The Batanic languages (sometimes also called Bashiic or Ivatanic) are a
dialect cluster of the
Austronesian language
The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken b ...
family. They are spoken on
Babuyan Island, just north of Luzon; three of the
Batanes Islands, between the Philippines and Taiwan; and on
Orchid Island of southern Taiwan.
The varieties in the Philippines are called Ivatan (also spelled Ibatan), or are named Babuyan, Batan, or Itbayat after their islands, while the variety of Taiwan is called
Yami or Tao.
Proto-Batanic has been reconstructed by
Yang (2002).
Classification
Malcolm Ross (2005) and
Roger Blench (2015) list four languages:
*Batanic
**
Yami (or Tao) on
Orchid Island
***
Imurud dialect
***
Iraralay dialect
***
Iranumilek dialect
**
Itbayat on
Itbayat Island
**
Ivatan
***
Ivasay dialect (= Basco Ivatan) on
Batan
***
Isamurung dialect (=Southern Ivatan) on
Batan (southern part),
Sabtang
**
Ibatan (or Babuyan) on the
Babuyan Islands
Moriguchi (1983) classifies the Batanic languages as follows.
*Proto-Vasayic
**
Itbayaten
**
Vasay
**
***
Babuyan,
Isamorong
***
Yami:
Iraralay,
Imorod
According to
Paul Jen-kuei Li (2000),
Yami is most closely related to Itbayat. Among the Batanic languages, Iraralay is the most conservative.
The Batanic languages are frequently included with the
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 (language ...
. However, there is no full consensus on this, and some consider them a primary branch of the
Malayo-Polynesian languages
The Malayo-Polynesian languages are a subgroup of the Austronesian languages, with approximately 385.5 million speakers. The Malayo-Polynesian languages are spoken by the Austronesian peoples outside of Taiwan, in the island nations of Southeas ...
.
Blench concludes that Batanic languages have been splitting from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian for a long time and contain many roots which are not standard Austronesian. The relationship between Batanic and
Northern Luzon languages is still uncertain.
References
Further reading
*
External links
Bashiic languagesat ''
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
'' (23rd ed., 2020).
{{Austronesian languages
Philippine languages