REGION VII
Central Visayas, designated as Region VII, is a region of the Philippines located in the central part of the Visayas island group. It consists of four provinces—Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor— and the highly urbanized cities of Cebu City, Lapu-Lapu City, and Mandaue City. The region is dominated by the native speakers of Cebuano. Cebu City is its regional center.
The land area of the region is 15,875 km². As of the 2007 census, it has a population of 6,398,628, making it the 5th most populous of the country's 17 regions.
The Cebuano people (Cebuano: Sugbuanon), are a Visayan ethnic group in Cebu and form the second largest cultural-linguistic group in the Philippines.
Called Sugbuanons or Sugbuhanons on the island of Cebu, Cebuanos are found in the provinces of Cebu, Negros Occidental, Negros Oriental, Bohol, Leyte, and Southern Leyte; across the island of Mindanao; and in small and good-sized communities countrywide. Now commonly known as Bisaya, Cebuano is the lingua franca of the Visayas and Mindanao. While other languages and dialects are also spoken, Cebuano is mutually intelligible and understood by the majority in these areas.
Boholanos or Bol-anons are concentrated in Talibon, Tagbilaran, Ubay, and Loon in the province-island of Bohol in the Central Visayas Region. The Boholano dialect is part of the broader Visayan ethnolinguistic group — the biggest in the Philippines. Boholanos speak a variation of Cebuano, with very slight alterations in pronunciation. The “y” sound in Cebuano becomes “j,” “k” becomes “h” at times, and “l” becomes “w” in the second or succeeding syllables. It is believed that the natives of Bohol are descendants of the pintados (“tattooed ones”), the last group of inhabitants to settle in the Philippines.