The Central Tagbanwa people of the Philippines are on the verge of losing their language forever. In the last sixty years, war, disease, and a large influx of migrants have drastically altered the sociolinguistic dynamics of the Central Tagbanwa homeland.
The purpose of this book is twofold: to chronicle the language shift that has taken place since World War Two, and to document the language before it dies out completely. Chapters 1 and 2 discuss the general history of the area and give a detailed study of the decline of the language. Chapters 3 and 4 describe the phonology and morphology of Central Tagbanwa, and give a brief overview of various grammatical features. Chapter 5 offers a sample of the Central Tagbanwa lexicon with an English index. And lastly, three natural texts are recorded in the appendices: an oral narrative, a written narrative, and an oral conversation.
This book is dedicated to the linguistic heritage of the Central Tagbanwa people for generations to come.
(Note: Central Tagbanwa is distinct from the other two mutually unintelligible Tagbanwa languages spoken in Palawan province: Aborlan Tagbanwa spoken in central Palawan, and Calamian Tagbanwa spoken in the Calamian Islands off the northern tip of Palawan.)
2003. Manila: LSP. xiii, pp.168, map. ISBN: 971-780-014-6 (Linguistic Society of the Philippines Special Monograph Issue, 48).
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