History and criticism One of the first explicit classifications of a "Philippine" grouping based on genetic affiliation was in 1906 by Frank Blake, who placed them as a subdivision of the "Malay branch" within
Malayo-Polynesian (MP), which at that time was considered as a family. Blake however encompasses every language within the geographic boundaries of the
Philippine archipelago to be under a single group. Formal arguments in support of a specific "Proto-Philippines" were followed by Matthew Charles in 1974, Teodoro Llamzon in 1966 and 1975, and Llamzon and Teresita Martin in 1976. Blust (1991) two decades later updates this based on Zorc's (1986) inclusion of
Yami, and the
Sangiric,
Minahasan, and
Gorontalo groups. This arose with problems in reconstructing Philippine subgroups within MP (Pawley, 1999; Ross, 2005). In a recent state-of-the art on the classification of Philippine languages, he provides multidisciplinary arguments on the field's methodological and theoretical shortcomings since Conant's description in the early 1900s. This includes Malayo-Polynesian archeology (Spriggs, 2003; 2007; 2011), and
Bayesian phylogenetic analyses (Gray et al., 2009) substantiating the multiplicity of historical diffusion and divergence of languages across the archipelago. He suggests that the primary branches under this widely acknowledged Philippine group should instead be promoted as primary branches under
Malayo-Polynesian. Malcolm Ross (2005) earlier also noted that the
Batanic languages, constituting
Yami,
Itbayat, and
Ivatan, should in fact be considered as a primary MP branch. Chen et al. (2022) present further arguments for the Philippine languages being a convergence area (
sprachbund) rather than a unified phylogenetic subgroup.
Internal classification The Philippine group is proposed to have originated from
Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and ultimately from
Proto-Austronesian. There have been several proposals as to the composition within the group, but the most widely accepted groupings today is the consensus classifications by Blust (1991; 2005) and Reid (2017); however, both disagree on the existence of a Philippine group as a single genetic unit.
Zorc (1979) An earlier classification by Zorc (1979) is presented below. From approximately north to south, a Philippine group according to his analysis of previous reconstructions are divided into two main subgroups, Northern or "Cordilleran" and Southern or "Sulic". Note that the groupings herein
no longer reflect widely accepted classifications or naming conventions today. For example
South Extension nowadays reflects the widely established
Central Luzon, and North Mangyan within
Cordilleran is not supported by later reconstructions; the group containing
Yami,
Ivatan and
Itbayat is called "
Bashiic" in Zorc (1977) and remains generally accepted. •
Philippine •
Northern Philippines or Cordilleran • Pangasinic (includes
Ilongot,
Kallahan,
Ibaloi,
Pangasinan) •
Central Cordilleran (includes
Isinai,
Kalinga,
Bontoc,
Balangao,
Ifugao) • Ilokan (within
Ilokano alone) •
Northern Cordilleran or Banagic (includes
Ibanag,
Isneg,
Gaddang) •
Yami–
Ivatan–
Itbayat • South Extension (includes
Sambal group,
Kapampangan) •
North Mangyan • Southern Philippines or Sulic • Meso-Philippine •
South Mangyan (includes
Hanunuo) •
Palawan •
Subanon (dialect cluster) •
Central Philippine (includes
Tagalog,
Bikol,
Visayan,
Mansakan) •
Manobo (includes
Kagayanen,
Western Bukidnon,
Cotabato Manobo) •
Danao (includes
Maranao,
Maguindanao) • Celebes Extension (includes
Mongondow group)
Blust (1991; 2005) From approximately north to south, the Philippine languages are divided into 12 subgroups (including unclassified languages): •
Philippine •
Batanic languages (4 languages between
Batanes and
Lanyu Island,
Taiwan) •
Northern Luzon languages (40 languages, including
Ilokano and
Pangasinan) •
Central Luzon languages (5 languages, including
Sambal and
Kapampangan) •
Northern Mindoro languages (or North Mangyan; 3 languages) •
Greater Central Philippine languages •
Southern Mindoro languages (or South Mangyan; 3 languages) •
Central Philippine languages (40 languages, including
Tagalog,
Bikol languages and
Visayan languages) •
Palawan languages (3 languages) •
Subanen languages (6 languages; sometimes considered one dialect cluster) •
Danao languages (3 languages;
Iranun,
Maguindanao and
Maranao) •
Manobo languages (15 languages) •
Gorontalo–Mongondow languages (9 languages of
Gorontalo and
North Sulawesi) •
Ati language •
Manide–
Alabat •
Kalamian languages (2 languages of northern
Palawan) •
South Mindanao languages (5 languages) •
Sangiric languages (4 languages of
Sangir and
Talaud Islands) •
Minahasan languages (5 languages of
North Sulawesi) • Unclassified •
Umiray Dumaget Formerly classified as one of the
South Mindanao languages, the
Klata language is now considered to be a primary branch of the Southern Philippine languages by Zorc (2019). ==Vocabulary==