Batanic languages
Subgroup of the Austronesian language family
title: "Batanic languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["batanic-languages", "philippine-languages"] description: "Subgroup of the Austronesian language family" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batanic_languages" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Subgroup of the Austronesian language family ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language family"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Batanic |
| map | The Batanic languages.png |
| mapcaption | Geographic distribution of the Batanic languages |
| altname | Bashiic, Ivatanic |
| region | Batanes and Orchid Island |
| familycolor | Austronesian |
| fam2 | Malayo-Polynesian |
| fam3 | Philippine (?) |
| glotto | bata1315 |
| glottorefname | Batanic |
| :: |
|name=Batanic |map=The Batanic languages.png |mapcaption=Geographic distribution of the Batanic languages |altname=Bashiic, Ivatanic |region=Batanes and Orchid Island |familycolor=Austronesian |fam2=Malayo-Polynesian |fam3=Philippine (?) |glotto=bata1315 |glottorefname=Batanic
The Batanic languages (sometimes also called Bashiic or Ivatanic) are a dialect cluster of the Austronesian language family. They are spoken on Babuyan Island, just north of Luzon; three of the Batanes Islands, between the Philippines and Taiwan; and on Orchid Island of southern Taiwan.
The varieties in the Philippines are called Ivatan (also spelled Ibatan), or are named Babuyan, Batan, or Itbayat after their islands, while the variety of Taiwan is called Yami or Tao.
Proto-Batanic has been reconstructed by Yang (2002).
Classification
Malcolm Ross (2005) and Roger Blench (2015) list four languages:
- Batanic
- Yami (or Tao) on Orchid Island
- Itbayat on Itbayat Island
- Ivatan
- Ivasay dialect (= Basco Ivatan) on Batan
- Isamurung dialect (=Southern Ivatan) on Batan (southern part), Sabtang
- Ibatan (or Babuyan) on the Babuyan Islands
Moriguchi (1983) classifies the Batanic languages as follows.
According to Paul Jen-kuei Li (2000), Yami is most closely related to Itbayat. Among the Batanic languages, Iraralay is the most conservative.
The Batanic languages are frequently included with the Philippine languages. However, there is no full consensus on this, and some consider them a primary branch of the Malayo-Polynesian languages. Blench concludes that Batanic languages have been splitting from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian for a long time and contain many roots which are not standard Austronesian. The relationship between Batanic and Northern Luzon languages is still uncertain.
References
References
- Yang, Doris Hsiao-Fang. (2002). "Subgrouping and Reconstruction of Batanic Languages". Providence University.
- Ross, Malcolm. (2005). "The Batanic Languages in Relation to the Early History of the Malayo-Polynesian Subgroup of Austronesian". Journal of Austronesian Studies.
- Blench, Roger. (2015). "A New Look at Bashiic, a Divergent Subgroup of Malayopolynesian".
- Moriguchi, Tsunekazu. (1983). "Batan Island and Northern Luzon: Archaeological, Ethnographical and Linguistic Survey". Kumamoto University.
- Li, Paul Jen-kuei. (2000). "The Fifth International Symposium on Languages and Linguistics". Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
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