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.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.
Classification Reid (1974) classifies the Central Cordilleran languages as follows:
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, which is supported by numerous exclusively shared innovations listed by Himes (2005).
Reconstruction
Proto-Central Cordilleran has been reconstructed by Reid (1974; 2006).
Phonology
VowelsFrontCentralBackClose *i *ɨ *uOpen *a
ConsonantsBilabialAlveolarPalatalVelarGlottalStopvoiceless *p *t *k *ʔvoiced *b *d *gFricative *s Nasal *m *n *ŋLateral *lApproximant *w *y
Proto-Central Cordilleran can be reconstructed with phonemic stress.
Vocabulary The comparison table (taken from Reid (1974) 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 'house' 'rice' Central Cordilleran innovations Isinai Kalinga Ifugao PCC PAn Meaning () 'see' () 'eel' () 'worm' () 'river'
References
External links "Central Cordilleran" at Ethnologue, 23rd ed., 2020