The Northern Luzon languages (also known as the Cordilleran languages) are one of the few established large groups within

Philippine languages The Philippine languages or Philippinic are a proposed group by R. David Paul Zorc (1986) and Robert Blust (1991; 2005; 2019) that include all the languages of the Philippines and northern Sulawesi, Indonesia—except Sama–Bajaw (languag ...

. These are mostly located in and around the Cordillera Central of northern

Luzon Luzon (; ) is the largest and most populous island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the Philippines archipelago, it is the economic and political center of the nation, being home to the country's capital city, Manila, as ...

in the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

. Among its major languages are Ilokano, Pangasinan and Ibanag.

Internal classification

Lawrence Reid Lawrence Andrew Reid (often known as Laurie Reid) is an American linguist who specializes in Austronesian languages, particularly on the morphosyntax and historical linguistics of the Philippine languages. Education Reid graduated with an MA in ...

(2018) divides the over thirty Northern Luzon languages into five branches: the Northeastern Luzon,

Cagayan Valley Cagayan Valley ( ilo, Tanap ti Cagayan; fil, Lambak ng Cagayan), is an administrative region in the Philippines, located in the northeastern section of Luzon Island. It is composed of five Philippine provinces: Batanes, Cagayan, Isabela, ...

and Meso-Cordilleran subgroups, further Ilokano and Arta as group-level isolate branches.Reid, Lawrence A. 2018.
Modeling the linguistic situation in the Philippines
" In ''Let's Talk about Trees'', ed. by Ritsuko Kikusawa and Lawrence A. Reid. Osaka: Senri Ethnological Studies, Minpaku. † indicates that the language is extinct. *'' Ilokano'' *'' Arta'' *'' Dicamay Agta'' † (unclassified) *

**'' Isnag'' **1. Ibanagic ***'' Atta'' ***'' Ibanag'' ***'' Itawis'' ***'' Yogad'' **2. Gaddang-Cagayan ***'' Central Cagayan Agta'' ***'' Gaddang'' ***'' Ga'dang'' * Northeastern LuzonRobinson, Laura C. and Jason William Lobel (2013). "The Northeastern Luzon Subgroup of Philippine Languages." ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 52.1 (2013): 125-168. **'' Dupaningan Agta'' **(core) ***'' Dinapigue Agta'' ***'' Casiguran Agta'', ''

Nagtipunan Agta Nagtipunan Agta is a Northeastern Luzon language. It is one of the Aeta languages The Aeta (Ayta ), Agta, or Dumagat, are collective terms for several Filipino indigenous peoples who live in various parts of the island of Luzon in the P ...

'' ***'' Pahanan Agta'', '' Paranan'' * Meso-Cordilleran **1. '' Northern Alta'' **2. '' Southern Alta'' **3. South-Central Cordilleran *** Central Cordilleran ****'' Isinai'' ****North Central Cordilleran *****Kalinga-Itneg ******''

Itneg The Itneg (exonym "Tinguian" or "Tingguian") are an Austronesian ethnic group from the upland province of Abra in northwestern Luzon, in the Philippines. Overview The Itneg live in the mountainous area of Abra in northwestern Luzon who descen ...

'' ******''

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writ ...

'' *****Nuclear Cordilleran ******''

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of Ifugao ( ilo, Probinsia ti Ifugao; tl, Lalawigan ng Ifugao), is a landlocked province of the Philippines in the Cordillera Administrative Region in Luzon. Its capital is Lagawe and it borders Benguet to the ...

'' ******'' Balangao'' ******Bontok-Kankanaey *******'' Bontok-Finallig'' *******'' Kankanaey'' *** Southern Cordilleran ****''

Bugkalot The Bugkalot (also Ilongot or Ibilao) are a tribe inhabiting the southern Sierra Madre and Caraballo Mountains, on the east side of Luzon in the Philippines, primarily in the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya and Nueva Ecija and along the mountain bor ...

'' ****West Southern Cordilleran *****'' Pangasinan'' *****Nuclear Southern Cordilleran ******''

Ibaloi The Ibaloi (also spelled Ibaloy; Ibaloi: ''ivadoy'', ) are an indigenous ethnic group found in Benguet Province of the northern Philippines. ''Ibaloi'' is derived from ''i-'', a prefix signifying "pertaining to" and ''badoy'' or house, together ...

'' ******'' Iwaak'' ******'' Kallahan'' ******'' Karao''

Reconstruction

Phonology

Reid (2006) has reconstructed the Proto-Northern Luzon sound system as follows, with phonemic

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

: The sound inventory of Proto-Northern Luzon shows no innovations 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 Austronesi ...

that would set it apart from other Philippine languages. There are however two phonological innovations that characterize the Northern Luzon languages: *Loss of final *ʔ (< *q) *Metathesis of *s and *t, e.g. Proto-Northern Luzon < Proto-Malayo-Polynesian 'weep', < 'hundred'.

Vocabulary

Lexical innovations only found in Northern Luzon languages include: 'feather, body hair', 'squeeze', 'swell', 'earthquake', 'stand', 'buttocks'. Semantic shifts are observed e.g. in 'give' (cf. Proto-Philippine 'escort') and 'wild pig' (cf. Proto-Philippine 'flesh').

Footnotes

Ethnic groups

References

Philippine languages {{philippine-lang-stub