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 (language ...

. These are mostly located in and around the

Cordillera Central Central Cordillera refers to the New Guinea Highlands. Cordillera Central, meaning ''central range'' in Spanish, may refer to the following mountain ranges: * Cordillera Central, Andes (disambiguation), several mountain ranges in South America ** ...

of northern

Luzon Luzon ( , ) is the largest and most populous List of islands in the Philippines, island in the Philippines. Located in the northern portion of the List of islands of the Philippines, Philippine archipelago, it is the economic and political ce ...

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 ...

. Among its major languages are Ilocano,

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

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 from the Univer ...

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

Cagayan Valley Cagayan Valley (; ), designated as Region II, is an Regions of the Philippines, administrative region in the Philippines. Located in the northeastern section of Luzon, it is composed of five Provinces of the Philippines, Philippine provinces: ...

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. *Northern Luzon **'' Ilocano'' **'' Arta'' **'' Dicamay Agta'' † (unclassified) **

***''

Isnag The Isnag people (also referred to as Isneg, Yapayao and Apayao) are an Austronesian ethnic group native to Apayao province in the Philippines' Cordillera Administrative Region, though they are also found in parts of Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, and ...

'' *** Ibanagic ****'' Atta'' ****'' Ibanag'' ****'' Itawis'' ****'' Yogad'' *** 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'' ****''

Pahanan Agta Pahanan Agta, also called Palanan Agta, is an Aeta language of Palanan, Isabela northern Philippines. Lexically but not grammatically it is extremely close to Paranan, a non-Negrito language with a very similar name. Speaker groups of both l ...

'', '' Paranan'' ** Meso-Cordilleran *** '' Northern Alta'' *** '' Southern Alta'' *** South-Central Cordilleran **** Central Cordilleran *****'' Isinai'' *****North Central Cordilleran ******Kalinga-Itneg *******''

Itneg The Itneg people also known as "Tinguian" or "Tingguian" are an Austronesian ethnic group indigenous to the Philippines. They are part of the broader Cordilleran or Igorot group, despite the Itnegs themselves not identifying as such. The Itneg p ...

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

Ifugao Ifugao, officially the Province of 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 west, Mountain Province to the north, Isabela t ...

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

Bugkalot The Bugkalot (also Ilongot or Ibilao) are an indigenous peoples 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 t ...

'' *****West Southern Cordilleran ******''

'' ******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, togethe ...

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

Reconstruction

Phonology

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

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