Philippine languages

Classification

History and criticism

One of the first explicit classifications of a "Philippine" grouping based on genetic affiliation was in 1906 by Frank Blake, who placed them as a subdivision of the "Malay branch" within Malayo-Polynesian (MP), which at that time was considered as a family. Blake however encompasses every language within the geographic boundaries of the Philippine archipelago to be under a single group. Formal arguments in support of a specific "Proto-Philippines" were followed by Matthew Charles in 1974, Teodoro Llamzon in 1966 and 1975, and Llamzon and Teresita Martin in 1976. Blust (1991) two decades later updates this based on Zorc's (1986) inclusion of Yami, and the Sangiric, Minahasan, and Gorontalo groups.

The genetic unity of a Philippines group has been rejected particularly by Lawrence Reid. This arose with problems in reconstructing Philippine subgroups within MP (Pawley, 1999; Ross, 2005). In a recent state-of-the art on the classification of Philippine languages, he provides multidisciplinary arguments on the field's methodological and theoretical shortcomings since Conant's description in the early 1900s. This includes Malayo-Polynesian archeology (Spriggs, 2003; 2007; 2011), and Bayesian phylogenetic analyses (Gray et al., 2009) substantiating the multiplicity of historical diffusion and divergence of languages across the archipelago. He suggests that the primary branches under this widely acknowledged Philippine group should instead be promoted as primary branches under Malayo-Polynesian. Malcolm Ross (2005) earlier also noted that the Batanic languages, constituting Yami, Itbayat, and Ivatan, should in fact be considered as a primary MP branch. Chen et al. (2022) present further arguments for the Philippine languages being a convergence area (sprachbund) rather than a unified phylogenetic subgroup.

Internal classification

The Philippine group is proposed to have originated from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and ultimately from Proto-Austronesian. There have been several proposals as to the composition within the group, but the most widely accepted groupings today is the consensus classifications by Blust (1991; 2005) and Reid (2017); however, both disagree on the existence of a Philippine group as a single genetic unit.

Zorc (1979)

An earlier classification by Zorc (1979) is presented below. From approximately north to south, a Philippine group according to his analysis of previous reconstructions are divided into two main subgroups, Northern or "Cordilleran" and Southern or "Sulic". Note that the groupings herein no longer reflect widely accepted classifications or naming conventions today. For example South Extension nowadays reflects the widely established Central Luzon, and North Mangyan within Cordilleran is not supported by later reconstructions; the group containing Yami, Ivatan and Itbayat is called "Bashiic" in Zorc (1977) and remains generally accepted.

• Philippine
  • Northern Philippines or Cordilleran
    • Pangasinic (includes Ilongot, Kallahan, Ibaloi, Pangasinan)
    • Central Cordilleran (includes Isinai, Kalinga, Bontoc, Balangao, Ifugao)
    • Ilokan (within Ilokano alone)
    • Northern Cordilleran or Banagic (includes Ibanag, Isneg, Gaddang)
    • Yami–Ivatan–Itbayat
    • South Extension (includes Sambal group, Kapampangan)
      • North Mangyan
  • Southern Philippines or Sulic
    • Meso-Philippine
      • South Mangyan (includes Hanunuo)
      • Palawan
      • Subanon (dialect cluster)
      • Central Philippine (includes Tagalog, Bikol, Visayan, Mansakan)
    • Manobo (includes Kagayanen, Western Bukidnon, Cotabato Manobo)
    • Danao (includes Maranao, Maguindanao)
    • Celebes Extension (includes Mongondow group)

Blust (1991; 2005)

From approximately north to south, the Philippine languages are divided into 12 subgroups (including unclassified languages):

• Philippine
  • Batanic languages (4 languages between Batanes and Lanyu Island, Taiwan)
  • Northern Luzon languages (40 languages, including Ilokano and Pangasinan)
  • Central Luzon languages (5 languages, including Sambal and Kapampangan)
  • Northern Mindoro languages (or North Mangyan; 3 languages)
  • Greater Central Philippine languages
    • Southern Mindoro languages (or South Mangyan; 3 languages)
    • Central Philippine languages (40 languages, including Tagalog, Bikol languages and Visayan languages)
    • Palawan languages (3 languages)
    • Subanen languages (6 languages; sometimes considered one dialect cluster)
    • Danao languages (3 languages; Iranun, Maguindanao and Maranao)
    • Manobo languages (15 languages)
    • Gorontalo–Mongondow languages (9 languages of Gorontalo and North Sulawesi)
  • Ati language
  • Manide–Alabat
  • Kalamian languages (2 languages of northern Palawan)
  • South Mindanao languages (5 languages)
  • Sangiric languages (4 languages of Sangir and Talaud Islands)
  • Minahasan languages (5 languages of North Sulawesi)
  • Unclassified
    • Umiray Dumaget

Formerly classified as one of the South Mindanao languages, the Klata language is now considered to be a primary branch of the Southern Philippine languages by Zorc (2019).

