Central Luzon languages
Subgroup of the Austronesian language family
title: "Central Luzon languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["central-luzon-languages", "philippine-languages"] description: "Subgroup of the Austronesian language family" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_Luzon_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 | 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 |
| :: |
|name=Central Luzon |altname= |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 the political administrative region of Central Luzon (Region III) 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.
Another Central Luzon language, Sambal or Sambali, experiences same situation, the speakers of the language are decreasing due to the global
zation that many of the speakers of younger generation are shifting to Tagalog & Ilocano. Central Luzon languages spoken outside the political region of Central Luzon are Sambal Bolinao, the variety/varieties of Sambal spoken in southwestern Pangasinan province, and Hatang Kayi (erroneously called Sinauna or Sinaunang Tagalog in the literature) in northeast Calabarzon; Pangasinan was formerly part of political region of Central Luzon, and is still geographically; Sambali is spoken in Infanta, Pangasinan along the boundary with Zambales.
Historical linguistics
The modern Central Luzon languages descended from the hypothetical Proto-Central Luzon language.
Phonology of Proto-Central Luzon
Some consonants were lost in Proto-Central Luzon when it evolved from either Proto-Malayo-Polynesian or Proto-Philippine. ::data[format=table title="Consonants of Proto-Central Luzon"]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | Nasal | Stop | Affricate | Fricative | Lateral | Rhotic | Semivowel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| m | n | ŋ | |||||||||
| p , b | t , d | j | k , g | ʔ | |||||||
| z | |||||||||||
| s | |||||||||||
| l | |||||||||||
| r | |||||||||||
| w | y | ||||||||||
| :: |
The phonetic values of the consonants above are the ones assumed for Proto-Austronesian except for the glottal stop , which resulted from sound changes into Proto-Central Luzon: *q *ʔ and *h Ø followed by Ø *ʔ/#_.
::data[format=table title="caption | Vowels of Proto-Central Luzon"]
| Height | Front | Central | Back | Close | Mid | Open |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| i | u | |||||
| e | ||||||
| a | ||||||
| :: |
The values of the vowels above are the ones they had in Proto-Malayo Polynesian.
External relationships
Ronald Himes (2012) and Lawrence Reid (2015) suggest that the Northern Mindoro languages may group with the Central Luzon languages. Both branches share the phonological reflex Proto-Austronesian *R /y/.
Internal classification
- Central Luzon
References
References
- Banal, Ruston. (7 September 2014). "Wear Kapampangan: T-shirt entrepreneurs seek to boost Pampanga's language". Inquirer.
- Lobel, Jason William and Surbano, Orlando Vertudez. 2019. "[http://hdl.handle.net/10125/24796 Notes from the Field: Remontado (Hatang-Kayi): A Moribund Language of the Philippines]". ''Language Documentation & Conservation'' 13. University of Hawai'i Press.
- (2013). "The Austronesian languages". Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University.
- Himes, Ronald S. 2012. “[https://www.jstor.org/stable/23321866 The Central Luzon Group of Languages]”. ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 51 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 490–537.
- Reid, Lawrence. 2015. [http://ical13.ling.sinica.edu.tw/Full_papers_and_ppts/July_19/G-91.pdf Re-evaluating the position of Iraya among Philippine languages] {{Webarchive. link. (2016-04-24 . Presentation at 13-ICAL, 18–23 July 2015 at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.)
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