The Southern Cordilleran languages are a group of closely related languages within the Northern Luzon subgroup of the

Austronesian language family 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 ...

. They are spoken in an area stretching from the southern shore of

Lingayen Gulf Lingayen Gulf is a large gulf on northwestern Luzon in the Philippines, stretching . It is framed by the provinces of Pangasinan and La Union and sits between the Zambales Mountains and the Cordillera Central (Luzon), Cordillera Central. The Agno ...

to the highlands of Quirino province. The most widely spoken Southern Cordilleran language is

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 ...

, one of the eight major

languages of the Philippines There are some 130 to 195 languages spoken in the Philippines, depending on the method of classification. Almost all are Malayo-Polynesian languages native to the archipelago. A number of Spanish-influenced creole language, creole varieties ge ...

Internal classification

The subgroup was first proposed by Zorc (1979). Himes (1998) classifies the Southern Cordilleran languages as follows: *Southern Cordilleran ** Ilongot **West Southern Cordilleran ***

***Nuclear Southern Cordilleran **** Ibaloi (including Iwak) **** Karao **** Kalanguya

Reconstruction

Proto-Southern Cordilleran has been reconstructed by Himes (1998).

Phonology

Vocabulary

The comparison table (taken from Himes (1998) and Zorc (1979)) illustrates the correspondences between the Southern Cordilleran languages, including inherited vocabulary as well as Southern Cordilleran innovations.

References

External links

"Southern Cordilleran"
at ''

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. {{Philippine languages Northern Luzon languages South–Central Cordilleran languages