Vocabulary

Comparison chart between several selected Philippine languages spoken from north to south with Proto-Austronesian first for comparison.

Notes

:1. Ambiguous relationship with other Northern Philippine groups :2. Ambiguous relationship with other Northern Philippine groups and has possible relationship with South Extension; equivalent to the widely established Batanic or Bashiic branch.

References

Works cited

References

1. Zorc, R. David Paul. (1986). "FOCAL II: Papers from the Fourth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics". The Australian National University.
2. Blust, Robert. (1991). "The Greater Central Philippines Hypothesis". Oceanic Linguistics.
3. Blust, Robert A.. (2005). "Current Issues in Philippine Linguistics Pangaral Kay Lawrence A. Reid". Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines.
4. Blust, Robert. (2019). "The Resurrection of Proto-Philippines". Oceanic Linguistics.
5. {{harvp. Adelaar. Himmelmann. 2005
6. Blust, Robert. (1991). "The Greater Central Philippines Hypothesis". Oceanic Linguistics.
7. Llamzon, Teodoro A.. (1975). "Proto-Philippine Phonology". Archipel.
8. Charles, Mathew. (1974). "Problems in the Reconstruction of Proto-Philippine Phonology and the Subgrouping of the Philippine Languages". Oceanic Linguistics.
9. Llamzon, Teodoro. (1966). "The Subgrouping of Philippine Languages". Philippine Sociological Review.
10. (1976). "A Subgrouping of 100 Philippine Languages". South-East Asian Linguistic Studies.
11. Reid, Lawrence. (1982). "Papers from the Third International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics". Australian National University.
12. Pawley, Andrew. (1999). "Selected Papers from the Eighth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics". Academia Sinica.
13. Ross, Malcolm. (2005). "The Batanic Languages in Relation to the Early History of the Malayo-Polynesian Subgroup of Austronesian". Journal of Austronesian Studies.
14. Spriggs, Matthew. (2003). "Chronology of Neolithic Transition in Island Southeast Asia and The Western Pacific". The Review of Anthropology.
15. Spriggs, Matthew. (2007). "From Southeast Asia to the Pacific: Archeological Perspectives on the Austronesian Expansion and the Lapita Cultural Complex". Academia Sinica.
16. Spriggs, Matthew. (2011). "Archeology and Austronesian Expansion: Where Are We Now?". Antiquity.
17. (2009). "Language Phylogenies Reveal Expansion Pulses and Pauses in Pacific Settlement". Science.
18. Reid, Lawrence. (2017). "Revisiting the Position of Philippine Languages in the Austronesian Family".
19. Reid, Lawrence A.. (2018). "Let's Talk about Trees". Senri Ethnological Studies, Minpaku.
20. Smith, Alexander D.. (2017). "The Western Malayo-Polynesian Problem". Oceanic Linguistics.
21. Chen, Victoria, Kristina Gallego, Jonathan Kuo, Isaac Stead, & Benjamin van der Voorn. 2022. ''[https://seals31.sched.com/event/11Uwg/contact-or-inheritance-new-evidence-on-the-proto-philippines-hypothesis Contact or inheritance? New evidence on the Proto-Philippines debate]''. Presentation given at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 31), [[University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa]], May 18–20, 2022. ([https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/seals31/12/Slides.pdf slides])
22. Zorc, R. David Paul. (1979). "Southeast Asian Linguistic Studies, Vol. 3". The Australian National University.
23. Zorc, David Paul. (1977). "The Bisayan Dialects of the Philippines: Subgrouping and Reconstruction". Australian National University.
24. Zorc, R. David. (2019). "Klata / Giangan: A New Southern Philippine Subgroup". The Archive: Special Publication.