Remontado, also known by the autonym Hatang-Kayi and in the literature as Kabalat, Remontado Dumagat, and the erroneous names Sinauna/Sinaunang Tagalog, is a

Malayo-Polynesian 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 Southeast ...

language spoken in

Tanay, Rizal Tanay, officially the Municipality of Tanay ( ), is a municipality in the province of Rizal, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 139,420 people. Tanay is home to the namesake Tanay–Paete dialect of Tagalog, whi ...

, General Nakar, Quezon (including in Paimahuan, Limoutan), Rodriguez, Rizal and

Antipolo Antipolo, officially the City of Antipolo (), is a Cities of the Philippines#Legal classification, component city and capital of the Provinces of the Philippines, province of Rizal (province), Rizal, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, ...

, 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 ...

. It is one of the Philippine Negrito languages. It is a moribund language.

Terminology

The language is referred to by various terms in linguistic literature. The speakers refer to their language as ('this language') while ''Remontado'' is the most common term in English literature used to refer to both the community and their language. (meaning 'ancient' or 'old' in Tagalog) is a term used in some literature that originates after the language's discovery in the 1970s but has never been used by the speakers of the language themselves. ''Remontado Agta'' has also been used but this is also erroneous as speakers of this language are never referred to as ''Agta''.

Classification

Reid (2010) classifies the language as a

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 ...

language, just like Kapampangan and Sambal.

Distribution

The Remontado Dumagat were traditionally found in the mountains around the boundary between Sampaloc district in

, and General Nakar, Quezon (Lobel 2013:72-73). Today, Remontado is spoken in the following five villages, where it is only spoken by elderly people over the age of 50 (Lobel & Surbano 2019). Two of the villages are in Barangay Santa Inez, Tanay town, Rizal Province, and three of the villages are in Barangay Limutan, General Nakar town, Quezon Province. *Minanga (Sentro), Barangay Limutan, General Nakar town, Quezon Province *Sitio Sari, Barangay Limutan, General Nakar town, Quezon Province *Sitio Paimuhuan, Barangay Limutan, General Nakar town, Quezon Province *Sitio Nayon, Barangay Santa Inez, Tanay town, Rizal Province *Sitio Kinabuan, Barangay Santa Inez, Tanay town, Rizal Province

References

Aeta languages Central Luzon Central Luzon languages Endangered Austronesian languages Languages of Rizal (province) Languages of Quezon {{philippine-lang-stub