The Mamanwa language is a
Central Philippine language spoken by the
Mamanwa
The Lumad are a group of Austronesian indigenous people in the southern Philippines. It is a Cebuano term meaning "native" or "indigenous". The term is short for Katawhang Lumad (Literally: "indigenous people"), the autonym officially adopt ...
people. It is spoken in the provinces of
Agusan del Norte and
Surigao del Norte in the
Lake Mainit
Lake Mainit is the fourth largest lake in the Philippines, having a surface area of . The lake is also the deepest lake in the country with maximum depth reaching . It is located in the northeastern section of Mindanao and shared between the p ...
area of
Mindanao
Mindanao ( ) ( Jawi: مينداناو) is the second-largest island in the Philippines, after Luzon, and seventh-most populous island in the world. Located in the southern region of the archipelago, the island is part of an island group of ...
,
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 ...
. It had about 5,000 speakers in 1990.
Mamanwa is a grammatically conservative language, retaining a three-way deictic distinction in its articles which elsewhere is only preserved in some of the
Batanic languages.
Before the arrival of Mamanwa speakers in central
Samar Island, there had been an earlier group of
Negritos
The term Negrito () refers to several diverse ethnic groups who inhabit isolated parts of Southeast Asia and the Andaman Islands. Populations often described as Negrito include: the Andamanese peoples (including the Great Andamanese, the On ...
on the island. According to , the Samar Agta may have switched to
Waray or Northern Samarenyo, or possibly even Mamanwa.
In addition to this, Francisco Combes, a Spanish friar, had observed the presence of Negritos in the
Zamboanga Peninsula "in the
Misamis strip" in 1645, although no linguistic data had ever been collected.
References
General references
*
*
Mansakan languages
Endangered Austronesian languages
Aeta languages
Languages of Agusan del Norte
Languages of Surigao del Norte
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