Central Cordilleran languages

The Central Cordilleran languages are a group of closely related languages within the Northern Luzon subgroup of the Austronesian language family. They are spoken in the interior highlands of Northern Luzon in the Cordillera Central mountain range.^[1][2]

Central Cordilleran
Geographic distribution	northern Luzon
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Northern Luzon Meso-Cordilleran Central Cordilleran
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	cent2296

Classification

Reid (1974) classifies the Central Cordilleran languages as follows:^[1]

• Central Cordilleran
  • Isinai
  • North Central Cordilleran
    • Kalinga–Itneg
      • Itneg (a dialect cluster)
      • Kalinga (a dialect cluster)
    • Nuclear Cordilleran
      • Ifugao
      • Balangao
      • Bontok–Kankanay
        • Bontok–Finallig
        • Kankanaey

Reid (1991) has suggested that the Central Cordilleran languages are most closely related to the Southern Cordilleran languages,^[3] which is supported by numerous exclusively shared innovations listed by Himes (2005).^[2]

Reconstruction

Proto-Central Cordilleran
Reconstruction of	Central Cordilleran languages
Reconstructed ancestors	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Philippine Proto-Northern Luzon

Proto-Central Cordilleran has been reconstructed by Reid (1974; 2006).^[1][4]

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	*i	*ɨ	*u
Open		*a

Consonants

		Bilabial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	voiceless	*p	*t		*k	*ʔ
	voiced	*b	*d		*g
Fricative			*s
Nasal		*m	*n		*ŋ
Lateral			*l
Approximant		*w		*y

Proto-Central Cordilleran can be reconstructed with phonemic stress.

Vocabulary

The comparison table (taken from Reid (1974)^[1] illustrates the correspondences between the Central Cordilleran languages, including inherited vocabulary as well as Central Cordilleran innovations.

Comparison table

Words inherited from Proto-Austronesian (PAn)
Isinai	Kalinga	Ifugao	PCC	PAn	Meaning
béoy	boloy	baluy	*balɨy	*balay	'house'
páχoy	págoy	páguy	*págɨy	*pajay	'rice'
Central Cordilleran innovations
Isinai	Kalinga	Ifugao	PCC	PAn	Meaning
ʔíla	ʔíla	ʔíla	*ʔíla	(*kita)	'see'
dalit	dalit	dalet	*dalit	(*tuNa)	'eel'
kolaŋ	ʔolaŋ	ʔolaŋ	*kɨlaŋ	(*quləj)	'worm'
waŋwaŋ	waŋwaŋ	waŋwaŋ	*waŋwaŋ	(*iluR)	'river'

References

1. Reid, Lawrence A. (1974). "The Central Cordilleran Subgroup of Philippine Languages". Oceanic Linguistics. 13 (1/2): 511–560. doi:10.2307/3622752. hdl:10125/32979. JSTOR 3622752.
2. Himes, Ronald S. 2005. The Meso-Cordilleran Group of Philippine Languages. In Hsiu-chuan Liao and Carl R. Galvez Rubino (eds.), Current Issues in Philippine Linguistics and Anthropology: Parangal kay Lawrence A. Reid, 81-92. Manila, Philippines: Linguistic Society of the Philippines and SIL Philippines.
3. Reid, Lawrence A. (1991). "The Alta languages of the Philippines". In Ray Harlow (ed.). VICAL 2, Western Austronesian and Contact Languages. Papers from the Fifth International Conference on Austronesian Linguistics. Auckland: Linguistic Society of New Zealand. pp. 265–297.
4. Reid, Lawrence A. (2006). "On reconstructing the morphosyntax of Proto-Northern Luzon, Philippines". Philippine Journal of Linguistics. 37: 1–64.

External links

• "Central Cordilleran" at Ethnologue, 23rd ed., 2020