User:Lac414/Batak language (Philippines)

Batak is an endangered Austronesian language spoken by the Batak people, who are an indigenous people native to Palawan Island in the Philippines. To be specific, this group inhabits a series of river valleys that fall along a 50 km stretch northeast of what is known today as Puerto Princesa City and parts of the mountains in Central Palawan Island. The language spoken by the people is sometimes disambiguated from the Batak languages as Palawan Batak and is one of 32 Negrito languages.

The language shares phonetic, morphologic, and lexical similarities with the Central Bisayan group of Philippine languages but has stronger similarities to the lexical and morphological features that is found with Tagbanuwa and Palawano. Batak is spoken in the communities of Babuyan, Maoyon, Tanabag, Langogan, Tagnipa, Caramay, and Buayan. Surrounding languages include Southern Tagbanwa, Central Tagbanwa, Kuyonon, and Agutaynen.

According to a census taken in the year 1990, there are only about 450 Batak people remaining. However, acculturation has caused this group to not only decline in numbers, but for the language to slowly disappear as well. The people who do speak Batak are often bi-lingual or multi-lingual and are able to speak Tagalog, Cuyonon, and Tagbanwa, alongside their native language. There is no writing system for Batak and it is believed that they borrow from the Tagbanwa alphabe t despite no evidence.

Classification
The Batak language belongs to the Austronesian language family. Specifically, the Malayo-Polynesian branch and is part of the Greater Central Philippines, Palawanic section. It is also classified within the Visayan group of Philippine languages.

History
Negritos, who the Batak people belong to, are believed to have originated from a singular ancestral population that entered the SEA region during the first of the expansions of modern humans approximately 50,000 years ago. The Batak People is one of the aborigines of the Philippines and is thought to have ancestors going back as far as over 20,000 years ago. In the sixteenth century, the Philippines was populated with 500,000 peoples with archives stating that of these people, 50,000 were Negrito people. As of 2010, there are approximately 32 known Philippine Negrito language groups, totaling 33,000 people, and comprising of only about 0.5% of national population. They are one of the few remaining Philippine negritos groups left. All of those who belong to the Negrito groups, including Batak, speak languages that are classified in the Austronesian family.

The Batak are traditionally a nomadic group who had a hunter-gatherer economy. Due to contact with lowland Philippine society, this changed and Batak people began to shift to agriculture, resulting in a decline in population and a loss of society and culture. Detribalization caused by human intrusion into Batak people's lands have lead to them leaving their original ancestral home, migrating elsewhere, and or assimilating into lowland Philippine society. Increased intermarrying between the Batak and non-Negritos, particularly with the Tagbanua tribe, have also lead to lower Batak distinctiveness. The territory of the Batak people is surrounded by Tagbanuwa speaking peoples and settlements of Christian FIlipinos, who are Tagalog and Cuyonon speakers. Extensive intermarriage has resulted in the Batak language to adopt dialects. The spoken Batak of today is simplified and or mixed with other languages such as Batak, Tagbanua, and Cuyonon.

Geographical Distribution
The Batak language in the Philippines is not to be confused with the Batak language in other SEA countries. While similar, it is distinct on its own. The Philippines is the only place where Batak language of the Batak people in Palawan is found. Due to intermarriage and assimilation to modern Philippine society, the Batak found today is the simplified version.

Official Status
Batak is an endangered language, but it is spoken in the Babuyan, Maoyon, Tanabag, Langogan, Tagnipa, Caramay, and Buayan communities.

Dialects/Varieties
Extensive intermarriage has led to the the Batak language becoming a lingua franca between the different tribal groups.

Extensive intermarriage at Buayan settlements in particular has lead to the emergence of a dialect of the Batak language and a belief that their version of the language is the true and uncorrupted one.

Phonetic Key
The symbols below are used to represent five vowel and sixteen consonant phonemes in Batak. All consonants occur in initial, medial, and final positions with two exceptions:

h - occurs in medial position only in a few words; and,

y - occurs in medial position occasionally i - high, front, unrounded, close

a - low, front, unrounded, open

ə - mid, central, unrounded, close

o - mid, back, rounded, close

u - high, back, rounded, close

There are five dipthongs: ay, aw, iw, oy, and uy

Stress
A stressed syllable is indicated by an acute accent symbol over the vowel. Primary stress is either on the ultima or the penult except in a few cases. Secondary stress is indicated only when it is peculiar to a constituent prefix.

Order
Entries are arranged in the following alphabetical sequence:

ʔ (i.e. ʔa-, ʔe-, ʔi-, ʔo-, and ʔu-), (a), b, d, (ə), g, h, (i), k, l, m, n, ng, (o), p, r, s, t, (u), w, y.

The vowels a, ə, i, o, and u never occur initially. A loan word, the original form of which contained an initial vowel, acquires an initial glottal stop in Batak: A Spanish loan word with the shape VCVC occurs in Batak as ?VCVC (i.e. CVCVC).

Writing System
There is no writing system. Batak borrows from Tagbanuwa alphabet.