| Central Luzon | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Western parts ofCentral Luzon nearMount Pinatubo, westernBulacan, southwestNueva Ecija, the wholePampanga province, and westPangasinan; northeastCalabarzon |
| Linguistic classification | Austronesian
|
| Proto-language | Proto-Central Luzon |
| Subdivisions | |
| Language codes | |
| Glottolog | cent2080 |
 Geographic extent of Central Luzon languages based on Ethnologue | |
TheCentral Luzon languages are a group of languages belonging to thePhilippine languages. These are predominantly spoken in the western portions of the political administrative region ofCentral Luzon (Region III) in thePhilippines. One of them,Kapampangan, is the major language of thePampanga-Mount Pinatubo area.
However, despite having three to four million speakers, it is threatened by the diaspora of its speakers after the June 1991 eruption of that volcano. Globalization also threatened the language, with the younger generation more on using and speakingTagalog andEnglish, but promotion and everyday usage boosted the vitality of Kapampangan.[1]
Another Central Luzon language,Sambal or Sambali, experiences same situation, the speakers of the language are decreasing due to the global
zation that many of the speakers of younger generation are shifting to Tagalog &Ilocano. Central Luzon languages spoken outside the political region of Central Luzon areSambal Bolinao, the variety/varieties of Sambal spoken in southwesternPangasinan province, andHatang Kayi (erroneously called Sinauna or Sinaunang Tagalog in the literature[2]) in northeastCalabarzon; Pangasinan was formerly part of political region of Central Luzon, and is still geographically; Sambali is spoken inInfanta, Pangasinan along the boundary with Zambales.
The modern Central Luzon languages descended from the hypothetical Proto-Central Luzon language.
Some consonants were lost in Proto-Central Luzon when it evolved from eitherProto-Malayo-Polynesian orProto-Philippine.[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m/m/ | n/n/ | ŋ/ŋ/ | |||||||
| Stop | p/p/, b/b/ | t/t/, d/d/ | j/ɡʲ/ | k/k/, g/g/ | ʔ/ʔ/ | |||||
| Affricate | z/ɟ͡ʝ/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | s/s/ | |||||||||
| Lateral | l/l/ | |||||||||
| Rhotic | r/ɾ/ | |||||||||
| Semivowel | w/w/ | y/j/ | ||||||||
The phonetic values of the consonants above are the ones assumed for Proto-Austronesian[4] except for the glottal stop/ʔ/, which resulted from sound changes into Proto-Central Luzon: *q > *ʔ and *h > Ø followed by Ø > *ʔ/#_.[3]
| Height | Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i/i/ | u/u/ | |||||
| Mid | e/ə/ | ||||||
| Open | a/a/ |
The values of the vowels above are the ones they had in Proto-Malayo Polynesian.[4]
Ronald Himes (2012)[3] and Lawrence Reid (2015)[5] suggest that theNorthern Mindoro languages may group with the Central Luzon languages. Both branches share the phonological reflexProto-Austronesian *R > /y/.