Manobo languages

The Manobo languages are a group of languages spoken in the Philippines. Their speakers are primarily located around Northern Mindanao, Central Mindanao (presently called Soccsksargen) and Caraga regions where they are natively spoken. Some outlying groups make Manobo geographically discontiguous as other speakers can be located as far as the southern peninsula of Davao Oriental, most of Davao Occidental and coastal areas of Sultan Kudarat. The Kagayanen speakers are the most extremely remote and can be found in certain portions of Palawan.

Manobo
Geographic distribution	central Mindanao
Linguistic classification	Austronesian Malayo-Polynesian Philippine Greater Central Philippine Manobo
Subdivisions	Central North West
ISO 639-2 / 5	mno
Glottolog	mano1276
Geographic extent of Manobo languages based on Ethnologue maps

Languages

• Central
  • East: Dibabawon, Rajah Kabunsuwan, Agusan
  • South: Ata, Matigsalug (Tigwa); Obo
  • West: Western Bukidnon, Ilianen
• North: Binukid, Kagayanen, Higaonon, Kinamigin
• South: Tagabawa, Sarangani, Cotabato

Classification

Elkins (1974:637) classifies the Manobo languages as follows.

• Manobo
  • Northern
    • Cagayano (of Cagayancillo Island)
    • Kinamigin (of Camiguin Island), Binukid (of central Mindanao)
  • (core branch)
    • Southern
      • Tagabawa
      • Sarangani Manobo
      • Tasaday, Cotabato Manobo
    • East-West-Central
      • Western
        • Obo
        • Ilianen Manobo
        • Western Bukidnon Manobo, Livunganen (a dialect spoken in Libungan, north of Midsayap, Cotabato)
      • East-Central
        • Eastern
          • Agusan Manobo
          • Dibabawon Manobo
        • Central
          • Ata of Davao
          • Matig Salug, Tigwa Manobo

Reconstruction

Proto-Manobo
Reconstruction of	Manobo languages
Reconstructed ancestors	Proto-Austronesian Proto-Malayo-Polynesian Proto-Philippine

Elkins (1974) includes a reconstruction of Proto-Manobo, along with 197 reconstructed etyma.

The Proto-Manobo phonemes are (Elkins 1974:616):

Consonants

*p	*t	*k	*ʔ
*b	*d	*g
*m	*n	*ŋ
	*l
	*r
	*s		*h
*w	*y

Vowels

*i	*u
*e
*a

See also

• Lumad people

References

• Elkins, Richard E. (1974). "A Proto-Manobo Word List". Oceanic Linguistics. 13 (1/2): 601–641. doi:10.2307/3622754.