Central Luzon languages explained

Central Luzon
Region:Western parts of Central Luzon near Mount Pinatubo, western Bulacan, southwest Nueva Ecija, the whole Pampanga province, and west Pangasinan; northeast Calabarzon
Familycolor:Austronesian
Fam2:Malayo-Polynesian
Fam3:Philippine
Protoname:Proto-Central Luzon
Child1:Kapampangan
Child2:Sambalic
Child3:Sinauna
Glotto:cent2080
Glottorefname:Central Luzon
Map:Central Luzon languages.png
Mapcaption:Geographic extent of Central Luzon languages based on Ethnologue

The Central Luzon languages are a group of languages belonging to the Philippine languages. These are predominantly spoken in the western portions of Central Luzon in the Philippines. One of them, Kapampangan, is the major language of the Pampanga-Mount Pinatubo area. However, despite having three to four million speakers, it is threatened by the diaspora of its speakers after the June 1991 eruption of that volcano. Globalization also threatened the language, with the younger generation more on using and speaking Tagalog and English, but promotion and everyday usage boosted the vitality of Kapampangan.[1] Another Central Luzon language, Sambal or Sambali, experiences same situation, the speakers of the language are decreasing due to the globalization that many of the speakers of younger generation are shifting to Tagalog & Ilocano. The only Central Luzon language spoken outside Central Luzon is Hatang Kayi or Sinauna, located in northeast Calabarzon.

External relationships

Ronald Himes (2012)[2] and Lawrence Reid (2015)[3] suggest that the Northern Mindoro languages may group with the Central Luzon languages. Both branches share the phonological innovation Proto-Austronesian *R > /y/.

Internal classification

Notes and References

  1. News: Banal. Ruston. Wear Kapampangan: T-shirt entrepreneurs seek to boost Pampanga's language. 24 April 2015. Inquirer. 7 September 2014.
  2. Himes, Ronald S. 2012. “The Central Luzon Group of Languages”. Oceanic Linguistics 51 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 490–537.
  3. Reid, Lawrence. 2015. Re‐evaluating the position of Iraya among Philippine languages . Presentation at 13-ICAL, 18-23 July, 2015 at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.