The first time I heard the word "kinalasan" in Baybay, I thought it was similar to our "kinalasan" in Waray. But I was wrong. Baybayanons (the people of Baybay, Leyte), by the way, speak Cebuano. AWKWARD -- that was what I thought of the way my friends used the word. For example:
Kinalasan ko sa amo nga mga magsuon.
Kinalasan ko nga ning-abot.
Kinalasan ko nga ninghatag sa ako amot.
Kinalasan ko nga contestant.
At the time, I only knew the most basic Cebuano terms and this was how I interpreted the sentences:
I was startled about us (my siblings and me).
I was startled as I arrived (at the venue).
I was startled as I gave my contribution.
I was the contestant who was startled.They did not make any sense to me. But I persevered: I studied the sense of each sentence. Finally, I noticed a pattern and I figured out how to translate them correctly. I realized that they sounded awkward to me only because I was mixing Cebuano and Waray while trying to understand the following sentences:
I am the youngest in the family.
I was the last to arrive.
I was the last to give a contribution.
I am/was the last contestant.
What is kinalasan in Waray? It means "to be startled"; hence, my translation of the above-mentioned sentences. On the other hand, kinalasan in Baybay is the result of combining the Cebuano prefix kina, the English word "last", and the Cebuano suffix an: kina + last + an. The letter "t" is, however, dropped to give way to the newly-coined word, kinalasan.
What is kinalasan in Baybay? Apparently, there is an attempt at making a superlative adjective out of the superlative "last"; hence, the last of the last.
P.S.
Would you like to read this blog post in Waray? Here's Kinalasan sa Baybay (A Waray Post)
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