Central Tagbanwa language

Not to be confused with Aborlan Tagbanwa language or Calamian Tagbanwa language.

Central Tagbanwa is spoken on Palawan Island in the Philippines. It is not mutually intelligible with the other languages of the Tagbanwa people.

Central Tagbanwa
Native to	Philippines
Region	Palawan
Ethnicity	Tagbanwa people
Native speakers	(2,000 cited 1985)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Palawanic Central Tagbanwa
Writing system	Tagbanwa script
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tgt
Glottolog	cent2090
ELP	Central Tagbanwa

Phonology

Consonants

Central Tagbanwa consonants^[2]

		Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	voiceless	p	t		k	ʔ
	voiced	b	d		ɡ
Fricative		β	s			h
Nasal		m	n		ŋ
Lateral			l
Rhotic			ɾ
Approximant		w		j

• /t/ preceding a high front vowel /i/ is usually realized as an affricate sound [tʃ].^[3]
• /k, ŋ/ tend to shift to uvular sounds [q, ɴ] when adjacent to /a/.^[4]

Vowels

Central Tagbanwa vowels^[2]

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	ɨ	u
Open		a

• /ɨ/ is usually a high central vowel sound, although it is occasionally moved further back to [ɯ], or lowered to [ə].^[5]
• An [o] sound is often heard when two back vowels are adjacent to one another, or as an allophone of /u/.^[5]

Grammar

Pronouns

The following set of pronouns are the personal pronouns found in the Central Tagbanwa language. Note: some forms are divided between full and short forms.

Central Tagbanwa personal pronouns^[6][7]

	Direct/Nominative	Indirect/Genitive	Oblique
1st person singular	ako	ko	kakɨn (kɨn)
2nd person singular	kawa (ka)	mo	kanimo (nimo)
3rd person singular	kanya	niya (ya)	kanya
1st person plural inclusive	kita	ta	katɨn
1st person plural exclusive	kami	kamɨn	kamɨn
2nd person plural	kamo	mi	kanimi
3rd person plural	tila	nila	kanila

The demonstratives are as follows.

Central Tagbanwa demonstratives^[8]

	Direct/Nominative	Indirect/Genitive	Oblique
near speaker	lito	kalito	kaito, kito
near adressee	layan	kalayan
far away	liti	kaliti	atan, doon