the Bisayan languages behind Cebuano and Hiligaynon.
Facts
ISO 639-3 Code Speaker Count2015 census figure for native speakers, cited in the Wikipedia infobox. StatusWikipedia article on Waray: a currently spoken living language with an active native-speaker population; checked 2026-09-27. Attested From (Year)Year of Domingo Ezguerra's grammar of the Visayan tongue of Leyte province, the earliest dated linguistic document named in the Wikipedia article's Nomenclature section for this language area. RegionEastern Visayas (Philippines) 2 Classification
Language Kind Official StatusRecognized Regional or Minority Language 1 Connections
In Family
Source Waray language, Wikipedia
Source Waray language, Wikipedia
Written In
Waray is standardly written in the Latin alphabet.
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Sources
1. Glottolog: Waray (Philippines) (Glottolog languoid wara1300)
GlottologEndangerment, AES status
AES status: not endangered
Endangerment
Statutory language of provincial identity in Samar, Leyte islands (1991, ACFLC Section 3(f)).
View the Source 2. Waray language, Wikipedia
Lead section
Waray (also known as Waray-Waray or Bisayâ/Binisayâ and Winaray/Waray, Spanish: idioma samareño meaning Samar language) is an Austronesian language and the fifth-most-spoken native regional language of the Philippines, native to Eastern Visayas.
Infobox, ISO 639-3 field
war
Infobox, Native speakers field
3.6 million (2015 census)
Lead section
Domingo Ezguerra's 1663 (reprinted 1747) Arte de la lengua bisaya de la provincia de Leyte refers to the "Visayan tongue of the province of Leyte", Figueroa's Arte del idioma Visaya de Samar y Leyte refers to the "Visaya language of Samar and Leyte".
In Family: Malayo-Polynesian, Infobox, Language family
Malayo-Polynesian
In Family: Bisayan, Infobox, Language family
Bisayan
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