User:RussianAnt/Casiguran Dumagat Agta

Classification
Casiguran Dumagat Agta (also known as Dumagat Agta, Casiguran Dumagat, Baler Dumagat, Casiguran-Nagtipunan Agta, or Agta) is an Aeta language of the northern Philippines. The Dumagat Agta people from the Casiguran Valley and around areas near the town of Casiguran in the province of Aurora in the region of Luzon. The language is currently endangered.

History
The language was first documented in 1936 by Christian missionaries. There are many surviving works of Father Morice Vanoverbergh that document the language. Although the language has gone through rapid cultural change since his early work, the Father's writings still give a window of insight into what the language and the culture of the people was. Since then it has been continually documented by SIL linguists like Thomas and Janet Headland (Lobel 2013:88). A New Testament translation was published in 1979, called Bigu a Tipan: I mahusay a baheta para ta panahun tam. Among the Aeta languages, Casiguran Dumagat Agta has been one of the most extensively studied varieties.

After visiting the Casiguran Agta people in 2002, Thomas Headland reported that he did not find any Agta adults who seem aware that their language is dying or even changing. Children still learn the language, even though they are also fluent in Tagalog by the age of 12.

Geographic Distribution
Father Vanoverbergh in 1936 counts "787 indiviudals (small children not included)", however that count did not include the speakers living in the municipal areas of Dilasag, Dipaculao, Dinapigi, and Madella. According to Thomas Headland, if those areas were included in Father's count, the number would have been at least 1600 Casiguran Dumagats in 1936.

By 1960 the population of the Casiguran area did not exceed 9.2 thousand people. In just 10 years the area witnessed a population increase of 149% bringing the number of people to 22.7 thousand. This was no surprise, following the overall population increase in the Philippines with a stable 3.3 per cent per annum. However, despite the rapid population growth in the area, according to the census records provided by Mr. Thomas Casala, former agent for the Commission of National Integration in Casiguran, Headland estimates there are between 650 and 800 Casiguran Dumagats in 1975.

According to the records of Thomas Headland in 1975, Most of the speakers resided in the forested foothills on the east side of the Sierra Madre mountain range, near the municipal towns of Casiguran, Dinalongan, and Dilasag. However, they also populated as far south as Dipaculao, Quezon and west of Sierra Madre Madella, Nueva Viscaya. Several of them have married into the Palanan Dumagats in Palanam, Isabela.

The Casiguran Agta population was down to approximately 590 in 1994.

Today, it is spoken by around 610 speakers, most of whom today live in the San Ildefonso Peninsula, across the bay from Casiguran, Aurora. Because of many marrying outside of the speaking community, there is a lack of inter-generational transition of the language in the community. The Agta Language is slowly giving in to the pressure of lingua franca in the area. The community widely uses Tagalog, English, and Taglish. As a result the native language is currently endangered.

Dialects/Varieties
Casiguran Dumagat is close to Paranan and a dialect spoken by the Palanan Negritos. These dialects are mutually intelligible with each other and Casiguran Dumagat, unlike other Dumagat languages.

A dialect called Nagtipunan Agta was discovered by Jason Lobel and Laura Robinson in Nagtipunan, Quirino (Lobel 2013:88). Nagtipunan is influenced by the regional language, Ilokano, while Casiguran Dumagat is influenced by Tagalog and Kasiguranin.

Sounds/Phonology
Casiguran Dumagat has eight to ten vowel sounds, compared to the usual four in most Philippine languages. The vowels are: a, e, ë, é, i, o, ö, u. Generally, the accent in placed on the final syllable of the word, though there are many exceptions. This is due to the heavy influence and borrowing from Tagalog, Spanish, and English. The accented syllable is usually the loudest and the syllable before it sounds short. The peak of intonation occurs at the accent.

The consonants in Casiguran Dumagat are: p, t, k, b, d, g, s h, m, n, ng, l, r, w, y, and a glottal stop. A glottal stop is only symbolized (by a hyphen) when it occurs following a consonant. When a word begins or ends with a vowel, there is a glottal stop preceding or following it accordingly. Any two vowels together are to be read with a glottal stop between them.

Morphology
A Casiguran Dumagat - English Dictionary only lists the stems of the words. In order to look up the meaning of a Dumagat word, one must use the morphophonemic rules of the language to help him identify its stem. There are six common types of rules.


 * 1) Assimilation
 * 2) Replacement
 * 3) Reduction
 * 4) The prefix i-
 * 5) Words ending in h
 * 6) The suffix -an

For a detailed description of Morphophonemics see Headland 1965b.

Syntax
The language contains noun-marking particles classified by 7 characteristics. They are divided into Singular and Plural, Topic, Attributive, or Oblique, Personal or Nonpersonal, and Absent or Present. The following Table shows the noun-marking particles.

The topic is any focused noun phrase within a clause, as signaled by the verbal affixation in the predicate.

The attributive is any unfocused subjective phrase or any noun possessor phrase.

The oblique is any unfocused noun phrase which is not subject of the clause.

It is interesting to explain the classification of Present vs. Absent. It is similar to Alive vs. Dead, Known vs. Unknown, General vs. Specific, Actual vs. Non-Actual, In sight vs. Out of sight, Present in time vs. Past in time, and Mass nouns vs. Singular nouns. Pronouns are categorized into 4 sets of Ephasis, Topic, Attributive, and Oblique, and also Singular vs. Plural. Demonstrative Pronouns are classified into two sets. Verbs are considered one of the most complex parts of the grammar of Casiguran Dumagat. They have a contrast between past and non-past tense. The past tense is marked by -in- or n- and the non-past is marked by m- except in the cases of -en, -an, I- and -um-. Beyond that verbs are classified by Focus and Orientation.

Number System
In Casiguran Dumagat, the number closely resemble their counter-parts in Tagalog, notably, numbers 1-10. Additionally, the numbers used to referring to the time of day and often when counting money are borrowed from Spanish.

Dumagat Arrows
The Casiguran Dumagat language has 17 different names for different types of arrows: Albid, Ambitél, Baag, Balawét, Banglag, Bétek, Eblog, Kinamangan, Gahaygay, Pangal, Gungot, Palsok, Saqud, Sahaysay, Uténg, Unay, and Sigangat.