Arta is a highly endangered
Negrito language of the northern
Philippines
The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...
.
Distribution
Lawrence Reid's 1990 fieldwork revealed only 12 speakers in Villa Santiago,
Aglipay,
Quirino Province,
and in 1992 it was spoken by only three families. It is not closely related to other languages.
There are still small groups of Arta speakers in
Maddela and
Nagtipunan towns of
Quirino Province. Kimoto (2017) reports that Arta has 10 native speakers and 35–45 second-language speakers living primarily in Pulang Lupa, Kalbo, and in Disimungal, Nagtipunan.
The Arta are found in the following places within
Nagtipunan Municipality.
*Nagtipunan Municipality
**Disimungal Barangay
***Purok Kalbo
***Pulang Lupa
***Tilitilan
**San Ramos Barangay
**Pongo Barangay
**Sangbay Barangay
Arta is in contact with
Casiguran Agta,
Nagtipunan Agta,
Yogad, Ilokano, and Tagalog.
Phonology
Arta is notable for having
vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual length (phonetics), duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels.
On one hand, many ...
distinction, an unusual typological feature in the Philippines.
Sound changes
Kimoto (2017) lists the following
sound change
In historical linguistics, a sound change is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
s from
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) is the reconstructed ancestor of the Malayo-Polynesian languages, which is by far the largest branch (by current speakers) of the Austronesian language family. Proto-Malayo-Polynesian is ancestral to all Austronesia ...
(PMP) to Arta. Long vowels in Arta are derived from PMP diphthongs.
Lexical innovations
Kimoto (2017) lists the following Arta
lexical innovations (highlighted in bold). Lexical innovations in
Casiguran Agta are also highlighted in bold.
Reid (1994)
lists the following reconstructed forms as possible non-Austronesian lexical elements found exclusively in Arta. Forms from Kimoto (2018)
have also been included. Note the use of orthographic è
�and ng
�
Reid (1994)
lists the following reconstructed forms as possible non-Austronesian lexical elements found in both Arta and "North Agta" (i.e., various
Northeastern Luzon languages spoken mostly in
Cagayan
Cagayan ( ), officially the Province of Cagayan (; ; ; isnag language, Isnag: ''Provinsia nga Cagayan''; ivatan language, Ivatan: ''Provinsiya nu Cagayan''; ; ), is a Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Cag ...
Province). Forms from Kimoto (2018)
have also been included.
The forms *səlub 'fragrant' and *Rəbi 'pity, kindness' are found in both Arta and Alta.
Notes
References
*
*
External links
ELAR documentation and description of Arta language
{{Philippine languages
Aeta languages
Endangered Austronesian languages
Languages of Quirino
Northern Luzon languages