Northern Luzon languages explained

Northern Luzon
Also Known As:	Cordilleran
Region:	Cordillera Central (Luzon)
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Fam2:	Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:	Philippine (?)
Child1:	Ilocano
Child2:	Cagayan Valley
Child3:	Meso-Cordilleran
Child4:	Northeastern Luzon
Child5:	Dicamay Agta
Child6:	Arta
Glotto:	nort3238
Glottorefname:	Northern Luzon
Map:	Northern_Luzon_languages.png
Mapcaption:	Geographic extent of Northern Luzon languages based on Ethnologue

The Northern Luzon languages (also known as the Cordilleran languages) are one of the few established large groups within Philippine languages. These are mostly located in and around the Cordillera Central of northern Luzon in the Philippines. Among its major languages are Ilocano, Pangasinan and Ibanag.

Internal classification

Lawrence Reid (2018) divides the over thirty Northern Luzon languages into five branches: the Northeastern Luzon, Cagayan Valley and Meso-Cordilleran subgroups, further Ilokano and Arta as group-level isolate branches.^[1] ^[2]

Northern Luzon
- Ilocano
- Arta
- Dicamay Agta † (unclassified)
- Cagayan Valley
  - Isnag
  - Ibanagic
    - Atta
    - Ibanag
    - Itawis
    - Yogad
  - Gaddang-Cagayan
    - Central Cagayan Agta
    - Gaddang
    - Ga'dang
- Northeastern Luzon^[3]
  - Dupaningan Agta
  - (core)
    - Dinapigue Agta
    - Casiguran Agta, Nagtipunan Agta
    - Pahanan Agta, Paranan
- Meso-Cordilleran^[4]
  - Northern Alta
  - Southern Alta
  - South-Central Cordilleran
    - Central Cordilleran
      - Isinai
      - North Central Cordilleran
        Kalinga-Itneg
        Itneg
        
        Kalinga
        
        Nuclear Cordilleran
        Ifugao
        
        Balangao
        
        Bontok-Kankanaey
        Bontok-Finallig
        
        Kankanaey
    - Southern Cordilleran
      - Bugkalot
      - West Southern Cordilleran
        Pangasinan
        
        Nuclear Southern Cordilleran
        Ibaloi
        
        Iwaak
        
        Kallahan
        
        Karao

Reconstruction

Proto-Northern Luzon
Familycolor:	Austronesian
Ancestor:	Proto-Austronesian
Ancestor2:	Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
Ancestor3:	Proto-Philippine
Target:	Northern Luzon languages

Phonology

Reid (2006) has reconstructed the Proto-Northern Luzon sound system as follows, with phonemic stress:^[5]

Vowels!!Front!Central!Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Open		a

Consonants! colspan="2"
	Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
Stop	voiced	b	d	j	g
Fricative			s
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Approximant		w		y

The sound inventory of Proto-Northern Luzon shows no innovations from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian that would set it apart from other Philippine languages. There are however two phonological innovations that characterize the Northern Luzon languages:

Loss of final *ʔ (< *q)
Metathesis of *s and *t, e.g. Proto-Northern Luzon < Proto-Malayo-Polynesian 'weep', < 'hundred'.

Vocabulary

Lexical innovations only found in Northern Luzon languages include: 'feather, body hair', 'squeeze', 'swell', 'earthquake', 'stand', 'buttocks'. Semantic shifts are observed e.g. in 'give' (cf. Proto-Philippine 'escort') and 'wild pig' (cf. Proto-Philippine 'flesh').^[3]

Ethnic groups

Notes and References

Reid, Lawrence A. 2018. "Modeling the linguistic situation in the Philippines." In Let's Talk about Trees, ed. by Ritsuko Kikusawa and Lawrence A. Reid. Osaka: Senri Ethnological Studies, Minpaku.
† indicates that the language is extinct.
Robinson, Laura C. and Jason William Lobel (2013). "The Northeastern Luzon Subgroup of Philippine Languages." Oceanic Linguistics 52.1 (2013): 125-168.
Himes, Ronald S. 2005. The Meso-Cordilleran Group of Philippine Languages. In Hsiu-chuan Liao and Carl R. Galvez Rubino (eds.), Current Issues in Philippine Linguistics and Anthropology: Parangal kay Lawrence A. Reid, 81-92. Manila, Philippines: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines.
Reid . Lawrence A. . 2006 . On reconstructing the morphosyntax of Proto-Northern Luzon . Philippine Journal of Linguistics . 32 . 1 . 1–63.