Also known simply and generically by most of its speakers as Binisaya (translated into English as Visayan, though this should not be confused with other Bisayan languages), is an Austronesian language spoken in the southern
Philippines. It is
particularly abundant in Central Visayas, western parts of Eastern Visayas, and the majority of Mindanao. It originated on the island of Cebu and is now primarily spoken by various Visayan ethnolinguistic groups native to those areas, most notably the Cebuanos. While Tagalog has the most native speakers among the Philippines' languages today, Cebuano had the largest native-language-speaking population in the
Philippines from the 1950s to the 1980s. It is by far the most commonly spoken Bisayan language.