The Central Luzon languages are a group of languages belonging to 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 ...

. These are predominantly spoken in the western portions of

Central Luzon Central Luzon (; ; ; ; ), designated as Region III, is an administrative region in the Philippines. The region comprises seven provinces: Aurora, Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga (with its capital, San Fernando City serving as the re ...

in the

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 ...

. One of them, Kapampangan, is the major language of the

Pampanga Pampanga, officially the Province of Pampanga (; ; ), is a province in Central Luzon in the Philippines. Lying on the northern shore of Manila Bay, Pampanga is bordered by Tarlac to the north, Nueva Ecija to the northeast, Bulacan to the east, ...

Mount Pinatubo Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano in the Zambales Mountains in Luzon in the Philippines. Located on the tripoint of Zambales, Tarlac and Pampanga provinces, most people were unaware of its eruptive history before the pre-eruption volc ...

area. However, despite having three to four million speakers, it is threatened by the diaspora of its speakers after the June 1991 eruption of that volcano. Globalization also threatened the language, with the younger generation more on using and speaking Tagalog and English, but promotion and everyday usage boosted the vitality of Kapampangan. Another Central Luzon language, Sambal or Sambali, experiences same situation, the speakers of the language are decreasing due to the globalization that many of the speakers of younger generation are shifting to Tagalog & Ilocano. The only Central Luzon language spoken outside Central Luzon is Hatang Kayi or Sinauna, located in northeast Calabarzon.

Historical linguistics

The modern Central Luzon languages descended from the hypothetical Proto-Central Luzon language.

Phonology of Proto-Central Luzon

Some consonants were lost in Proto-Central Luzon when it evolved from either

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 ...

Proto-Philippine The Proto-Philippine language is a reconstructed ancestral proto-language of the Philippine languages, a proposed subgroup of the Austronesian languages which includes all languages within the Philippines (except for the Sama–Bajaw languages) ...

. The phonetic values of the consonants above are the ones assumed for Proto-Austronesian except for the glottal stop , which resulted from sound changes into Proto-Central Luzon: *q > *ʔ and *h > Ø followed by Ø > *ʔ/#_. The values of the vowels above are the ones they had in Proto-Malayo Polynesian.

External relationships

Ronald Himes (2012)Himes, Ronald S. 2012. �
The Central Luzon Group of Languages
��. ''Oceanic Linguistics'' 51 (2). University of Hawai'i Press: 490–537. and Lawrence Reid (2015)Reid, Lawrence. 2015
Re-evaluating the position of Iraya among Philippine languages
. Presentation at 13-ICAL, 18–23 July 2015 at Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan. suggest that the Northern Mindoro languages may group with the Central Luzon languages. Both branches share the phonological reflex

Proto-Austronesian Proto-Austronesian (commonly abbreviated as PAN or PAn) is a proto-language. It is the reconstructed ancestor of the Austronesian languages, one of the world's major language families. Proto-Austronesian is assumed to have begun to diversify in ...

*R > /y/.

Internal classification

*Central Luzon **'' Hatang Kayi'' **'' Kapampangan'' ** Sambalic ***'' Abellen'' ***''

Ambala Ambala () is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border with the Indian state of Punjab (India), Punjab and in proximity to both states capital Chandigarh. Politically, Ambala ...

'' ***''

Bolinao Bolinao, officially the Municipality of Bolinao ( Bolinao: ''Babali nin Bolinao;'' ; ; ), is a municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 83,979 people. Sea urchins are regula ...

'' ***''

Botolan Botolan, officially the Municipality of Botolan, is a municipality in the province of Zambales, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 66,739 people. The municipality was founded by Spanish Governor-General Juan de S ...

'' ***'' Mag-antsi'' ***'' Mag-indi'' ***'' Mariveleño'' ***'' Sambali''

References

Philippine languages {{philippine-lang-stub