Inagta Alabat language

Inagta Alabat (Alabat Island Agta) or Ayta Kadi is a Philippine Negrito language spoken in central Alabat Island, Philippines. Its speakers began arriving on the island in the 1970s but originated from Villa Espina in Lopez, with earlier settlements in Gumaca and perhaps other towns. (Lobel, Alpay, Barreno and Barreno 2020) Predating the Agta on Alabat Island were communities of individuals self-identifying as "dumagat" but who now only speak Tagalog as a native language. Less than a dozen individuals can still speak the Inagta Alabat language whether on Alabat Island, where it is being lost in favor of Tagalog, or in Lopez, where it is being replaced by the language of the Manide who have migrated to the area in large numbers and intermarried with the Agta, and also replaced by Tagalog. Those Agta who can still speak the Inagta language in Lopez speak the same language as the Agta who have migrated to Alabat over the past 50 years. Other Agta in Lopez either speak only Manide, or a mixture of Manide and Inagta Alabat-Lopez.

Classification

Inagta Alabat (Alabat Island Agta) and Ayta Kadi are the same language, though the term "Ayta Kadi" is the name recognized by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino (Commission on the Filipino Language). The term "Inagta Alabat" refers to the language of the Agta people who live in the Alabat Island and neighboring areas of Quezon province. Ayta Kadi is the language spoken by the Ayta Kadi group living in the towns of Alabat, Catanauan, and Lopez in the province of Quezon; and in Barangay Putingkahoy in the town of Rosario in the province of Batangas.

Since Tagalog is the lingua franca in Quezon, it is also the language spoken more by the Áyta Kadí than their native language. In fact, most Áyta Kadí youth have not learned their language and have instead become accustomed to using Tagalog (Filipino) and English, which are the languages of instruction in school.

Inagta Alabat forms a subgroup with Manide. The extinct Katabangan may have also been related.

Lexicon

Selected Inagta Lopenze words from Salipande (2022):Salipande, Aldrin Ludovice. 2022.
Phonology of Agta Lopenze
'. Presentation given at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (SEALS 31), University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, May 18–20, 2022.

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Central Philippine languages
Aeta languages
Languages of Quezon

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