Cebuano and Visayan can mean both the language and the people.
THE PEOPLE
The people living in Cebu, Philippines are called Cebuanos, but are locally referred to as Sugbuanon.
Visayas is the central island group of the country, which consists of 16 provinces, one of which is Cebu. Visayan is what you call the group of people that live in this area.
Think of it this way:
All Cebuanos are Visayans, but not all Visayans are Cebuano.
THE DIALECT
There are different variations of the Visayan language, or Bisaya, one of which is the Cebuano language. Depending on the region, they more or less are similar when it comes to grammar.
The syntax, however, may change slightly across regions. Visayan in West Visayas leans more towards the Tagalog Language, while Visayan in East Visayas remains true to the classic Visayan syntax.
Cebuanos (like me) speak in our own variation of Visayan which is what we currently know as the Cebuano dialect. We often shorten words by taking out letters or syllables to make them easier on the tongue and quicker to say.
For example, the Visayan phrase “ayaw ug” (“do not” in English) is spoken as “Ay’g” in Cebuano. This is quite similar to how the English language contracts “do not” to “don’t”. Here are a few Visayan words and their Cebuano variations:
Dalan = Daan (street)
Kalas = Kas (wasteful)
Pahibalo = Pahibawo (inform)
balumbong = bumbong (roof)
kalakat = katkat (climb)
Cebuanos often speak quite fast so there are really instances where we don’t say words completely. This eventually led us to adapt to the current Cebuano dialect that’s full of syllabic truncation and portmanteaus.
