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 adop ...

people. It is spoken in the provinces of

Agusan del Norte Agusan del Norte, officially the Province of Agusan del Norte ( ceb, Amihanang Agusan; Butuanon: ''Probinsya hong Agusan del Norte''; tl, Hilagang Agusan), is a province in the Caraga region of the Philippines. Its capital is the city of Ca ...

and

Surigao del Norte Surigao del Norte ( Surigaonon: ''Probinsya nan Surigao del Norte''; ceb, Amihanang Surigao; Tagalog: ''Hilagang Surigao''), officially the Province of Surigao del Norte, is a province in the Philippines located in the Caraga region of Mindanao. ...

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 ...

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 t ...

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 Samar ( ) is the third-largest and seventh-most populous island in the Philippines, with a total population of 1,909,537 as of the 2020 census. It is located in the eastern Visayas, which are in the central Philippines. The island is divided in ...

, 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 Onge, ...

on the island. According to , the Samar Agta may have switched to

Waray Waray may refer to: * Waray people of the Philippines * Waray language, the fifth most spoken native language of the Philippines, spoken by the Waray people * Waray literature * Warray language Warray (Waray) was an Australian language spoken ...

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 Zamboanga Peninsula ( tl, Tangway ng Zamboanga; cbk, Peninsula de Zamboanga; ceb, Lawis sa Zamboanga) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces ( Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga S ...

"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 {{CPhilippine-lang-stub