Language Snapshots

Southern Alta (Kabulowan) (Philippines) - Language Snapshot

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Abstract

Southern Alta people are hunter-gatherers living along the tributaries of rivers in the Sierra Madre mountains in the northern Philippines. Southern Alta (agy), locally known as Kabulowan, is a Philippine Negrito language, and a coordinate branch of Meso-Cordilleran subgroup of the Northern Luzon family. Dialectal variations are present in different communities and the speakers are multilingual. The language vitality rating using the EGIDS scale is 6b ‘threatened’. The elders have considerable knowledge of their language, beliefs, customs, and traditions. Intermarriage, illegal trading, changes in socio-cultural lifestyle, religious orientation, other forms of political and cultural repression, and the use of Tagalog have been accelerating language attrition. No written history has been recorded although digitized religious commentaries are available. Because of the fast rate of language attrition, the production of audio and/or video documentation for further linguistic analysis and archiving is a high priority.

Keywords: Southern Alta, Kabulowan, Philippines, Negrito

How to Cite:

Abreu, M., (2020) “Southern Alta (Kabulowan) (Philippines) - Language Snapshot”, Language Documentation and Description 19, 17-25. doi: https://doi.org/10.25894/ldd61