Molbog language

Molbog is an Austronesian language spoken in the Philippines and Sabah, Malaysia. The majority of speakers are concentrated at the southernmost tip of the Philippine province of Palawan, specifically the municipalities of Bataraza and Balabac. Both municipalities are considered as bastions for environmental conservation in the province. The majority of Molbog speakers are Muslims.

Molbog
Native to	Philippines, Malaysia
Region	Palawan: Bataraza & Balabac; Sabah: Pulau Banggi
Ethnicity	Molbog
Native speakers	(6,700 in the Philippines cited 1990)[1]
Language family	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Palawanic (?) Molbog
Language codes
ISO 639-3	pwm
Glottolog	molb1237

The classification of Molbog is controversial.^[2] Thiessen (1981) groups Molbog with the Palawanic languages, based on shared phonological and lexical innovations.^[3] This classification is supported by Smith (2017).^[4] An alternative view is taken by Lobel (2013), who puts Molbog together with Bonggi in a Molbog-Bonggi subgroup.^[5] Ethnically, the Molbog was previously a sub-group of the larger Palaw'an people, and later became as it is due to Islamic influences from the Tausug and Sama-Bajau peoples.^[6]

Phonology

Consonants

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

• The sounds [dʒ, ɲ] occur as a result of loanwords from Spanish, Malay or dialects of the Sama language.
• /h/ only occurs marginally. While it was generally lost in inherited words, it is retained in some words e.g. luhaʔ 'tears', probably through re-borrowing.^[7]

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid			o
Open		a