ILOCANO or ILOKANO refers to the language and culture associated with people living in northern part of the Philippines and considered as the third largest ethnic group in the Philippines.
Ilocanos are of Malay stock, descendants of Southeast Asian migrants that settled the Philippines in successive waves for centuries. The term Ilocano come from i-, meaning "from", and loöc, meaning "cove or bay", thus "people of the bay." Ilocanos also refer to themselves as Samtoy, a contraction from the Ilocano phrase saö mi ditoy, meaning "our language here".
Ilocanos occupy the narrow, barren strip of land in the northwestern tip of Luzon, squeezed in between an inhospitable mountain range to the east and the open sea to the west. This geographic coincidence molded a people known for their clannishness, tenacious industry and frugality, traits that were vital to survival. It also induced Ilocanos to become a migratory people, always in search for better opportunities and for land to build a life on. Although their homeland constitutes the provinces of Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and parts of La Union and Abra, their population has spread east and south of their original territorial borders.
Ilocano pioneers flocked to the more fertile Cagayan Valley and the Pangasinan plains during the 18th and 19th centuries and now constitute a majority in many of these areas. In the 20th century, many Ilocano families moved further south toMindanao, and they became the first Filipino ethnic group to immigrate en masse to North America, forming sizable communities in the American states of Hawaii, California, Washington and Alaska. A large, growing number of Ilocanos can also be found in the Middle East, Hong Kong, Japan and the urban centers of Canada and Europe.
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