Manobo languages

---

title: "Manobo languages" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["manobo-languages", "greater-central-philippine-languages"] description: "Subgroup of the Austronesian language family" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manobo_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	Manobo
region	Central Mindanao
familycolor	Austronesian
fam2	Malayo-Polynesian
fam3	Philippine
fam4	Greater Central Philippine
child1	Central
child2	North
child3	West
iso2	mno
iso5	mno
glotto	mano1276
glottorefname	Manobo
map	Manobo languages map.png
mapcaption	Geographic extent of Manobo languages based on Ethnologue maps
::

| name = Manobo | altname = | region = Central Mindanao | familycolor = Austronesian | fam2 = Malayo-Polynesian | fam3 = Philippine | fam4 = Greater Central Philippine | fam5 = | child1 = Central | child2 = North | child3 = West | iso2 = mno | iso5 = mno | glotto = mano1276 | glottorefname = Manobo | map = Manobo languages map.png | mapcaption = Geographic extent of Manobo languages based on Ethnologue maps

The Manobo languages are a group of languages spoken in the Philippines. Their speakers are primarily located around Northern Mindanao, Central Mindanao (presently called Soccsksargen) and Caraga regions where they are natively spoken. Some outlying groups make Manobo geographically discontiguous as other speakers can be located as far as the southern peninsula of Davao Oriental, most of Davao Occidental and coastal areas of Sultan Kudarat. The Kagayanen speakers are the most extremely remote and can be found in certain portions of Palawan.

Languages

• Central
  • East: Dibabawon, Rajah Kabunsuwan, Agusan
  • South: Ata, Matigsalug (Tigwa); Obo
  • West: Western Bukidnon, Ilianen
• North: Binukid, Kagayanen, Higaonon, Kinamigin
• South: Tagabawa, Sarangani, Cotabato

Classification

Elkins (1974:637) classifies the Manobo languages as follows.

• Manobo
  • Northern
    • Cagayano (of Cagayancillo Island)
    • Kinamigin (of Camiguin Island), Binukid (of central Mindanao)
  • • Southern
      • Tagabawa
      • Sarangani Manobo
      • Tasaday, Cotabato Manobo
    • East-West-Central
      • Western
        • Obo
        • Ilianen Manobo
        • Western Bukidnon Manobo, Livunganen (a dialect spoken in Libungan, north of Midsayap, Cotabato)
      • East-Central
        • Eastern
          • Agusan Manobo
          • Dibabawon Manobo
        • Central
          • Ata of Davao
          • Matig Salug, Tigwa Manobo

Reconstruction==

| name = Proto-Manobo | familycolor = Austronesian | ancestor = Proto-Austronesian | ancestor2 = Proto-Malayo-Polynesian | ancestor3 = Proto-Philippine | target = Manobo languages Elkins (1974) includes a reconstruction of Proto-Manobo, along with 197 reconstructed etyma.

The Proto-Manobo phonemes are (Elkins 1974:616):

;Consonants ::data[format=table]

*w	*y
::

;Vowels ::data[format=table]

*a
::

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::